Grace Kelly

MOST BOOKS....ESPECIALLY MOST BOOKS ABOUT THE MOVIES, ARE MUCH LARGER THAN THIS ONE. IN SIZE, (LENGTH X HEIGHT). This book, ("Movie Icons - Grace Kelly", published by Taschen, edited by Paul Duncan. with text by Glen Hopp, and photos from the Kobol Collection), is smaller in it's height and width, ( ) -- but has 192 pages, all of fine quality photo paper, and brimming with many, many photos, and a very informative text. Like all the books in the "Movie Icons" series, (and there are so many wonderful ones to choose from!), this smaller page size enables the publishers to bring more photos to the reader, at a lower price, and to add a just about the best binding I have seen in any paper-back book to date! Also, this nice small, (but not too small size), makes it lighter amd easier to carry, (and so look through more often!), than larger, more luxurious, (and more expensive!) books! Nothing except size has been in the least stinted on here...it is truly a neat, easily-carried little book, with a full compliment of some of Grace Kelly's most memorable photos, on-screen and off. This is a truly international book. Taschen, the publisher. has offices in Hong Kong, Kolin, (Berlin?), London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris and Tokyo. Each picture in the book has a caption -- in English, in German, and in French! So -- along with learning more about Grace Kelly/Princess Grace, you can also learn a few words of another language, (or two!) whilst perusing these pages! The photos here ARE wonderful. (If this and the other "Movie Icons" books were sized more like other books, it probably would command at least three times the price!) The introductory essay, "Grace Kelly: Cool Beauty", is repeated in all three languages -- each prefaced by a different picture of Ms. Kelly! A "Visual Filmography", of black-and-white and colour pictures follows....with at least 10 stills, (pictures), from each film. The captions are informative -- and sometimes give surprising information to the reader just getting acquainted with the details of Ms. Kelly's life. (For instance, there is a full-page still of Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner in "Mogambo". Grace's character is the wide-eyed innocent, looking up curiously at Ms. Gardner's obviously worldly, blase character. One would think these two characters came from different planets, not just different backgrounds, (Ms. Gardner came from an extremely poor family). But the caption says that, after working together, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly became life-long friends! The actresses did -- their characters in "Mogambo" sure didn't! Though it has been said that Grace Kelly chose her parts carefully, knowing her range of acting was NOT unlimited, this still from "Mogambo" shows that, within a limited range, or not within a limited range, (and the role for whch she won her Oscar, "The Country Girl", showed just how great a range of emotions she did have on-screen!), Ms. Kelly could emote in a totally believable manne