Jerome Robbins: That Broadway Man

Book Description

In theatre, dance and film, Jerome Robbins had one of the most significant and sustained creative careers of the 20th century. His ability to convey emotion and drama through movement is unrivalled and his artistic breakthroughs in form and content in these media are now seen everywhere. This illustrated book of his life and work is a visual exploration and evocation of a creative journey.

As well as a chronology of his life, the book also explores the important threads running through Robbin's work: his influences, the joys and frustrations, his working methods, his fight for recognition, his collaboration with people such as Leonard Bernstein, fame and its effects. A sense of immediacy is conveyed by the use of Robbin's own words, which capture his tone and often irreverent wit.

The friendship between Robbins and Christine Conrad began in the mid-Sixties and lasted until his death.

He left behind a vast collection of material from his long career which he wanted to share with others and a wealth of photographs, art works, posters, personal drawings, and interviews [now in the New York Public Library], have been made available for the book, in addition to exclusive access to personal journals and private letters. The result is a book that is a delight to the mind, the eye and the soul.

Access to personal journals, previously unpublished

A unique celebration of Jerome Robbins and his contribution to 20th-century dance and theatre: pictorial, visceral and accessible to all

Customer Reviews:

A STUNNING PORTRAIT OF A GREAT ARTIST AT WORK.......2001-05-02

Jerome Robbins is brought to vivid life in this amazing and stunning pictorial biography. Using hundreds of rare, fascinating, never-before-seen photographs; Robbins' personal journals; Robbins' own words about work; combined with Conrad's insightful narrative, this book shines a light on the man behind the image and takes us inside his working process and his daily life. He was obviously a very private man who shielded his personal life, but Conrad takes us behind the austere public image. Because of her longstanding relationship with Robbins, Conrad was given access to previously unseen early childhood and early dance photographs and Robbins' own drawings and writings. Any creative person in any field will be grateful for the descriptions of his unique working methods. Conrad doesn't gloss over his disappointments or personal failures - the story behind his firing from the film of West Side Story is fascinating - but she chooses to concentrate on illuminating his artistic process and bringing the man to life, with all his quirks, his humor, his fierce dedication to work -- and the great personal sacrifices he made for that work. Don't miss out on a wonderful and original reading experience! I loved it... an absolute treasure.

A TRIBUTE.......2001-05-01

What an amazing tribute this book is -- not only to the genius of one of the greatest choreographer's in the history of dance and theater, but to the process of creativity as well. In this brilliant biography of Jerome Robbins, Christine Conrad has given us a work that can speak to every artist, working in every medium, about the passion and commitment it takes to create. Robbins is so eloquently captured on these pages, both in images, and in his own words, that I came away from the book feeling as if I had known him. And, feeling nothing but admiration for his courage, and his determination to excel. He truly was THAT BROADWAY MAN. It was so refreshing to read a biography about a famous person that focused on his work, and his success, instead of just dishing the dirt. I was not particularly interested in his failures; we all have them. I was interested in how he pushed through them and kept going...to give us a body of work so entertaining, and innovative, it literally takes your breath away. The book is absolutely fascinating. Cheers to Ms. Conrad for her intimate, insightful, and intuitive presentation of this extraordinary man.

INVALUABLE PHOTOGRAPHS, NOT TEXT.......2001-04-22

Sure, Jerome Robbins was one of the few genius innovators in theatre and ballet. But, perhaps, a book written by someone interested in the man's flaws as well as his accomplishments, his failures as well as his triumphs, might have been better reading. Cristine Conrad says in her author's note that she was Robbins' friend for more than 30 years. To my way of thinking, her friendship gets in the way of good reporting. I'm not necessarily looking for a hatchet job on Robbins, but a writer less interested in (what we used to call) brown-nosing, would, most likely, have written a richer book.

Why did I give it even four stars? The huge, varied collection of photographs in this book is fascinating and invaluable for anyone interested in Musical Theatre or 20th Century American Ballet.

The real, full version of Robbins' life is yet to be written/published.

