I need one hit so I can get the money for three more flops. —SIDNEY LUMET, 1973 Sidney Lumet‘s name is not usually found in “top directors ever” lists, but he was very, very talented (and very, very productive). He…
Continue reading Take it from the Great Film Director Sidney Lumet
The book Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age: At the American Film Institute, by George Stevens Jr., was so successful that a sequel about (mostly) younger filmmakers was made, Conversations at the American Film Institute with the Great Moviemakers:…
Continue reading David Lynch: Thoughts from a Unique Filmmaker
During the 2023 screenwriters’ strike, The Hollywood Reporter is publishing an account of the situation through the eyes of an anonymous film writer. It’s a delightful and very ironic take. In one of the pieces, the writer describes, with a…
Continue reading Writing American TV fiction: An ironic look at the process
There are not many filmmakers’ biographies as entertaining and engaging (and sometimes crude) as Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker. Before becoming a director of successful films like the Men in Black series and The Addams…
Continue reading Barry Sonnenfeld: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker
Before Bryan Cranston became a star, he was already an established actor, thanks to his work mainly in Malcolm in the Middle and Seinfeld. One day he got a call from some Vince Gilligan. Gilligan was a writer he had…
Continue reading BREAKING BAD’s Bryan Cranston on the Casting Process
Steven Spielberg conceded a few years ago a very interesting interview in which he explained a lot about his career, in special about the making of Jaws. In this chat, he gives specifics about how they filmed the death of…
Second post about the wonderful book Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age: At the American Film Institute, by George Stevens Jr., which summarises a series of encounters at the AFI with legendary filmmakers. Martin Scorsese described the…
Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age: At the American Film Institute is a unique book by George Stevens Jr., son of celebrated film director George Stevens. The volume summarises a series of encounters at the AFI with…
Continue reading Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age: Harold Lloyd.
From the end of the 60s until the mid-70s: a fascinating period in American movies. The wonderful book The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood is in a way the story of this period. Mainly centered on…
Continue reading The Big Goodbye: CHINATOWN and the Last Years of Hollywood
Michael Ondaatje, the author of the novel on which The English Patient (1996) was based, knowing what an interesting character Walter Murch was, decided to have with him a series of conversations about the art and craft of film editing,…
Continue reading Reflections on the Art and Craft of Film Editing from Master Walter Murch
IN 1975 I EDITED A FILM directed by Brian De Palma called Obsession. It was an independent production, and upon its completion, no studio in Hollywood would agree to release it because of an edgy plot development. After some thought,…
Continue reading Film Editing According to the Editor of STAR WARS
My plan was to create 2 posts about actor Michael Caine’s wisdom from the book Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Lessons in Life (2018). But there’s so much in it, that I decided to do a third one.…
Continue reading More About Film Acting from Master Michael Caine (& Part 3)
