Matt Zoller Seitz – författare

Wes Anderson is the most influential comedic voice from the past two decades of American cinema. A true auteur, his intimate involvement in each of his films; Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom, includes scriptwriting, set design, soundtrack selections and unit photography. Anderson’s visual artistry, inimitable tone and idiosyncratic characterisations make each of his films instantly recognisable as “Andersonian.”The Wes Anderson Collection is the first in-depth overview of Anderson’s work, guiding readers through the life and career of one of the most talked-about contemporary filmmakers. Previously unpublished photos, artwork and ephemera complement a book-length interview between Anderson and award-winning film critic Matt Zoller Seitz, who offers insights into Anderson’s creative process, influences, and the production of his films. These elements come together in a meticulously designed object in the spirit of Anderson’s movies: melancholy and playful, wise and childish—and thoroughly original.

No film critic has ever been as influential or as beloved as Roger Ebert. Over more than four decades, he built a reputation writing reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times and, later, arguing onscreen with rival Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel and later Richard Roeper about the movies they loved and loathed. But Ebert went well beyond a mere "thumbs up" or "thumbs down." Readers could always sense the man behind the words, a man with interests beyond film and a lifetime's distilled wisdom about the larger world. Although the world lost one of its most important critics far too early, Ebert lives on in the minds of moviegoers today, who continually find themselves debating what he might have thought about a current movie.The Great Movies IV is the fourth and final collection of Roger Ebert's essays, comprising sixty-two reviews of films ranging from the silent era to the recent past.From films like The Cabinet of Caligari and Viridiana that have been considered canonical for decades to movies only recently recognized as masterpieces to Superman, The Big Lebowski, and Pink Floyd: The Wall, the pieces gathered here demonstrate the critical acumen seen in Ebert's daily reviews and the more reflective and wide-ranging considerations that the longer format allowed him to offer. Ebert's essays are joined here by an insightful foreword by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz, the current editor-in-chief of the official Roger Ebert website, and a touching introduction by Chaz Ebert. A fitting capstone to a truly remarkable career, The Great Movies IV will introduce newcomers to some of the most exceptional movies ever made, while revealing new insights to connoisseurs as well.

This companion to the bestselling The Wes Anderson Collection is the only book to take readers behind the scenes of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Through a series of in-depth interviews between writer/director Wes Anderson and cultural critic Matt Zoller Seitz, Anderson shares the story behind the film’s conception, personal anecdotes about the making of the film, and the wide variety of sources that inspired him—from author Stefan Zweig to filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch to photochrom landscapes of turn-of-the-century Middle Europe. The book also features interviews with costume designer Milena Canonero, composer Alexandre Desplat, lead actor Ralph Fiennes, production designer Adam Stockhausen and cinematographer Robert Yeoman; essays by film critics Ali Arikan and Steven Boone, film theorist and historian David Bordwell, music critic Olivia Collette, and style and costume consultant Christopher Laverty; and an introduction by playwright Anne Washburn. Previously unpublished behind-the-scenes photos, ephemera and artwork lavishly illustrate these interviews and essays. The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel stays true to Seitz's previous book on Anderson's first seven feature films,The Wes Anderson Collectionwith an artful design and playful illustrations that capture the spirit of Anderson's inimitable aesthetic. Together, they offer a complete, definitive overview of Anderson's filmography to date.Praise for the film, The Grand Budapest Hotel:Nine Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, Directing, and Writing - Original Screenplay; Best Film - Musical or Comedy, Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, 5 BAFTA awards, including Best Original Screen Play; Best Production Design, Best Costume Design; Best Make Up & Hair and Best Original Music.

Mad Men Carousel is an episode-by-episode guide to all seven seasons of AMC's Mad Men. This book collects TV and movie critic Matt Zoller Seitz’s celebrated Mad Men recaps—as featured on New York magazine's Vulture blog—for the first time, including never-before-published essays on the show’s first three seasons. Seitz’s writing digs deep into the show’s themes, performances, and filmmaking, examining complex and sometimes confounding aspects of the series. The complete series—all seven seasons and ninety-two episodes—is covered.  Each episode review also includes brief explanations of locations, events, consumer products, and scientific advancements that are important to the characters, such as P.J. Clarke’s restaurant and the old Penn Station; the inventions of the birth control pill, the Xerox machine, and the Apollo Lunar Module; the release of the Beatles’ Revolver and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds; and all the wars, protests, assassinations, and murders that cast a bloody pall over a chaotic decade.  Mad Men Carousel is named after an iconic moment from the show’s first-season finale, “The Wheel,” wherein Don delivers an unforgettable pitch for a new slide projector that’s centered on the idea of nostalgia: “the pain from an old wound.” This book will soothe the most ardent Mad Men fan’s nostalgia for the show. New viewers, who will want to binge-watch their way through one of the most popular TV shows in recent memory, will discover a spoiler-friendly companion to one of the most multilayered and mercurial TV shows of all time. It's the perfect gift for Mad Men fans and obsessives.Also available from Matt Zoller Seitz: The Oliver Stone Experience, The Wes Anderson Collection: Bad Dads, The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Wes Anderson Collection.

