www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/best-movie-books-all-time/Top 100 Film Books......... from 322 voters (including Spielberg, Jerry Schatzberg, Tom Stoppard, Willem Dafoe, Armond White, Lee Grant)
Thoughts? Best books not on the list? 1. Hitchcock [aka Hitchcock/Truffaut], by François Truffaut (1967)
2. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs- and-Rock ’n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, by Peter Biskind (1998)
3. Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting, by William Goldman (1983)
4. The Kid Stays in the Picture, by Robert Evans (1994)
5. I Lost It at the Movies, by Pauline Kael (1965)
6. An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, by Neal Gabler (1988)
7. You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, by Julia Phillips (1991)
8. (tie) Elia Kazan: A Life, by Elia Kazan (1988)
8. (tie) Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet (1995)
10. Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, by Mark Harris (2008)
11. What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg (1941)
12. The Parade’s Gone By ..., by Kevin Brownlow (1968)
13. The Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West(1939)
14. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, by Molly Haskell (1974)
15. Mike Nichols: A Life, by Mark Harris (2021)
16. The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929-1968, by Andrew Sarris (1968)
17. The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, by Thomas Schatz (1988)
18. Hollywood Babylon, by Kenneth Anger (1959)
19. Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, by Leonard Maltin (1969)
20. (tie) Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven’s Gate, by Steven Bach (1985)
20. (tie) Goldwyn: A Biography, by A. Scott Berg (1989)
22. (tie) The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, by Vito Russo (1981)
22. (tie) Conversations With Wilder, by Cameron Crowe (1999)
22. (tie) The Last Tycoon, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, finished by Edmund Wilson (1941)
25. The Devil’s Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco, by Julie Salamon (1991)
26. In the Blink of an Eye, by Walter Murch (1995)
27. Memo From David O. Selznick: The Creation of Gone With the Wind and Other Motion Picture Classics, as Revealed in the Producer’s Private Letters, Telegrams, Memorandums and Autobiographical Remarks, by Rudy Behlmer (1972)
28. City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s, by Otto Friedrich (1988)
29. Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street, by David McClintick (1982)
30. (tie) Picture: A Story About Hollywood, by Lillian Ross (1952)
30. (tie) The Player, by Michael Tolkin (1988)
32. (tie) Agee on Film [Vols. 1 and 2], by James Agee (1958 & 1960)
32. (tie) Play It as It Lays, by Joan Didion (1970)
34. Postcards From the Edge, by Carrie Fisher (1987)
35. What Is Cinema? [Vols. 1 and 2], by André
Bazin (1967 & 1971)
36. Who the Devil Made It, by Peter Bogdanovich (1997)
37. Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film, by Peter Biskind (2004)
38. (tie) The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, by Sam Wasson (2020)
38. (tie) Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood,
by Nancy Griffin & Kim Masters (1996)
38. (tie) The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography, by Frank Capra (1971)
38. (tie) Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretative History of Blacks in American Films, by Donald Bogle (1973)
42. A Biographical Dictionary of Cinema [aka The New Biographical Dictionary of Film], by David Thomson (1975)
43. Notes on the Cinematograph, by Robert Bresson (1975)
44. Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks (1982) 45. Life Itself, by Roger Ebert (2011)
46. Naming Names, by Victor S. Navasky (1980) 47. Get Shorty, by Elmore Leonard (1990)
48. (tie) Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, by Mark Harris (2014)
48. (tie) Sculpting in Time: The Great Russian Filmmaker Discusses His Art, by Andrey Tarkovsky (1987)
50. This Is Orson Welles, by Peter Bogdanovich & Orson Welles, edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum
51. (tie) Cinema Speculation, by Quentin Tarantino (2022)
51. (tie) The Citizen Kane Book, by Pauline Kael (1971)
51. (tie) The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, by Donald Spoto (1983)
51. (tie) The Devil Finds Work, by James Baldwin (1976)
51. (tie) From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, by Siegfried Kracauer (1947)
51. (tie) Notes: The Making of Apocalypse Now, by Eleanor Coppola (1979)
57. (tie) Godard on Godard, by Jean-Luc Godard, edited by Tom Milne (1972)
57. (tie) The Studio, by John Gregory Dunne (1969)
59. (tie) The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA and the Hidden History of Hollywood, by Dennis McDougal (1998)
59. (tie) My Last Sigh, by Luis Buñuel (1983)
61. (tie) My Autobiography, by Charlie Chaplin (1964)
61. (tie) Something Like an Autobiography,
by Akira Kurosawa (1983)
61. (tie) Without Lying Down Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood, by Cari Beauchamp (1997)
64. (tie) The Great Movies, The Great Movies II, The Great Movies III and The Great Movies IV, by Roger Ebert (2003, 2006, 2011 and 2016)
64. (tie) Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee (1997)
66. (tie) Film Form and the Film Sense, by Sergei Eisenstein (1959)
66. (tie) Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste, by John Waters (1981)
66. (tie) Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of Independent American Cinema, by John Pierson (1996)
69. (tie) 85 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards, by Robert Osborne (2013)
69. (tie) 5001 Nights at the Movies, by Pauline Kael (1982)
69. (tie) George Hurrell’s Hollywood: Glamour Portraits, 1925-1992, by Mark A. Vieira (2013)
72. (tie) A Life in Movies, by Michael Powell (1987)
72. (tie) Mommie Dearest, by Christina Crawford (1978)
72. (tie) Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year- Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player, by Robert Rodriguez (1995)
72. (tie) Scorsese on Scorsese, by Ian Christie & David Thompson (1989)
76. (tie) Hawks on Hawks, by Joseph McBride (1982)
76. (tie) Hollywood: The Oral History, by Jeanine Basinger & Sam Wasson (2022)
76. (tie) Montgomery Clift: A Biography, by Patricia Bosworth (1978)
76. (tie) My Lunches With Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles, edited by Peter Biskind (2013)
76. (tie) Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency, by James Andrew Miller (2016)
76. (tie) Spike Lee’s Gotta Have It: Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking, by Spike Lee (1987)
76. (tie) Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann (1966)
83. (tie) By Myself, by Lauren Bacall (1978) O 83. (tie) Conversations With the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age at the American Film Institute and Conversations at the American Film Institute With the Great Moviemakers: The Next Generation, by George Stevens Jr. (2006 & 2012)
83. (tie) The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje (2002)
83. (tie) The Making of The Wizard of Oz, by Aljean Harmetz (1977)
83. (tie) The Star Machine, by Jeanine Basinger (2007)
88. (tie) Cassavetes on Cassavetes, by Ray Carney (2001)
88. (tie) Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, by Ronan Farrow (2019)
88. (tie) Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, by Eddie Muller (1998)
88. (tie) David O. Selznick’s Hollywood, by Ron Haver (1980)
88. (tie) The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir, by William Friedkin (2013)
88. (tie) A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond, by Christine Vachon, with Austin Bunn (2006)
88. (tie) The Moon’s a Balloon, by David Niven (1971)
88. (tie) Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies, by Manny Farber (1971)
88. (tie) Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler (2006)
88. (tie) Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher (2008)
98. (tie) Film as a Subversive Art, by Amos Vogel (1974)
98. (tie) Haywire: A Memoir, by Brooke Hayward (1977)
98. (tie) Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer, by Paul Schrader (1972)