A magical look at a genius at work.......2001-01-14

If a picture -- in that old cliché -- is worth a thousand words, this gorgeous book is worth any number of doorstop-sized biographies. Using hundreds of never-before-seen photographs of Jerome Robbins and his friends, family, and associates (Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, George Balanchine, Mary Martin, Irving Berlin, etc. etc), Christine Conrad has put together a stunning visual record of a great life in the theater, the first about Robbins ever to appear. Here are backstage and rehearsal pictures, family snapshots, rare clippings, production photographs, even reproduced pages from Robbins's own illustrated journals, with captions drawn from Robbins's published quotations; all are given context and coherence by Conrad's spare and perceptive text, which takes the form of introductions to the chronologically-arranged sections of the book. Her privileged, inside view of Robbins (she was, she tells us, a close friend of more than thirty years' standing) is never mawkish, cloying, or self-important; but in the end it is moving the way Robbins's own art, from "Dances at a Gathering" to "On the Town" to "West Side Story," is moving -- because it is funny, tender, and beautiful.

JEROME ROBBINS COMES TO LIFE.......2000-12-29

A lot has been written about Broadway legend Jerome Robbins, and much of whatbiographer Christine Conrad says has already been written. However, this book towers above any others in one respect. It is literally a pictorial biography of the theatre's greatest choreographer. From his birth to his death in 1998 the man is revealed in every aspect. Rare photos of the shows he has worked on and photographs reflecting his private life are throughout the book. Conrad does not go into excruciating detail on the problems some of his productions face: his well known temper; upbraiding actors in front of the cast; or the tantrum he had while "West Side Story" was trying out in Washington DC and Robbins, in a fit of pique, backed up and fell into the orchestra pit much to the delight of the actors. However, she does include all the highlights of his career and his early childhood. The book blew me away with the bevy of photographs. It is beautifully laid out and edited. A bit spendy but worth every penny. Any musical theatre fan will want this book on their shelves. Put your order in now

Everything and Nothing : The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy

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Beautiful woman, tragic life, a lesson for us all
Insightful, well written & in Dorothy's own words.
Only scratches the surface...
A must have
an eyeopener!!! a bit depressing...

Everything and Nothing : The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy
Dorothy Dandridge , and Earl Conrad
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060956755
Release Date: 2000-04-25

Book Description

Dorothy Dandridge's life story is the stuff Hollywood dreams--and nightmares. Completed shortly before her tragic death in 19665, Everything and Nothing recounts her rags-to-riches-to-rags story form her personal point of view. Dandridge recalls her humble beginnings in Depression-era Cleveland, Ohio, her rise to fame and success as the first African American to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination (for her role in Carmen Jones), the disappointments and pain of her childhood and family life, and her downward spiral into alcoholism and financial troubles, Everything and Nothing is a mesmerizing and harrowing journey through the life and times of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable stars.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful woman, tragic life, a lesson for us all.......2005-07-08

Mrs Slaughter says, "Dorothy Dandridge's book is filled with hilarious laughter and oceans of tears. It is evident to me that she wrote this book when she had reached the utter end of her tether. I think there is much to learn from her life. Importantly that success has nothing to do with how much fame or money one is able to amass but rather peace of mind and a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment which can only be achieved intrisically through one's own ability to love themselves enough to give themselves the very best of this love without relying on external factors. Dorothy was an obviously beautiful, talented and intelligent woman who lost all she had in a quest to derive happiness and acceptance through circumstances and people which she was unable to control. This unfortunately led to much self-loathing and the eventual demise of one of our age's most important African American icons. A brilliant read and excavation into the complex mind of Dorothy Dandridge."

