Budd Boetticher was a bullfighter, a bull talker, a pleasant madman and a talented journeyman who could, with the right material and passion, make a minor Western film classic as easily as he could kill a bull. But of course, pain and passion mixed together naturally in both arenas. This is a film-by-film look at his cinematic career, from his days as an assistant's assistant on the set of Hal Roach comedies to his last documentary some 45 years later. This is the first book to examine each of his 34 films in detail, with interviews with those who worked with him providing extra spice and insight.

'Joseph Mcbride's book has the sweep, passion, complexity and tragic grandeur of a great John Ford film - it should be compulsory reading.' Martin Scorsese John Ford's many classic movies - among them Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - earned him worldwide praise and renown. Now Joseph McBride presents us with the definitive account of the man's myriad complexities and contradictions, tracing Ford's life from his modest beginnings as 'Bull' Feeney, the nearsighted football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Maine, to his recognition, after a long, controversial, and much-decorated career, as America's national myth-maker. This deeply insightful and impeccably documented narrative is the epic tribute that Ford's stature merits.

Roger Ebert wrote the first film review that director Martin Scorsese ever received--for 1967's "I Call First," later renamed "Who's That Knocking at My Door"--creating a lasting bond that made him one of Scorsese's most appreciative and perceptive commentators. "Scorsese by Ebert" offers the first record of America's most respected film critic's engagement with the works of America's greatest living director, chronicling every single feature film in Scorsese's considerable oeuvre, from his aforementioned debut to his 2008 release, the Rolling Stones documentary "Shine a Light."

In the course of eleven interviews done over almost forty years, the book also includes Scorsese's own insights on both his accomplishments and disappointments. Ebert has also written and included six new reconsiderations of the director's less commented upon films, as well as a substantial introduction that provides a framework for understanding both Scorsese and his profound impact on American cinema.

"Given their career-long back-and-forth, this collection makes perfect sense. . . . In these reconsiderations, Ebert invites us into his thought processes, letting us see not just what he thinks, but how he forms his opinions. Ebert's insights into Scorsese are terrific, but this book offers the bonus of further insights into Ebert himself."--"Time Out Chicago"

"Ebert, film critic for the "Chicago Sun-Times," is an unabashed fan of Scorsese, whom he considers 'the most gifted director of his generation.' . . . Of special note are interviews with Scorsese over a 25-year period, in which the director candidly discusses his body of work."--"Publishers Weekly"

Wim Wenders's body of work is among the most extraordinary in modern cinema. It includes such films as Paris, Texas; Wings of Desire; Buena Vista Social Club, and The Million Dollar Hotel. Fortunately, his passion for cinema also extends to writing about it, and in this volume all his published essays on films and filmmaking—as well as his thoughts on such disparate subjects as rock 'n' roll, architecture, questions of German identity, and the influence of America—are brought back into print.

This volume collects three previously published books of his essays, interviews, and ruminations: Emotion Pictures, The Logic of Images, and The Act of Seeing. The writings range from the late sixties to the mid-nineties. Therein, Wenders discusses his development as a film-maker, from the moment he first picked up a camera aged twelve, through a searching self-analysis of the creative process behind each of his major films. They reveal his views on genres ranging from the American Western to the European avant-garde, along the way answering the deceptively simple question "Why do you make films?"

Andrzej Wajda is considered one of Poland's - many would say the world's - greatest film directors. During the thirty-five years of his activity in film, theatre or television, his work, whether strong or weak, always arouses strong emotions and provokes intense debates in the media. His films deal with historical and political issues concerning Polish character and the nature of political power. Controversial, painful, stimulating and cinematically beautiful, they never fail to fully engage the spectator. This is particularly true for his major political films, which form the basis of the study. Applying Bakhtin's concept of dialogism, the author shows how a creative interaction between the image on the screen and the viewer is established through Wajda's films. At the same time, she offers a detailed analysis of the historical events leading up to the collapse of the Socialist system in Poland. Janina Falkowska graduated in English from the University of Poznan, Poland, and received her PhD from McGill University. She now teaches film at the University of Western Ontario.

