Read instead…in print #38: Conversations at the AFI with the Great Moviemakers

Reading the series of talks compiled in Conversations at the American Film Institute with the Great Moviemakers, with directors, writers, actors, cameramen, composers, editors, feels like attending the seminars yourself. More than that, these conversations, preserved and presented here by George Stevens Jr, and revolving around how movies are made, are very visual, they take you to the very core of a scene, of a location, of a performance, of a character. They are felt, just as a film is not just watched, but felt and lived. “The next generation” in the subtitle refers to the time period beginning with the 1950s, when the studio system was collapsing and people could no longer depend on, or were bound by, the structure of studio life to make movies. Sydney Pollack talks about why he generally worked with Robert Redford much more directly than he did with other actors, and why directing is sometimes about not directing, Alan J. Pakula talks about why he aimed for and how they attained the claustrophobic world, that feeling of being trapped in space, of being caught, in Klute, Nora Ephron talks about how Sven Nykvist, “the world’s greatest cinematographer”, doesn’t care about putting a star actor in the dark, editor Anne Coates talks about the details in Lawrence of Arabia that you only see if you watch the film on the big screen (you can’t see them on a little screen). The magic of cinema is on the big screen. The magic of cinema is that it talks to you, and sings to you, and tells you a story visually.

Conversations with the Great Moviemakers is a fascinating revelation of the art of making pictures.

”One of the questions I’ve always asked myself
when reading a script or working with ideas for a film is,
why is this a movie? […]
The thing should not work for blind people.
Essentially it’s a false medium if it’s a medium that
works just fine when you’re not paying attention
with your eyes.
What really interests me is something that could only be
a film. This idea couldn’t be turned into a play or novel or
anything else. You want to concentrate on creating something
that is uniquely cinematic.”

James Mangold

Read instead… in print is about a good book about cinema or filmmakers. No discursive, pretentious analyses, no verbose scrutiny. Because the idea is to invite you to read the book, not read about it here. But instead of using social media, I use my journal. Back to basics. Take it as a wish to break free of over-reliance on social media (even if it’s just for posting a photo of a good book) for presenting my work, cultural finds and interests. These are things to be enjoyed as stand-alone pieces in a more substantial and meaningful way than showing them in the black hole of Instagram thronged with an audience with a short attention span. This is also a look through my voluminous collection of books about film that I use as research in my adamant decision to rely less and less on the online and more on more on print materials.