501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
Category: Books,Humor & Entertainment,Movies
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers Details
Review "These hefty, valuable volumes are stuffed with tons of information about all your favorite filmmakers."—Scene, January 29, 2008 Read more From the Inside Flap (back cover) Includes: Woody Allen • Pedro Almodovar • Robert Altman • Wes Anderson • Michael Apted • Dario Argento • Darren Aronofsky • Mario Bava • Warren Beatty • Ingmar Bergman • Busby Berkeley • Bernardo Bertolucci • Luc Bresson • Danny Boyle • Nick Broomfield • Luis Bu±uel • Tim Burton • James Cameron • Frank Capra • John Carpenter • Youssef Chahine • Joel Coen and Ethan Coen • Sofia Coppola • Wes Craven • George Cukor • Cecil B. DeMille • Walt Disney • Marguerite Duras • Clint Eastwood • Federico Fellini • John Ford • Stephen Frears • Peter Greenaway • Hal Hartley • Amy Heckerling • Alfred Hitchcock • Peter Jackson • Derek Jarman • Jim Jarmusch • Spike Jonze • Abbas Kiarostami • Elia Kazan • Krzysztof Kieslowski • Takeshi Kitano • Stanley Kubrick • Akira Kurosawa • Beeban Kidron • Spike Lee • Ida Lupino • Terrence Malick • Fernando Meirelles • Georges Melies • Russ Meyer • Takashi Miike • Michael Moore • Gaspar No© • Roman Polanski • Otto Preminger • Sam Raimi • Satyajit Ray • Jean Renoir • Roberto Rossellini • Martin Scorsese • Ridley Scott • Mack Sennett • Don Siegel • Aleksandr Sokurov • Steven Spielberg • Quentin Tarantino • Bela Tarr • Lars von Trier • Wong Kar-wai • John Woo • William Wyler • Zhang Yimou (front flap) Lights, cameras, action! The world of movies is full of glamour and romance—but it is the men and women behind the camera who call the shots, crafting cinema experiences that have enthralled generations of moviegoers. The successor to the best-selling 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 501 Movie Directors is a comprehensive guide to the masters of the big screen, from Woody Allen (Annie Hall) to Fred Zinnemann (High Noon), and from Takashi Miike (Audition) to Ingmar Bergman (Persona). Every auteur and action hit maker, comic genius and horror maestro is here, in one beautifully illustrated and fact-filled volume. From the pioneering Buster Keaton to French New Wave director Lean-Luc Godard and enfant terrible Gaspar No©, all the giants and emerging geniuses of world cinema are included, making this the most comprehensive guide to movie directors ever produced. Each filmmaker receives at least a full-page entry, complete with a critically selected filmography and fascinating facts about his or her influences, trademarks, and creative partnerships. Did you know that Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in thirty-seven of his movies? Discover Martin ScorseseÂ’s New York, and how 1960s Italian gothic cinema shaped modern directing styles. Written by an international team of film critics, film historians, and journalists, this is a complete biography of the creative forces behind more than a century of film. Whether you read it from cover to cover or dip into it from time to time, 501 Movie Directors will broaden your love and appreciation of cinema . . . and continue to do so for many years to come. . . (back flap) Steven Jay Schneider is a film critic, scholar, and producer, with M.A. degrees in Philosophy and Cinema Studies from Harvard University and New York University, respectively. He is the general editor of the best-selling 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and 501 Movie Stars, both also available from BarronÂ’s. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
This is a great book for film students (I bought it for my daughter who is a film major at Syracuse University), film buffs and for us folks who love to watch movies!As General Editor of this book, Steven Jay Schneider (who also wrote 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)aptly summarizes, "This book is a love letter to those men and women who have changed our lives as a result of their celluloid dreams." Sit back and imagine the movies you have seen and how they impacted your life... perhaps prompted you to some action whether of the heart or for society? Moved you to tears or laughter? A great director's fine tuning of a writer's vision onto a screen does just that.This book has colored tabs on the side of the pages for the director's birth year decade - beginning with the man who invented movies, George Melies, born in the 1860's in Paris, France, right through to David Gordon Green, born in the 1970's, writer and director of Southern Gothic coming of age dramas. The first pages of the book is a solid Table of Contents A-Z of all 501 of these great directors. Each director's page(s) has a photo of the director and some have movie stills from his or her films. Some of the diectors included in this great compendium are Alexander Korda (who helped put the British film industry on the map); John Ford (a titan in the industry who even influenced Spielberg when Steven was a runner on the 20th Century studio lot! Steven went into Ford's office and Ford 'taught' Spielberg to really "look at" his landmark sweeping vista shots carefully...'what do you see?'); George Cukor (Dinner at Eight, Grand Hotel, My Fair Lady); George Stevens (who, as the book states, had "A legendary sharp eye for detail that enhanced visual storytelling; rapport with actors produced memorable performances from Hollywood greats." and other such greats as Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Margarethe von Trotta and Kathryn Bigelow.The "Top Takes..." of each director's body of work are listed to the right of each director's description of his/her piece in film history including their backgrounds, their influences...what led them to their signature styles.My particular book came with no cover which was a disappointment as I really admire Steven Spielberg, but the inside history is 100% readable and enjoyable....and moves me to want to read more about my favority directors and to see works I have not yet screened!