On January 10, 1999, a mobster walked into a psychiatrist’s office and changed TV history. By shattering preconceptions about the kinds of stories the medium should tell, The Sopranoslaunched our current age of prestige television, paving the way for such giants as Mad Men, The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. As TV critics for Tony Soprano’s hometown paper, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz were among the first to write about the series before it became a cultural phenomenon. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show’s debut, Sepinwall and Seitz have reunited to produce The Sopranos Sessions, a collection of recaps, conversations, and critical essays covering every episode. Featuring a series of new long-form interviews with series creator David Chase, as well as selections from the authors’ archival writing on the series, The Sopranos Sessions explores the show’s artistry, themes, and legacy, examining its portrayal of Italian Americans, its graphic depictions of violence, and its deep connections to other cinematic and television classics.

On January 10, 1999, a mobster walked into a psychiatrist’s office and changed TV history. By shattering preconceptions about the kinds of stories the medium should tell, The Sopranos launched our current age of prestige television, paving the way for such giants as Mad Men, The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. As TV critics for Tony Soprano’s hometown paper, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz were among the first to write about the series before it became a cultural phenomenon. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show’s debut, Sepinwall and Seitz have reunited to produce The Sopranos Sessions, a collection of recaps, conversations, and critical essays covering every episode. Featuring a series of new long-form interviews with series creator David Chase, as well as selections from the authors’ archival writing on the series, The Sopranos Sessions explores the show’s artistry, themes, and legacy, examining its portrayal of Italian Americans, its graphic depictions of violence, and its deep connections to other cinematic and television classics.

The official companion to The French Dispatch and the latest volume in the bestselling Wes Anderson Collection seriesThe French Dispatch—thetenth feature film from writer-director Wes Anderson—weaves together stories of an eccentric band of expat journalists working at the titularAmerican newspaper in 20th-century Ennui-sur-Blasé, France. Broken out into a series of vignettes, this love letter to the New Journalism era is filled with a cast of Anderson’s frequent collaborators, including Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, and Willem Dafoe, as well as new playersTimothée Chalamet, Jeffrey Wright, Elisabeth Moss, and Benicio del Toro.In this latest one-volume entry in the Wes Anderson Collection series—the only book to take readers behind the scenes of The French Dispatch—everythingthat goes into bringing Anderson’s trademark style, intricate compositions, and meticulous staging to the screen is revealed in detail. The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch presents the complete story behind the film’s conception, anecdotes about the making of the film, and behind-the-scenes photos, production materials, and conceptual artwork.

The official behind-the-scenes companion to Asteroid City and the latest volume in the bestselling Wes Anderson Collection seriesAsteroid City—the eleventh feature film from Academy Award–winning director Wes Anderson—follows a group of teen geniuses and their families as they attend the 1955 Junior Stargazers convention in the eponymous dusty hamlet.The events of the film, a representation of a fictional play, also titled Asteroid City, unfold in a parallel narrative to a televised broadcast of the creation of a theatrical production. As the lines between reality and theater blur, the audience is treated to stunning technicolor vistas and stark black and white sets, all while the promise of an extraterrestrial visit hangs overhead.In The Wes Anderson Collection: Asteroid City, the latest entry in The Wes Anderson Collection, cultural critic and New York Times bestselling author Matt Zoller Seitz presents the complete story behind the film’s conception via interviews with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman and illuminating behind-the-scenes photos, ephemera, storyboards, models, miniatures, and artwork.Contributions from Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, and the Junior Stargazers themselves provide reflections on the film’s production and insight into the intricately layered characters.

A dialogue about cinema''s legacy and best directors through essays by three of the best long-form critics out there, collected from the legendary NYPress for the first time.Comprising of the kind of long-form criticism that is all too rare these days, the weekly film columns in the NYPress included polemics, reviews, interviews, festival reports and features. A far cry from what is often derisively termed the "consumer report" mode of criticism, Cheshire, Seitz and White were passionately engaged with the film culture of both their own time, and what had come before. They constituted three distinctly different voices: equally accomplished, yet notably individual, perspectives on cinema. Their distinctive tastes and approaches were often positioned in direct dialogue with each other, a constant critical conversation that frequently saw each writer directly challenging his colleagues. Dialogue is important in criticism, and here you can find a healthy example of it existing under one proverbial roof. This three-way dialogue between Cheshire, Seitz and White assesses the 1990s in cinema, along with pieces on New York''s vibrant repertory scene that allow us to read the authors'' takes on directors such as Hitchcock, Lean, Kubrick, Welles, Fassbinder and Bresson; as well as topics such as the legacy of Star Wars, film noir, early film projection in New York City, the New York Film Critics Circle, Sundance, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the emerging cinema of Iran and Taiwan.