The Conversations With Filmmakers Series from University Press of Mississippi. They’ve collected interviews with many of the greats, old and new into individual volumes…
Tim Burton
Roman Polanski
Oliver Stone
Buster Keaton
Michelangelo Antonioni
Jonathan Demme
Howard Hawks
Akira Kurosawa
Bernardo Bertolucci
Carlos Saura
Ingmar Bergman
Stanley Kubrick
Jim Jarmusch
John Sayles
Orson Welles
Francis Ford Coppola
the list goes on…there are about 40-50 of them…
Thanks Jasper – I’ve been looking for a good Polanski book for a long time. Not a bio (as we’ve all heard that story countless times) but more an examination of his work.
“from caligari to hitler” and “the haunted screen” are both very good books about german expressionism. more like textbooks, though.
“the 20 greatest sci fi movies NEVER made” entertaining, and shows how the slightest whim can decide whether or not a film gets greenlit.
Herzog on Herzog is my bible
Hell yeah Adam Cook: Herzog on Herzog, I feel the same way.
David Mamet: “Bambi Vs. Godzilla” is pretty funny and provocative.
“The Last Tycoon” Fitzgerald in Hollywood. Barton Fink would be a good companion piece
I’ve never read it, but “Day of the Locust” by Nathaniel West is supposed to be a masterpiece from the author of “Miss Lonelyhearts”
I love “The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction” and “The Making of Citizen Kane” by Robert Carringer were sort of my intro to all aspects of cinema
“The Filmmaker’s Handbook” is absolutely the best all around introduction and manual for all aspects of filmmaking, from scriptwriting to shooting to working with film and video and editing.
“Making Movies Work” is an interesting tutorial in the Hollywood film philosophy, as is McKee’s “Story,” featured to hilarious effect in Adaptation. Although I think these books are dangerous, in that they can teach you many bad habits.
If you liked the Pacino interviews I would definitely check out any interviews you can find with Brando, particularly the ones Playboy magazine did with him on his island in the 70s. He is such a beautiful, profound, bizarre human being and he really lets loose in these interviews.
Pauline Kael’s criticism and “The Citizen Kane Book”.
There are plenty of others. I think, as far as working with actors is concerned, the best thing you can do is read acting books. It also helps you to be a better writer, understand how subtext works, how it drives the scene, not the dialogue. To speak to an actor, you should know their language.
Anyone see the fantastic list this morning at the bottom of the imdb about authors that hated their big screen adaptations?
It was on the A/V club. http://www.avclub.com/articles/put-the-book-back-on-the-shelf-13-booktofilm-adapt,28405/
Shame about Hemingway and King.
Anyhoo, dig these:
On Directing Film by Mamet – even as a professional, he’s got a voice
Scorsese on Scorsese – I love that spaz
The Other Hollywood by Legs MacNeil – Oral History of the Porn Industry, kinda awesome
Blue Movie by Terry Southern – The funniest, dirtiest satire on Hollwood ever, where a hypotheical Bergman or Kubrick is challenged to make a high art porno
Awake in the Dark by Roger Ebert – Criticism can be made to be accessible
The aforementioned Cassavetes book – That guy was hot
The Studio by John Gregory Dunne – I wanna be a producer
Hit and Run by Nancy Griffin – Idiot or not, Jon Peters makes for great reading
- Every one of the X on X books by Faber & Faber.
- Tarkovsky’s Sculping In Time
- Kurosawa’s Something Like An Autobiography
- Peter Biskind – Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (I don’t care if it’s filled with dish, or whatever – it’s more entertaining than many a movie I’ve seen in my time)
- Noel Carroll – Mystifying Movies: Fads and Fallacies in Contemporary Film Theory (a necessary and precise takedown of Theory gobbledygook in film studies)
- Robert Ray – How a film theory got lost and other mysteries in cultural studies (it’s been a few years, but I remember that Ray was a lot of fun to read)
I have to get my hands on Sculpting in Time
“Nobody’s Perfect,” the book of Anthony Lane criticism. Not entirely based around film, but enough of it is, and it’s so viciously swishy that I consult it as a style guide regularly.
“Godard on Godard” is MY bible.
Someone mentioned Kael earlier, which is a great call. Everyone should read her book of criticism, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.” Not only is it amazing, but hugely influential. On the flip side, you should check out some Andrew Sarris. He’s the other side of Kael. Also, Ebert is largely underrated. I hated his show, but his books are crucial; and remember, he’s the only film critic/theorist to ever win a Pulitzer. Let me know what you all think of these works…
Robin Wood’s HOLLYWOOD FROM VIETNAM TO REAGAN and HITCHCOCK’S FILMS REVISITED, two excellent books that have changed the way I look at films forever.
Do novels count? If so, Theodore Roszak’s brilliant “Flicker”.
There is an absolutely brilliant series of interviews collected in a book called ENCOUNTERING DIRECTORS by Charles Thomas Samuels.
Included in this group are dialogues with Antonioni, Renoir, Bergman and other giants. Samuels is probing, prickly and fearless and he asks questions that no interviewer would have the nerve to ask.
The BFI (British Film Institute) Modern Classics Series
Requiem For A Dream
Last Exit To Brooklyn
uhmmm Vonnegut books.
The Pixar Touch is a great new book chronicling the creation and success of Pixar up till about the release of Cars. Great read, especially if you love Pixar, like I do.
godard on godard
the american cinema – andrew sarris
film lighting – kris malkiewicz – a great technical book that draws on the experiences of cinematographers and directors to form a solid handbook on film’s most tedious aspect.
i’ll have to read that pacino book, though. huge fan. thanks, fredo~
Sean – The Pacino book is great. Really easy read and the interviews are very casual conversations. You can tell the author has built up quite a rapport with Pacino over the years.
Bunuel’s My Last Sigh
Kubrick’s script for A Clockwork Orange
Monaco’s How to Read a Film
Those are a few that come to mind immeidately
Fredo
I’m sure this has been discussed in the past but I was wondering if people have come across interesting books having to do about films and filmmaking. I’m always looking for good books on film (even though I’ve got a stack that I still need to read). I’m not an avid reader per se, but when I find a book I like, it’s impossible for me to put down (or my highlighter, which I’m constantly using to mark up interesting antidotes). My taste is all over the place running the gamut from biographies to interviews to film history but I typically am not too interested in deep critical analysis (ala Bazin or Sarris) since I read enough of that in film school (and find a lot of it too stuffy and hypothetical). But like a good movie you’d recommend, are there any good film books that should be required reading?
Some books on film that I’ve read over the past year or so include:
Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris – wonderful book on the Best Picture nominees from 1967. I found Harris to be a fantastic writer who is very good at tying things together.
Making Movies by Sidney Lumet – every single person who has ever watched a movie should be required to read this book. It’s full of practical information but such an easy read that you could recommend it to your grandmother.
Al Pacino: In conversation with Lawrence Grobel – great interviews over many years from an actor who doesn’t give many interviews.
Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented Independent Film – solid, comprehensive book on all of Cassavetes’ films
The Film Club by David Gilmour – not so much a book about film as it is a book about a father and son’s connection through films
New Cinematographers by Alex Ballinger – I’m not a DP but this book, which interviews six wonderful DPs, is fantastic and very accessible to the layman.
Directing Actors by Judith Weston – one of the best contemporary books on working with actors that’s ever been written. I refer back to this “directors manual” often.