by Ken Mogg (Taylor Publishing Company, 1999) is probably the most attractively produced book on that much written about director. It is well organized, each of the Master's films getting anywhere from one to five or six pages, well illustrated, with several specialized items to keep us abreast of trends in Hitch's career. For example, there is a list of all his cameo appearances in his films, a brief examination of his film techniques, his use of famous locations, and so on. Especially welcome are little inserts of trivia, such as the story behind the song the children are singing as The Birds are massing outside in the playground, and a generous number of lobby card reproductions. There is also a good discussion of his television series and even his paperback anthologies. In short, Mr. Mogg does not concentrate entirely on the films, although they do take up the bulk of the volume. By the way, listing Janet Leigh as co-author on this website is misleading: she only wrote a one-page introduction that is quite amusing. My only complaint is that 211 pages are not enough room to handle this wealth of material; and here and there I feel much more of value could have been said had the author been given more space. (Hence the one star less in my rating.) Still such a comment merely shows how much I like this book and many of you will too.
Amazon.com
How is it possible to paint a portrait of an artist who left behind none of the notebooks and journals that provide most biographers with important personal details? After exhaustive researching and interviewing, Donald Spoto came to the conclusion that "Hitchcock's films were indeed his notebooks and journals ... [they] are astonishingly personal documents." This account of Alfred Hitchcock's life reads the mind of the man through the making of his films. Spoto argues powerfully and convincingly that movies like Notorious, Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho can be appreciated not only as masterpieces of entertainment but also as subtle, revealing autobiography.
Book Description
This is the definitive life story of Alfred Hitchcock, the enigmatic and intensely private director of Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, and more than forty other films. While setting forth every stage of Hitchcock's long life and brilliant career, Donald Spoto also explores the roots of the director's obsessions with blondes, food, murder, and idealized love-and he traces the incomparable, bizarre genius from Hitchcock's English childhood through the golden years of his career in America as one of the greatest directors in the history of filmmaking.
Customer Reviews:
The Champ.......2006-09-18
Nearly 25 years later Donald Spoto's book on Hitchcock, which caused sch a stir when it appeared, is still the champ. You could read it for its salacious details, such as the real reason he wanted Madeleine Carroll in handcuffs. Or you could read it to see him organize Hitchcock's different films into categories, classifying them not only by way of theme but with reference to studio politics. Think of how different Hitchcock's "Warners" films are than his Selznick pictures, even with the understanding that the same auteur created them.
Spoto is unable to make out what was really going through Hitchcock's head while making VERTIGO. Did he really want the insipid Vera Miles to play the part(s) of Judy and Madeline, and then grow impatient with Kim Novak largely because she was no Vera Miles (thank goodness). If he was so furious with Miles, why did he then cast her in THE WRONG MAN, where she's so dreadfully bland one forgets she's in the picture? (And later he used her in his longrunning TV series.) If, as Spoto says, Hitchcock had an erotic fetish for blondes, did it somehow turn itself off when confronted with Kim Novak, one of the most obsessable women in film? I don't believe it!
However Spoto is spot on when it comes to Hitchcock's last passion, for the actress "Tippi" Hedren with whom he made his two best films. Another reviewer here dismisses Ms. Hedren as a "mediocre performer at best who should have been grateful for a great man's attention and adoration," but under Hitchcock's skilled direction, she was able to pull off quite capably two of the most intense and primal roles ever created in the American cinema. People might have been startled by her work at the time, but it just keeps looking better and better where some of the other performances he elicited aren't looking that good any more, for he could make good actors look bad (Olivier, Fonda, Clift, Paul Newman, etc)--like the cattle he thought of them as.
Our views of Hitchcock will continue to evolve, but we will always be grateful to Donald Spoto for expressing a certain biographical turn with great elegance and, almost, wit.
Scandal-Ridden Junk.......2005-09-08
Of course, in 2005 we're accustomed to knowing a lot more about celebrities than we really ought to. When this book was first published twenty years ago, this fixation had not quite gotten to where it is today.
No - instead, on the heels of Spoto's "The Art of Alfred Hitchcock," which gave Spoto free access to the late director and to his archives, Spoto insists that knowing way too much information about Hitch's private life is essential, somehow, to understanding his art.
To a certain extent, that's the case. But some of this stuff is simply gratiutous. How relevant to art is the "Marnie" incident with Tippi Hedren? What possible addition to an important body of knowledge does that story make?
If you want gossip, it's here. If you want to gain some insight into our greatest director's artistic character, it's promised here but maybe not delivered.
A fascinating insight into the enigma.......2005-01-19
"Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table."
...and here is the Master of Suspense. While Hitchcock happens to be one of the better-known directors of the 20th century, he surely is the only master of enigma. Spoto has done an admirable job in depicting the life of a man always shrouded in mystery.
