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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: Directors at Work (Rutgers University
Press), 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.
About the Author:
Wheeler Winston Dixon is the James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies,
Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the coeditor-in-chief
of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video . His films have been acquired for the
permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He is the author of
numerous books including American Cinema of the 1940s and Visions of
Paradise (both Rutgers University Press).
Film Talk: Directors at Work will be available in August at most major bookstores and on-line book distributors.
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