The World of Movie Posters

Movie posters are complex entities. Occasionally they are works of art, but this is not their main goal. The mission of a film poster is another: to sell a concept, an image, a title, a tag line, a movie to […]

How TOY STORY 3 Was Written

Michael Arndt acquired prestige as a screenwriter with Little Miss Sunshine (2006), a great character-driven comedy that became a success. The future held for Arndt titles like Oblivion (2013), Hunger Games 2 (2013) and The Force Awakens (2015), but this […]

Film Blocking, What is it?

Film blocking and staging mean choreographing the actors and the camera in a given scene in a way which develops and pushes the film narrative forward. It’s never guided solely by aesthetics, and if it is, it’s wrong, That’s why […]

Three Giants of Cinematography

Nestor Almendros, John Alcott, and Roger Deakins. Of this great triad of Gods of Cinematography, only Deakins is still with us, working at full throttle. Nestor Almendros Spanish by birth (Catalan to be exact), Cuban by adoption, French by most […]

How Stanley Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT Was Written

Frederic Raphael: There’s a lot of talk. You want a lot of talk? Stanley Kubrick: I can’t say what I want. I want to do Arthur’s story (Schnitzler’s “Traumnovelle”), but in New York, now. That’s all I can tell you. […]

Best “Making Of” Books: EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS

How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. This must be THE book about American movies from the 60s to the 80s. We are not technically dealing with a “Making Of” book here, but this marvellous piece of work tells […]

King Vs Kubrick: From THE SHINING to DOCTOR SLEEP

The tension that raised between the master of horror Stephen King and the master of film Stanley Kubrick about the movie The Shining is a well-known story. Let me summarise here the basic tale. This story starts at the end […]

Joseph Cotten, a Great Autobiography

Joseph Cotten was one of those players who shaped movies the way they are now. You don’t know who Joseph Cotten is? Let’s fix that straight away. Joseph Cheshire Cotten (1905–1994) was an actor who started his film career with […]