The book follows Hitch from his childhood. A rather unattractive mother's boy, he was an outcast at public school. It continues his story from humble beginnings, through the discovery of genius, and ends at his death in 1980, at the age of 81. Throughout the pages, Spoto covers Hitchcock's life in detail, including his many quirks, obsessions bizarre sense of humour.
Hitchcock's life was indeed bizarre - his personality and obsessions manifesting themselves in his over-eating and his dry, often macabre sense of humour. However, as the author rightly points out, the director also revealed this side of himself through the images of his movies. This makes a fascinating study once you have read the book and you'll never view Hitch's films at face value again.
Because of her desire to protect her father's privacy, Hitch's daughter, Pat, refused Spoto any assistance in the writing of this book. He went instead to a veritable legion of actors and screenwriters who knew him and worked with him. The result is an extremely revealing and often very dark portrait of a man whose character was as shadowed as his films.
But not all is dark and foreboding. There are several amusing anecdotes, which highlight Hitch's macabre sense of humour. Like the time he had a dummy made in his own likeness and sent it floating on its back down the Thames river as a publicity stunt for his movie "Frenzy" in 1972.
My own personal favourite is the story of a woman who accosted him and complained that the "Psycho" shower scene so frightened her daughter that the girl would no longer shower. His laconic reply was, "Then, Madam, I suggest you have her dry cleaned."
He also did not suffer actors gladly. While he did have his stable of favourites that he worked with, he once claimed that actors were cattle. Later he said, "I didn't say that actors are cattle - I said they should be treated as cattle." Another story says that when an actress asked Hitchcock if her right or left profile was better, he told her, "My dear, you're sitting on your best profile."
Some of Spoto's claims I can't help but treat with a little scepticism. I do know that Hitch had a fascination with murder but the tender way in which he presents it in his films is classic Hitchcock. However, the author's statement that scenes in Hitch's movies reflect kind of voyeurism, I feel that with his trademark camera pans through windows, the director was trying to give the audience a bird's eye view of the scene - no more and no less. It is his way of allowing us to enter the private lives of his characters.
When all is said and done, this is a fascinating book of a fascinating man. A genius in his own time, but also a frustrated enigma, with a taste for the truly macabre. I highly recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in learning about the man behind the mystery, although it is a little heavy at times.
I'll leave the last word to the Master of Suspense himself:
"Television has brought back murder into the home - where it belongs.
Extremely informative, interesting.......2004-07-02
Donald Spoto has done a tremendous work in obtaining first-hand accounts from Hitchcock's friends, colleagues, family, and even Alfred, himself. There is not one iota of information about Hitchcock left out of this monumental work.
He traces the ghosts of psychology that haunted Hitchcock from a very young child on until his pitiful death. Hitch's wants, desires, insecurities, and love affairs (one-sided) are intricately outlined and analyzed in a biography that has few contemporaries. This truly is the ultimate work on Hitchcock's life.
The Man Who Knew Too Little.......2003-10-27
Spoto has done an admirable job at putting together 500 compelling pages of reading. Unfortunately, he mentions the fundamental problem with this book in the very preface...that Hitchcock left few records and let his guard down for few individuals. The Hitchcock most knew was no more personal than what we know from his television persona. So right away, we have a biography that doesn't have much basis. So Spoto tries to compensate by drawing conclusions about Hitchcock based on his films. Kind of silly, really. Spotos analysis of the films could be interesting, but it's very uneven...he'll spend 10 pages on one film, and barely mention the existence of another. And the only revealing passage on anything regarding Hitchcock's life itself is on his Tippi Hedren years.
However, my chief problem with The Dark Side of Genius is Spoto's tendency to excuse Hitchcock when convenient. It's ridiculously facile. EVERY time Spoto reached an unsuccessful Hitchcock film, he explains how Hitchcock was preoccupied, depressed, or altogether uninterested in the that film. Can't we allow that a genius is fallible? His classics were the product of passion; his failures were due do lack of interest. That's way too black and white a stance for any serious biographer or film scholar to promote. He never allows that Hitchcock tried and failed at times. To Spoto, when he failed, it's because he didn't care.
Book Description
In a career that spanned six decades and more than sixty films, Alfred Hitchcock became the most widely recognized director who ever lived. His films -- including
The 39 Steps,
Notorious,
Rear Window,
Vertigo,
Psycho, and
The Birds -- set new standards for cinematic invention and storytelling élan. Since his death, Hitchcock has become crystallized in the public imagination as the macabre Englishman, the sexual obsessive, the Master of Suspense. But this remarkable biography draws on prodigious new research to restore Hitchcock the man -- the ingenious craftsman, the avid collaborator, the constant trickster, provocateur, and romantic. Like Hitchcock's best films, Patrick McGilligan's life of Hitchcock is a drama full of revelation, graced by a central love story, dark humor, and cliff-hanging suspense: a definitive portrait of the most creative, and least understood, figure in film history.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent biography of "The Master".......2007-03-30
An excellent, straightforward telling of Hitchcock's life and career.