Insightful, well written & in Dorothy's own words........2005-06-30

I recently completed this book. In my opinion, this version of events about Miss Dandridge's life meant more to me than any other biography written by others who claimed to know her & her struggles. I say this because this was the one literary piece she left behind before she died. This was from HER. This was her story. Only she can explain her feelings about the ups and downs of her life. Her disappointment with her first husband, her mixed emotions of love & burdensome feelings about her retarded daughter, all of the trists with strange men who treated her like a dog treats a fire hydrant, and last but not least, her heartbreak of her "friends" lethal words & non-support of her wish to tell the world her story. It was very clear to me that she was heading down a path of destruction & death. She candidly spoke of wanting to commit suicide more than once. I wish she could have lived on into the next few decades & was able to witness the changes in society & Hollywood's portrayal of black people. I think she could have been saved & able to one day say "I am finally free from being the female negro role model" as Lena Horne was able to say. I felt as if I knew Miss Dorothy. For the life of me, I could not fatham why she would engage in affairs with physically disgusting looking men like Otto Preminger ( I've seen him ) and Mr. Tyner, the millionaire with the spit foam in the corners of his mouth. These actions of hers proved contradictary to the fact that thru-out the book she kept saying that physical attractiveness in a male is very important to her. I guess when it all boiled down to it, she just wanted a man around and to be married. What a terrible loss this is. For those trully interested, read this book before any others about Dorothy Dandridge ( i.e. Donald Bogle, Earl Mills ). This one is from Dorothy in her own words before she died.

Only scratches the surface..........2004-07-02

After reading other works on Dorothy Dandrige I thought this purported autobiograph left a few things to be desired. The book reveals personal details of her life but downplays certain players in her life. For example, the lesbian relationship between her mother and "friend" Auntee was passed off as being no more than a casual friendship. I understand DD reasons for not revealing things about her mother considering she was still alive at the time the book was published. She only mention a few details about her fame with the movie CARMEN.

The book is written well but only takes a cursory view of her life and success. It seems to accentuates the most tragic details of her life and downplays her contribution to others. It's a good book, but please read Donald Bogle's book if you want a more thorough revelation of her life.

A must have.......2001-12-01

From the pages I got to read it is a book I will definitly buy. It was very good and I recommend it highly.

an eyeopener!!! a bit depressing..........2001-08-20

i recently completed reading this book i found dorothy's own story a completely modern and intelligent account to be in accord with many of the same ugly problems that face us today...racism and sexism...how devastating it was for her to be so talented and beautiful yet...she was treated like ... because of her color and men only wanted to treat her like a prostitute because to them yes she was very beautiful and famous...but she could not be treated with dignity and respect because she was a black woman...she found this overwhelmingly frustrating that these powerful, handsome men did not want the human dorothy dandridge with feelings and intelligence...they just wanted to be seen with her or just to try her out sexually then put her back right away in the dump somewhere...dorothy tried and she stated in her book that many times she thought things would be different for her...she deserved to be loved..yet... no fault of her own she lived a life without love from day one...her mom just wanted to make money off of the child dorothy and her sister vivian...her mother let a obviously jealous and abusive stranger have full control over young dorothy and sibling something that dorothy could not ever understand ... her mom would just come along to collect the dough that the children made and go...her father only shows up after absolutely no contact at all to see the successful adult dorothy now in her twenties and a fast rising star...leaving dorothy to wonder would he contact her after all of these years if she was a criminal or doing badly...her first philandering husband was another user...he offered no support to dorothy or their disabled daughter in any kind of way...after several disfunctional relationships her sister does not even bother to contact dorothy...in between a string of user lovers,an abusive gold digger husband no#2, bad investments, aging and a fledging career...topped with crippling racism in that era and in her field of entertainment...dorothy dandridge's lonely heart simply could not take any more...her mind could not find rhyme or reason to anymore letdowns..she was tired of life and did not stick around for the next blow because she was too fragile for anymore heartache...all of this lead up to her untimely death...while lena horne went through similar heartbreaks, racism and letdowns...lena horne was a stronger person than dorothy dandridge and lena refused to let the people and situations created by them destroy her...nevertheless this is a beautiful and bittersweet account of an angel named dorothy dandridge...may we read and learn from this story and pray for dorothy dandridge's soul and thank her for that legendary knockout portrayal as Carmen...showing that the 50's black woman in hollywood could be shown as more than a fat, greasy and homely domestic with bad english

Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth, and Ideology in Popular American Film

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A Review of "Screening the Sacred"

Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth, and Ideology in Popular American Film
Joel W. Martin
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813388309

