Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Cinema/Film: Book    3. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    4. Film & Video - General    5. Non-Book Materials In Libraries    6. Performing Arts    7. Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism   

Reviews (1)

better than film school!
As an aspiring producer, I have long looked up to the indie queen Christine Vachon, and I was interested to read this book after having read her excellent SHOOTING TO KILL.I read that book when I was back in college, but this book is better.It's definitely more personal - in a way it reads like a memoir.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    7. Film & Video - Direction & Production    8. Independent filmmakers    9. Individual Directors And Producers    10. Motion Picture Industry    11. Motion picture producers and directors    12. United States    13. Women    14. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts   

Reviews (84)

Inspiring but not instructional...
Rodriguez is a phenom, only matched today by Soderberg. Both are directors who do it all, but it's not likely that most people will have the chops to be able to match Rodriguez skill for skill. So this book won't tell you how to actually make a movie, but it will tell you how to work with the limitations not just of the medium, but of everything else from lack of budget, lack of resources, lack of sets, lack of everything except imagination. The key thing you learn from this book is you get great stories about how Rodriguez overcame the limitations at the moment. Only problem is that you won't run into the same limitations, and you probably don't even have a turtle either. Key wisdom is never give up.
Learn from his experiences
Robert Rodriguez is living proof that you don't have to do everything exactly right to make it work. He was nearly kicked out of college, and he could barely get into film school. He made a movie -- on film, no less --for $7,000, performing the job of director, director of photography, acting coach, editor, producer, and countless others...
most important book i will ever read!
this book was so inspiring for an up and coming filmmaker like myself. He gives day to day knowledge he learned from being in Hollywood and gives us heavy advice of how to throw down everything and just make a movie. Don't waste your money on Film School, buy this! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. (Robert Anthony),    2. 1968-    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Diaries    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    8. Motion picture producers and directors    9. Pop Arts / Pop Culture    10. Rodriguez, Robert    11. United States    12. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts    13. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. 1901-1966    2. Animators    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Disney, Walt,    8. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    9. General    10. Historical - U.S.    11. Individual Directors And Producers    12. United States    13. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (29)

A great read on a fascinating subject by a fine writer
Reading this book makes you feel the writer is talking to you personally - it is written in a conversational style .
Required Reading...
This is not a text book, but it should be required reading for anyone who wants a career in the motion picture industry - or anyone who loves film in general.Why is it not a textbook?Because it is one heck of an entertaining read.The book runs almost six-hundred pages and I devoured it in just a couple of days.
Mixed feelings about this book
It's hard to review this book.On the one hand, I agree with a lot of what Goldman says (as well as what he says in his follow-up book, "Which Lie Did I Tell?").There's little doubt, unless you're under 25 and still think digital effects are the reason to go to movies, that Hollywood is rotting from the inside out.On the other hand, I get the feeling that Goldman would be coming up with excuses for why he never really quite made it as big in Hollywood as it looked like he once would, even if none of the problems with Hollywood existed.Because--and here's a secret--Goldman really isn't a great screenwriter.I know I'm going against the trend here.I know he worked on some major 70s films and I know he used to make bread most of us can only dream about, but honestly, his greatest contributions are Butch Cassidy and The Princess Bride, and Butch really isn't a great screenplay (it's a great *idea* for a screenplay, though) and even Princess Bride--despite all the hype in a relatively boring year--is merely so-so.If I had to pick a favorite Goldman work, of all the ones I've seen I'd vote for All The President's Men.
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Subjects:  1. 1931-    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Cinema/Film: Book    4. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    5. Film & Video - Screenwriting    6. Goldman, William,    7. Motion picture authorship    8. Motion picture industry    9. Motion picture plays    10. Performing Arts    11. United States    12. Performing Arts / Film / Screenwriting   

Reviews (6)