They haven't spoken for 12 years. Can they fall in love in 12 days? 'Snap-crackling with wit and energy, ridiculously enjoyable' MHAIRI MCFARLANE 'Fresh, funny and beautifully written. Niamh Hargan is going to be huge' SOPHIE COUSENS 'A sweepingly romantic debut . . . it's sexy, escapist and FUN - everything a romantic comedy should be!' LAURA JANE WILLIAMS 'Smart, funny and sizzling with chemistry - but with a big, tender heart' CRESSIDA MCLAUGHLIN 'I adored this thoughtful, funny, intelligent and very hot romcom' SARRA MANNING 'A sparkling, witty debut from a talented new voice' LAUREN HO 'Funny, smart and very romantic . . . the perfect escape' ALEX BROWN ____________________ Lizzy Munro is working at the Cannes Film Festival, in a job that involves a lot more admin than red-carpet glamour. There, Ciaran Flynn is the man everyone is talking about: heartthrob of the moment and director of the most romantic movie of the year. What nobody knows is that twelve years ago, they were best friends . . . and they haven't spoken since. But when Ciaran's film runs into trouble, there's only one person he can turn to. Is twelve days enough to save not only Ciaran's film, but also the spark he and Lizzy once shared? ____________________ READERS ARE LOVING TWELVE DAYS IN MAY: 'If you want a fun, romantic book to sweep you off your feet this summer: look no further' 'Such a lovely debut novel about finding a spark again . . . warm and full of joy' 'I finished this book in one sitting. I would definitely recommend' 'The writing is outstanding and the plot extremely original' 'This has all of the makings of a great story: romance, a twisted past, Cannes festival, and the dreamy taste of Tunnocks'

There has been a recent revival of interest in the work of Polish film director Walerian Borowczyk, a label-defying auteur and "escape artist" if there ever was one. This collection serves as an introduction and a guide to Borowczyk's complex and ambiguous body of work, including panoramic views of the director's output, focused studies of particular movies, and more personal, impressionistic pieces. Taken together, these contributions comprise a wide-ranging survey that is markedly experimental in character, allowing scholars to gain insight into previously unnoticed aspects of Borowczyk's oeuvre.

The only Japanese director to have won the Palme d'Or from Cannes more than once, and second only to Ozu Yasujiro in the number of times he has won the prestigious Kinema Jumpo Best One award, the late Imamura Shohei was one of Japan's leading and most controversial film directors. This book is one of the first to study all of Imamura's major films alongside his television and theatrical documentaries, focusing on his major themes and concerns. By giving shape to Imamura's career, the book positions him as a stylistic innovator as well as an ethnographic investigator into Japanese culture and tradition; the preeminent examiner of the hidden, barely repressed underpinnings of Japanese society.

The life and work of American director John Avildsen is thoroughly examined in this detailed filmography. Each of the most significant films made by the Oscar-winning Avildsen is given a separate chapter, including such critical successes as The Stoolie, Joe and Save the Tiger, and box-office blockbusters Rocky and its sequels and the Karate Kid series. The authors' observations on these and other titles--some well known, others less familiar--are enhanced by extensive production notes, and by commentary from John Avildsen himself. Noted cinema historian Jean Bodon, chair of the Department of Mass Communications at Sam Houston State University, provides the foreword.

As the director of Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and The New World, Terrence Malick has created a remarkable body of work that enables imaginative acts of philosophical interpretation. Steven Rybin's Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film looks closely at the dialogue between Malick's films and our powers of thinking, showing how his work casts the philosophy of thinkers such as Stanley Cavell, Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, Andre Bazin, Edgar Morin, and Immanuel Kant in new cinematic light. With a special focus on how the voices of Malick's characters move us to thought, Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film offers new readings of his films and places Malick's work in the context of recent debates in the interdisciplinary field of film and philosophy. Rybin also provides a postscript on Malick's recently-released fifth film, The Tree of Life.

Before he was the Academy Award-nominated director of "The Last Picture Show" (1971), Peter Bogdanovich (b. 1939) interviewed some of cinema's great masters: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and others. Since becoming an acclaimed filmmaker himself, he has given countless interviews to the press about his own career.

This volume collects thirteen of his best, most comprehensive, and most insightful interviews, many long out-of-print and several never-before-published in their entirety. They cover more than forty years of directing, with Bogdanovich talking candidly about his great triumphs, such as "The Last Picture Show" and "What's Up, Doc? " (1972), and his overlooked gems, such as "Daisy Miller" (1974) and "They All Laughed" (1981).

Assembled by acclaimed critic Peter Tonguette, also author of a new critical biography of Bogdanovich, these interviews demonstrate that Bogdanovich is not only one of America's finest filmmakers, but also one of its most eloquent when discussing film and his own remarkable movies.