What a remarkable life Hitchcock had. He lived to make movies and achieved commercial and (eventually) critical success - while developing his own distinctive style. Now considered by many to be the greatest film director of all time.
Hitchcock was not only a great film-maker but also a master self-publicist and a man with many hangups. If you are interested in Hitchcock, then this book will not disappoint.
Simply The Best.......2006-11-12
This is simply one of the best biographys I have read in a long time. Incredible detail about the world of Alfred Hitchcock and his movies. The book is packed full of information and their are no lulls in the story of Hitch at all. From Blackmail, The 39 Steps, Rebecca, Rear Window, NbNW, and Frenzy you get all the information about Alfred Hitchcocks triumphs and the story behind them. A definate read for *any* fan of movies and how they are made. McGilligan has written a book that is worth at least 3 reads to absorb all the information.
Best ever Biography?.......2006-11-03
This has to rank as one of the best biographies of a film maker ever written. Rich in detail, both personal as well as professional, the book is a joy to read, sending me happily back to my collection of Hitch's movies for yet another look, but with eyes opened wider than ever before. A book I shall treasure forever.
Tons of Information.......2006-08-11
The author of this book did not forget one tiny detail. Everything you ever wanted to know about Alfred Hitchcock, personally or professionally, is in this book. It is highly recommended.
Best entry into the world of Hitch bios.......2005-10-02
McGilligan's Alfred Hitchcock : A Life in Darkness and Light is not a "tell all the dirty secrets" biography, but rather a serious attempt to examine the man and his life, filling in the pieces through interviews, letters and published writings. That very much works in its favor. While other bios have often focused on the "dark" side of the Master of Suspense, painting a portrait of a disturbed man, McGilligan's work is more measured. We see the darkness, but we also see the light. There are some "tell all" moments that show Hitchcock's strange/dark side, but they don't come across as too gossipy.
The pacing is a bit off - the initial chapters, for instance, spend far too much time dealing with a handful of short stories he wrote for publication prior to his film career - but the writing is good, and more detail is gone into on the state of Hitchcock's life during each individual film than any other bio. It's a really strong look into his life AND his films.
For film lovers, the looks at how Hitch handled direction and his inventiveness are especially a joy to read. You get a very strong insight into how the master worked, which made me appreciate his films all the more.
This bio is very long, but also very comprehensive. Highly reocmmended.
Average customer rating:
- The 2nd part of the auto-biography of a Master Movie Maker
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Million Dollar Movie
Michael Powell
Manufacturer: Random House
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A Life in Movies: An Autobiography
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Stairway To Heaven (A Matter Of Life And Death)
ASIN: 0679434437
Release Date: 1995-04-11 |
Customer Reviews:
The 2nd part of the auto-biography of a Master Movie Maker.......1996-06-11
This is the 2nd part of Michael Powell's auto-biography.
Now regarded as one of the most important British Movie
Makers (The Red Shoes, The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp,
A Matter of Life & Death, Tales of Hoffmann etc etc).
Here Michael tells his own colourful story.
Often quoted by Martin Scosese as a major influence on his
work (and later a personal friend).
Book Description
Artisan, entrepreneur, and impresario, British filmmaker Ridley Scott accepts the profit motive as the only way to thrive in an industry where there is little patience for artistic flourishes or overblown expenses. Yet, while he may pay lip service to the free enterprise system, he is an unapologetic auteur, committed to using every element of film?from evocative lighting to digital composition?to overwhelm our senses and redefine how we perceive the future (Alien, Blade Runner), the past (1492: The Conquest of Paradise, Gladiator), and the present (Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down).
This collection of interviews follows Scott over twenty-five years as he perfects the Ridley Scott look, builds his media empire, and reacts to the twenty-year cult status of Blade Runner. Throughout, he discusses the triumphs and challenges involved in working with A-list actors?particularly women such as Susan Sarandon, Sigourney Weaver, and Demi Moore?and big-budget special effects. Scott emerges as a consummate English gentleman who acknowledges the legacy of the futuristic Blade Runner and Alien, but who also is adept at taking the pulse of contemporary American culture.
Unlike many of his colleagues in the U.S., Scott did not attend film school. Instead, he developed his visual sensibility at London's Royal College of Art. Years in television production gave Scott the clout and confidence to revitalize feature filmmaking. He hit the jackpot with Alien but ran into financial and logistical difficulties with Blade Runner and Legend. In response he shifted his attention to more contemporary genres, offering a continental perspective on America in Black Rain and Thelma & Louise. By the late 1990s Scott had achieved both critical and commercial success with Oscar-winning films Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.
Customer Reviews:
The Key of Ridley's Kingdom.......2006-08-20
I usually own all the movies directed by my favorite directors. Even their lesser achievements often prove to say a lot about them. And you usually get to understand the man (if not know them) through their filmography.
