Livres De Référence

John Ford’s many classic movies – among them Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – earned him worldwide praise and renown. Now Joseph McBride presents us with the definitive account of the man’s myriad complexities and contradictions, tracing Ford’s life from his modest beginnings as ‘Bull’ Feeney, the nearsighted football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Maine, to his recognition, after a long, controversial, and much-decorated career, as America’s national myth-maker. This deeply insightful and impeccably documented narrative is the epic tribute that Ford’s stature merits.

From Peter Bogdanovich – director, screenwriter, actor, and cinema scholar – 25 fascinating portraits of Hollywood’s most acclaimed movie actors and actresses: stars whom he has known, admired, and occasionally worked with. Bogdanovich captures brilliantly – in their own words and his – the personality, the work, the style and the enduring iconic appeal of America’s movie greats.

What does a movie producer actually do for a living? Is ‘producing’ any more than writing cheques and smoking fat cigars? Helen de Winter, herself an intrepid young producer, discovers a job that requires the combined skills of a wheeler-dealer, a diplomat, a stern but doting parent, and a clinical psychiatrist.

Shoot Out is about how movies are made – from the first pitch to the final cut. For film buffs, aspiring film-makers, students and anyone else intrigued by the inner workings of Hollywood, this is the quintessential take on the how, who, what and why of the film business.

This is a wonderful secret history of British movies that includes the scandals, the suicides, the immolations and the contract killings – the product of thousands of conversations with veteran film-makers. Here you’ll meet, among many others, the 20s film idols snorting cocaine from an illuminated glass dance floor on the bank of the Thames, the model who escaped Soho’s gangsters to become the queen of the nudie flicks and the genteel Scottish comedienne who, at the age of fifty-five, reinvented herself as a star of exploitation cinema, and fondly remembers ‘the one where I drilled in people’s heads and ate their brains’. Welcome to the lost worlds of British cinema.

Alexander Mackendrick’s On Film-making is a masterclass in film-making from the acclaimed director of Whisky Galore and The Ladykillers.

An invaluable analysis of the director’s art and craft, from one of the most revered of all film school directors. Alexander ‘Sandy’ Mackendrick directed classic Ealing comedies plus a Hollywood masterpiece, Sweet Smell of Success. But after retiring from film-making in 1969, he then spent nearly 25 years teaching his craft at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

Wim Wenders’ body of work is among the most formidable in modern cinema: Paris Texas, Wings of Desire, The Buena Vista Social Club, The Million Dollar Hotel. And Wenders writes about cinema as passionately as he produces it. This volume collects three previously published books of Wenders’ essays: Emotion Pictures, The Logic of Images, and The Act of Seeing. In them, he discusses his development as a filmmaker from the moment he picked up a camera aged 12, and offers a broader analysis of his guiding passions – rock ‘n’ roll, avant-garde cinema, questions of German identity, and the influence of America.

Roee Rosen’s film Kafka for Kids is set as the pilot episode for a TV series that perversely aims to make Kafka’s tale 'Metamorphosis' palpable for toddlers. Roee Rosen wants to present Franz Kafka, of all people, with his contorted thought constructions, in a way that is even accessible to kids! But unfortunately, that’s not how things turn out: the star writer of the educated middle class is not simplified, but his story becomes much more complex, corresponding to reality, for reality is more complicated than we like to represent using biaxial graphs. Featuring the original script of the movie, readers are invited to dive into a magical story, followed by essays that give a deeper insight in the literary aspects of Roee Rosen’s oeuvre.

Today, India is the world's leading film producer, with more than 1,500 films a year in around twenty languages exported throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The international success of Bollywood must not conceal the diversity of Indian cinematography. The term "Bollywood" was created in 1970 from the contraction of Bombay and Hollywood, and refers to the predominant production of musicals in Hindi, but Indian cinema is vast and multicultural. Every region has its own production in its regional language: Kollywood in Kodambakkam, for Tamil cinema a mix of comedy, action and emotion—, or Bengali cinema which is more intellectual and social, as reflected in Satyajit Ray's culturally significant oeuvre the opposite of commercial productions.

‘Stranger In Polaroid’ features exclusive images by Otto Grokenberger, which he took during the production of a landmark of art-house cinema, ‘Stranger Than Paradise’ (1984), written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. According to Grokenberger, the film’s executive producer, 'The photos in this book are no less extraordinary than any other aspect' of the film. 'Thirty-two years later, I rediscovered them in two unmarked boxes of Polaroids stored in my attic.' For those familiar with the film, this series of full colour production stills captioned by Grokenberger offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at its places and characters, as well as a counterpoint to the black-and-white moving image.

Directed by the remarkable Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998), ‘Rashomon’ was the first Japanese film to receive significant international attention. It was released in 1950 and won several awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951, while its visionary artistic ambitions became a symbol of Japan’s post-war reconstruction. Now, on the occasion of its 70th anniversary, this volume presents an in-depth look at what the film’s notable production staff accomplished. Filled with original storyboards, screenwriting fragments, production photographs, scripts, posters, and other ephemera, it is a fascinating tribute to one of the greatest, most impactful films ever made.

La 1ère édition de 'Cent ans de publicités de films et d'affiches de films en Iran' comprenait des affiches de films de 1909 à 2011, laborieusement rassemblées par le critique de cinéma et journaliste Massoud Mehrabi. Celui-ci est la 2e édition de ce livre, comprenant également des affiches des trois dernières années. De la toute première publicité pour un film au dernier film, Rastakhiz, sorti en 2011.