Volume 1 makes available for the first time in English thirty-nine scenarios and two treatments. Each text is preceded by an introduction, providing an essential frame of reference to make these writings entirely accessible to the reader. While nearly all these texts belong to the post-war period, including the stories for major post-war classics, there are also seven pre-war raccontini, the narrative source of Zavattini's Modernist magical realism, several fictional interviews and faux reportage, tinged with irony aimed at Hollywood, complemented by several pre-war scenarios. The book also features scenarios for Luchino Visconti's Bellissima, Alessandro Blasetti's First Communion, De Sica's The Roof and texts encompassing Zavattini's ethnographic vision, from the redactions of Italia mia, interviews for Un paese, illustrated with Paul Strand's photographs, to the scenarios for investigative documentaries, including Why?, The Mysteries of Rome, The Guinea Pig, the Free Newsreel Revolution, and the lucid Before, During After, tackling Aldo Moro's assassination by the Red Brigades. The book includes Zavattini's last word on cinema and society, the testamentary satire La veritaaaa (1982), written, directed and acted by Zavattini himself. Each text is preceded by an introduction, providing an essential frame of reference to make these writings entirely accessible to the reader. Volume 2 brings to the fore Zavattini's ever-evolving internal dialogue between diary writer, screenwriter, narrative writer, and political activist. Essential to trace the origin of Zavattini's ideas on cinema and understand his theorization of Neo-realism is the inclusion of a selection of the filmmaker's pre-war writings. Most of the book provides a substantial anthology of texts translated from Neorealismo ecc. (1979), comprising Zavattini's major essays, conference papers, unpublished production papers, interviews, and vital excerpts from his correspondence and published cinematic diary. Through translation and detailed cultural and contextual commentary, translator and editor David Brancaleone traces not only Zavattini's theory of the screen, but also his experimentation in new film practices, including the flash-film (film lampo), the inquiry film (film inchiesta), cinema as encounter (cinema d'incontro), the diary film (film diario), the confessional film (film-confessione), and the grass-roots community film (cinema insieme or cinema di tanti per tanti). Each text is preceded by an introduction, providing an essential frame of reference to make these writings entirely accessible to the reader.

This is the first introduction of its kind to an important cross-section of postcolonial African filmmakers from the 1950s to the present. Building on previous critical work in the field, this volume will bring together ideas from a range of disciplines - film studies, African cultural studies, and, in particular, postcolonial studies - in order to combine the in-depth analysis of individual films and bodies of work by individual directors with a sustained interrogation of these films in relation to important theoretical concepts. Structurally, the book is straightforward, though the aim is to incorporate diversity and complexity of approach within the overall simplicity of format. Chapters provide both an overview of the director's output to date, and the necessary background - personal or national, cultural or political - to enable readers to achieve a better understanding of the director's choice of subject matter, aesthetic or formal strategies, or ideological stance. They also offer a particular reading of one or more films, in which the authors aim to situate African cinema in relation to important critical and theoretical debates. This book thus constitutes a new departure in African film studies, recognising the maturity of the field, and the need for complex yet accessible approaches to it, which move beyond the purely descriptive while refusing to get bogged down in theoretical jargon. Consequently, the volume should be of interest not only to specialists but also to the general reader. -- .

Focusing on onscreen objects in Alfred Hitchcock's films, this study examines the staircases, eyeglasses, lamps, doors, candles, cigarettes, buildings, monuments, statues and dozens of other props the director treated as subjective protagonists, with roles practically equal to the actors'. Hitchock's imperative was to charge the screen with emotion. Subject matter and acting were, for him, subordinate to ""all of the technical aspects that made the audience scream."" Examining each of the director's 52 films, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of Hitchcock's treatment of objects as subjects.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (b. 1960) is as famous for his remarkable films as for his courageous defiance of Iran's state censorship. Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon, the first Iranian film to receive an award at the Cannes Film Festival. His subsequent films-The Mirror, The Circle, and Offside-continue to receive acclaim throughout the world, yet they remain largely unseen in his own country due to years of conflict with the Iranian government. In spite of multiple arrests, a brief imprisonment, and a ban on making movies and giving interviews, Panahi speaks openly and passionately in this unique, invaluable collection of twenty-five interviews, open letters, and his own court statement, in which he makes a compelling case for artistic freedom and humanism. Many of these documents have been translated from Persian and appear in English for the first time, including an interview done exclusively for this volume. In sparkling, lively interviews, Panahi reveals his influences, politics, and filmmaking practices. He explains the challenges he faces while working within (and often around) Iran's heavily restricted film industry, providing the reader a unique vantage point from which to consider Iranian cinema and society.

