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The fascinating memoir of influential French filmmaker Alice Guy Blaché, one of the industry’s most significant pioneers and a trailblazer for female directors. Alice Guy Blaché (1873-1968) is a unique pioneer of the motion picture, being not only a female filmmaker but also one of the first, if not the first, to make a narrative film. Her career spanned from 1894, when she became secretary to the legendary Léon Gaumont, through 1920, working in both her native France and the United States. In all, she was responsible for approximately 1,000 films, possibly more than any other director or producer. The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché was first published in 1976, and to a large extent led t...
Becker reminiscences about his work on the sets and in the dressing rooms of Hollywood personalities, providing glimpses into the private lives of a stellar array of actors and actresses. Besides these and other stars, Becker also discloses fascinating details of working with world-famous directors John Huston, William Wyler, Nicholas Ray, Anatole Litvak, René Clément, and Vittorio de Sica.
"Over a hundred years after she started making films (which was considerably earlier than D. W. Griffith, Mabel Normand, and Lillian Gish began their careers), the life and work of Alice Guy Blache is still shrouded in myth and controversy." "Only a fraction of the approximately one thousand films that she directed still exist, and almost half of these have been found very recently. The films are spread out in archives all over the world. Not all of them are available for viewing, even to scholars, and many of them are in desperate need of conservation and preservation." "It is widely agreed that she was the first woman filmmaker but there is considerable debate as to whether she made the fi...
This is a behind-the-scenes account of several quality programs for the British television. With a lighthearted perspective, writer/producer Christopher Neame recounts the challenges and rewards of working on such productions as Danger U.X.B., The Knowledge, Q.E.D., The Irish R.M., Monsignor Quixote, and The Flame Trees of Thika.
By any reasonable expectation, George Arliss should not have succeeded as a star, either on stage or in film. Yet he achieved a career enjoyed by very few in the performing arts. An actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker, George Arliss won acclaim for his work first on the stage and then later, most improbably, as a Hollywood movie star. His films achieved the rare distinction of being both artistic and financial successes. Though he was neither young nor handsome, Arliss found popular acclaim for his many historical characterizations such as Voltaire, Nathan Rothschild, Cardinal Richelieu, and Benjamin Disraeli. Robert Fells traces Arliss's life and times through his film work, providing a thoroughly researched and entertaining view of one of the most important, yet neglected figures in film history. The book also reviews the actor's uneasy relationship with screenwriters, his clashes with British film producer Michael Balcon, his championing of young unknowns such as Bette Davis and James Cagney, and his prosecution by the British Government during World War II. It also includes a complete filmography and a selected stageography of Arliss's work. Includes 20 photos.
Now in paperback. William Desmond Taylor (1872-1922) was a leading silent film director remembered as the victim of Hollywood's most sensational unsolved murder, which shook the nation and shattered the reputations of several top Hollywood stars. Until now, Taylor's film career and leadership role in the Hollywood film industry have been completely overshadowed by the scandal of his death. By reprinting over 400 items from contemporary newspapers, magazines, and trade journals, the book reveals Taylor's life in Hollywood_from his arrival as a minor actor in 1912 until his death in 1922 as one of Hollywood's top directors. These annotated clippings and articles, many containing Taylor's own words, provide substantial insight into Hollywood life and film production during the decade that transformed Hollywood into the movie capital of the world. Included in the book is the most extensive filmography of Taylor's work ever published. Taylor's murder is also examined, including a critical analysis of two published 'solutions' to the crime.
"This anthology makes it abundantly clear that feminist film criticism is flourishing and has developed dramatically since its inception in the early 1970s." —Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Erens brings together a wide variety of writings and methodologies by U.S. and British feminist film scholars. The twenty-seven essays represent some of the most influential work on Hollywood film, women's cinema, and documentary filmmaking to appear during the past decade and beyond. Contributors include Lucie Arbuthnot, Linda Artel, Pam Cook, Teresa de Lauretis, Mary Ann Doane, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Lucy Fischer, Jane Gaines, Mary C. Gentile, Bette Gordon, Florence Jacobowitz, Claire Johnston, E. Ann Kaplan, Annette Kuhn, Julia Lesage, Judith Mayne, Sonya Michel, Tania Modleski, Laura Mulvey, B. Ruby Rich, Gail Seneca, Kaja Silverman, Lori Spring, Jackie Stacey, Maureen Turim, Diane Waldman, Susan Wengraf, Linda Williams, and Robin Wood.
Documents the lives and careers of America's first women directors and provides an introduction to the subject of women in the American silent-film industry.
Originally a Hong Kong-based director, John Woo is now considered one of the ten most successful directors working in American films, receiving world-wide attention for his highly stylized violence in films such as The Killer (1989), Hard-Boiled (1992), Face/Off (1997), and Mission Impossible 2 (2000). While Woo is widely regarded as a master action director, scant attention has been paid to the manner in which Woo's films reflect the director's religious and ethical concerns. Through an examination of representative films from the director's Hong Kong and American periods, Michael Bliss demonstrates that Woo should be regarded as a predominantly religious director, in whose films action is the vehicle by virtue of which a concern with spirituality is dramatized. Contains a chapter on Chinese opera tradition as relates to Woo's films, an exclusive interview with John Woo, and a complete filmography.
Eric Knight, the internationally known film reviewer of the 1930s and author of Lassie-Come-Home tells his story in his own words, with the help of Geoff Gehman.