In Sculpting in Time, he has left his artistic testament, a remarkable revelation of both his life and work. Since Ivan's Childhood won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1962, the visionary quality and totally original and haunting imagery of Tarkovsky's films have captivated serious movie audiences all over the world, who see in his work a continuation of the great literary traditions of nineteenth-century Russia. Many critics have tried to interpret his intensely personal vision, but he himself always remained inaccessible.In Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky sets down his thoughts and his memories, revealing for the first time the original inspirations for his extraordinary films--Ivan's Childhood, Andrey Rublyov, Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker, Nostalgia, and The Sacrifice. He discusses their history and his methods of work, he explores the many problems of visual creativity, and he sets forth the deeply autobiographical content of part of his oeuvre--most fascinatingly in The Mirror and Nostalgia. The closing chapter on The Sacrifice, dictated in the last weeks of Tarkovsky's life, makes the book essential reading for those who already know or who are just discovering his magnificent work.

    Founder and long-time general director of the acclaimed American Conservatory Theatre, Bill Ball engages his audience in a wide-ranging discussion of the director's process from first reading through opening night. Speaking as a director's director, Ball offers a candid, personal account of his method of working including the choice of a play's essential elements, preproduction homework, casting, and rehearsal techniques. Throughout, his discovering and insights guide the director in building the world of the play and bringing it to life.

    He talks of his childhood in Nazi-occupied Poland; Lodz Film School in the 1950s; Paris in his early struggles to become recognized as a director; and London and Hollywood in the 60s when he first won international acclaim. We follow him through his marriages and friendships; and with him we experience the full force of the tragedy that struck when his wife Sharon Tate and several close friends were brutally murdered by the Manson family. There followed years of disenchantment and self enquiry; arrest and imprisonment on charges alleging the rape of a minor, and finally his professional and personal resurgence in France.

    Whether reflecting on his won work oir writing about other directors, whether describing his discovery of actress Hanna Schygulla or speaking out in favor of political film making, Fassbinder's perspective is radical, subjective, and challenging. The writing in this volume-nearly all presented here for the first time in English-are an essential part of Fassbinder's legacy, the remarkable body of work in which present-day German reality finds brilliant expression.

    This work is a critical overview of the horror movie genre from the late 1960s with a discussion of over 2000 films - masterpiece and monstrosity alike.

    Through conversations held with fifteen of the most accomplished contemporary cinematographers, the authors explore the working world of the person who controls the visual look and style of a film.

    From his sexual awakening in post-war rural England to the libidinous excesses of the sixties and beyond, Jarman tells his story with an in-your-face immediacy that has become his trademark style in both films and books. His explorations take him from England to Italy, New York to Amsterdam, giving us a rapid succession of intimate and often graphic slices of his life. "Sexuality colors my politics," Jarman writes in a section entitled Blow Job. But this is a journey into artistic as well as sexual discovery. In these pages we see Jarman's imagination at work during the making of Sebastiane, Jubilee, The Tempest, and Caravaggio. Finally, there are nearly one hundred beautifully explicit black-and-white photographs of Jarman, his friends, lovers and inspirational heroes of gay culture.

    Written in an informal "how-to-do-it" style, renowned director Edward Dmytyrk shares his expertise and experience in film editing in an anecdotal and philosophical way. In On Film Editing, Dmytryk contends that many technicians and professionals on the film crew-- from the cameraman and his assistants to the producer and director-- must understand film editing to produce a truly polished work. In this book he explains in layman's terms the principles of film editing, using examples and anecdotes from almost five decades in the film industry.