Book Description

What are the religious impulses in the 1976 film Rocky, and how can they work to shape one's social identity? Do the films Alien and Aliens signify the reemergence of the earth goddess as a vital cultural power? What female archetypes, borne out of male desire, inform the experience of women in Nine and a Half Weeks? These are among the several compelling questions the authors of this volume consider as they explore the way popular American film relates to religion. Oddly, religion and film-two pervasive elements of American culture-have seldom been studied in connection with each other. In this first systematic exploration, the authors look beyond surface religious themes and imagery in film, discovering a deeper, implicit presence of religion. They employ theological, mythological, and social and political criticism to analyze the influence of religion, in all its rich variety and diversity, on popular film. Perhaps more importantly, they consider how the medium of film has helped influence and shape American religious culture, secular or otherwise. More than a random collection of essays, this volume brings to the study of religion and film a carefully constructed analytic framework that advances our understanding of both. Screening the Sacred provides fresh and welcome insight to film criticism; it also holds far-reaching relevance for the study of religion. Progressive in its approach, instructive in its analyses, this book is written for students, scholars, and other readers interested in religion, popular film, and the impact of each on American culture.

Customer Reviews:

A Review of "Screening the Sacred".......2000-11-26

Martin, Joel and Conrad Ostwalt Jr., Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth, and Ideology in Popular American Film. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995.

In a general sense, Screening the Sacred, as indicated by the Library of Congress classification found on page iv, is a book about the religious aspects of motion pictures. More specifically, as the subtitle indicates, it is a book concerning religion, myth and ideology of popular American film.

The thesis of Screening the Sacred can be found on page 4 of the "Introduction" where Joel Martin writes that there needs to be a rethinking of "the relations of religion and film, of religious studies and film criticism, and of religion and contemporary culture" with the hopes that their anthology will convince, on one hand, "students of film that they should take religion seriously and, on the other, convince students of religion that they need to take popular films seriously."

As noted above, the book is subdivided into three thematic units, theological criticism, mythological criticism, and ideological criticism. At this point, I would like to explore the author's meaning and use of these approaches.

Theological criticism tends to analyze how religious texts and thinkers have talked about God and try to relate these representations to modern and postmodern realms. While primarily concerned with Judeo-Christian scriptures, theological criticism studies the "cathedrals" of classic religious concerns, sensibilities and themes and how they are expressed in films. The basic assumption behind such criticism is that certain films can be understood as an elaboration on or the questioning of a particular "cathedral."

The means by which to explore these "cathedrals" can occur in at least two ways. In the first, criticism draws on traditional concepts of good and evil, redemption, grace, home, forgiveness and uses them as windows to understanding. In the second, there is a reliance on allegorical interpretation where it is assumed that God has caused history to happen in a way that always points to Judeo-Christian traditions. In this type of interpretation, critics study and gloss for signs of the prophetic message.

Unlike the narrow scope of theological criticism, myth criticism employs a much broader definition of religion which asserts that religion manifests itself through cross-cultural forms, including myths, rituals, systems of purity and gods. Thus, it is possible to glean from any such film a culture's bedrock assumptions and aspirations. Myth critics, therefore, focus on our psychological quest for meaning and aspects of our world not normally accessible through the conscious mind. Or as Albanese might say, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Whereas meaning is an important focus of myth criticism, ideological critics study the relationship of religion and society, with the underlying notion that culture and art shape and are shaped by politics. These critics interpret film as a system of representations, and ask how films and film genres shape social subjects and reveal how the ideologies of social subjects shape films and their interpretations. To reach these ends, race, class, gender and the postmodern are some of the central interpretative categories explored. (Interestingly, while it may appear that this type of inquiry is rather weak in the analysis of religion--because religion no longer holds the power it once did to perform ideologically--the editors hope to call into question this assumption.)

The vehicle by which the authors explore the three themes of the book is through articles by different authors--approximately 3 to 4 per section. Articles run anywhere from 8 to 14 pages, with each author permitted liberal room for a complete listing of sources and needed additional notes.

