Bearing the unwieldiest of titles, Conversations with The Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age at the American Film Institute nevertheless deserves a spot on your summer reading list. AFI founder George Stevens Jr. collects interviews with many of Hollywood’s great directors, plus a handful of cinematographers and writers, and a few foreign directors as well. Drawn from the AFI’s renowned seminars, each is a delight. And I’m only thirty pages in so far.
I’d buy the book just for a particular gem from Raoul Walsh. While making In Old Arizona (1928), a freak accident resulted in the loss of his eye. When doctors asked if he’d like to have it replaced with a glass one, he snapped, “Hell no. Everytime I’d get in a fight, I’d have to put it in my pocket.” He wore a black eyepatch for the rest of his life. (Note to self: track down his autobiography, Each Man In His Time. He’s got a lot of great stories. Sadly, the book is currently out of print.)
Check out this great list of interviewees:
- Harold Lloyd
- Raoul Walsh
- King Vidor
- Fritz Lang
- Frank Capra
- Howard Hawks
- James Wong Howe
- Mervyn LeRoy
- Rouben Mamoulian
- George Folsey
- William Wyler
- George Stevens
- William Clothier
- Alfred Hitchcock
- George Cukor
- Billy Wilder
- John Huston
- Ray Bradbury
- Elia Kazan
- Fred Zinnemann
- David Lean
- Stanley Cortez
- Robert Wise
- Ernest Lehman
- Gene Kelly
- Richard Brooks
- Stanley Kramer
- Hal Wallis
- Jean Renoir
- Federico Fellini
- Ingmar Bergman
- Satyajit Ray
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I’m on page 192 myself (the George Folsey section)…B-)
I haven’t seen any of Mamoulian’s films, but he had a very entertaining section (quite the character). I’m not much a Capra fan, but it was interesting to hear how he approached his films. Many of the directors take a black/white stance on certain film philosophies which is a bit surprising, but they all have pretty strong personalities so perhaps not…