I must admit that I never thought of Ridley Scott as one of my favorite directors until I read this book. I never actually realized that I actually own all his movies! and the reason for that is because I was not always connecting the themes and constants all along his career. If you take Alien and Thelma&Louise, one could wonder what is the link between the 2 films. I am not saying that we should always try to connect every filmmaker's movie to his previous ones but after reading Ridley's interviews, I really started understanding the man's endeavour. All through the interviews, spreading from 1975 to 2000, he actually never discusses politics or mystical matters. He is a filmmaker with a pragmatic approach to his art. Coming with an art director background, he likes to build his movies. At some point, it is said he likes to create universe. And this is the connection between all of his movies: the sets speak for Ridley. He seems to take acting very seriously as well so he is not just painting on the surface; content does matter equally as the surface but Ridley works in subtle touches. He obviously demonstrates through the years that he leaves nothing to chance.
Highly recommanded.
candid in depth interviews.......2006-01-24
This book is a great buy for anyone interested in Ridley Scott or in filmmaking in general. His interviews if looked at closely reveal mountains of filmmaking knowledge as it goes through most of his major motion pictures in a series of varying inteviews dating from around 70's to when the book was published. True film buffs might get a good bit of pleasure out of this text as well.
An arresting account of the great film director Ridley Scott.......2005-08-03
I've been a fan of Ridley Scott's films since I first began to study film as an art form and not just as something to do on a weekend. Your eyes are never bored, he constantly produces great images to take in and transport you to new worlds. The level of immersion he allows an audience to indulge in is amazing, there are not too many other filmmakers who are able to do this.
This interview book starts at his early beginnings at art school and his long and lucrative foray into the commercial world and proceeds chronologically through Matchstick Men. There is some mention of Kingdom of Heaven, but no heavy material, as this book was published around the same time this movie came out.
Although a couple of the articles were somewhat familiar to me, most were first time reads for me, and so the book was very fresh and informative. Some of his lesser known or less popular films like White Squall and 1492:Conquest of Paradise have some very good making-of articles and were the most surprising. Much is discussed about Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise, which is a given, but this doesn't diminish their interest.
What unfolds is a well drawn picture of a man who didn't start making features until he was nearly 40, whose film career has had its ups and downs over the last nearly three decades, yet who has not tired of making pictures that stretch over vast and small spaces and will hopefully continue to innovate and challenge audiences for years to come. I highly recommend this book for his fans, and for those who have taken even passing interest in his films.
Amazon.com
David Lean directed a number of grand films, among them "The Bridge Over the River Kwai", "Lawrence of Arabia," "Dr. Zhivago," "Ryan's Daughter," and "A Passage to India." Despite the length and breadth of these movies, he meticulously arranged virtually every shot. The results, of course, are some of the most enduring works ever put on film. This tribute to Lean, who died in 1991, is told in Lean's own words and in the words of those who knew him best. It is a comprehensive look at the director and his often combative relationships.
Book Description
The life and its biographer provide a landmark work on the cinema. Emerging from a childhood of nearly Dickensian darkness, David Lean found his great success as a director of the appropriately titled Great Expectations.There followed his legendary black-and-white films of the 1940s and his four-film movie collaboration with Noel Coward. Lean's 1955 film Summertime took him from England to the world of international moviemaking and the stunning series of spectacular color epics that would gain for his work twenty-seven Academy Awards and fifty-six Academy Award nominations. All are classics, including The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India.Kevin Brownlow, a film editor in his own right and author of the seminal silent film trilogy initiated with The Parade's Gone By. . ., brings to Lean's biography an exhaustive knowledge of the art and the industry.One learns about the making of movies as realized by a master, but also of the highly personal costs of genius. The troubled Quaker family from which Lean came influenced his relationship with his son, his brother, and his six wives. Yet he showed in his work a deep understanding of humanity.The vastness of this scholarly and entertaining enterprise is augmented by sixteen pages of scenes from Lean's color films, thirty-two pages from his black-and-white movies, and throughout the text a vast number of photographs from his life and location work.
Customer Reviews:
One of the greatest filmmaker biographies ever...........2006-08-03
I adore this book. I have been reading it as of late, and I love the book (and David Lean) even more. I have always detested biographies of filmmakers that are far too academic in their tone; that professorial tone where they analyze the films ad nauseum, and are constantly talking about symbolism and other completely useless things. This book spares us of that. It is meticulously researched, with great antedotes and quotes from the master himself. It talks about Lean's childhood, and you realise what Lean had to overcome to become one of the greatest filmmakers ever. It's a shame this massive book is out of print. Like a reviewer said earlier, we're constantly given fluff pieces of talentless whores like Spears, Lohan, etc., but here is a real artist whose films still inspire people today. Thank you, Kevin, for writing such a great book, and, of course, to David Lean himself...
