Book picks similar to
L'avventura by Seymour Chatman


film
screenplay
film-history_curated-choices
girls

Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone


Christopher Frayling - 2005
    With an American TV actor named Clint Eastwood and a script based on a samurai epic, Leone wound up creating "A Fistful of Dollars", the first in a trilogy of films (with "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly") that was violent, cynical, and visually stunning. Along with his later masterpiece, "Once Upon a Time in the West", these films came to define the Spaghetti Western

Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski


Annette Insdorf - 1999
    His best-known films, Blue; White; Red; The Double Life of Veronique; and The Decalogue, remain watershed events in lmmaking history. Author Annette Insdorf, Kieslowskis close friend and translator, offers a revealing portrait of his life and monumental body of work. From the gold-bathed images of The Double Life of Veronique to the emotionally dark, visually haunting Blue, Kieslowskis films explore personal and social issues with inimitable brilliance. This paperback edition includes an updated introduction with information on the much anticipated release of Heaven (March 2002) which Kieslowski wrote and planned to film, before he died unexpectedly in March 1996.

Cold Mountain: The Journey from Book to Film


Anthony Minghella - 2003
    Ripley. Coming from Miramax Films in December 2003, Cold Mountain stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Directed by Academy Award®-winner Anthony Minghella who also wrote the screenplay, Cold Mountain is based on Charles Frazier's best-selling Civil War novel of the same name and tells the story of Inman (Law), a wounded confederate soldier who is on a perilous journey home to his mountain community, hoping to reunite with his pre-war sweetheart, Ada (Kidman). In his absence, Ada struggles to survive, and revive her father's farm with the help of intrepid young drifter Ruby (Zellweger).The Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook is annotated with illustrations, movie stills, production design sketches keyed to the screenplay, costume designs, sidebars, and commentary from the cast and crew.

The Apartment


Billy Wilder - 1998
    Jack Lemmon played the 'schnook' who lends out his apartment for his boss's sexual trysts, only to fall in love with the boss's girl - played by Shirey MacLaine. The Apartment is a beautifully judged piece of writing saved from cynicism by Wilder and Diamond's tenderness towards their central characters. This edition of the screenplay includes a specially commissioned introduction by Mark Cousins.

Guide to Screenplay Structure


Dan O'Bannon - 2012
    O’Bannon also includes his insights on subjects such as the logic of the three-act structure, the role of the producer in screenplay development, and the psychological principle known as “hedonic adaptation,” which has a unique effect on the structuring of screen stories.

Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood


Todd McCarthy - 1997
    Sometime partner of the eccentric Howard Hughes, drinking buddy of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, an inveterate gambler and a notorious liar, Hawks was the most modern of the great masters and one of the first directors to declare his independence from the major studios. He played Svengali to Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, and others, but Hawks's greatest creation may have been himself.As The Atlantic Monthly noted, "Todd McCarthy . . . has gone further than anyone else in sorting out the truths and lies of the life, the skills and the insight and the self-deceptions of the work." "A fluent biography of the great director, a frequently rotten guy but one whose artistic independence and standards of film morality never failed." -- The New York Times Book Review; "Hawks's life, until now rather an enigma, has been put into focus and made one with his art in Todd McCarthy's wise and funny Howard Hawks." -- The Wall Street Journal; "Excellent . . . a respectful, exhaustive, and appropriately smartass look at Hollywood's most versatile director." -- Newsweek.

Collected Screenplays 1: Jokes / Gummo / julien donkey-boy


Harmony Korine - 2002
    This collection of three screenplays displays his defiantly unorthodox approach to film form, as well as the unclassifiable imaginative energy that drives all of his work.

The Official Godzilla Compendium: A 40 Year Retrospective (Official Godzilla)


J.D. Lees - 1998
    144 pp. Ages 14 and up. Pub: 3/98.

The Spanish Prisoner & The Winslow Boy


David Mamet - 1999
    His dialogue--abrasive, rhythmic--illuminates a modern aesthetic evocative of Samuel Beckett. His plots--surprising, comic, topical--have evoked comparisons to masters from Alfred Hitchcock to Arthur Miller. Here are two screenplays demonstrating the astounding range of Mamet's talents.         The Spanish Prisoner, a neo-noir thriller about a research-and-development cog hoodwinked out of his own brilliant discovery, demonstrates Mamet's incomparable use of character in a dizzying tale of twists and mistaken identity. The Winslow Boy, Mamet's revisitation of Terence Rattigan's  classic 1946 play, tells of a thirteen-year-old boy accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order and the tug of war for truth that ensues between his middle-class family and the Royal Navy. Crackling with wit, intelligent and surprising, The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy celebrate Mamet's unique genius and our eternal fascination with the extraordinary predicaments of the common man.

