It's Only a Movie, Ingrid: Encounters on and Off Screen

by Alexander Walker

It's Only a Movie, Ingrid

320 pages, Paperback

Published August 17, 1989

About the author

Alexander Walker was a film critic and author of a number of biographies and books on the film industry.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelves for many years - it was published in 1988 - and had assumed I'd read it before. I have just read it, and not a word of it was familiar. So maybe it's been waiting all this time for me to pick it up!
It's a collection of essays - for want of a better word - about movies, by Alexander Walker, the Irish-born film critic. Walker is a great storyteller, with an eye and an ear for details (many conversations are included that seem to be almost verbatim). Of course, having been published in the late 80s, many of the actors and directors mentioned are no longer alive. Many of those who are have retired or gone into obscurity.
A young person coming to the book will find references to movies and people he or she's never heard of, which is a pity, because so much of what Walker has to say is insightful, and always endowed with a love of films. (He was taken to his first movie when he was four, by his mother, who was also a film buff.) But anyone of my generation (I'm now in my early seventies) or somewhat younger, will remember many of these names, and will enjoy the stories and discussions and analyses of their work and careers and characters.
Apart from that, it's a great record of filmmaking from the 30s right through to the 70s - not in the sense that Walker works chronologically through these periods, but in the sense of an overview. He has his wide lens on what he's writing all the time.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember the author as the film critic of the Evening Standard. I thought of him as pompous with an inflated ego.He even said that certain films should be banned. I think it was those of Ken Russell.
The recollections in this book were from mildly interesting to totally boring.Always though with an air to inflating his own importance.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminded me how many great films are slipping away and can't be found on the streaming services. Really well written.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A critics stories about the stars and films from the inside.not tell tales but encounters told with candour,but treat the stars and directors like real people not cinematic gods.well worth a read.

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. It has a great penultimate chapter about Kubrick.