The story of how directing a moment.......2006-04-29
This extraordinary biography by Kevin Brownlow, reflects the life and inspiration of one of the great artist in movie screen history.
Page by page, we can take a look along the David Lean?s mind and the way he was inspired by the subjects and the way a big project became alive.
From the black and white to the beautiful color, from the photography created by Frederic (Freddie)Young to his partnership with Maurice Jarr? and the insistence from Lean to
compose the exact music for Doctor Zhivago.
Every important film, such Zhivago, The bridge on the river Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, were written through many chapters and the conception of those films as unique, the casting and the making of those titles are unforgettable.
Also, we have David Lean as a human being, with his failures
as father and husband, but the intimacy of his life is only
upgrade by his conception of his films.
Every moment in his films was special.
He directed every dialogue and moment as unique and all those
were the equivalent of the best.
This great book written by Brownlow is one of the best biographies ever written.
The heart and soul are alive along the pages and there is no moment when the book becomes slow or uninterested.
The same proportion we have in David Lean movies.
Fantastic ... but forgotten treasure.......2005-01-24
What a pity it is when "biographies" of no-talent flashes-in-the-pan like Madonna, Ashley Simpson, Brittney Spears, ad naseum, are ubiquitous, but Kevin Brownlow's fascinating and throughly-researched biography of a true genius is out of print. What does this say about our culture's priorities? Not much. Oh well . . . fortunately a few copies of this marvelous book survive. If you're interested in great movies ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago," "Summertime," "Great Expectation," etc.), great stars (O'Toole, Sharif, Katherine Hepburn, William Holden, Robert Mitchum, and a host of other great stars -- AND great actors), or, perhaps, one of the greatest film directors of the twentieth (and probably any other) century, do whatever you have to do, but grab up a copy of "David Lean: A Biography" as quickly as you can before the remaining copies disappear altogether.
Engrossing and Illuminating.......2004-01-23
A simply marvellous biography of a cinema titan. It's the product of many conversations between Lean and the author, a great film historian and no mean director himself, having made the gorgeous Silent Era documentary "Hollywood" (is that ever coming out on DVD?!). For this reason the tone is very chatty, with so much quotage from Lean himself that it's nearly an autobiography; and Brownlow's knowlege of real-world production lets him know just what questions to ask. It rather reminded me of "Hitchcock/Truffaut", another filmmaker-to-filmmaker conversation. Mind you Truffaut didn't bother quite so much with Hitchcock's love affairs, but one can always skim. It looks intimidatingly massive but this is more because of the lavish illustrations than excessive wordiness. Great read, inspiring and full of useful tidbits.
Covering All Phases of a Fascinating and Complicated Genius.......2002-01-25
Kevin Brownlow touched all bases of David Lean's life, providing insight into the films and his unconventionally fascinating life, making this one of the finest film biographies I have ever read about a cinema giant about whom I had longed to learn more about. Brownlow divides Lean's career into two distinct phases, 1) the British period in which he worked at home and captured the true essence of his people and, 2) the international phase in which the master film craftsman lived in hotels and moved from one country to another in producing a series of internationally spectacular movies such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai."
Brownlow begins with Lean's roots as a restless youngster in the London suburb of Croydon. His lack of curiosity and penchant for traditional school learning coupled with the stolen hours he spent sitting inside darkened theaters in a state of fascination revealed where his adult years would be spent.
Once that Lean began following his dream he quickly became established as Britain's foremost film editor. In that context Brownlow expunges a canard that was carried all the way to obituaries after the great director's death in 1990 that Noel Coward gave the aspiring director a leg up in teaming up with him to co-direct the brilliantly done war film about the British Navy, "In Which We Serve," in which Coward also starred along with Celia Johnson and John Mills. It turned out that Coward's move proved to his personal benefit as Lean did most of the directing and Coward was concerned mainly about his own scenes, after which he would generally leave the set, entrusting the basic direction of the film to Lean. We also learn that Lean, unlike Sir Carol Reed and other prominent British directors, turned down a chance to begin his directing career on low budget "quota quickies," deciding instead to wait for a major opportunity, which came with "In Which We Serve." Later that same year one of Lean's greatest films, the epic love story "Brief Encounter" with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, hit the screens and the young director's career was away in a flourish.
After achieving prominent worldwide status as a great international director, Lean's sensitivity resulted in overreacting to the criticism of tart New Yorkers at a Round Table session at the Algonquin Hotel. Lean was sharply criticized for "Ryan's Daughter," which American critics such as Richard Schickel and Pauline Kael believed was well below the high standard he established with "Brief Encounter" and continued with other films. According to Brownlow, Lean was sufficiently wounded to take a sabbatical before doing his last film, the highly acclaimed Indian epic "Passage to India" based on the E.M. Forster literary classic.
Brownlow does a superb job of depicting the period and the films from Lean's prolific career. Lean's was a mastery of style and entertainment, enriching story telling with beautiful visual imagery and word economy in the best sense, making the language all the more meaningful. This book does his career justice while enhancing our knowledge of a great man.