Boogie Nights


Paul Thomas Anderson - 1998
    Deprived of love and respect from his family, Eddie is renamed 'Dirk Diggler' and conquers the world of porn, but manages to retain his essential innocence. As the turbulent seventies shade into the hedonistic eighties, Dirk's career goes into a tailspin; but he is rescued by the safety net of the extended family fostered by hard-core movie director Jack Horner.Paul Thomas Anderson's screenplay is exemplary in its ability to interweave the stories of its large cast of characters. In accord with the wisdom of the Roman dramatist Terence (who claimed, 'Nothing human is alien to me'), Anderson has engaged with a side of life widely considered to be irredeemably sleazy, and has mined humour, sadness and compassion out of his unlikely subject matter.

Cary Grant: A Touch of Elegance


Warren G. Harris - 1988
    Cary Grant...Hollywood's ultimate ladies' man...the silver screen's most ardent lover. But beyond his portrayal of the sophisticated romantic hero in movies like "The Philadelphia Story" and "Notorious" was a man haunted by fear and self-doubt which affected his career as well as his personal life.

Sideways: The Shooting Script


Alexander Payne - 2004
    The newest screenplay from the Oscar®-nominated writers of Election and About Schmidt, Sideways is the tale of two men's adventure in California wine country.Based on Rex Pickett's acclaimed first novel, Sideways tells the story of Miles (Paul Giamatti), a failed novelist, and his soon-to-be-married friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a washed-up actor.To salute the remains of their youth, the two men take one last road trip in the week before Jack's wedding.A serious wine enthusiast, Miles is determined to educate his friend on the region's beloved Pinot Noir wines before the week is out.Jack indulges his best friend's passion for the grape but is mainly interested in living his last week of bachelorhood to the hilt.Trouble ensues with wine and women (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh), and the duo comes to some profound realizations as they come to terms with maturity.

The Big Sleep


David Thomson - 1997
    This text shows how The Big Sleep signalled a change in the nature of Hollywood cinema, as the director Howard Hawks shot extra scenes, "fun" scenes, to replace the ones in which the murders are explained, and in so doing left the plot unresolved.

Hawks on Hawks


Joseph McBride - 1982
    The distinguished director, Howard Hawks, discusses his techniques of filmmaking, analyzes the artistry of his movies, and portrays his experiences working in Hollywood.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Behind the Story-the Undisclosed Story Behind the Curtains


Behind the Story - 2011
    Enjoy this basket full of hand-picked treats collected from various sources all over the internet, compiled as an easy, concise and info-rich serving just for you!You'll be on a VIP tour where you'll get to discover in depth about the author's inspiration to create this story as well as their personal journey to bring this book to the readers. Here's a sneak peek of what's inside:-Who's the author anyways?-Author's inspiration to write the story-Creation process of the book-Publishing journey-Obstacles and setbacks-How it was received by the public and critics-Sales figures-Future ahead for the story-Memorable quotes...and more!Read our free sample below!======================SAMPLE ENTRY:“What were the inspiration and the creation process of this book like?”“I first learned about HeLa cells and the woman behind them in 1988, thirty-seven years after her death, when I was sixteen and sitting in a community college biology class.”Rebecca Skloot “met” Henrietta Lacks for the first time in a class she was forced to take to make up high school credits. She was a derelict kid, choosing to forgo traditional education in favor of an alternative “hippie” high school. Instead of science classes, Rebecca remembers taking “dream studies” as one of her courses.Her biology instructor at the community college made one small mention of the fact that the line of cells most used in research today was from a black woman named Henrietta Lacks. Then he moved on to the next slide.This began a journey of questions, discoveries, and answers as Rebecca found herself wondering about the woman behind such a scientific marvel as the HeLa cells. Though it took over a decade to finally publish her work, she persisted in unveiling the unknown character whose cells had affected so many lives...======================What others are saying about us!First of all let me just say I LOVE YOUR idea of a book guide. It's so unique and informatively fun at the same time. Your idea of a book guide is really something else!-C. A. Margaja...a perfect compliment to the orginal work!-S. WoodsI love this kind of stuff!-G. M. MandapatThis work is not meant to replace, but to complement the original work. It is a digestive work to stimulate the appetite and encourage readers to enjoy and appreciate the original work even further.