Joel Martin and Conrad Ostwalt deserve praise for this book on three fronts. They have, as intended, produced a respectable academic book pertaining to religion and films, without embracing typical, emotional, Christian reactions. (I was particularly impressed that they had courage enough to include articles dealing with such sexually explicit films as Blue Velvet and Nine and a Half Weeks.) Second, the editors have a keen sense of what they wanted to do and obviously thought long and hard about the three themes they would explore. I liked very much how each theme was briefly discussed in the Introduction, and then in a short introduction leading into each section. It was also in those short introductions that the editors introduced the writers and a little about their philosophies--but not so much that it prejudices the reader from his/her own reactions to each article. Third, while I don't know how widely this book has been read by students of religion or film, the book, due to its well thought out and serious nature, should advance the primary goal the editors have of helping both groups of students rethink (or more likely the case, realize) the relationship between religion and film in their criticisms and writings.

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Very good, in some respects

very good, but too many digressions

Conrad does a great job analyzing Hitchcocks themes

Enlightening and engrossing

The Hitchcock Murders
Peter Conrad
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hitchcock At Work

Hitchcock's Notebooks: An Authorized And Illustrated Look Inside The Creative Mind Of Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock's Films Revisited

ASIN: 0571200230

Book Description

Alfred Hitchcock relished his power to frighten us and believed the shocks he administered improved our psychological health. But he could never satisfactorily explain our curiosity to see forbidden things or the perverse desire to experience anxiety and dread that made his work so popular.

In The Hitchcock Murders, Peter Conrad, one of Hitchcock's eager victims, undertakes the task on the master's behalf. At the age of thirteen, Conrad snuck into his first screening of Psycho, and he's been wary of showers and fruit cellars ever since. Thanks to Hitchcock, he's also suspicious of staircases, seagulls, and crop-dusting planes. Now he sets out to analyze the nature of Hitchcock's appeal to both himself and the millions of moviegoers for whom Hitchcock is cinema's foremost auteur. Examining Hitchcock's use of religion, morality, conscience, culpability, and literary symbols, Conrad unveils a chilling Nietzschean universe-one in which there is no God and no moral standard, where humans are petty and disposable and the neutral hand of fate can take a life in the blink of an eye. A timid, respectable man with the imagination of a psychopath, a chubby jester whose practical jokes took merciless advantage of human insecurities, Hitchcock is revealed here as the man who knew too much-about all of us.

Customer Reviews:

Very good, in some respects.......2005-02-18

This book is an enjoyable enough read, especially for one who can understand Peter Conrad's intense interest in Hitchcock's films. But make no mistake: Conrad is not a film critic. This is not to denigrate him in the least. On the contrary, he is a knowledgeable, capable writer whose knowledge of literature certainly adds to the book's interest.
Still, too much of the book is devoted to pointing out what is plainly there on the screen.
As a much more fascinating and critical resource, I highly recommend reading Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Film Revisited. That book, even more than Hitchcock/Truffaut, is the book I will return to the most often for insightful discussion of these great films.

very good, but too many digressions.......2004-11-15

If you're a big Hitchcock fan -- and if you've bothered to even reach this review, then you MUST be -- then go on and buy this book. It is far from perfect, but it's still one of the better books on the Master that I've read. Most of the criticism is insightful, and Conrad finds plenty of things in the movies that no other critic (at least none I've read) has written about. Perhaps most useful of all, Conrad has read all of the source material (novels, plays, short stories, etc.) that Hitchcock adapted for his films, and goes into detail about them at various points. This is interesting info, and again, not really something other Hitchcock critics have done.

Here's the problem: Conrad goes on frequent digressions away from discussing the actual movies, or even their source material, and toward discussing other peoples' movies, or artists, or novelists, or philosophers, so on and so forth. The idea, I think, is to place Hitchcock in a frame of reference so as to come to some sort of a conclusion on how to judge him as an artist. And that is a noble goal. However, the digressions are too frequent, too long, and too convenient; many of the examples reek of having been dug up to support a point Conrad wanted to make, rather than being actually appropriate to a discussion of Hitchcock.