AN ACTOR REVIEWS AN ACTOR/DIRECTOR
HURRAH FOR CALLOW!A long and rewarding read with actor/author Callow in fine form as he reviews Welles from within the man himself, while weighing every scene and line-reading of Welles's works from The Magnificent Ambersons to Macbeth. This includes a close survey of all of Welles' radio and theatre works as well, which are weighed from within the art of acting. This is a book Welles himself would enjoy though it often takes him vastly to task. If the book has a problem it's that Callow spent ten years writing it and, now at age 78, I fear I may not be around to read the concluding volume(s)--and I'm sure two volumes will emerge from Callow's fine sifting of research materials at the Lilly Library's Welles Collection at Indiana University. As an aside, while reading this bio, I happened upon Callow's brief but inspired appearance in Howard's End as the pompous lecturer on Music & Meaning at the picture's opening where Boham Carter "steals" an umbrella, and caught him bouncing about bareassed at a country swimming hole in A Room with a View. Finally, Callow's work on stage and film sets (and his fine earlier biography of Charles Laughton) gives him special insight into each of the Welles works he studies: lighting, editing, makeup and so forth. Hey, he writes well too, no academese. Now if only Criterion would bring out Chimes at Midnight.

The singer not the song
Appropriately for a book on Welles, there is some nifty sleight-of-hand here. Simon Callow's excellent writing and meticulous marshaling of facts distract us from seeing what should become plainer and plainer with each chapter: Welles is really not worth this kind of extended treatment. One great film, a handful of interesting clips thereafter, and a personal life not especially to be differentiated from that of many a spoiled, "infante terrible" hardly justifies 1200 pages...and counting.With ten years between volumes, the pushing-60 Mr.Callow will readily be exonerated if he abandons the project, and taxes his finite resources no further therein.

Really Good Follow-Up To A Great Biography
Well, I just finished reading HELLO AMERICANS, Callow's second volume in his Orson Welles bio series, and I have to say, it's a good read.
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Subjects:  1. Actors    2. Artists, Architects, Photographers    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    8. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    9. Film & Video - Direction & Production    10. General    11. Individual Directors And Producers    12. Motion picture producers and directors    13. United States    14. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts   

Editorial Review

Now in paperback, Callow's vastly entertaining chronicle of Welles's first 26 years seems even finer than it did in 1995. The author's ability to skewer his subject's evasions and lies while retaining critical affection for him is perhaps explained by the fact that Callow, an actor himself, understands the need to mythologize. Welles's innovative theatrical work in the 1930s has never been better described or analyzed. Even such oft-told sagas as the Read more

Reviews (9)

George Orson Welles
This is a fantastic, very detailed and rather objective biography of the boy genius of the theatre world. 600 pages about Welles for only the first 26 years of his life is a lot, but definitly worth all the details. The American
Simon Callow's thick and detailed biography of Orson Welles is a staggeringly thorough account of the actor/director's life, from his birth up until the release of his most famous picture, CITIZEN KANE.Callow goes to great lengths to separate the man from his inhumanly grandiose reputation.Armed with years of research, his personal interviews, and a keen sense of humor, Callow sets off to discover the real early life of Orson Welles.He finds a man smaller than his gargantuan myth, yet fascinating and brilliant all the same. Requiem for a Huckster
In his later years, Welles often complained that he spent more time trying to find money to make films than he did actually making films. And seeing Welles still scrambling for cash in his last days as a commercial pitchman for such products as Dark Tower and Paul Masson Wines ("Where we will sell no wine before it's time"), you know he was right. Read more

Subjects:  1. Actors    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    8. Individual Actors And Actresses    9. Individual Directors And Producers    10. Motion picture producers and directors    11. United States    12. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts   

Reviews (13)

Interesting But Mostly For Core Smith Fans
Kevin Smith is a brillant and interesting writer.If you agree with that statement then you will likely enjoy this book.If not then it likely won't change your opinion.Thats not to say its bad, but the book, (which is composed of largely recycled Smith writings regarding the production of his films as well as some random musings that appeard in his magazine columns), is not likely to facinate those who are not already Smith fans.
Page count is misleading, very short book.
The book has 300 some odd pages, but some pages are only half filled with writing, there are a few blank pages in between each chapter, so literally, you could condense this book into 100 pages. It's easily a one evening read, which sucks for the price. If you dig Kevin Smith than you will enjoy this book, but be prepared for a short read that is mostly a Ben Affleck tribute book. He goes on and on about him, how he loves him, how he's the greatest ever,that's at least 3/4 of the book.

