Neil Sinyard – författare

This biographical narrative of Graham Greene's literary career explores his motives for writing, the literary and cinematic influences that shaped his work, his writing routine and the importance of his childhood experience. Greene was elusive and enigmatic, and this book teases out the fiction from his autobiographies, the autobiography from his fictions, sharing Paul Theroux's view that you may not know Greene from his face or speech "but from his writing, you know everything".

This biographical narrative of Graham Greene's literary career explores his motives for writing, the literary and cinematic influences that shaped his work, his writing routine and the importance of his childhood experience. Greene was elusive and enigmatic, and this book teases out the fiction from his autobiographies, the autobiography from his fictions, sharing Paul Theroux's view that you may not know Greene from his face or speech "but from his writing, you know everything".

This is a comprehensive survey of the relationship between film and literature. It looks at the cinematic adaptations of such literary masters as Shakespeare, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and D.H. Lawrence, and considers the contribution to the cinema made by important literary figures as Harold Pinter, James Agree and Graham Greene. Elsewhere, the book draws intriguing analogies between certain literary and film artists, such as Dickens and Chaplin, Ford and Twain, and suggests that such analogies can throw fresh light on the subjects under review. Another chapter considers the film genre of the bio-pic, the numerous cinematic attempts to render in concrete terms the complexities of the literary life, whether the writer be Proust, Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Dashiel Hammett, Agatha Christie or Boris Pasternak.Originally published in 1986, this is a book to appeal to any reader with an interest in film or literature, and is of especial value to those involved in the teaching or study of either subject.

In François Truffaut’s opinion The Innocents was ‘the best English film after Hitchcock goes to America’. Tennessee Williams said of The Great Gatsby: ‘a film whose artistry even surpassed the original novel’. The maker of both films was Jack Clayton, one of the finest English directors of the post-war era and perhaps best remembered for the trail-blazing Room at the Top which brought a new sexual frankness and social realism to the British screen. This is the first full-length critical study of Clayton's work. The author has been able to consult and quote from the director's own private papers which illuminate Clayton’s creative practices and artistic intentions. In addition to fresh analyses of the individual films, the book contains new material on Clayton's many unrealised projects and valuably includes his previously unpublished short story ‘The Enchantment’ – as poignant and revealing as the films themselves.This is a personal and fascinating account of the career and achievement of an important, much-loved director that should appeal to students and film enthusiasts.

Offers a startling re-evaluation of what has until now been seen as the most critically lacklustre period of the British film history. Covers a variety of genres, such as B-movies, war films, women's pictures and theatrical adaptations; as well as social issues which affect film-making, such as censorship. Includes fresh assessment of maverick directors; Pat Jackson, Robert Hamer and Joseph Losey, and even of a maverick critic Raymond Durgnat. Features personal insights from those inidividually implicated in 1950s cinema; Corin Redgrave on Michael Redgrave, Isabel Quigly on film reviewing, and Bryony Dixon of the BFI on archiving and preservation. Presents a provocative challenge to conventional wisdom about 1950s film and rediscovers the Festival of Britain decade.An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

Richard Lester is of the most significant yet misunderstood directors of the post-war era. Indelibly associated with the Beatles and the ‘swinging Sixties’ because of his direction of A Hard Day’s Night and Help and his joyous sex comedy The Knack, Lester has tended to be categorised as a modish director whose heyday passed when that decade’s optimism slid into disillusionment and violence.This book offers a critical appreciation and reappraisal of his work, arguing that it had much greater depth and variety than he has been given credit for. His versatility encompasses the Brechtian anti-heroics of How I Won the War; the surreal nuclear comedy of The Bed-Sitting Room and the swashbuckling adventure of The Musketeers films. He has even, in his instinctively iconoclastic manner, cut Superman down to size.The book should win new admirers for a director with a gift of making movies whose visual wit and imaginative imagery reveal an intelligent and enquiring scepticism about heroes and society. Including comments from Lester himself and illustrations from his own private collection, the book is a must for film scholars and enthusiasts alike.

