BFI | Library | Exhibitions and Events | Nominate a Biography - The Complete Spielberg by Ian Freer/title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-gb" /> <meta name="robots" content="all" /> <meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" /> <meta name="Keywords" content="" /> <meta name="Description" content="" /> <meta name="Author" content="" /> <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" title="The British Film Institute."/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/global.css" media="screen, projection" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/colours.css" media="screen, projection" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/global-print.css" media="print" type="text/css" />  <script language="JavaScript" src="/js/css_switcher.js" type="text/javascript"></script></head> <body class="info"> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="headerWrapperdummy"> <div id="navigationDummy"> <div id="headerWrapper"> <div id="header"> <div id="header_logo"><a href="/" title="BFI homepage" accesskey="h"></a></div> <p class="hide"><a href="#content">Skip to main content</a></p> <h1 class="hide">BFI National Library</h1>  <div id="main_nav" class="ident"> <p class="hide">Global navigation</p> <ul> <li><a href="/see.html">See <span class="see">Films</span></a></li> <li><a href="/shop.html">Shop for <span class="shop">Films</span></a></li> <li><a href="/learn.html">Learn about <span class="learn">Films</span></a></li> <li><a href="/research.html">Research <span class="research">Films</span></a></li> <li><a href="/filmdownloads.html">Download <span class="download">Films</span></a></li> </ul> </div>  <?php // Set var again for PHP pages. global $bfiHdr; $bfiHdr = "8"; ?> <div id="bfi_nav"> <ul> <li><a href="/about/">About <span class="bfi">BFI</span></a></li> <li><a href="/whatson/">What's On</a></li> <li><a href="/filmtvinfo/">Library / Research</a></li> <li><a href="/nftva/">National archive</a></li> <li><a href="/members">members' space</a></li> <li><a href="/members">Join the <span class="bfi">BFI</span></a> </li> </ul> </div>  <div id="header_tagline"><img src="/images/global/layout/header_tagline.gif" alt="Because films inspire..." width="221" height="13" /></div> </div> </div>  <div id="breadcrumbWrapper"> <div id="breadcrumb"> <p class="hide">Crumbtrail</p> <ul> <li><a href="/" title="Home page for the BFI website.">Home</a> ></li> <li><a href="../../../" title="BFI National Library home page">BFI National Library</a> ></li> <li><a href="../../" title="BFI National Library Exhibitions and Events">Exhibitions & Events</a> ></li> <li><a href="../index.html" title="Past Exhibitions and Events">Past</a> ></li> <li><a href="./" class="current" title="Nominate a biography">Nominate a Biography</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="clear"></div> </div> </div> <div class="clear"></div> </div> <div id="mainContent"> <div id="primaryWrapper"> <div id="primaryNav">  <p class="hide">Primary navigation</p> <ul> <li><a href="./" class="headlink">Nominate a Biography</a></li> <li><a href="quotes.html">Quotes</a></li> <li><a href="authors.html" class="current">What authors say</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="primaryNav_bottom_corner"></div><div class="clear"></div> </div> <div id="content">  <h2>Nominate a Biography: what authors say</h2> <h3><cite>The Complete Spielberg</cite> by Ian Freer*</h3> <img src="images/spielberg_cover.jpg" alt="Cover: 'The Complete Spielberg' by Ian Freer" width="121" height="185" /> <p>Biogs are invaluable aids as film research for anyone writing seriously about film. They not only offer tons more information, colour and insight than any magazine or newspaper article could deliver but they also help you to join the dots along a body of work, providing insight into how a personal life informs a professional career (and vice versa) and context in which to study individual films or performances. And, depending on the life, if also wrapped up in a great story, far more compelling than some dry academic analysis.</p> <p>What prompted me to write <cite>The Complete Spielberg</cite>? I'd been a Steven Spielberg fan since I was a kid and I didn't want my misspent youth watching <cite>Jaws</cite> over and over to go to waste. More seriously, I just felt that, for all the mountains of literature on Spielberg, there were still some new things left to say and fortunately I got the opportunity to say them.</p> <p>The comprehensive approach and level of detail I hoped I've achieved would not have been possible without the <span class="bfi">bfi</span> library collections. Two hours in the <span class="bfi">bfi</span> Library with a great biography and the SIFT database is worth two days blindly searching the internet. When I'm compiling lists for EMPIRE magazine, the <span class="bfi">bfi</span> biographies section is a treasure trove of trivia that keeps unearthing gems of info long after most websites have run dry. 5 stars!</p> <p>Does one biography stand out as the best? With my head, you would have to go a long way to beat the fascinating detail, intelligent analysis and great storytelling in Christopher Frayling's <cite>Sergio Leone</cite> biog or Simon Callow's <cite>Orson Welles</cite> portrait. With my heart, I would say <cite>Skywalking The Life And Films Of George Lucas</cite>, a book that got me excited about moviemaking, writing about film and taught me the origin of the word Wookiee - you can't ask for more than that?</p> <p>*Permission granted by the publishers, Virgin Books</p>  <div class="clear"></div> </div> <div id="secondaryWrapper"> <div class="sidebarFloater"> <h3>Sight & Sound</h3> <a href="/sightandsound/issue.php"><img src="/images/global/layout/ss_cover.jpg" alt="Sight and Sound cover" width="80" height="109" style="border: 0; float: left; padding-bottom: 5px;" /></a> <p><a href="/sightandsound/issue.php">December issue: Haneke, Campion, Clouzot, Straub-Huillet, Soderbergh, Dvortsevoy</a></p> </div> <div class="clear"></div> <a href="/more?utm_source=membersinc&utm_medium=internal&utm_campaign=membership"><img src="/images/global/nav/promo/membership_promo_150.gif" class="noborder" style="margin-top: 5px" /></a> <div class="clear"></div> <p> </p>  <div class="relatedLinks associatedBox"> <p>BFI Emails</p></div> <div class="associatedBox"><ul class="links"> <li><a href="/whatson/node/1743">Sign up for email bulletins or change your preferences</a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="associatedLinks_bottom_corner"></div> <div class="clear"></div>    <div class="relatedLinks associatedBox"> <p>Contact or Visit the BFI</p></div> <div class="associatedBox"> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/about/contact.html">Telephone numbers and visitor information</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="associatedLinks_bottom_corner"></div> <div class="clear"></div> </div> <div class="clear"></div> <div id="footerWrapper"> <div id="footer"> <p class="hide">Helper links</p> <ul> <li><a href="/help/contact/8" title="Ask a question or make an enquiry">Contact us</a></li> <li><a href="/help/" title="Help using this site">Help</a></li> <li><a href="/help/terms.html" title="Terms of use for this site">Terms of use</a></li> <li><a href="/help/privacy.html" title="Personal privacy and security information about using this site">Privacy</a></li> <li><a href="/help/linking.html" title="How to link to this site">Linking</a></li> <li><a href="/help/sitemap.html" title="Site map for this site">Site map</a></li> <li id="lastItem"><a href="/help/accessibility.html" title="Information about accessibility and the standards used on this site">Accessibility/standards</a></li> </ul> <div class="clear"></div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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