The Collected Buttkissings of a Director Whose Creativity Started & Ended With Jay & Silent Bob
This isn't a bad book.But it ain't a good one, neither.I suppose it would've seemed better/funnier if I'd read it before seeing "Dogma" and "Jersey Girl".Smith, unfortunately, is a filmmaker who had just two Bright Ideas---Jay and Silent Bob---and then ran out of things to say.Besides toilet jokes, that is.Now, this book serves as the chronicle of a pop star basking in the golden moment celebrities enjoy between "Who's THAT?" and "Didn't he used to be...?"The worst thing about it is its author's "Lookit me, I'm Cool!" attitude that's displayed on nearly every page.
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Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Actors & Actresses    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    8. Individual Directors And Producers    9. Motion pictures    10. Personal Memoirs    11. United States    12. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (26)

Corporate puff piece
Published by the Disney Corporation, not exactly an objective source for a biography of Walt Disney. You'll learn more about the man just wandering his parks and watching his films than you will from this extended press release, which completely ignores key individuals and events that helped shape Uncle Walt. The photos aren't very interesting either -- pass on this one.

the world of disney
A very good overview of the life of the master that tells all the general reader needs to know of walt's life and work. Highly recommended, despite the occasional faux pas which does not detract from this informative work.

An Incredible Look at an American Legend
This is a must read on Disney's life. Detailed, yet fast paced, it details the classic American story of Disney's rise from nothing to the innovative genius he was. Always looking forward, and always on the edge of financial disaster, Walt and his brother never gave up. Is vision for parks was unique and is still unmatched. Anyone who has enjoyed his films and parks should read this account of Walt's life. As the leadership of Disney Co. changes, I hope all who work for Disney read this book to remind themselves of Disney's vision. It should be the Bible for all who work there. Even if you've never been a Disney fan, you will be after reading this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1901-1966    2. Animators    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Disney, Walt,    8. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    9. General    10. Historical - U.S.    11. United States    12. Biography & Autobiography / General    13. Biography: film, television & music    14. Films, cinema    15. Sport & leisure industries    16. USA   

Reviews (7)

Where was this 30 odd years ago?
Awesome reading for the die hard spaghetti western fan!

Leone is God, and this is the Bible
I worship Sergio leone. I've been a huge fan of his films since my childhood in the late Seventies. I've always wanted/needed a weighty, fact-filled bio-reference to illuminate his here-to-fore mysterious life/career. This is that book. More detailed than the expensive, picture-packed Italian book on Leone, S.T.D.W.D. will stand for a long time as the essential Leone tome. Literate, balanced, and exhaustive, this book is a triumph in every respect.

Masterful biography
There aren't too many directors who could inspire me to read a 576-page tome about their career. In fact, apart from a handful of auteurs to whom I'm still trying to speak and the dozen or so who have opened their hearts to Cashiers du Cinemart, there aren't too many directors I'd even like to read about. Yet, of all directors-past and present-it's only Sergio Leone's name that I've been scanning for when I troll the "directors biographies" section at Borders Bookstore. Sure, sure, maybe it'd be fun to read a nicely done work on Fritz Lang or Kenji Misumi but it's Leone who presents me with the biggest challenges. Read more

Subjects:  1. 1929-    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    5. Film & Video - Direction & Production    6. Film - History & Criticism    7. Italy    8. Leone, Sergio,    9. Motion picture producers and directors    10. Performing Arts    11. Performing Arts/Dance    12. Biography: film, television & music    13. Individual film directors, film-makers   

Reviews (34)

