Peter Bogdanovich

Few directors of the 1930s and 40s were as distinctive and popular as Preston Sturges, whose whipsmart comedies have entertained audiences for decades. This book offers a new critical appreciation of Sturges' whole oeuvre, incorporating a detailed study of the last ten years of his life from new primary sources. Preston Sturges details the many unfinished projects of Sturges' last decade, including films, plays, TV series and his autobiography. Drawing on diaries, sketchbooks, correspondence, unpublished screenplays and more, Nick Smedley and Tom Sturges present the writer-director's final years in more detail than we've ever seen, showing a master still at work – even if very little of that work ultimately made it to the screen or stage.

In his Village Voice "Movie Journal" columns, Jonas Mekas captured the makings of an exciting movement in 1960s American filmmaking. Works by Andy Warhol, Gregory J. Markapoulos, Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Robert Breer, and others echoed experiments already underway elsewhere, yet they belonged to a nascent tradition that only a true visionary could identify. Mekas incorporated the most essential characteristics of these films into a unique conception of American filmmaking's next phase. He simplified complex aesthetic strategies for unfamiliar audiences and appreciated the subversive genius of films that many dismissed as trash. This new edition presents Mekas's original critiques in full, with additional material on the filmmakers, film studies scholars, and popular and avant-garde critics whom he inspired and transformed.

In his Village Voice "Movie Journal" columns, Jonas Mekas captured the makings of an exciting movement in 1960s American filmmaking. Works by Andy Warhol, Gregory J. Markapoulos, Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Robert Breer, and others echoed experiments already underway elsewhere, yet they belonged to a nascent tradition that only a true visionary could identify. Mekas incorporated the most essential characteristics of these films into a unique conception of American filmmaking's next phase. He simplified complex aesthetic strategies for unfamiliar audiences and appreciated the subversive genius of films that many dismissed as trash. This new edition presents Mekas's original critiques in full, with additional material on the filmmakers, film studies scholars, and popular and avant-garde critics whom he inspired and transformed.

From Peter Bogdanovich - director, screenwriter, actor, and cinema scholar - 25 fascinating portraits of Hollywood's most acclaimed movie actors and actresses: stars whom he has known, admired, and occasionally worked with. Bogdanovich captures brilliantly - in their own words and his - the personality, the work, the style and the enduring iconic appeal of America's movie greats.

The acclaimed producer, screenwriter, director, and author of Who the Devil Made It shares twenty-six memorable portraits of some of Hollywood's most notable actors and actresses, including Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Monroe, James Stewart, and others. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

A FRONT-ROW SEAT TO A YEAR'S WORTH OF MUST-SEE FILMSDirector, producer, screenwriter, author, actor, and film critic, Peter Bogdanovich knows movies. Now, in this unique new book, he shares his passion with a connoisseur's insight and delight by inviting the reader to join him for a year at the movies--fifty-two weeks, fifty-two films, fifty-two reasons to watch. Which films does Peter Bogdanovich call . . ."The most hauntingly chilling, strangely prophetic science-fiction picture ever made."(You'll be treated to it on Halloween)"A scintillatingly directed comedy."(Discover it with someone you love on Valentine's Day)"A bittersweet human comedy of vintage genius [that] only becomes more precious as the years pass."(Ringing in the New Year with it is reason enough to celebrate)With recommendations specific to the seasons and holidays--from sparkling comedies, timeless musicals, landmark foreign films, powerful dramas and thrillers to legendary masterpieces and neglected treasures--Bogdanovich's eclectic cinematic calendar of classics, each available on video, each accompanied by an illuminating essay, and each followed by a list of tie-in recommendations, makes the perfect date for movielovers every week of the year.

Conversations reveal Welles's feelings about films, theater, the radio and television industries, and various other directors and stars

This book provides an intimate and affectionate view of one of Hollywood's most admired directors. The fifty-year career of John Ford (1895-1973) included six Academy Awards, four New York Film Critics' Awards, and some of our most memorable films, among them The Informer (1934), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Quiet Man (1952), The Long Gray Line (1955), and The Wings of Eagles (1957). In addition, the name John Ford was practically synonymous with the great Westerns that came out of Hollywood for many years-- Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), for example. After his death a European newspaper mourned ford as "the creator of the Western," although many of his finest films were far removed from that genre. Combining interviews with John Ford with his own reflections, director Peter Bogdanovich captures both the artist and the man in a highly readable, compact book that will please film lovers and Ford admirers alike. Over a hundred stills are included, along wit hthe most completed filmography yet compiled for John Ford.