Starlight

Film stills seek to capture not only the frozen moment the shutter speed allows, but the whole mood and meaning of a movie’s narrative. Successful ones often come to represent the essence of the movie in the media and in viewers’ memories. We encounter them in cinema foyers and in newspaper and magazine ads and reviews, but also in contemporary art, of which Cindy Sherman’s is the best known. Film Stills is no riff on a classic but the real thing, a collection of the most successful, memorable, and peculiar film stills of the past century. It offers uncommon insight into a genre that is both central to our shared imaginary worlds and often overlooked.