Ahem....
How does one evaluate something like this, which is rather unprecedented?A blurbed review cited on the cover refers to this as "the Hollywood Chainsaw Massacre," and it fits.Julia Phillips - R.I.P. - is clearly not a writer, and the clunky prose does drag in places, but I didn't go into this looking for Proust.The dirt she dishes is truly spectacular - moreso for her chutzpah in revealing it all than for any of the actual content.Her description of her drug decline is grueling and lurid, but I suppose the reality was considerably worse, so she does communicate this effectively.Her descriptions of the behind-the-scenes politics of Hollywood could scare half of today's film students into rethinking their aspirations.And all worth it for the details into the making of 'Taxi Driver' and 'Close Encounters.'
Great Stories and insight
A truly great read.Its stories have prepared me to deal with all of the Hollywood b.s. that an independent filmmaker like myself has to endure.This book gave me the confidence to complete three feature-length movies, the most recent being THE INDIE PENDANT.And, it has helped me in starting my own radio show, The Indie Film Hour, on World Talk Radio.Thank you Julia, and R.I.P.
Just regular folks ..gone wrong
Not all HOllywood high rollers are born cool and ultra-confident.This book documents that fact and proves it, as it walks us through the rise and fall of one of Hollywood's finest. This book gets down to earth and tells the story of a young woman born into a middle class family in NY (where else?!) who rapidly rises to the heights of success and fame in her profession and spirals down, almost as rapidly. Truth is always more intersting than fiction and this book proves it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    6. Film & Video - Direction & Production    7. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts   

Reviews (1)

The Real Story behind a Misunderstood Talent.
This book's title aptly describes its critical task in taking issue with the misleading images perpetuated by certain critics and journalists concerning the significance of Orson Welles as a major cinematic talent who developed, rather than declined, after making CITIZEN KANE. The author had the benfit several years of contact with the director before he died as well as the opportunity to appear before the camera in the still unreleased THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.
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Subjects:  1. 1915-1985    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Criticism and interpretation    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    8. Film & Video - History & Criticism    9. Individual Director    10. Welles, Orson,    11. Biography: film, television & music    12. Individual film directors, film-makers   

Subjects:  1. 1930-    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Criticism and interpretation    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    7. General    8. Godard, Jean Luc,    9. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (32)

Vulgarity overshadows story
I love to read about Hollywood, and I know I would enjoy this book if the "Eff-word" wasn't used so much. It proves to me that to get anywhere in Hollywood you have be very low-class and profane. Any reallyeducated person would have a stronger command of the language. The eff-word is a stupid substitution for any word at all, and I just can't get interested in the book because of it. If you don't mind eff this and eff that you might enjoy the book. Too bad. It could have been a good read.

Great!
"The Kid Stays in the Picture" is the autobiography of the film producer Robert Evans, who brought us films like "The Godfather" (parts I & II), "Love Story", and "Chinatown".This is the sort of book that you pick up and cannot put down until you have read to the end.Evans's life is like a roller coaster--he has been an actor, a major studio head (Paramount), and one of the principles of Evan-Picone (designer clothes).Evans has also been divorced several times, and scandalized because of cocaine use and poor business decisions.Although I would be surprised if everything described in the book occurred just as Evans describes, you should still read it!

I enjoyed it , I wonderwhat he left out though
These sort of books can be as entertaining as the movies that the author helped to make , but they can also be left wanting , like where the plot seems a little thin .
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    6. Personal Memoirs   

Editorial Review

Borrowing his title from dialogue in John Ford's classic Western, Read more

Reviews (19)

The movies were different
Many books were written about Jonh Ford.
John Ford: From Maine to the Movies to Cinematic Glory!
Scott Eyman has written an outstanding book on John Ford! Ford
Biography that's a page turner!`
Having read a fair number of biographies in my time, in subjects from Science to American and military history, this book is as fine a work as I've seen.It is quite probably the best work of its kind on John Ford and pulls few punches when presenting the dark side of this complex man's character.
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Subjects:  1. 1894-1973    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Cinema/Film: Book    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    8. Film & Video - Direction & Production    9. Ford, John,    10. Motion picture producers and d    11. Motion picture producers and directors    12. United States    13. 20th century    14. Biography: film, television & music    15. Ford, John    16. Individual film directors, film-makers    17. Medical / Hematology    18. USA   

Reviews (1)

Great Help for understanding Bergman
I took an Ingmar Bergman class, and I therefore had to watch a lot of Bergman films as well as analyze and write about them.Many of Bergman films as many know are sometimes very hard to understand.However this book cleared up so many things for me in the films.The fact the book is mostly Bergman commenting on his own films is great, so you don't have someone else trying to interpret someone else's mind.I you need or want to better understand and enjoy Bergman's works, get this book!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1918-    2. Bergman, Ingmar,    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    8. Film & Video - Direction & Production    9. History and criticism    10. Individual Directors And Producers    11. Motion picture producers and d    12. Motion picture producers and directors    13. Motion pictures    14. Bergman, Ingmar    15. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts   

