Download or read book Monte Hellman written by Brad Stevens and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-06-28 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I just did it, and I probably made more mistakes than the average person who makes a first film. I didn't really have any help, and I wouldn't take any help. I had to do it on my own. Once I made my first film I considered myself a film-maker. I lost all interest in the theater and never went back"--Monte Hellman In 1970, an LA Times headline described Monte Hellman as "Hollywood's best kept secret". More than thirty years later, Hellman and his work are still secrets, his genius recognized only by a small but passionate group of admirers. This book is both a biography of Hellman and a critical study of his films, which include The Shooting, Two-Lane Blacktop and Ride in the Whirlwind. It also covers films to which Hellman has contributed as an editor, actor and producer, as well as those on which he has worked, in various capacities, without onscreen credit, such as Shatter and Robocop. Attention is focused on the hallmarks of Hellman's work, including his dominant themes and obsessive characters, and all the films are subjected to close stylistic analysis.
Download or read book The Last Great American Picture Show written by Alexander Horwath and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication is a major evaluation of the 1970s American cinema, including cult film directors such as Bogdanovich Altman and Peckinpah.
Download or read book The Blue Moment Miles Davis s Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music written by Richard Williams and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-04-12 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant, wide-ranging book on how Miles Davis's seminal 1959 jazz album "Kind of Blue" revolutionized music and culture in the 20th century.
Download or read book Harry Dean Stanton written by Joseph B. Atkins and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first biography of the man Vanity Fair described as “the philosopher poet of character acting.” After a series of minor parts in forgettable westerns, Harry Dean Stanton gradually began to get film roles that showcased his laid-back acting style, appearing in Cool Hand Luke, Kelly’s Heroes, The Godfather: Part II, and Alien. He became a headliner in the eighties?starring in Wim Wenders’s moving Paris, Texas and Alex Cox’s Repo Man?but it was his extraordinary skill as a character actor that established him as a revered cult figure and kept him in demand throughout his career. Here, Joseph B. Atkins unwinds Stanton’s enigmatic persona, shedding light on his early life in West Irvine, Kentucky, and exploring his difficult relationship with his Baptist parents, his service in the Navy, and the events that inspired him to drop out of college and pursue acting. Atkins also chronicles Stanton’s early years in California, describing how he honed his craft at the renowned Pasadena Playhouse before breaking into television and movies. In addition to examining his acclaimed body of work, Atkins explores Harry Dean Stanton as a Hollywood legend, following his years rooming with Jack Nicholson, partying with David Crosby and Mama Cass, jogging with Bob Dylan, and playing poker with John Huston. Stanton is often remembered for his crowd-pleasing roles in movies like Pretty in Pink or Escape from New York, but this impassioned biography illuminates the entirety of his incredible sixty-year career, drawing on interviews with the actor’s friends, family, and colleagues.
Download or read book Film Talk written by Wheeler Winston Dixon and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2007-07-11 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What 1970s Hollywood filmmaker influenced Quentin Tarantino? How have contemporary Japanese horror films inspired Takashi Shimizu, director of the huge box office hit The Grudge? What is it like to be an African American director in the twenty-first century? The answers to these questions, along with many more little-known facts and insights, can be found in Film Talk, an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at filmmaking from the 1940s to the present. In eleven intimate and revealing interviews, contemporary film directors speak frankly about their work-their successes and their disappointments, their personal aspirations, struggles, relationships, and the politics that affect the industry. A medley of directors including those working in pop culture and documentary, as well as feminist filmmakers, social satirists, and Hollywood mavericks recount stories that have never before been published. Among them are Monte Hellman, the auteur of the minimalist masterpiece Two-Lane Blacktop; Albert Maysles, who with his late brother David, created some of the most important documentaries of the 1960s, including Salesman and The Beatles: What's Happening?; Robert Downey Sr., whose social satires Putney Swope and Greaser's Palace paved the way for a generation of filmmakers; Bennett Miller, whose film Capote won an Academy Award in 2005; and Jamie Babbit, a lesbian crossover director whose low-budget film But I'm a Cheerleader! became a mainstream hit. The candid conversations, complimented by more than fifty photographs, including many that are rare, make this book essential reading for aspiring moviemakers, film scholars, and everyone interested in the how movies are made and who the fascinating individuals are who make them.
