My Favorite Films

In this panoramic guide by one of the world's most knowledgeable movie enthusiasts, Cyrus Ghani reviews more than six hundred and fifty of the big screen's finest offerings. An international lawyer and eminent historian, Ghani has lived on three continents and is fluent in several languages, affording him a uniquely broad perspective on cinema. His love affair with movies began, he says, at the age of eight and has lasted a lifetime. My Favorite Films is the result -- the work of an avid fan, keenly insightful, highly informative, and happily free of the arcane terminology and analysis of academic film criticism. In these pages, Ghani moves from early silent classics like Buster Keaton's The General and Charlie Chaplin's City Lights to the films of Billy Wilder and John Huston, the Ealing Studios capers, famed Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedies, the countless, finely-crafted films by Max Ophuls, and recent hits like The Silence of the Lambs and L A Confidential -- a journey of exploration that will excite and delight film aficionados and occasional viewers alike.

Cyrus Ghani is a lawyer and scholar specializing in Iranian studies. He is the author of Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah and Iran and the West: A Critical Bibliography. He was born in Iran and has lived in Tehran, Los Angeles, London, and New York City, where he now resides.