The Complete Index to World Film Since 1895 is the most comprehensive film index ever published. The CD offers over 300,000 film titles and 120,000 alternative titles; over 1,085,500 actor credits and 45,000 director filmographies; over 63,000 directors of photography credits; over 75,500 films credited with releasing production company; over 27,000 original music credits; over 17,000 literary origins; and over 100,000 silent film titles. The product is accompanied by a 37‐page user guide which assists the user in searching strategies and includes an extensive selective bibliography of sources used to compile the index.
Some of the unique capabilities offered by this product include: the ability to search for a film title across 15 specific categories, as well as keyword searching; the ability to access the complete filmographies of actors and directors from the silent era to the modern day; the ability to find out all the films made in a specified period or year; the ability to discover alternative and local language titles; the option to undertake simple or obscure searches for title identification purposes; and the ability to create filmographies of actor, director, and other technical partnerships.
The search screen loaded quickly, and comprises the ability to search over the following 11 areas: film title, director’s name, actor’s name, cinematographer’s name, composer’s name, year of film release, film type, country of origin of film, literary source (title), literary source (author), and production/releasing company. Wildcard and Boolean searching provides broader results through the Folio information retrieval software. Hypertext links on results provide cross‐searching capabilities to the user.
Goble’s Film Index has always been the first source to look for this information; and the CD allows for so much more power and flexibility with this index. This is a definitive reference product that should be available in academic and research libraries, particularly in the fine arts/liberal arts/theater area. It would also be of use to the general public library as their major reference database on film and theater research.
