Film Encyclopedia

Well-written, user-friendly, and bursting with essential data, famous stories, and terrific trivia, this book is the most intelligent and accessible film companion available, a must for every movie lover. Its chief assets are its in-depth entries on actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, composers, and editors, which come complete with date and place of birth as well as an extensive filmography. You can also read the cinematic history of every major film-producing country; look up technical terms like "boom", "dolly" and "Steadicam"; and find the meaning of those illusive phrases that appear so often in movie credits, assignations like "gaffer", "key grip" and "best boy." Whatever the extent of your movie knowledge, whether you're a burgeoning film fanatic or a long-time expert, you'll find yourself turning to this superb volume again and again. --Raphael Shargel, Amazon.com

What you can not do is follow the films. The title on this book is misleading It should be "The Actor and Producer Encyclopedia." You still need Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide to find the person to look up in this book. sorry for the four stars but there is not even an index.


Not quite what I expected...   June 3, 2004
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Some of the reviewers have already mentioned that a book called 'The Film Encyclopedia' does not allow to look up a particular film. Nor gives it to you much information on history of making or background of individual films. For example the articles on Jack Nicholson or Milos Forman do not tell you that one of their best creations - One flew over the cuckoo's nest - is based on the Ken Kesey's book. Would you not expect to find basic data like this in a film encyclopedia?
Being a Russian, I browsed throuth Russian cinema articles and found them very out of date and very out of touch with the subject. These articles look like they were compiled from old cinema textbooks and do not contain much of original data. The Soviet cinema - by the way outstanding, with many great works - is presented by either people of Eisenstein generation or, when more contemporary, by rather mediocre directors while the real stars are missing. Sure, the authors must be forgiven for not knowing Russian cinema well, but then they would better not write about it at all and call the book 'The Western or Hollywood Film Encyclopedia'. Does it have the same problem with French, Italian, British and all other non-American cinema?
Finally, the current 4th Edition, 2001 is naturally a little out of date. Not quite what I expected...


A Must-Own for Every FilmLover   December 14, 2003
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I wish it were possible to give this book more than five stars.

For precise, copious, detailed information on actors, film makers, and general technical questions this is the place to go. For the most part, this is a biographical dictionary. However, in addition to the 6700 biographies of actors, directors, producers, screenwriters, cameramen, etc., there are also about 1000 articles devoted to technical aspects of film making as well as to short histories of the various national cinemas. Each biographical article also includes, in almost all cases, a complete list of the feature films and shorts to which that individual contributed. Those cases where the list is not complete are usually for actors and film makers from the days of silent films, when accurate and complete recordkeeping was not common. Most silent films, sadly, have been lost anyway.

The articles in this book, in contrast to those in the not recommended "Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies" (mostly filmographies with little else) are long and detailed. It would be hard to ask for more. I sometimes spend hours pouring over this book.

This is the book that should be on the shelf of every serious cinephile. For quick looks, "Leonard Maltin's Encyclopedia of the Movies" is valuable as well, though it needs to be brought up to date. And for a different point of view on almost everyone associated with film, David Thomson's "New Biographical Dictionary of Film" is a pure delight. (The articles in Thomson's book are mostly critical biographies rather than historical biographies.) But if you must have one book on film, Katz is it.


An excellent refrence book!   February 7, 1999
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

The film encyclopedia is a wonderfull book for both film lovers and film students. I use this book constantly for my own personall refrence and I'm never disapointed. The book has enough depth for all the characters mentioned.Everything you would want to know about film and significant people involved in film , you'll find it all in this book. P.S.- for those who have complained about the book not having enough Indie and International info, that is impossible to get all on a single book . If you want to know about that , well then buy an encyclopedia which directly deals with those topics. Otherwise , no other book has this amount of depth in a single edition! An excellent buy , definately worth all the money!


An excellent reference   January 24, 1999
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I own the first two editions of this book, and have also used the third. It is far and away the best book of its kind. While I occasionally wish for more detail regarding a particular person, the book has sufficient depth for its scope. The only real problem I have with the later editions of "The Film Encyclopedia" is that entries on minor actors (contained in the first edition) are missing in the second and third editions. Still, I highly recommend this book.