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Kenneth Turan's Fifty-Four Film Favorites

Not To Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film

Los Angeles Times and NPR film critic Kenneth Turan talks about and reads from his book Not To Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film.

Kenneth Turan’s fifty-four favorite films embrace a century of the world’s most satisfying romances and funniest comedies, the most heart-stopping dramas and chilling thrillers. Not to be Missed blends cultural criticism, historical anecdote, and inside-Hollywood controversy. Turan’s selection of favorites ranges across all genres. From "All About Eve" to "Seven Samurai" to "Sherlock Jr.," these are all timeless films—classic and contemporary, familiar and obscure, with big budgets and small.

The music in this program was written and performed by John Floridis.

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Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan

Kenneth Turan is film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s Morning Edition as well as the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He has been a staff writer for the Washington Post as well as the Times’ book review editor. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, he teaches film reviewing and non-fiction writing at USC. In addition to Not To Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film, Kenneth Turan's most recent books are Never Coming To A Theater Near You and Free For All: Joe Papp, The Public and The Greatest Theater Story Ever Told.

Kenneth Turan discovered film as a child left undisturbed to watch Million Dollar Movie on WOR-TV Channel 9 in New York, a daily showcase for older Hollywood features. It was then that he developed a love of cinema that never left him and honed his eye for the most acute details and the grandest of scenes.

Chérie Newman is a former arts and humanities producer and on-air host for Montana Public Radio, and a freelance writer. She founded and previously hosted a weekly literary program, The Write Question, which continues to air on several public radio stations; it is also available online at PRX.org and MTPR.org.
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