Robert E. Kapsis - Böcker

This revised and updated edition gathers interviews and profiles covering the entire forty-five-year span of Woody Allen's career as a filmmaker, including detailed discussions of his most popular as well as his most critically acclaimed works. The present collection is a complete update of the volume that first appeared in 2006. In the years since, Allen has continued making movies, including Midnight in Paris and the Oscar-winning Blue Jasmine.While many interviews from the original edition have been retained in the present volume, nine new entries extend the coverage of Allen's directorial career through 2015. In addition, there is a new, in-depth interview from the period covered in the first edition. Most of the interviews included in the original volume first appeared in such widely known publications and venues as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. A number of smaller and lesser-known venues are also represented, especially in the new volume. Several interviews from non-American sources add an international perspective on Allen's work.Materials for the new volume include pieces focusing primarily on Allen's films as well as broader profiles and interviews that also concentrate on his literary talent. Perhaps Stephen Mamber best describes Allen's distinctiveness, especially early in his career: “Woody Allen is not the best new American comedy director or the best comedy writer or the best comedy actor, he's simply the finest combination of all three.”

Charles Burnett (b. 1944) is a groundbreaking African American filmmaker and one of this country’s finest directors, yet he remains largely unknown. His films, most notably Killer of Sheep (1977) and To Sleep with Anger (1990), are considered classics, yet few filmgoers have seen them or heard of Burnett. The interviews in this volume explore this paradox and collectively shed light on the work of a rare film master whose stories bring to the screen the texture and poetry of life in the black community.The best qualities of Burnett’s films-rich characterizations, morally and emotionally complex narratives, and intricately observed tales of African American life-are precisely the things that make his films a tough sell in the mass marketplace. As many of the interviews reveal, Hollywood has been largely inept in responding to this marketing challenge. "It takes an extraordinary effort to keep going," Burnett told Terrence Rafferty in 2001, "when everybody’s saying to you, ‘No one wants to see that kind of movie,’ or ‘There’s no black Audience.’" All the interviews selected for this volume—spanning more than three decades of Burnett’s directorial career, including his recent work—examine, in various degrees, Burnett’s status as a true independent filmmaker and explore his motivation for making films that chronicle the black experience in America.

In the late 1950s, Mike Nichols (1931-2014) and Elaine May (b. 1932) soared to superstar status as a sketch comedy duo in live shows and television. After their 1962 breakup, both went on to long and distinguished careers in other areas of show business - mostly separately, but sporadically together again.In Nichols and May: Interviews, twenty-seven interviews and profiles ranging over more than five decades tell their stories in their own words. Nichols quickly became an A-list stage and film director, while May, like many women in her field, often found herself thwarted in her attempts to make her distinctive voice heard in projects she could control herself. Yet, in recent years, Nichols's work as a filmmaker has been perhaps unfairly devalued, while May's accomplishments, particularly as a screenwriter and director, have become more appreciated, leading to her present widespread acceptance as a groundbreaking female artist and a creative genius of and for our time.Nichols gave numerous interviews during his career, and editor Robert E. Kapsis culled hundreds of potential selections to include in this volume the most revealing and those that focus on his filmmaking career. May, however, was a reluctant interview subject at best. She often subverted the whole interview process, producing instead a hilarious parody or even a comedy sketch - with or without the cooperation of the sometimes-oblivious interviewer. With its contrasting selection of interviews conventional and oddball, this volume is an important contribution to the study of the careers of Nichols and May.

In the late 1950s, Mike Nichols (1931-2014) and Elaine May (b. 1932) soared to superstar status as a sketch comedy duo in live shows and television. After their 1962 breakup, both went on to long and distinguished careers in other areas of show business - mostly separately, but sporadically together again.In Nichols and May: Interviews, twenty-seven interviews and profiles ranging over more than five decades tell their stories in their own words. Nichols quickly became an A-list stage and film director, while May, like many women in her field, often found herself thwarted in her attempts to make her distinctive voice heard in projects she could control herself. Yet, in recent years, Nichols's work as a filmmaker has been perhaps unfairly devalued, while May's accomplishments, particularly as a screenwriter and director, have become more appreciated, leading to her present widespread acceptance as a groundbreaking female artist and a creative genius of and for our time.Nichols gave numerous interviews during his career, and editor Robert E. Kapsis culled hundreds of potential selections to include in this volume the most revealing and those that focus on his filmmaking career. May, however, was a reluctant interview subject at best. She often subverted the whole interview process, producing instead a hilarious parody or even a comedy sketch - with or without the cooperation of the sometimes-oblivious interviewer. With its contrasting selection of interviews conventional and oddball, this volume is an important contribution to the study of the careers of Nichols and May.

