books about films?

Started by (kelvin), April 24, 2003, 08:37:24 AM

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Henry Hill

I have always wanted to read Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Of everything I have heard about it on this board, I had to get it. I haven't been able to put it down. Warren Beatty's ways with the ladies make for a hilarious read. I would almost bet that Carly Simon DID write the song "Your so Vain" about him.  8)

SoNowThen

She wrote it about James Taylor.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Henry Hill

I know somebody won the auction for who the song was about. I didn't hear who it was. James Taylor huh? Interesting. Would have been funny if it was Beatty.

Finchy.

The greatest book ever on the topic of cinema has to be 'Hitchcock' by Truffaut.  A meeting of two cinematic masters, featuring days worth of interview transcripts.  I want them to broadcast footage of the complete interview on BBC Four or some such channel.
bunnykins

modage

i just read & while i went on vacation and they were both really good and really interesting.  william goldman is pretty funny and it was interesting to read his sort of more open book after lumet's not wanting to make anyone look bad.  but  anyone wanting to write or direct (not me) should read the corresponding book.  right now i'm getting started on Spike Mike Reloaded (finally), and then i have Adventures in Screen Trade in the mail next.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

pete

Joe Queenan's "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler" is a really funny one with good negative insights into movie trends, too bad they were mostly about films in the 90s.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

modage

finished last week.  makes an interesting companion to Down and Dirty Pictures.  together i think they helped to paint a decent picture of the indie film boom and how it came to be.  i didnt realize the writer of the book (before i started reading) was someone who was writing from his EXPERIENCE getting these movies distributed and not from someone who was writing from a critical outsider pov (like biskind).  so it was a little weird to hear so much about Rob Weiss (producer on Punkd!) and not more on Soderberg, Tarantino, etc.  also with all the new additions the book is VERY kevin smith heavy although he is intersting to hear talk regardless of how you feel about his movies.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

modage

just finished and like its sequel Which Lie Did I Tell, it was funny and interesting and very readable.  had no idea that the Presidents Men script tried to be re-written by Nora Ephron (that bitch!) and Woodward (or was it Bernstein), whatever.  it was a little odd to have read the later book first and then to go back and read about his thoughts in 1982(ish).  especially when he talks about the state of movies being the worst ever (post Heavens Gate) and all the disasters they've had to sit through. and how he's sure ET will win the best picture.  but, good interesting stuff.  

also, for anyone whose read Easy Riders and Down and Dirty Pictures, have you read ? i'd never heard of it before but just ordered it because it sounds interesting as hell especially because i was just saying to my girlfriend i wish somebody (like Biskind) would write a book about EVERY DECADE, because when you get to the end of Riders/Bulls you want to find out more about what happens to these people and who comes up next, etc.  

and even better is Gods and Monsters : Movers, Shakers, and Other Casualties of the Hollywood Machine which comes out Nov. 9th!  sounds great, but i cant believe hes got another book out so close on the heels of Down and Dirty which just came out earlier this year.  arent these things supposed to take time?  heres the description....

Peter Biskind authored two of the most talked about and read books of the last decade—Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock-'n'-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood and its bestselling sequel Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film. Gods and Monsters chronicles the cause and courses of Hollywood over the last three decades—the super freaks, lowlifes, charlatans and occasional geniuses who have left their bite mark on American culture, as refracted through the trajectory of Peter Biskind's career. The ghosts of McCarthyism and the blacklist haunt Gods and Monsters as do the casualties of the counterculture and the New Hollywood—the story of Sue Menges, the '70s "super-agent" whose career went mysteriously south, is extraordinarily poignant, as is the example of Terence Malick, whose light shone so brightly in the same period but then disappeared until 1997's The Thin Red Line. But at the heart of the book are the likes of Warren Beatty, Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford and Quentin Tarantino and uber-producers Don Simpson and Harvey Weinstein and their excess lifestyles, all of whom Biskind portrays in great Dickensian detail, charting how they have had a simultaneously strangulating and liberating effect on the industry.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Pubrick

you are always doing things. :shock:
under the paving stones.

ono



"Inner Views: Filmmakers in Conversation" has to be one of the most illuminating books on film I've ever read.  Read it last year, and have been skimming through it again recently, and am probably going to read it again soon.  So I'm looking for more books in that vein.  More books of in-depth interviews with collections of filmmakers.  I've heard all about the "_ on _" series and whatnot, but that's not exactly what I had in mind.  Any suggestions?

kotte



A really good book. Highly recommended!
The book is divided into three parts: Intuition, Ideas, and Imagination.
Over 20 chapters long with two about Script Analysis and The Lost Art of Rehearsal.

Good books about crafting stories? Like 'Story' and 'The Writers Journey'. Not looking for screenwritingbooks a la Screenwriters Bible or anything from Syd Field...

soixante

Chronicles of Cinema, which covers 1895 to the present day, is a good year-by-year account of seminal events in cinema history.

Schrader on Schrader is great.  Any interview with Schrader is an educational experience.

The complete Variety film reviews, from 1907 to 1996.  Usually you have to go the reference section of a library to find these, but they are worth looking at.

Before My Eyes by Stanley Kauffmann, a collection of film criticism.  I seldom agree with his opinions, but he is a very smart critic, and he writes very thought-provoking reviews.

Any collection of criticism by Pauline Kael or Richard Schickel is worth a look.

Quite often, there are a lot of out-of-print books at libraries that are interesting to look at.
Music is your best entertainment value.

classical gas

i'm scared of books about creativity and imagination...should i fold??

Myxo


kotte

Anyone have any tips on books about cinematography?