Still, this is a valuable addition to the ever-growing canon of works investigating cinema's most profoundly excellent director. Go ahead and buy it; just don't expect it to be perfect.

Conrad does a great job analyzing Hitchcocks themes.......2004-07-06

Peter Conrad has long loved the films of Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Ever since he was a boy who skipped school to peer in wonder at the master filmmakers Psycho he has studied the works of Hitch.
Conrad's book is fascinating as he delineates the major themes and preoccupations (and yes-hangups!) of the Cockney genius. The author explores such subjects as Hitch's thoughts on music, food, religion, authority figures, sex and art.
I will use this book more than the Truffaut interviews as I view again and again the great films of the Master of Suspense.
Well recommended.

Enlightening and engrossing.......2002-07-09

I'm a huge fan of Hitchcock and I've read quite a bit about him. I picked up this book in London and enjoyed it immensely. I like how Conrad uses works from the entire Hitchcock canon (not just critical favorites) to illustrate the central themes of his films. The fine line between sex and death, Hitch's mistrust of authority figures and organized religion, his love/hate relationship with the idealized "Hitchcock blond", the often even more perverse nature of his favorite source material ... it's all here. There are a number of other interesting topics as well: food, music, Hitchcock's dark sense of humor and penchant for practical jokes ... well worth the read for any Hitchcock fan.

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Incorporates more than five thousand terms

Filmmaker's Dictionary, 2nd Edition
Ralph S. Singleton , James A Conrad , and Ralph Singleton
Manufacturer: Lone Eagle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1580650228

Book Description

The Filmmaker's Dictionary is a marvelously comprehensive book that offers concise nuts and bolts definitions of technical and legal terms used in scripts, contracts and every aspect of production and distribution.

Customer Reviews:

Incorporates more than five thousand terms.......2001-02-21

Now in a completely updated and expanded second edition, Filmmaker's Dictionary continues to be the standard industry reference. Ralph Singleton, assisted by James Conrad, incorporates more than five thousand terms, incorporating all of the latest advances in filmmaking, including the advances of digital and technology, and significant changes within the film business over the past few years. Filmmaker's Dictionary is an essential, basic, core reference for any personal, professional, film school, or community library theatre/cinema reference book collection.

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Rich And Strange
The Whole Career
What a bunch of junk!

Orson Welles: The Stories of His Life
Peter Conrad
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0571209785

Book Description

Orson Welles was a metamorphic man, a magical shape-changer who made up myths about himself and permitted others to add to their store. On different occasions, he likened himself to Christ--mankind's redeemer--and to Lucifer--the rebel angel who brought about the fall. His persona compounded the roles he played--kings, despots, generals, captains of industry, autocratic film directors--and the more or less fictitious exploits with which he regaled other people or which they attributed to him. Hailed in childhood as a genius, he remained mystified by his own promise, unable to understand or control an intellect that he came to think of as a curse; and he ended his days shilling wine and performing magic tricks on talk shows. At times, he saw the collapse of his early ambitions as a tragedy; in other moods, he viewed his life as a humbling comedy, and settled down--like another favorite character, Shakespeare's Falstaff --to eat, drink and be irresponsibly merry.

Rather than producing another conventional biography of Welles, Peter Conrad has set out to investigate the stories Welles told about his life--the myths and secret histories hidden in films both made and unmade, in the books Welles wrote and those he read. The result takes us deep into Welles' imagination, showing how he created, then ultimately destroyed himself.

Customer Reviews:

Rich And Strange.......2005-11-15

Entertaining glimpse into a big man's many personalities. Conrad's schema is sweet: each chapter takes an established archetype and then shows the many ways in which Orson Welles seemed to try out each role and alter it as he saw fit.

Welles seems corny, as though he actually believed that he was bigger than life, but ultimately Conrad saves Welles from himself and his own delusions of grandeur.