Average customer rating:
- An Excellent Study of A Cinematic Tragedy
|
Michael Reeves (British Film Makers)
Benjamin Halligan
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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The Remarkable Michael Reeves: His Short and Tragic Life
ASIN: 0719063515 |
Book Description
Michael Reeves died at age 25 in 1969, between the end of Swinging London and the collapse of the British film industry--an apt candidate to represent all that could have been. This critical biography claims Reeves as the great, lost auteur of British cinema and traces his conception of film back to his childhood and formative experiences. Benjamin Halligan examines Reeves' films in the context of the times, citing The Sorcerers and Witchfinder General as foreshadowing and critiquing the psychedelic and revolutionary zeitgeist. Reeves's earlier work on the fringes of the freewheeling European exploitation cinema is also covered, with particularly emphasis on his Revenge of the Blood Beast.
Customer Reviews:
An Excellent Study of A Cinematic Tragedy.......2007-02-14
Benjamin Halligan's MICHAEL REEVES is the definitive study of the talented but tragic young director whose death at the age of 25 robbed the horror genre--and, Halligan argues rightly--the motion picture at large of one of its most promising architects. Reeves completed only three features, but all of them star horror icons--Barbara Steele, Boris Karloff, and Vincent Price--and all of them are interesting in their own way. Only WITCHFINDER GENERAL (aka THE CONQUEROR WORM) enjoys the cult following it deserves; then again, it is the most accomplished of Reeves' films and the primary harbinger of what might have followed. Halligan's study balances critical and biographical details, incorporates substantial first-hand sources, and includes plenty of illustrations. Even if you have never heard of Mike Reeves, you owe it to yourself to learn more about him--I cannot doubt that a biopic of Reeves is destined in the next few years--and his short but fascinating career.
Book Description
Two-time Academy Award winner Sir David Lean (1908-1991) was a prominent director in the world of twentieth-century cinema, responsible for such classics as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia. British-born Lean asserted himself in Hollywood as a major artistic voice with his epic storytelling and panoramic depictions of history, but he was also a highly skilled film editor in Great Britain before he became a director who brought an art-house sensibility to big-market films.
Lean's approach to filmmaking was far different from that of his contemporaries. He carefully chose his projects and, as a result, directed only sixteen films in a span of more than forty years. Those films, however, are some of the landmarks of motion-picture history. In addition to his epics, Lean also made adaptations of well-known novels, including Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and A Passage to India, and plays, including Brief Encounter.
Using elements of both biography and film criticism, author Gene D. Phillips examines the screenplays and production histories central to Lean's body of work and interviews actors and directors who worked with Lean. Phillips also explores Lean's lesser-studied films, such as The Passionate Friends, unearthing new details. This in-depth examination of Lean in a cultural, historic, and cinematic context makes Beyond the Epic truly unique—a vital assessment of a great director's artistic process and his place in an evolving film industry.
Customer Reviews:
Monumental book on David Lean.......2007-09-28
Gene D. Phillips's "Beyong the Epic: The Life & Films of David Lean" comes at a time of renewed interest in David Lean and his films, and puts perhaps the definitive stamp on this filmmaker's achievements. Though it often goes over the same ground as previous books have on Lean--especially the excellent biography by Kevin Brownlow (1996)--Phillips's book has assembled a mass of material from biographical, critical and other sources, including personal interviews with actors, colleagues and filmmakers who knew Lean, and has integrated these materials into an admirable whole, lucidly and painstaikingly evaluating the opus of Lean in its entirety. At last, Phillips offers the Lean devotees--and a broader audience--a remarkable book that places the cinematic achievemnts of David lean into proper perspective, balancing all the elements of a director whose directorial style and methods both attracted and repelled viewers and critics, some of whom still have not accorded Lean the high place he deserves among twentieth century filmmakers. Massive and minutely authenticated, tackling the knottiest problems head on, "Beyond the Epic" redresses critical lapses, and, without being maudlin or worshipful, presents an image of David Lean as, deservedly, one of the greatest narrative film directors of the twentieth century.
career of the masterful director of Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, and other film classics.......2006-12-02
The film historian Phillips brings out the person, the immense talent, and the consummate skills of the director about whom one film critic wrote that David Lean's films were "too mammoth in scope and Olympian in style" for moviegoers, even students of the artistic genre, "to get an impression of the man behind the camera." Lean was an extraordinarily ambitious and skilled director who brought his particular, uncompromising touch to any movie he made. Among his movies are the panoramic classics "Dr. Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia"; "Great Expectations" and "Passage to India" adapted from major novels of different centuries; and the war movies "In Which We Serve" and "Bridge on the River Kwai." Lean worked with Alec Guiness, Katherine Hepburn, Omar Sharif, Charles Laughton, and Julie Andrews--all of whom acknowledged his indelible impact on their performances as well as the finished movie even though viewers were not distinctly aware of the director behind it, as they are in a Woody Allen or Alfred Hitchcock film for example. Phillips hones in on Lean's particular style and accomplishments by close readings of many of his 16 films. The author analyzes details of scenes from the films to cast light on Lean's techniques and masterful intentions; and he often notes commentary and critiques by critic, actors, and others for additional perspectives and appreciations of Lean's work. As his major, most memorable films show--"Lawrence of Arabia," for example--Lean was able to create and project romanticism, expansive emotions, genuine characters, and variously the sweep of history or the genius of literature without sensationalism or sentimentality. This is his characteristic, extraordinary, achievement in the world of film.
