SECRET LIFE OF THE MOVIES

Capturing the must-see movies of all time from more than 100 years of cinema, this go-to guide offers an abundance of witty analysis and revelatory insights.
Discover some of the most poignant movies from every country and every genre, from action and animation, to comedy, documentary, musical, thriller, noir, short, romance, sci-fi and Western.

Newly revised and refreshed, this definitive edition features 500 original movie posters and hundreds of impressive movie stills, including recent Oscar-winning and nominated films such as Anora, Oppenheimer, Everything Everywhere All at Once and Wicked. Quotes from movie directors and critics, together with little-known facts, complement the incisive reviews and vital statistics of each movie to make this the most fact-filled edition ever.

This illuminating book describes the twenty most notable films in anime history, including:

- Momotaro—Released at the end of World War II, this was Japan's first feature-length anime
- My Neighbor Totoro—Miyazaki's iconic work, consciously created as an alternative to formulaic animated films with no conflict or antagonist
- Ghost in the Shell—The influential sci-fi feature that inspired The Matrix
- Spirited Away—The first Oscar-winning anime—and highest-grossing Japanese film of all time!
- A Silent Voice—Adapted from a popular manga, an essential entry from a woman director
- Plus 14 other films.

This book examines his oeuvre, from the cult surrealism of his debut feature Eraserhead to his last feature Inland Empire, considering the themes, motifs and stories behind his incredible feature films, shorts and internet projects.

His series Twin Peaks revolutionised TV and expanded the possibilities of what the medium could offer. This updated edition includes Twin Peaks: The Return, his continuation of the series 25 years after the original had set the world alight.

From the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Sex and the City comes a candid and deeply personal memoir.
To be in the black suit, or not to be?
Kyle MacLachlan’s funny, moving, and playfully self-aware memoir charts a career that could belong to no other.
Plucked from obscurity to star in David Lynch’s Dune, the Hollywood blockbuster that never was, MacLachlan rebounded with a startling performance in Lynch’s provocative masterpiece Blue Velvet, which would mark him as a master of the unusual and ultimately lead to his career-defining role as Agent Dale Cooper on the TV sensation Twin Peaks.

Wes Anderson is a true icon of contemporary cinema. His films are consistent cult favourites, starring a cast of top actors and have made indie films popular again.

With his inimitable and idiosyncratic style, Anderson’s cinematic universe includes The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and Isle of Dogs.

A gritty, inspiring, heart-wrenching memoir by the Academy Award-winning legend and icon Sylvester Stallone, about his unlikely path to stardom and the creation of the greatest underdog story ever told.

Raised inside filmmaking’s strange machinery, Sofia Coppola appeared in The Godfather films and grew up surrounded by cinema, yet her work rejects Hollywood bombast.

From The Virgin Suicides through Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and Priscilla, Coppola’s films explore youth, alienation, fathers and daughters, beauty and loss – each in a visually curated style that is unmistakably her own.

How has Nolan become an Oscar-winning director? Is he the new Kubrick? What do audiences get out of his films?

Visually, he offers a steely science-fiction noir with the highlights of big stars and a magician’s flourishes. In narrative terms, his films twist and turn, provoking as many questions as they answer.


Since the 2022 edition, Nolan has secured his place among cinema’s greats, earning Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for Oppenheimer. This new edition delves into the film’s extraordinary cultural impact and offers an early preview of The Odyssey, Nolan’s 2026 Greek epic.

As well as this, veteran film writer, Ian Nathan, uncovers:

A film‑by‑film analysis from Following to Oppenheimer, revealing Nolan’s signature visual style and narrative innovations.
New insights into The Odyssey (2026) and how it marks the next evolution in Nolan’s filmmaking.
Behind‑the‑scenes stories, influences and critical reception of each major work.
Explorations of recurring themes, collaborators and Nolan’s enduring legacy in modern cinema.
Striking imagery that illuminates the worlds Nolan builds on screen.

From feature films Alien 3, Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, and Mank through his MTV clips for Madonna and the Rolling Stones and the Netflix series House of Cards and Mindhunter, each chapter weaves production history with original critical analysis, as well as with behind the scenes photography, still-frames, and original illustrations from Little White Lies' international team of artists and graphic designers.

From Aliens to Amadeus, get your fill of 1980s nostalgia with this movie bible of all things bold, bizarre, and boisterous. Adventurous, excessive, and experimental, ’80s cinema saw moviegoers get their kicks from pictures as wide-ranging as Blade Runner, Gandhi, and Blue Velvet.
Science fiction, horror, and action emerged as the defining genres of the decade, with non-human characters like E.T. winning the hearts of millions, and movies such as Ghostbusters and Back to the Future fused comedy and sci-fi to the delight of audiences everywhere.
Inside this ’80s encyclopedia each movie masterpiece is profiled with stills, a synopsis, and cast, crew, and technical listings.

As war raged on in Vietnam and the Cold War continued to escalate, Hollywood began to heat up, recovering from its commercial crisis with box-office successes such as Star Wars, Jaws, The Exorcist, and The Godfather.
Thanks to directors like Spielberg and Lucas, American cinema gave birth to a new phenomenon: theblockbuster.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, while the Nouvelle Vague died out in France, its influence extended to Germany, where the New German Cinema of Fassbinder, Wenders, and Herzog had its heyday. The sexual revolution made its way to the silver screen (cautiously in the U.S., more freely in Europe) most notably in Bertolucci’s steamy, scandalous Last Tango in Paris. Amid all this came a wave of nostalgic films (The Sting, The Last Picture Show) and Vietnam pictures (Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter),

This handbook gathers the best films of the era, exploring the making and the mastery of such cinematic star turns as The Leopard, The Birds, Belle de Jour, A Fistful of Dollars, and Doctor Zhivago.
By the mid-’60s the United States also began to exercise greater creative liberties, especially in films from young underground directors such as Russ Meyer, John Frankenheimer, and Sam Peckinpah. Meanwhile, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music ushered out the grandiose Hollywood musical era with a bang while the Spaghetti Western became an instant phenomenon, and Kubrick set new standards for sci-fi with 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Though the term “feminism” may not have been ready for prime time, the decade was also one of major advances in female characterization. From Jane Fonda’s Barbarella to Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde, it was the 1960s that saw women on-screen graduate from decorative accessories to complex, kick-ass personas.