François Truffaut’s many hour of interviews with the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock resulted in a book that influenced several generations of filmmakers. It helped film lovers understand the language of cinema as Truffaut integrated images with their discussions in a truly special collaboration. Continue reading
Insider accounts of the independent filmmaking scene, particularly the heyday from ’80s to the ’90s during the Sundance and Miramax era, were a publishing rage for a short while. Continue reading
Two biographies came out within a month of each other late last year about two very different comedians: Hope: Entertainer of the Century (Amazon or Indiebound) by Richard Zoglin and Becoming Richard Pryor (Amazon or Indiebound) by Scott Saul. Continue reading
A large, lavishly illustrated book on Saul Bass, the famous Hollywood designer with numerous famous posters, logos and commercials to his credit, was published late last year, the 492-page Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design by Jan-Christopher Horak. Horak is the head of the UCLA Film and Television Archive and spent decades researching Bass and his influences and design aesthetic, mostly through thousands of remnants in various archives and private collections.
Last week in EatDrinkFilms, Roger Leatherwood reviewed Shawn Levy’s new biography De Niro: A Life. This we week we present a pair of excerpts from the book, focusing on De Niro’s intensive character preparation and obsessive working methods for The Godfather: Part II and The Untouchables. Continue reading
Robert De Niro is an enigma in the canon of American actors, nailing in just three years of the first decade of his screen-acting career such explosive and indelible performances as Johnny Boy in Mean Streets (1973), the young Vito Corleone/Marlon Brando in The Godfather Part II (1974), and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976). This amazing early stretch of his career culminated in his triumphant portrayal of Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980). Continue reading
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