    With surprising candor and objectivity, it captures the paradoxical nature of a complicated woman and artist. Her two marriages, her love affair with John Gilbert, and her attitudes as a mother are described with compassion, yet unflinchingly honesty.Especially interesting is Mrs. Courtney's ability to convey in print the stage techniques of a professional whose special magic affected all who saw her, from early road-company days through Peg O' My Heart and Outward Bound, to her final exquisite creation Amanda in the Glass Menagerie

    

    The film was dead until Lynch finished filming Dune, and was asked by producer Dino De Laurentiis if he had any projects he'd like to do next. Lynch pitched Blue Velvet, with one condition - he had to have final cut. De Laurentiis agreed in exchange for Lynch cutting his salary and the film's budget in half. Some questioned if it was wise for De Laurentiis to fund Lynch's new project given the poor box office of Dune. According to Paul Sammon, former DEG vice-president of special promotions, "Dino appreciated David's rather bizarre gifts, and besides, Dino's system was to always presell everything through his European and international contacts, so he never lost money."5With the project a go again, Lynch completed two more drafts of the screenplay to Blue Velvet. The catalyst to set the story in motion was Jeffrey's discovery of the ear. "The ear is like a canal, it's like an opening, little egress into another place...It's like a ticket to another world that he finds. If he hadn't found it, you know, he would have kept on going home and that would have been the end of it. But the fascination with this, once found, drew him into something he needed to discover and work through."6 It was on the fourth and final draft that Lynch finally came up with the ending to the film. "I was sitting on a bench and I suddenly remembered this dream that I'd had the night before. And the dream was the ending to Blue Velvet. The dream gave me (...SPOILER/ ending scenes...). I don't know how it happened, but I just had to plug and change a few things to bring it all together."7

    

    

    

    The great American Western would never be the same after Italian director Sergio Leones spaghetti-western revolution.

    She has had a lot of help from gifted photographers like Richard Avedon, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Irving Penn. The epilogue to this collection of Dietrich photographs, written by the man who directed her in The Blue Angel and thus shaped both her career and her persona, is almost as fascinating as the pictures. Von Sternberg insisted on absolute control of every aspect of the films he directed, and the then-passive Dietrich was an ideal actress for him. His essay on her early years is an absorbing document on the creation of stars.

    The contributors share a common concern at the implications of what they see as a wide-ranging attack on civil liberties. They look dispassionately at the nature of the videos in question: at the scientific research into their effects; at how the campaign against them was organised and orchestrated; at the history of such moral panics; and at the wider implications for artistic freedom and civil liberties in Britain.Contributors include Martin Barker, Nigel Andrews, Graham Murdoch, Geoffrey Pearson, Marco Starr and Brian Brown.

    The first section has a lengthy analytical essay as well as detailed plot descriptions and credits for 25 classics--such as The Maltese Falcon, Laura, and Detective Story. The second section is an annotated filmography including major credits and short descriptions of nearly 500 films. Also included are appendices listing every film noir by both director and chronological order, off-genre noirs, and other films bearing important relationships to the noir cycle.

    Motion picture makeup — the kind that transforms actors into monsters, aliens or even animals — was not at all the stellar occupation it has come to be; and at the time, there was little in the way of instructional materials an enthusiastic novice could draw upon, let alone a clearly marked path toward professional involvement. Baker's unwavering dedication, coupled with a single-minded pursuit of excellence, was to serve him well, however — vaulting him past such obstacles to a position of prominence in a burgeoning career field in which he now has few peers. From the early, low-budget efforts of Octoman and Schlock, through It's Alive and The Incredible Melting Man, and eventually on to loftier assignments in Star Wars, The Incredible Shrinking Woman and the lamentable King Kong remake, Baker honed his skills and developed his talents — ultimately reaching full maturity in response to the diverse challenges of An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome and Greystoke. From simple pie dough makeups to the most complicated of bodily transformation, Baker delves into his life and work, offering an incisive look at the artist and his art.

    

    Rohmer, one of the founding members of the French 'New Wave' cinema, was also one of the journal's original critics and served as its editor. Divided into four sections, the essays deal with fundamental and theoretical questions of film-making from a single theoretical viewpoint. Rohmer, a film-maker of great eloquence and erudition, writes in depth on the issues most fundamental to film: what the camera best portrays; the role of sound and colour; the use of drama and comedy; the role of speech; and the problem of literary adaptation; he also includes a personal defence of his films. The final section is devoted entirely to the film-maker Jean Renoir. The Taste for Beauty will be appreciated by students and critics of film, as well as those who love French cinema in general.