Ivan R. Dee

In absorbing essays on books about film, the distinguished critic Richard Schickel offers more insights into moviemaking on every page than a reader will find in an entire shelf of film encyclopedias. His trenchant observations about films, actors, directors, producers, and the machinations of an always fascinating industry are consistently authoritative and entertaining.

In considering the greatest of these films over time, Mr. Kimmel explains why When Harry Met Sally (1989) was called the greatest movie Woody Allen never made. Or how off-screen relationships helped My Man Godfrey (William Powell and Carole Lombard were divorced but remained friends) but interfered with Sabrina (where Audrey Hepburn was carrying on an off-screen affair with co-star William Holden, though her character was supposed to be falling in love with her other co-star, Humphrey Bogart). From Trouble in Paradise (1932) to There's Something About Mary (1998), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), and Love, Actually (2003), Mr. Kimmel uncovers the idealized and often uproarious images of true love that have grown to become part of our understanding of romance.