In an eclectic career spanning four decades, Italian director Riccardo Freda (1909-1999) produced films of remarkable technical skill and powerful visual style, including the swashbuckler Black Eagle (1946), an adaptation of Les Miserables (1947), the peplum Teodora, Slave Empress (1954) and a number of cult-favorite Gothic and horror films such as I Vampiri (1957), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) and The Ghost (1963). Freda was first championed in the 1960s by French critics who labeled him ""the European Raoul Walsh,"" and enjoyed growing critical esteem over the years. This book covers his life and career for the first time in English, with detailed analyses of his films and exclusive interviews with his collaborators and family.

Wes Anderson is one of the most influential voices from the past two decades of American cinema. A true auteur, Anderson is known for the visual artistry, inimitable tone, and idiosyncratic characterizations that make each of his films--"Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums," "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," "The Darjeeling Limited," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," and "Moonrise Kingdom"--instantly recognizable as "Andersonian." "The Wes Anderson Collection "is the first in-depth overview of Anderson's filmography, guiding readers through his life and career. Previously unpublished photos, artwork, and ephemera complement a book-length conversation between Anderson and award-winning critic Matt Zoller Seitz. The interview and images are woven together in a meticulously designed book that captures the spirit of his films: melancholy and playful, wise and childish--and thoroughly original.
Praise for "The Wes Anderson Collection: "
"In "The Wes Anderson Collection," Seitz expands a series of video essays on Anderson's influences, illuminating as much of Anderson's process as possible in a massive, beautifully rendered volume. Although it looks (and sometimes reads) like a coffee table book, "The Wes Anderson Collection" brings together style and substance to provide a loving homage to Anderson's films and moviemaking in general."" --The A.V. Club "
"Your coffee table wants--no, scratch that--needs this book . . . Packed with 400 images of everything from behind-the-scenes set shots to makeup inspiration to hand-drawn storyboards, the massive tome is pure eye candy. But in addition to the visuals, Seitz also dives deep into each and every Anderson film." --"NYLON"
"A magical tour of Wes Anderson's filmography." --"C" magazine
"Each page of this book--filled with conversations, photographs and artwork surrounding each film--showcases Anderson's pop-culture inspirations from Hitchcock and Star Wars to Jacques Cousteau and the French New Wave. Better than most of their kind, the talks reveal a candidness and honesty between critic and director, allowing Seitz to dig around Anderson's vault and share his discoveries." --"FILTER"
""The Wes Anderson Collection" comes as close as a book can to reading like a Wes Anderson film. The design is meticulously crafted, with gorgeous full-page photos and touches like a still representation of Rushmore's opening montage." --"The A.V. Club"
"Reading the book, you feel as if you're disappearing into the miniature world of Anderson's movies, like you're playing around in the files and fastidiously kept dossiers assembled for each project. In this way, the book mimics the work." --Complex.com
"It's smart, informative, and looks beautiful. In other words, it's the perfect gift." --"Complex "magazine

In a four-decade-long career that generated more than forty films and numerous stage productions, Werner Schroeter became one of the most important directors in Germany and Europe since the late 1960s. After making a flurry of short films in a climate of feverish artistic experimentation and political upheaval, Schroeter soon gained recognition for Eika Katappa (1969) and The Death of Maria Malibran (1971), early mature works showcasing avant-garde performance as iconoclastic expression of rebellion and pathos. Following a decade of uncompromising experimental work, his deeply humanist features Il Regno di Napoli (1979) and Palermo or Wolfsburg (1980) brought him broader success. Yet Schroeter maintained his reputation as an enfant terrible of the German cultural scene with controversial stagings of operas and plays and with smartly observed documentaries on art, film, and politics. This volume traces Schroeter's career as a filmmaker from early and rarely discussed works such as Salome (1971) and Willow Springs (1973) to his late 1970s breakout hits and later complex and mature art-house productions such as The Rose King (1986), Malina (1991), and Nuit de Chien (2008). The volume is supplemented by Schroeter's own writings and conversations and includes an interview with his long-time collaborator Elfi Mikesch as well as an authoritative and completely updated filmography.