Book Description
It's Only a Movie is the best book ever written about my father. It really is amazing." -Patricia Hitchcock North by Northwest. Psycho. Rear Window. The Birds. Vertigo. When it comes to murder and mayhem, shock and suspense, the films of Alfred Hitchcock can not be surpassed. For this book, Charlotte Chandler interviewed Hitchcock, his wife, daughter, film crew members, and many of the stars who appeared in his films, including Kim Novak, Janet Leigh, Cary Grant, Tippi Hedren and James Stewart. Throughout the book, Chandler shares Hitchcock's wit and wisdom. When actors took themselves too seriously, he would remind them, "it's only a movie." Chandler introduces us to the real Hitchcock, a devoted family man and notorious practical joker, who made suspenseful thrillers mixed with subtle humor and tacit eroticism.
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"Author of acclaimed biographies of Groucho Marx, Federico Fellini, and Billy Wilder, Charlotte Chandler spent several years with Hitchcock discussing his life and his amazing career. She also talked with his wife, Alma, and daughter, Pat, as well as many of the screen legends who appeared in his films. The result is an intimate yet expansive portrait of a unique artist who, from the 1920s through the 1970s, created many of history's most memorable films. A quarter-century after his death, Hitchcock's distinctive profile remains an instantly recognizable icon to millions, while his films continue to grow in popular appeal and critical esteem. Chandler introduces us to the real Hitchcock: a devoted family man, practical joker, and Englishman of Edwardian sensibilities who was one of the great masters of cinematic art. "
Customer Reviews:
Movies From the Past........2005-05-26
I saw many (probably most ) of the Hitchcock's movies in which he always made a surprise appearance. The best part of the occasion was trying to find him out in the crowd somewhere. He always was a practical joker, even in the serious films he directed. He had the most distinctive profile of anyone alive at that time (Twenties to the Seventies).
Now, he has been dead for twenty-five years and Ms. Chandler has released this comprehensive history -- why not earlier? Why now? For many years she talked with the big man himself, and later his wife, Alma and daughter Pat. She also interviewed at least sixteen of the stars he used -- he always chose a blonde female co-star and the best looking males available. Some were Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, John Gielgud, Grace Kelly, Tippi Hendren, Kim Novak, Doris Day, and Janet Leigh.
Being a Britisher made him different for us young moviegoers, but we could overlook that English accent as it was just plain fun to find him right there in his own movies. He told Ms. Chandler in one of their conversations, "I remember Ingrid Bergman coming up to me in a terrible state. Worried, miserable, high-strung, romantic, idealistic, sensitive, emotional." She said, "There's something I must tell you about my part. I don't feel it. I can't find my motivation." "I said to her, 'Ingrid, fake it. It's only a movie."
Last spring that is what a young man told me when I had written a bad review of ANCHORMAN starring Will Ferrell which I hated -- "it's only a movie." But it did not make me like it any better.
Life today is like one of Hitchcock's advice. We fake it. If we worried about terrorism and instant demoliton from an atom bomb, we'd all be basket cases. Just fake it, as he would say.
Some time ago, Ms. Chandler wrote THE ULTIMATE SEDUCTION in which she included an interview with Tennessee Williams. Now, she is finishing a book about Bette Davis. I haven't liked Bette Davis since she was the crazy one in 'What Happend to Baby Jane.' And I hated that song, 'Bette Davises Eyes." You'd think she could chose someone more respected and more talented.
Hitchcock Once Over Lightly.......2005-04-16
It's no wonder that Alfred Hitchcock continues to fascinate a quarter century after his death as his work resonates still. Author Charlotte Chandler has written a breezy history of Hitchcock the master filmmaker. It's by no means the best one on the market, as I feel Donald Spoto wrote the authoritative biography in 1983, "The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock", and Francois Truffaut published his famous comprehensive interview with Hitchcock in 1967. I would recommend either before diving into this dishy memoir, but it's good fun about his professional life nonetheless.
