What to treat yourself with your gift cards? Five cinema books to discover urgently

Your loved ones lacked imagination or hadn't yet had the good idea to ask artificial intelligence to find the perfect gift (what a terrible idea, Editor's note)… In short, you received a gift card. As you probably know, this has an expiration date and you have to strike while the iron is hot….

“Anatomy of a Fall” by Arthur Harari and Justine Triet

Palme d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and Oscar for best original screenplay, among other awards, “Anatomy of a Fall” deserved a written record. And what a mark. To the delight of film buffs, Arthur Harari and Justine Triet offer the detailed script, allowing us to better understand how the plot is articulated and its complexity unfolded fluidly. The text is accompanied by unpublished working documents, photograms and filming photos, as well as an unpublished drawing by the American master David Lynch.

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“Wes Anderson.” The total” by Christophe Narbonne

American director Wes Anderson will be the subject of a vast retrospective of his work, as well as an exhibition event starting March 19 at the Cinémathèque de Paris. To wait, you can discover numerous works on his magnificent filmography including the book “Latotale”, written with passion by Christophe Narbonne. It's difficult to be more complete: all the short and feature films are deciphered or rather dissected, with, in addition, a rich iconography. For fans of symmetry, an essential book.

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“The Host: Bong Joon Ho in the bowels of the beast” by Stéphane de Mesnildot

He is undoubtedly one of the greatest filmmakers in the world. Before “Parasite”, the second Palme d'Or in history to win the Oscar for best film, South Korean Bong Joon-ho had signed two masterpieces: “Memories of Murder” and “The Host”, dizzying monster movie. The latter is the subject of a very beautiful book, signed by Asian cinema specialist Stéphane de Mesnildot, which goes back in time to recount the genesis and then the creation of the film, illustrated with numerous unpublished archive images. And, after reading, you can watch the film again in its sublime 4K Blu-Ray edition.

“Annals of French Cinema Volume 2: 1930-1946 The Ways of Talking” by Pierre Lherminier and René Prédal

Perhaps the most impressive work in this selection, the most erudite, for sure. A bible on French cinema before and during the Second World War. After “The Ways of Silence”, Literary Prize of the French Union of Cinema Critics 2012, places at the beginning of talking cinema, the golden age of the French film industry, with an encyclopedic exploration which makes you want to see or revisit forgotten filmographies.

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“Barry Lyndon – Stanley Kubrick”, under the direction of François Betz

It is one of the most beautiful films in the world, one of the masterpieces of its author, Stanley Kubrick. Designed under the direction of François Betz and the supervision of Jan Harlan, his brother-in-law and executive producer of the master's last five films, including “Barry Lyndon” of course, the work, of visual splendor on every page, benefit from unpublished texts by actress Marisa Berenson, the late journalist and film historian Michel Ciment, and even cinematographer Darius Khondji. And if you are an absolute fan of Stanley Kubrick, you can also throw yourself into the magnificent “Shining” from Taschen.