As a star, Clint Eastwood is recalled primarily for two early roles--the ""Man With No Name"" of three European-made Westerns and ""Dirty"" Harry Callahan, the uncompromising cop who spoke softly and carried a big gun in five movies. But like few other stars, Eastwood has shaped his own career by appearing almost exclusively in films he produced or co-produced, frequently under his own direction. No other contemporary dramatic star has directed himself so often. His acclaim as a director began in the late '70s and reached a peak with the 1992 release of his Oscar-winning Unforgiven. Eastwood has steered a remarkable course as an independent filmmaker. He is a film industry insider who works through the established Hollywood system, yet he remains an outsider by steadfastly refusing to heed cultural and aesthetic trends in film production and film style. Films he has directed have examined artists' lives (Honkytonk Man, 1982; Bird, 1988; White Hunter, Black Heart, 1990) and called into question his own star image (The Gauntlet, 1977; Bronco Billy, 1980; Unforgiven, 1992) while remaining accessible to a popular audience. The interviews collected here range over the nearly three decades of Eastwood's directorial career. Their emphasis is on practical filmmaking issues and on his philosophy of filmmaking. Nearly half are from British and European sources. The latter, appearing in English for the first time, show how Europeans were praising him as a director while many American critics had not yet acknowledged him as an actor of merit. Robert E. Kapsis, author of Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation, is a professor of sociology and film studies at Queens College, CUNY. Since 1995 he has been executive producer of American Film Masters. Kathie Coblentz is a special collections cataloger at The New York Public Library. She also works on the American Film Masters series.

Woody Allen (b. 1935) is one of America's most idiosyncratic filmmakers, with an unparalleled output of nearly one film every year for over three decades. His movies are filled with rapid-fire one-liners, neurotic characters, anguished relationships, and old-time jazz music. Allen's vision of New York—whether in comedies or dramas—has shaped our perception of the city more than any other modern filmmaker. ""On the screen,"" John Lahr wrote in the New Yorker in 1996, ""Allen is a loser who makes much of his inadequacy; off-screen, he has created over the years the most wide-ranging oeuvre in American entertainment."" Woody Allen: Interviews collects over twenty-five years of interviews with the director of Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Bullets Over Broadway, and Annie Hall, for which he won an Oscar. The book's interviews reveal a serious director, often at odds with his onscreen persona as a lovable, slap-stick loser. Allen talks frankly about his rigorous work habits; his biggest artistic influences; the attention he devotes to acting, screenwriting, and directing; and how New York fuels his filmmaking. Along with discussing film techniques and styles, Allen opens up about his love of jazz, his Jewish heritage, and the scandal that arose when he left his longtime partner Mia Farrow for her adopted daughter. Including four interviews from European sources, three of which are now available in English for the first time, Woody Allen: Interviews is a treasure trove of conversations with one of America's most distinctive filmmakers. Robert E. Kapsis is professor of sociology at Queens College and is the author of Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation. His work has appeared in the Village Voice, Variety, Journal of Popular Film and Video, and Cineaste and at the Museum of Modern Art. Kathie Coblentz is special collections cataloger at the New York Public Library. Kapsis and Coblentz coedited Clint Eastwood: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi).

The films of Jonathan Demme (b. 1944) reflect his ebullient personality and are often infused with his love for Caribbean culture, pop music, fashion, and characters who reveal offbeat tastes and depths. He emerged from the 1970s American Renaissance that produced Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and others. His movies are funny, humane, and often unclassifiable by genre. With conversations from the 1970s to the present, Jonathan Demme: Interviews focuses on Demme's artistry, on his filmmaking philosophy, and especially on his progressive social and political concerns and how these have influenced the subject matter he has chosen to film. Although best known for his Oscar-winning dramas The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, Demme has also achieved acclaim for comedies (Married to the Mob; Something Wild), documentaries (The Agronomist; My Cousin Bobby; Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains), and concert performance films (Stop Making Sense; Neil Young: Heart of Gold). In this volume, he discusses his troubles with studios, his need to balance documentaries with fiction films, his early work as a critic and publicist, and his apprenticeship with Roger Corman working on ""B"" movies.

Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) is the only popular American dramatic star to have shaped his own career almost entirely through films of his own producing, frequently under his own direction; no other dramatic star has directed himself so often. He is also one of the most prolific active directors, with thirty-three features to his credit since 1971.As a star, he is often recalled primarily for two early roles--the ""Man with No Name"" of three European-made Westerns, and the uncompromising cop ""Dirty"" Harry Callahan. But on his own as a director, Eastwood has steered a remarkable course. A film industry insider who works through the established Hollywood system and respects its traditions, he remains an outsider by steadfastly refusing to heed cultural and aesthetic trends in film production and film style. His films as director have examined an eclectic variety of themes, ranging from the artist's life to the nature of heroism, while frequently calling into question the ethos of masculinity and his own star image. Yet they have remained accessible to a popular audience worldwide. With two Best Director and two Best Picture Oscars to his credit, Eastwood now ranks among the most highly honored living filmmakers.These interviews range over the more than four decades of Eastwood's directorial career, with an emphasis on practical filmmaking issues and his philosophy as a filmmaker. Nearly a third are from European sources--several appearing here in English for the first time.

Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) is the only popular American dramatic star to have shaped his own career almost entirely through films of his own producing, frequently under his own direction; no other dramatic star has directed himself so often. He is also one of the most prolific active directors, with thirty-three features to his credit since 1971.As a star, he is often recalled primarily for two early roles--the ""Man with No Name"" of three European-made Westerns, and the uncompromising cop ""Dirty"" Harry Callahan. But on his own as a director, Eastwood has steered a remarkable course. A film industry insider who works through the established Hollywood system and respects its traditions, he remains an outsider by steadfastly refusing to heed cultural and aesthetic trends in film production and film style. His films as director have examined an eclectic variety of themes, ranging from the artist's life to the nature of heroism, while frequently calling into question the ethos of masculinity and his own star image. Yet they have remained accessible to a popular audience worldwide. With two Best Director and two Best Picture Oscars to his credit, Eastwood now ranks among the most highly honored living filmmakers.These interviews range over the more than four decades of Eastwood's directorial career, with an emphasis on practical filmmaking issues and his philosophy as a filmmaker. Nearly a third are from European sources--several appearing here in English for the first time.

Conversations with Steve Martin presents a collection of interviews and profiles that focus on Martin as a writer, artist, and original thinker over the course of more than four decades in show business. While those less familiar with his full body of work may think of Martin as primarily the ""wild and crazy guy"" with an arrow through his head, this book makes the case that he is in fact one of our nation's most accomplished and varied artists. It shows the full range of Martin's creative work, tracing the source of his comic imagination from his early standup days, starting in the mid to late 1960s through the films he has written and starred in, and emphasizing his more recent creative outpourings as playwright, essayist, novelist, memoirist, songwriter, composer, musician, and art critic.""Standup is the hardest material in the world to write for someone else; it's like trying to condense 10 years of experience into 20 minutes of new material.,"" Martin says. But commenting on his fiction writing, he says. ""I think you have to be able to find as a writer that state where you don't know what you're going to say or what the character is going to say or who the characters are. That's the biggest thrill of all. When you start to trust that subconscious thing and you don't censor yourself--just remember you can always throw it away--that's when the good stuff comes out.""The selected materials consist not only of pieces focused primarily on Martin's writings, but also broader profiles and conversations that help explain Martin's development as a writer within the larger context of his many other accomplishments, talents, and performance skills.

Conversations with Steve Martin presents a collection of interviews and profiles that focus on Martin as a writer, artist, and original thinker over the course of more than four decades in show business. While those less familiar with his full body of work may think of Martin as primarily the ""wild and crazy guy"" with an arrow through his head, this book makes the case that he is in fact one of our nation's most accomplished and varied artists. It shows the full range of Martin's creative work, tracing the source of his comic imagination from his early standup days, starting in the mid to late 1960s through the films he has written and starred in, and emphasizing his more recent creative outpourings as playwright, essayist, novelist, memoirist, songwriter, composer, musician, and art critic.""Standup is the hardest material in the world to write for someone else; it's like trying to condense 10 years of experience into 20 minutes of new material.,"" Martin says. But commenting on his fiction writing, he says. ""I think you have to be able to find as a writer that state where you don't know what you're going to say or what the character is going to say or who the characters are. That's the biggest thrill of all. When you start to trust that subconscious thing and you don't censor yourself--just remember you can always throw it away--that's when the good stuff comes out.""The selected materials consist not only of pieces focused primarily on Martin's writings, but also broader profiles and conversations that help explain Martin's development as a writer within the larger context of his many other accomplishments, talents, and performance skills.