Chandler breaks down Hitchcock's story movie by movie in chronological order. Each section deals anecdotally with each film, noting the little triumphs and failures inherent in any project and including the actors' impressions of working for the master of suspense. Contrary to popular belief, many were genuinely impressed by Hitchcock's genius almost to the point of genuflection, and the book is full of recollections of his kindnesses, hardly the dark portrait Spoto painted nor Hitchcock himself with the characters in his films. In fact, according to Chandler, he did not readily abandon his actors as is widely believed. Rather, everyone simply agreed he knew what he wanted and with supreme confidence, Hitchcock dictated a set like a consummate professional. To the thinner-skinned, he was an icy control freak. His no-fuss filmmaking style comes across in Chandler's colorful descriptions of the classics he directed. Sometimes, Chandler insinuates herself into the narrative to the point of being intrusive, as if she needs to validate her qualifications for writing this biography. It can get irritating, but luckily her insights offset much of the over-personalized perspective. Just reviewing his filmography in such gently provocative detail is reason enough to buy this book, whether it's "Rebecca", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Notorious", "Strangers on a Train", "Rear Window", "Vertigo'', "North by Northwest", "Psycho", "The Birds", or his earlier English pictures. An entertaining read about a true character and a deservedly legendary director.
A gentle, entertaining look at the "Master of Suspense".......2005-04-03
IT'S ONLY A MOVIE: Alfred Hitchcock -- A Personal Biography is the latest (and certainly not the greatest) look at the life of the famed suspense director.
Charlotte Chandler, whose other celebrity biographies include NOBODY'S PERFECT: Billy Wilder -- A Personal Biography; I, FELLINI; and HELLO, I MUST BE GOING: Groucho and His Friends, concentrates on Hitchcock primarily as a movie maker. The aspects of his early and later life get relatively short shrift, which many readers will no doubt appreciate, wanting to get to the meat of the matter.
Chandler presents the talented "Hitch" as a visionary, creating cinematic effects and manipulating the emotions of moviegoers for more than fifty years. His classics --- The Man Who Knew Too Much (both versions), Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Rebecca, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Notorious...the list of work from one person seems ridiculous and unfair --- defined fright films that endure to this day, despite the pyrotechnical toys and other gimmicks modern directors employ to get a rise out of us. Hitchcock knew how to use a patch of light or the absence of sound to set up the audience for the constant rude awakening. He was the master of the "MacGuffin," a plot device that defies conventional explanation, which Chandler describes as "something that motivates characters to take dangerous chances for something they must have.... In The 39 Steps it's a secret airplane engine design. In The Lady Vanishes and in Foreign Correspondent it's a secret diplomatic message...."
Hitchcock was a bit of an overgrown imp, she writes, not a stuffed shirt. Despite his formal bearing, he always enjoyed a good joke, particularly when it came at the good-natured expense of one of his actors. And what actors! Jimmy Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, James Mason, Anthony Perkins --- a veritable "who's who" of Hollywood nobility.
Although his art was complex, Hitchcock's directorial style was simple: actors should be able to get by with a minimum of instruction. Those looking for guidance learned that it must come from within. Insecurity was tolerated with great reluctance. Hitchcock had little patience for "method" actors who needed to know their motivation. Basically, he believed their motivation should be to do a good job to earn their paycheck. Chandler employs the filmmaker's catchphrase, "It's only a movie," on several occasions as evidence of Hitchcock's refusal to take anything (or anybody) too seriously.
Chandler breaks down Hitchcock's story movie by movie. Each section deals anecdotally with each film, noting the little triumphs and failures inherent in any project and including the actors' impressions of working for the master of suspense (overwhelmingly positive). Many were in awe of the legend, especially those early in their career. There are many recollections of small kindnesses, such as dinner invitations, that portray Hitchcock in an almost saintly light, despite the evil inclinations of many of his characters.
Because of its style, IT'S ONLY A MOVIE gives short shrift to the fine points that define a thorough biography, despite the title. For example, although Chandler devotes a section of the book to "The Last Years," she does not go into any substantial details about Hitchcock's own physical ailments, only that he had lost the will to live, ostensibly depressed over the illness of Alma, his beloved helpmeet.
Chandler writes in a very gossipy mien, insinuating herself into the narrative, letting the reader know that she was in with the "in crowd." One wonders what she had in mind with the subtitle "A Personal Biography." Which "person" is she talking about? It often seems to be herself. She peppers her remarks with phrases like, "He told me..." or "I said to him...." Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it can be wearing after a while.
IT'S ONLY A MOVIE may not be on a scholarly par with other Hitchcock biographies, such as Patrick McGilligan's ALFRED HITCHCOCK: A Life in Darkness and Light or THE A-Z OF HITCHCOCK: The Ultimate Reference Guide, by Howard Maxford, or the dozens of studies of specific films or groups of films (Murray Pomerance's AN EYE FOR HITCHCOCK or FRAMING HITCHCOCK: Selected Essays from the Hitchcock Annual, edited by Sidney Gottlieb and Christopher Brookhouse). But it is a gentle, entertaining look at a paradoxically gentle and entertaining man.
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
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