WILLIAM KLEIN: FILMS: THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

New York City, NY: PowerHouse Books, 1999. First Edition. First Printing.. Softcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. New York City, NY: PowerHouse Books, 1999. Softcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 158 pages. Retrospective collection of the artist/photographer's films. The single most important book on the cinematic art and achievement of William Klein. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Published in a small and limited print run as a softcover original only. The First American Edition is now also rare. A brilliant production by William Klein: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial softcovers with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs and film stills selected and sequenced by William Klein. Essay by Claire Clouzot. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper by EBS in Verona, Italy to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents William Klein's "Films". The complete cinematic oeuvre of the visual artist who is much better-known as a ground-breaking photographer. By 1964, Willam Klein had completed his now-legendary series of books on cities ("New York", "Moscow", "Rome", and "Tokyo"), and felt he had said everything he wanted to say through photography. He turned his restless and inexhaustible creative energies to film-making, and spent an extended period that lasted for more than two decades (from 1965 to the 1980's), making quirkily brilliant films that now enjoy a global cult following. It takes a truly courageous and uncompromising artist to abandon one medium, after leaving his indelible mark on it, and move on to another. Just as he permanently and radically changed the way people take photographs, William Klein's films expanded and enriched the cinematic vocabulary with such pioneering films as "Broadway By Light", "Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?" , "Mr. Freedom", "Muhammad Ali The Greatest", "The Little Richard Story", and "The Messiah". One of the greatest film directors of all time praised "Broadway By Light", on Manhattan's magnificent neon-lit signs: "It is truly the very first film that needed to be made in color" (Orson Welles). Since then, many well-known photographers have branched out into film-making. Some of the more recent sensations like Larry Clark, Bruce Weber, David LaChapelle, and Anton Corbijn have either turned to making films in addition to their photographic work or abandoned photography altogether. All of them credit William Klein's pioneering example as their primary inspiration. William Klein eventually returned to photography, and is now firmly established as one of the greatest visual artists of our time. Supplemented with an insightful essay by Claire Clouzot, this is the definitive book on William Klein's film work, whose recognition is long overdue. An absolute "must-have" title for William Klein collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in metallic-silver pen-marker on the title page by William Klein. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great film book. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. William Klein's "Life Is Good And Good For You In New York" was selected as one of the greatest photography books in "The Photobook". One of the greatest artist/photographers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER WILLIAM KLEIN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1576870383.