The author then tries to tie it together with a few quotes at the end about the magic of the movie business, which doesn't really land because of the preceding 250 pages of incessant demoralizing complaining. The authors, Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson, were granted "access to the AFI's Harold Lloyd Seminars, oral histories, and complete archives . Nine hours into the book, from late 19th century through 5 decades of the 20th century, there was finally mention of a Black director – Gordon Parks.

And while you don't get a lot of first-hand stories from actors, you do get a lot of detail about them, their talents and their foibles. Perhaps that's the point: that a mighty beast was ripped to pieces, and the vultures moved in; that once it was at least partly about art; but this might have been brought to life in a less tedious way. To fill in the gaps, authors Sam Wasson and Jeanine Basinger awkwardly introduce their own "voices", as if they are a part of the oral "conversation" (i. It's great to read the first=person insights of legends like Frank Capra, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, and Harold Lloyd as well as many men and women you may have never heard of, but who made enormous contributions to the movies.Know that these are interviews, and people don't always tell the complete truth in interviews, but whether they are or aren't being honest with us, the material is fascinating.

I looked forward to reading the book because it seemed that with all the different ethnic cultures, even the real Black people from the masterpiece of racist cinema Birth of a Nation (not just the Black faced), were included. But it was still really interesting reading about the early days of filmmaking, and how it transitioned into the studio system.

As for why the West Coast was picked for this new enterprise, Henry Blanke, producer of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, explains: “There was eternal sun here. Along those same lines someone in the final chapter says movies today are all about making money, they aren't about making art anymore.

So reading about all the processes and steps of making movies from those who actually did it was great. But the idea that movies are no longer about making art when its now easier than ever for anyone to make a movie than its ever been, allowing artists that wouldn't have had a chance in earlier eras to get a film made can do it all by themselves is just stupid. Their art comes to life through their stories and those of the many talented men and women who make the movies come to life. In addition, she is a trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute, a member of the Steering Committee of the National Center for Film and Video Preservation, and one of the Board of Advisors for the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers.Home to William Golding, Sylvia Plath, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sally Rooney, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Max Porter, Ingrid Persaud, Anna Burns and Rachel Cusk, among many others, Faber is proud to publish some of the greatest novelists from the early twentieth century to today. And that is just great, because it feels like Hollywood has this sort of hush hush nature about it, the golden age in particular. In between, seminar guests talk about budget bloats and business trends, changing acting styles and changing audience tastes. If mini-biographies were done, there should be figures of these people, especially in a book about the movie industry, unless there are plans to redo this in an illustrated edition. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook).