The French film director Robert Bresson was one of the great artists of the twentieth century and among the most radical, original, and radiant stylists of any time. He worked with nonprofessional actors—models, as he called them—and deployed a starkly limited but hypnotic array of sounds and images to produce such classic works as A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, and Lancelot of the Lake. From the beginning to the end of his career,...

Robert Bresson, the director of such cinematic master-pieces as Pickpocket, A Man Escaped Mouchette, and L’Argent, was one of the most influential directors in the history of French film, as well as one of the most stubbornly individual: He insisted on the use of nonprofessional actors; he shunned the “advances” of Cinerama and Cinema-Scope (and the work of most of his predecessors and peers); and he minced no words about the damaging influence of capita...

The animations of Japan's Studio Ghibli are amongst the highest regarded in the movie industry. Their delightful films rank alongside the most popular non-English language films ever made, with each new eagerly-anticipated release a guaranteed box-office smash. Yet this highly profitable studio has remained fiercely independent, producing a stream of imaginative and individual animations. The studio's founders, long-time animators Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, have created timeless mas...

"Began to read 'Monte Cristo' at six one morning and never stopped till eleven at night." —William Makepeace Thackeray "Alexandre Dumas is more than French, he is European; he's more than European, he is universal." —Victor Hugo "No novelist since Dumas has been more irreverent of the conventions of well-made fiction or any more determined to tell stories without identifiable centers." —Terrence Rafferty Set against the turbulent years of the Napoleonic era, Alexandre Dumas's thrilling adv...

Here is the story of Jerry Weintraub: the self-made, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised impresario, Hollywood producer, legendary deal maker, and friend of politicians and stars. No matter where nature has placed him--the club rooms of Brooklyn, the Mafia dives of New York's Lower East Side, the wilds of Alaska, or the hills of Hollywood--he has found a way to put on a show and sell tickets at the door. "All life was a theater and I wanted to put it up on a stage," he writes. "I wanted to set the...

Yes, you can write a great screenplay. Let Syd Field show you how.“I based Like Water for Chocolate on what I learned in Syd's books. Before, I always felt structure imprisoned me, but what I learned was structure really freed me to focus on the story.”—Laura EsquivelTechnology is transforming the art and craft of screenwriting. How does the writer find new ways to tell a story with pictures, to create a truly outstanding ...

Demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, what directors do wrong and more.

A complete catalogue of motion picture techniques for filmmakers. It concentrates on the 'storytelling' school of filmmaking, utilizing the work of the great stylists who established the versatile vocabulary of technique that has dominated the movies since 1915. This graphic approach includes comparisons of style by interpreting a 'model script', created for the book, in storyboard form.

'Packed with trivia, filled with wit and endlessly readable, this is the biography Joss’ s career deserves. We can’ t recommend it enough' ***** SFXJoss Whedon is a male writer whose most famous creation is a girl-power icon; a geek who deals in classic themes of love, betrayal and redemption; and one of the first people in the entertainment industry to have harnessed the power of the internet to engage directly with his fans.Amy Pascale became one...

From his hands-on filmmaking style to his writing and his composing—an indispensable guide to the ultimate cult auteurOne of the most iconic directors of American cinema, John Carpenter has astonished audiences the world over with his tightly crafted horror, thriller, and science-fiction films. Not just a director, Carpenter's talents also extend to writing the screenplays and soundtracks to many of his films, and this guide covers his work as a director, c...

In Interstellar a group of explorers make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.The screenplay of Interstellar is written by Christopher Nolan and his frequent collaborator, Jonathan Nolan.In addition to the screenplay, this screenplay book also contains over 200 pages of storyboards and an Introduction featuring a conversation about the film with...

For the first time, Oscar-winning production designer and director Roger Christian reveals his life story, from his earliest work in the British film industry to his breakthrough contributions on such iconic science fiction masterpieces as Star Wars, Alien and his own cult classic Black Angel.This candid biography delves into his relationships with legendary figures, as well as the secrets of his greatest work. The man who built the lightsaber finally spea...