Show People offers a comprehensive history of the film star from Mary Pickford to Andy Serkis, traversing more than one hundred years and drawing on examples from America, Britain, Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Renowned film writer Michael Newton explores our enduring love affair with fame, glamour and the cinematic image. Newton builds up an expansive picture of movie stardom through striking and diverse figures such as Ingrid Bergman and John Wayne, Anna Karina and Sidney Poitier, Maggie Cheung and Raj Kapoor. He celebrates the great performers of the past, and looks forward to developments in the future, while also illuminating the inner workings of the movie industry and what moves us in a film, and in an actor's performance. Ultimately, Show People is a book about cinephilia, the love of cinema, and our complex connection to that celebrated and beleaguered figure, the movie star.

About the Author
Michael Newton teaches literature and film at Leiden University. He is the author of numerous popular books on film and cultural history, including Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (2002), and Age of Assassins (2012), both for Faber & Faber, and two BFI Film Classics - Kind Hearts and Coronets (2003) and Rosemary's Baby (2019).


Book Information
ISBN 9781789141566
Author Michael Newton
Format Hardback
Page Count 448
Imprint Reaktion Books
Publisher Reaktion Books