Download or read book Nicholson written by Marc Eliot and published by Crown. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive biography of a man with one of the most iconic and fascinating careers—and lives—in Hollywood. For six decades, Jack Nicholson has been part of film history. With three Oscar wins and twelve nominations to his credit and legendary roles in films like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Terms of Endearment, The Shining, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nicholson created original, memorable characters like no other actor of his generation. And his offscreen life has been no less of an adventure—Nicholson has always been at the center of the Hollywood elite and has courted some of the most famous and beautiful women in the world. Relying on years of extensive research and interviews with insiders who know Nicholson best, acclaimed biographer Marc Eliot sheds light on Nicholson’s life on and off the screen. From Nicholson’s working class childhood in New Jersey, where family secrets threatened to tear his family apart, to raucous nights on the town with Warren Beatty and tumultuous relationships with starlets like Michelle Phillips, Anjelica Huston, and Lara Flynn Boyle, to movie sets working with such legendary directors and costars as Dennis Hopper, Stanley Kubrick, and Meryl Streep, Eliot paints a sweeping picture of the breadth of Nicholson’s decades-long career in film and an intimate portrait of the real man. Both a comprehensive tribute to a film legend and an entertaining look at a truly remarkable life, Nicholson is a compulsively readable biography of an iconic Hollywood star.
Download or read book Abel Ferrara written by Brad Stevens and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Driller Killer - a victim of the original video nasty' panic - to Bad Lieutenant, Ferrara's films have attracted both controversy for their extreme subject matter and admiration for their fine acting: Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, Madonna, Lili Taylor and Willem Dafoe all gave their finest performances under Ferrara's direction. Now Brad Stevens has subjected Ferrara's output to exhaustive analysis and uncovers a tender heart beating beneath the excessive imagery.'
Download or read book Bumpy Road written by Sylvia Townsend and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bumpy Road: The Making, Flop, and Revival of "Two-Lane Blacktop" chronicles the genesis, production, box-office debacle, resurrection, near-canonization, and lasting influence of director Monte Hellman's 1971 existentialist car-racing movie. Hellman's unconventional choices for the film included casting three nonactors--musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, as well as his girlfriend, Laurie Bird--in lead roles; shooting the movie in sequence from west to east on Route 66; and refusing to show the actors the full script, instead giving each his or her lines for the day. Before its release, Esquire put the film on its cover as the magazine's choice for movie of the year and printed the entire screenplay, leading moviegoers to expect a crowd-pleaser. Audiences anticipated that Two-Lane Blacktop would be an action-packed car-racing movie and were disappointed when nobody won or even finished the race, no one got the girl, the two leading men barely spoke, and the leading lady was foul-mouthed and promiscuous. Universal Studios Chairman Lew Wasserman found the film subversive and refused to release it on video. Years after it flopped, however, the movie soared in stature, and it is now revered by such contemporary directors as Quentin Tarantino and Richard Linklater, was honored with inclusion in the National Film Registry and was released on DVD and Blu-ray by the prestigious Criterion Collection and the highly regarded Masters of Cinema series. Author Sylvia Townsend conducts a comprehensive examination of the film, its reception, and the resurgence of interest it has more recently generated. Interviewing individuals involved in and influenced by the film, including James Taylor, Richard Linklater, Gary Kurtz, and scriptwriter Rudy Wurlitzer, Townsend provides an inside look at the cult classic.
Download or read book Designing Sound written by Jay Beck and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late 1960s and 1970s are widely recognized as a golden age for American film, as directors like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese expanded the Hollywood model with aesthetically innovative works. As this groundbreaking new study reveals, those filmmakers were blessed with more than just visionary eyes; Designing Sound focuses on how those filmmakers also had keen ears that enabled them to perceive new possibilities for cinematic sound design. Offering detailed case studies of key films and filmmakers, Jay Beck explores how sound design was central to the era’s experimentation with new modes of cinematic storytelling. He demonstrates how sound was key to many directors’ signature aesthetics, from the overlapping dialogue that contributes to Robert Altman’s naturalism to the wordless interludes at the heart of Terrence Malick’s lyricism. Yet the book also examines sound design as a collaborative process, one where certain key directors ceded authority to sound technicians who offered significant creative input. Designing Sound provides readers with a fresh take on a much-studied era in American film, giving a new appreciation of how artistry emerged from a period of rapid industrial and technological change. Filled with rich behind-the-scenes details, the book vividly conveys how sound practices developed by 1970s filmmakers changed the course of American cinema.
Download or read book Jack s Life written by Patrick McGilligan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1996-01-26 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No male American film star of the post-Brando era has demonstrated the talent, charisma, the larger-than-life audacity, and the string of screen triumphs of Jack Nicholson. Now one of America's finest film historians has produced the definitive biography of this most private and public of stars. Photos. Second serial to Cosmopolitan.
Download or read book Wild Beyond Belief written by Brian Albright and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-01-27 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploitation filmmakers played a significant role in revolutionizing American cinema during the 1960s and early 1970s, churning out a string of independent Westerns, biker films, nudie-cuties and horror flicks in record times and often on shoestring budgets. With titles like Horror of the Blood Monsters, Cycle Savages and The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant, these films pushed the boundaries of acceptable on-screen violence and nudity and kept the American theater industry afloat as several major studios teetered on the brink of financial collapse. This work tells the story of that "other" Hollywood through interviews with 16 directors, performers, screenwriters, and stuntmen who helped bring these zero-budget films to the screen against incredible odds. The interviews give insights into exploitation filmmaking from the perspectives of pioneering directors Al Adamson and Jack Hill, actors Jenifer Bishop and Robert Dix, and stuntmen Gary Kent and Gary Littlejohn, and others. The work includes more than 50 photographs, including many rare behind-the-scenes images of the filmmakers on set.
