The Film Book

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When her 1997 short story was filmed by Ang Lee, author Anne Proulx proclaimed: “I may be the first writer in America to have a piece of writing make its way to the screen whole and entire.” Moreover, the end product is an exceptional piece of cinema: a love story, which happens to be between two men but speaks to the doomed romantic in everyone. Routinely referred to as the quintessential anti-war film, All Quiet on the Western Front draws heavily from Remarque’s similarly harrowing novel. Upon its release in 1930 – just a year after the book was published – it was regarded as a powerful statement of intent from the then fledgling movie industry. Its potency hasn’t dulled in the intervening years. He shows you how to approach the script, how to direct actors, how to communicate with cinematographers, how to collaborate with producers, and how to edit your project for maximum effectiveness. This 2020 version of Emma plays up the humour and bite of the source material, adhering a little less closely than some Austen-ites might like for a better on-screen effect. But much of the same spirit, and those period costumes, remains. It’s a film with real rhythm. Those up for an even looser take on Emma should not miss 1995’s Clueless, a near-perfect film, if not one quite closely tied to the book enough to make this list.

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Cinematography: Theory and Practice, Second Edition: Image Making for Cinematographers and Directors by Blain Brown A wonderfully-researched tale of Hollywood horror, that, of course, is also true. The Battle Of Brazilis the story of how Terry Gilliam and Universal Pictures came to butt heads over the director’s richly acclaimed 1985 movie, Brazil.The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn’t Know You Need to Know About Making an Independent Film by Reed Martin The ambitious plan by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to set up the first major Hollywood movie studio since United Artists enjoyed some success. Still, over 20 years on, DreamWorks is a different beast to the one it once was. Nicole LaPorte and Stephen Hoye’s chatty history goes through the creation of the studio, and how it stumbled through its early days before hitting success with the likes of Gladiatorand American Beauty. Superior to David Fincher’s 2011 Hollywood remake, this is an unsettling film that executes its distressing motives superbly by paying close attention to Steig Larsson’s alarming book. Some scenes are taken from later books in Larsson’s Millennium Series, but this in no way undermines the excellence of Oplev’s taut thriller. The bookis a fictionalized telling of the Sutton Hoo dig, a critically important excavation of Anglo-Saxon artifacts. The film looks like it's a pretty faithful tellingof the real-life participants involved, and we might see it make the rounds in upcoming awards circuits. If archaeology is your thing, the book is terrific. Published: 5 Oct 2023 Disdain, decay and a half-dead eel: why Withnail & I explains so much of Sunak’s Britain

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The real gift of Julie Salamon’s superb telling of the making of the movie The Bonfire Of The Vanities is that she has you absolutely rooting for it. Accepting that the movie was a notorious early 90s Hollywood bomb (eclipsed in Bruce Willis’ career soon after when the knives came out for Hudson Hawk), Salamon is a patient, diligent observer. She charts how one of the most compelling books of its time was chewed up by the Hollywood system, with director Brian De Palma desperately trying to shape a worthwhile picture at the end of it all.I’ve known directors and cinematographers who carry this book with them on set, just in case they ever want to return to it for reference. Harris is one of the most insightful film writers working today (few think pieces get at the inherent trouble with movies today like his brilliant Esquire essay “The Day the Movies Died”). His first book examines the birth of the “New Hollywood” movement in a rather ingenious fashion: by simultaneously profiling the five films nominated for the Oscar as 1967’s Best Picture. Two were rabble-rousing films from young and inventive directors ( The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde), two were “social change” pictures from the old guard ( Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In The Heat of the Night), and one was a big, bloated musical extravaganza that exemplified all that was wrong with studio production ( Dr. Doolittle). In his cinematic “intercutting” of their five stories, he paints a full and riveting picture of modern movies’ turning point. And let's be honest: never let it be said that the people in the film industry aren’t a rum bunch. Rather than think of their own films to bring to the silver screen (does anybody still call it that?), they just let authors pen their finely crafted words and stories and then turn those into motion pictures (does anybody still call it that?). Like we said, a rum bunch.

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While I tried to avoid screenplay books here, I did want to mention this masterful autobiography. Goldman is one of our greatest storytellers and he weaves an excellent tale detailing how it all happens. He doesn't shelter you from the ups and downs.

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The film writing of Richard E Grant is something to be cherished, not least because he published his outstanding movie diaries – With Nails– whilst very much at his most in-demand. Again, I'm not the best with this stuff, so I love reading and getting better. This book has the nuts and bolts of what goes into creating the looks of your favorite films but also stories of how challenges were overcome on set. It's a problem solver's dream. The first adaptation of Charles Portis’s novel starred John Wayne and while noted for its excellence as a film, it certainly toned down the violent imagery and brutality in the book. The Coen brothers pay homage to the book by retaining much of the story; framing it squarely in the eyes of the original narrator Mattie Ross and ending the film like the book, 25 years after the events depicted. A marvellous film.