Reviews (3)

A great book on the films of Ingmar Bergman
I read this book in my final years of college, when i was studying international film and writing for film---i was also studying and writing on Bergman's body of work in-depth, including watching all of his films. I loved this book as it offered some great insight, and was very easy to digest. Gervais
Not Very Insightful
Although this book has received high praises on Amazon.com, I cannot share this enthusiasm.The main problem with this book is that it is too superficial, and too cursory.Bergman's films are loaded with meaning, symbol, and depth.This book unfortunately, is lacking in depth.The author reviews each film, and then picks out one scene or theme of each movie and discusses it.He grossly simplifies each Bergman film, and thus fails to explicate the richness of his films.The author's analysis of a key scene from The Seventh Seal is trivial and added nothing to my understanding of Bergman as a dirctor.My advice: skip this book and listen to the audio commentaries on Bergman's DVD's.They are much more illuminating.

A "must" for all Ingmar Bergman fans!
Ingmar Bergman is a legendary film producer whose work had a seminal influence on an entire generation of filmmakers and whose films are still viewed today in film classes and speciality theaters throughout Europe and the United States. In Ingmar Bergman: Magician And Prophet, film scholarMarc Gervais explores how Bergman achieve his cinematic magic through hisspecific choices in the use of film language and the texturing andstructuring of images, sounds, and rhythms. Gervais also shows howBergman's work continues to resonate with new generations of viewers.Ingmar Bergman: Magician And Prophet is a "must" for all Bergmanfans and students of the history of cinema. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1918-    2. Bergman, Ingmar,    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Cinema/Film: Book    6. Criticism and interpretation    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    8. Individual Director    9. Religious    10. Bergman, Ingmar    11. Biography: film, television & music    12. Individual film directors, film-makers    13. Popular culture    14. Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000   

Reviews (1)

A lot of great information about a great director!
"Tim Burton: A Child's Garden of Nightmares" is divided into chapters, each chapter being a movie that he directed or created (A Nightmare Before Christmas). For each chapter, there are articles that people wrote when the movie was being made and a review. I wish it had more interviews with Tim, but oh well. The book also has alot of pictures of him and the actors on set and there's a chapter about the short films that he made (Frankenweenie, Vincent). This book really taught me about Tim Burton and his films. Fun to read! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    6. Film & Video - Direction & Production    7. Film & Video - General    8. Film & Video - History & Criticism    9. Biography: film, television & music    10. Individual film directors, film-makers    11. Biography   

Editorial Review

During Orson Welles' tumultuous honeymoon in Hollywood 1939-1942, Thomson writes, he achieved "glory, but ruined himself; the one was not possible without the other." In this sweeping tribute to the man said to have "more genius than talent," Thomson chronicles the events that transformed Welles from Hollywood's bad boy into one of the most influential and enduring filmmakers. The accounts of Welles' intellect only serve to contrast with the self-destructiveness of his post-Kane years, and Thomson's analysis shows that Citizen Kane loomed over the actor-film maker, not just as an achievement he could never equal, "but as an underground presaging of his own destiny." ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Citizen Welles: The Rise and Fall of a Hollywood Behemoth
George Orson Welles (1915-1985) will live forever as the director of arguably the greatest Hollywood Film: Citizen Kane.
Great for "Kane," Poor for Welles
Slapdash, snide, and salacious, "Rosebud" is, except for a wonderful section of criticism concerning "Citizen Kane," a complete waste of time.
A very creepy book
I have been doing a lot of reading on Welles for a research project and while it is clear that Welles was no angel, this book seems to go out of its way to put Welles in the worst possible light.There are too many flights of fancy and liberties taken.For example, based on no evidence Thomson suggests that not only did Welles have sexual relations with Dorothy Commingore but that he practically raped her.Perhaps the book reveals more about the author than it does about its subject.
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Subjects:  1. 1915-    2. Actors    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Movie Directors    7. Individual Movie Actors And Actresses    8. Motion picture producers and d    9. Motion picture producers and directors    10. United States    11. Welles, Orson,    12. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts    13. Welles, Orson