VOLUME ONE OF TWO. (VOLUME TWO AVAILABLE SEPARATELY.) France.
Germany. Italy. Russia. Poland. Czech Republic. Romania. Mexico.
Japan. Iran. All over the world -- everywhere except in the U.S. --
the legendary Jean Gabin continues to be considered one of the
greatest movie stars of all time.
In the U.S., Gabin is definitely considered to be a cult figure
(in 2002, twin Gabin festivals were presented at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, and at the Walter Reade Theatres in New
York), but for the vast moviegoing public, and just like a lot of
the greats, he's fallen off of the radar.
That's about to change, however, because in 2008, Allenwood
Press presents the very first English-language (and two-volume)
book about Jean Gabin, ever. (There's not even an old, out-of-print
book about Gabin in English, if you can believe that ) It's WORLD'S
COOLEST MOVIE STAR: THE COMPLETE 95 FILMS (AND LEGEND) OF JEAN
GABIN by CHARLES ZIGMAN.
VOLUME ONE, which has been subtitled "Tragic Drifter," takes us
through Gabin's first forty-six films, including the
internationally renowned "Grand Illusion" and "Pepe Le Moko," a
period spanning the years 1930 to 1953, during which time he played
movie history's most famous tragic drifter. During the 1930s and
1940s, Gabin's popularity in the U.S. nearly eclipsed that of
Bogart, James Cagney, and Bette Davis. (Ever heard anybody say,
"Come with me to the Casbah. We will make ze beautiful muzeek
togezaire?" It was famously attributed to the character Jean Gabin
portrayed in the 1937 gangster classic "Pepe Le Moko," even though
he never actually uttered those words. In fact Gabin's 'Pepe'
character even inspired Warner Bros. to create its legendary
cartoon skunk, Pepe Le Pew, whose looks and voice were modeled on
the actor.)
The tone of the book is "fun," as opposed to "academic" and
"pretentious," and its goal is to introduce as many people as
possible to the films of Gabin; to that end, it's loaded with rare
photographs, many of which have never appeared even in previously
published French-language books about Gabin. This is a book for
Jean Gabin 'newbies' and 'completists' both: For the uninitiated,
there are some biography and 'intro' chapters, which place Gabin,
and his famous big-screen persona into perspective. For the
completists, author Charles Zigman has unpacked every single one of
Jean Gabin's ninety-five theatrical feature films -- even the more
than fifty pictures which have never been subtitled into English
before -- so that one can feel, by poring through the chapters,
that one is actually 'seeing' the films, firsthand. Excerpts from
newspapers written 'back in the day, ' both in the U.S. and in
Europe, demonstrate how prominent movie critics received Gabin's
pictures the day they were first released, in the 1930s through the
1970s.
In short this two-volume book is for everybody. Besides being
the first books about Jean Gabin in the English language ever,
WORLD'S COOLEST MOVIE STAR is also a first because it is the very
first 'filmography book' related to Gabin, in any language: Even in
France, where there have been many published biographies of Jean
Gabin, there has never been a book concentrating, in great detail
on each of the actor's ninety-five films. The legendary actress
Michele Morgan, who appeared with Gabin in five feature films, has
written the foreword to Volume One. ALSO AVAILABLE: VOLUME TWO
(ISBN # 978-0-9799722-1-8).
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