One of the roles is "Everybody." There was a decidedly essentialist streak to Orson Welles, and when he directed Eartha Kitt as Helen in his version of Faustus, she was confounded when he told her his directorial rules, that she was required to play "every woman at every age in every historical time period." Sometimes Conrad plays the game a little too wellm he could cut himself he's so clever, as when he notices that the Mercury Shakespeare Welles edited was originally published as "Everybody's Shakespeare." But even as this example shows, it's telling all the same, and says something about Welles that I had never thought of before, and I don't expect any previous writer on Welles has either.

There's a chapter on "Mercury" (aha, thought of one already!), on "Prospero," on "Quixote," on "Peter Pan," "Kurtz," "Falstaff," and chapters on such vaguer archetypes as the "Lord of Misrule," the "Sacred Beasy," the "Renaissance Man," each chapter packed with dozens of insights and more than your ordinary share of whimsy.

If you're up for making the trip, this could be a valuable book. If not, you might find it too rich, like Jack Horner pulling plum after plum out an impossibly greasy pie.

PS, all the archetypes are very male, I wonder if Conrad considered any female archetypes for surely Welles tried these on too?

The Whole Career.......2005-07-11

I thought this was a very interesting book on Welles. It is not a conventional biography. Peter Conrad covers Welles' career by looking at the various archetypes that Welles played/embodied/wrote about during his career: boy genius, Faust, Falstaff, etc.

It takes a while to get used to the book. Making a judgment after five minutes is a mistake. Once you get into Conrad's groove, leaping from Welles' radio work to stage, to movies in the space of a chapter makes sense. He shows how echoes of "Citizen Kane" recur in later Welles' projects, and how unrealized things like "Heart of Darkness" influenced the projects Welles was able to pull off.

The best thing about the book was that it covered all of Welles' career, instead of saying: "And after RKO took 'Magnificent Ambersons' away, Welles became a big fat loser." Conrad shows there was a consistency and throughlines in Welles' disrupted career.

What a bunch of junk!.......2005-06-03

I'm a librarian, and I threw this book away after five minutes. Conrad is the kind of author who tries to find some significance in comparing (Welles' made-up term) "pan-focus" with aspects of the god Pan. The book was filled with this sort of unrelenting BS word-play and devoid of any real research or insights. "Despite the System" offers a far better return of time and money for the Welles fan.

Millennium Film Journal Nos. 43/44 "Paracinema / Performance"

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Millennium Film Journal Nos. 43/44 "Paracinema / Performance"
David James , Ken Jacobs , Bradley Eros , Tony Conrad , and Nicole Brenez
Manufacturer: Millennium Film Workshop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B000M81YAU

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A collection of essays broadly about performance in and with the experimental cinema.

From fiction to film: Conrad Aiken's Silent snow, secret snow (The Dickenson literature and film series)

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From fiction to film: Conrad Aiken's Silent snow, secret snow (The Dickenson literature and film series)
Gerald R Barrett
Manufacturer: Dickenson Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Conrad Veidt on Screen: A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography

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Conrad Veidt on Screen: A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography
John T. Soister , and Pat Wilks Battle
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786412895

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Conrad Veidt, a native of Berlin, began acting in small parts as an extra until called into service during World War I. After his discharge he began a theater career, starring in plays such as The Coral, that subsequently led to a film career and more than one turn as a director. He became best known in Germany for his convincing silent film portrayals of sinister characters, despite his participation also in "enlightenment" films made to spur social reform. He left Germany for a silent film career in the United States at the urging of John Barrymore, who recruited him to play King Louis XI in The Beloved Rogue. Veidt returned to Germany when "talkies" came out and his accent and native German tongue made it difficult for him to adjust to non-silent movies. With the threat of Nazi power in Germany, Veidt then went to Britain, where he made many memorable movies. He returned to the United States and continued to make films with stars such as Joan Crawford and others until his death in 1943. He is remembered for his role as Nazi major Strasser in Casablanca.

This work details the film career of Conrad Veidt. It lists all movies that he was involved in and provides a synopsis, cast and crew, and reviews of each film. There are many photographs, a list of films that he is thought possibly to have been involved in, and an extensive bibliography.

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A change of tack: Making "The shadow line"
Boleslaw Sulik
Manufacturer: British Film Institute, Educational Advisory Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006CW8LG

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