Since 1992, the Directors Guild of America has hosted an annual symposium featuring its nominees for outstanding feature film directing. From the first, film and television director Jeremy Kagan has moderated these sessions in which the finest contemporary directors weigh in on every aspect of the filmmaking process. In Directors Close Up, Second Edition, Kagan culled the most insightful and entertaining responses from sessions conducted between 1992 and 2005. In Directors Close Up 2, an all-new sequel, Kagan shines his spotlight on nominees from the 2006-2012 seminars as they discuss their work on some of the most brilliant films of the last several years. From script development through pre-production to production and post-production, the directors offer personal insights into every step of the creative process. They also reveal their candid takes on the best and worst aspects of their profession. Featuring materials from their productions-including storyboards, script notes, sketches, and on-set photos-Directors Close Up 2 will be of interest to both professional and aspiring directors, as well as film fans who will enjoy this inside look into making movies. The interviewed nominees featured in this volume: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire James Cameron, Avatar George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men Bill Condon, Dreamgirls Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine Lee Daniels, Precious David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stephen Frears, The Queen Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton Paul Haggis, Crash Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Tom Hooper, The King's Speech Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain Bennett Miller, Capote Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight and Inception Alexander Payne, The Descendants Jason Reitman, Up in the Air David O. Russell, The Fighter Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Martin Scorsese, The Departed and Hugo Steven Spielberg, Munich Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds Gus Van Sant, Milk

In the blockbuster film Avatar, science fiction and the technological prowess of director James Cameron meet in a heady concoction that, while visually ravishing, could easily be dismissed as eye candy. While critics most frequently acclaimed its breakthrough 3-D technology, close scrutiny of the film raises provocative questions about the relationship between mind and body, appearance and reality. It brings into focus the relationships of humans to their technology, their planet, and each other and highlights the nature and potential of film itself. This work explores the theoretical and philosophical issues brought to bear in Avatar, exploring the spaces between human and machine; technology and nature; chick flick and action-adventure; and old-fashioned storytelling and cutting-edge technology. Central to the book's analysis is an examination of the extent to which Avatar melds the seer and the seen, illuminating an alternative visual paradigm.

This special issue recognizes the work and legacy of Agnes Varda (1928-2019), a Belgian-born film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist whose work was part of the French New Wave film movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the wake of Varda's passing in March 2019, contributors offer reflections on the continued relevance of her work. Until the end of her life, Varda was engaged with feminism, ethics, politics, and the representation of women in the film industry. Rather than focusing on Varda's most famous films, the contributors to this issue consider aspects of her oeuvre that have contemporary relevance and those that point to the future: films, art installations, and photographs that have received less scholarly attention; her political activism; her role as manager of her own production company; and her Instagram presence. By emphasizing these often-overlooked elements of Varda's creative output, the contributors reveal the depth of her artistic legacy and demonstrate how vastly important and interconnected her entire body of work is. Contributors Dominique Bluher, Nadine Boljkovac, Kelley Conway, Rebecca J. DeRoo, Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Colleen Kennedy-Karpat, Homay King, Matt St. John, Emma Wilson

The concepts and theories surrounding the aesthetic category of the grotesque are explored in this book by pursuing their deployment in the films of American auteurs Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, the Coen Brothers and David Lynch. The author argues that interpreting these directors' films through the lens of the grotesque allows us to situate both the auteurs and the films within a long history of the grotesque in art and aesthetics. This cultural tradition effectively subsumes the contribution of any artist or genre that intersects it but also affords the artist or genre--the auteur and the genre filmmaker--a pantheon and an abundance of images, themes, and motifs, etc. through which he or she can subversively represent the world and our place in it.

Jim Henson was the creative force behind a huge catalog of television series, films, specials, and other productions, even excepting the Muppets. This collection of essays delves into the rest of Henson's body of work, including projects developed during his lifetime and those that represent his legacy. Covered here are Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Jim Henson Hour, Dinosaurs, Farscape, and more. The breadth and depth of Henson's influence on both audiences and later productions remains palpable on screens large and small, as this collection attests.

'One of the best things published about cinema.' Sight & Sound

Herzog was once hailed by Francois Truffaut as the most important director alive. Famous for his frequent collaborations with mercurial actor Klaus Kinski - including the epics Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and the terrifying Nosferatu - and more recently with documentaries such as Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss, Herzog has built a body of work that is one of the most vital in post-war German cinema. Here, he reflects on his legendary and inspiring career.