Humphrey Jennings has been described as the only real poet that British cinema has produced. His documentary films are remarkable records of Britain at peace and war, and his range of representational approaches transcended accepted notions of wartime propaganda and revised the strict codes of British documentary film of the 1930s and 1940s.Poet, propagandist, surrealist and documentary filmmaker – Jennings' work embodies an outstanding mix of startling apprehension, personal expression and representational innovation. This book carefully examines and expertly explains the central components of Jennings' most significant films, and considers the relevance of his filmmaking to British cinema and contemporary experience.Films analysed include Spare Time, Words for Battle, Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started, The Silent Village, A Diary for Timothy and Family Portrait.

Tony Richardson was a key figure in British cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. Having established himself in the theatre with the first production of John Osborne’s landmark play Look Back in Anger, he became a central director in the New Wave, bringing greater realism to British cinema. He went on to make some of the most significant films of the 1960s including the multi Oscar-winning Tom Jones.This detailed and authoritative account of Richardson’s career provides a reassessment of his achievements. As well as looking at his best known films, it considers neglected works such as Ned Kelly and Joseph Andrews, illustrating how Richardson remained a champion of the socially marginalised.In mapping out his life and work, from the English Stage Company to his final films in America, Shail re-establishes Richardson’s at the front rank of British film directors, confirming his contribution to a period of dynamic change in British culture.

Director Fred Zinnemann was one of the most honored and revered directors of Hollywood's golden age. Peter Ustinov said, "Working with him was a permanent lesson in integrity." Zinnemann will always be remembered for such award-winning classics as High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons, and for his direction of such stars as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Rod Steiger, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Mitchum, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep and Sean Connery. Above all, he deserves to be appreciated for raising the intelligence of popular cinema, making individualist dramas of conscience that could appeal to mass audiences without condescending to them and without compromising the director's vision.This book, the first single-author survey of Zinnemann's career, draws on the author's personal interviews with Zinnemann and reveals the coherence and subtlety of the director's work. The first part of the book deals with Zinnemann's struggle to make films of his own choosing in his own way, up to his breakthrough with The Search. The remainder of the text discusses Zinnemann's post-Search films according to major themes, including the ravages of war, the "sovereignty of selfhood," character as destiny, the outsider in society, and politics and the liberal conscience. A list of Zinnemann's awards is provided.

Revered by his cinematic peers, William Wyler (1902-1981) was one of the most honored and successful directors of Hollywood's Golden Age, with such classics as Dead End, Wuthering Heights, The Little Foxes, Roman Holiday and Ben-Hur. He won three directing Oscars and elicited over a dozen Oscar-winning performances from his actors. Such exacting performers as Bette Davis, Laurence Olivier and Charlton Heston counted him the best director they had worked with. Yet during the era of the "auteur" theory his films fell out of fashion, lacking, it was said, a distinctive stylistic and thematic signature.This new critical study of Wyler's work, the first in more than thirty years, challenges the notion of Wyler's impersonality and offers a comprehensive reappraisal of his work, particularly of the underrated postwar films. It also provides a rebuttal of the auteurist criticism whose rigid categorization of directors cannot adequately encompass the range of someone like Wyler, who put substance above style and had a breadth of human understanding that was not reducible to a cluster of characteristic themes. Supported by archival research in Los Angeles, the book traces the important milestones in Wyler's career, the context of his films, the importance of legendary producer Sam Goldwyn, his distinguished war record and his principled opposition to blacklisting during the McCarthy era.

"George Stevens could do anything," said veteran Hollywood producer Pandro S. Berman, "break your heart or make you laugh."Winner of two Best Director Oscars--for A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956)--Stevens excelled in a range of genres, gave luster to some of Hollywood's brightest stars and was revered by his peers. Yet his work has been largely neglected by critics and scholars.This career retrospective highlights Stevens' achievements, particularly in his sweeping "American Dream" trilogy (A Place in the Sun, Shane (1953) and Giant). His recurrent themes and characteristic style reveal a progressive attitude towards women's experiences and highlight the continued relevance of his films today.