Download or read book Fifty Filmmakers written by Andrew J. Rausch and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-21 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an extensive collection of original interviews with 50 noted filmmakers. Conducted over a seven-year period expressly for this project, the interviews cover various aspects of film production, biographical information, and the interviewees’ favorite or most influential films. Filmmakers interviewed include highly respected auteurs (Richard Linklater, Wim Wenders), B-movie greats (Roger Corman, Lloyd Kaufman), and well-renowned documentary directors (D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles). Each entry includes a brief biography and filmography, while dozens of personal photographs, promotional materials, and film stills appear throughout the work.
Download or read book Jack Nicholson written by Robert Crane and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1975, this book is about the enigmatic star and the only one to have Nicholson's participation. In 1975 Nicholson was just becoming a household name in spite of having already starred in, written or produced 25 films.
Download or read book Dirty Real written by Peter Stanfield and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2024-07-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how the movies assumed a gritty facade in the name of authenticity, with working actors transforming into artists, poets, painters, troubadours, and filmmakers—both on- and off-screen. This is the tale of how Hollywood, inspired by the success of Easy Rider, sold a cycle of films as the new dirty real. Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson, Kris Kristofferson, and Sam Peckinpah, among others, parlayed a nostalgia for the gutter and donned bohemian personae, pulling on soiled shirts and scuffed boots to better counter the glamour and phoniness of Tinseltown. The result was a generation of movies, including The Hired Hand, Five Easy Pieces, Two-Lane Blacktop, The Last Picture Show, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. With great care for the historical record and displaying a refined critical acuity, Peter Stanfield captures that pivotal moment when Hollywood tried to sell a begrimed vision of itself to the world.
Download or read book Al oeste del mito written by Sánchez Esbilla, Adrián and published by Editorial UOC. This book was released on 2016-09-25 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: América pronto se dio cuenta de su valor mítico. La historia transfiguró en leyenda y los hechos se diluyeron en el relato. La conquista del territorio, el avance de la civilización, los hombres y las mujeres de la frontera en expansión cuyos nombres y hazañas, por lo común violentas, pasaron a constituir una verdad contada. El wéstern, versión en movimiento de las dime novels, significó la primera experiencia del cinematógrafo con el espacio abierto y se convirtió en la maquinaria a través de la cual se transmitía el relato mítico de la fundación. Género americano, el wéstern se fue oscureciendo en el reflejo tanto de su tiempo presente como del histórico que recrea. La estilización dejó paso a la introspección, la emoción de la aventura, a la melancolía de la pérdida. El wéstern se convirtió en un modo, ético y estético, de estar y contar un país. Un paseo por las estaciones del wéstern y una antología de 50 títulos componen esta aproximación a un género que, en sí mismo, sintetiza lo cinematográfico: el gesto y el movimiento.
Download or read book Jack written by John Parker and published by Kings Road Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time of life when most people think of retiring, Jack Nicholson remains as energetic and charismatic as ever. Known for his trademark shark's grin and sunglasses, Nicholson has been acting for the past 37 years, and has just celebrated 25 years since the classicThe Shiningwas released. This book shares the truth about this avid LA Lakers fan, partying legend, and charismatic performer, revealed with the help and cooperation of many of Nicholson's Hollywood associates. John Parker traces the astonishing rise to stardom of a boy who was brought up to believe his grandmother was his mother and his mother his sister. This unorthodox childhood was the start of an incredible journey that included Oscar success, a string of high-profile lovers, and a long-term relationship with Anjelica Huston. This comprehensive biography goes behind the wolfish grin to discover that there is much more to Nicholson than the good-time partying figure found regularly in gossip columns; he does remain, after all these years, untamed and wild.
Download or read book Quintessential Jack written by Scott Edwards and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-01-12 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After several years of small roles and experimental screenwriting during his early career, Jack Nicholson got his big break in 1969 with Easy Rider. The next year Five Easy Pieces made him a star. Since then the 12-time Academy Award nominee has won Best Actor twice (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and As Good as It Gets). This critical study examines each of Nicholson’s film roles, as well as his screenwriting and directorial efforts. Fascinating personal insights are provided through interviews with stars such as Mews Small, James Hong, Millie Perkins, Michael Margotta, Shirley Knight, Joe Turkel, Ed Nelson, Hazel Court, the Monkees, several Apollo astronauts, Hell’s Angel Sonny Barger, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, and many more.
