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Minghella on Minghella
£12.30
Anthony Minghella, the writer and director behind films like Truly Madly Deeply, The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley, here explores his own work and the art of film-making. He offers candid commentary and fascinating insights with chapters on subjects from the practical – ‘Writing’ or ‘The Business of Film’ – to the philosophical – ‘Structure’ or ‘Theories, Poetry and Mortality’.
With a preface by Sydney Pollack, this book is essential for admirers of the director’s work, or indeed for anyone enthusiastic about cinema in general. Minghella on Minghella is an opportunity to know what went on behind the camera – and the eyes – of one of the genre’s greatest modern practitioners.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Faber & Faber, Main edition (3 Feb. 2005) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 192 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0571207111 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0571207114 |
| Dimensions | 15.24 x 1.91 x 22.86 cm |
by Sharfa Sorwar
Great, book needed for uni studies, good for those who are interested in screenplay as I needed this for my creative writing part of my English Degree.
by Kasablanka
I think this is interesting even for the layman. His interview on desert island discs is worth listening to as well. Comes across as such a nice person.
by Nbk
Daughter used my account
by James Luckard
If I were to recommend one book, out of the many I’ve read, to someone who wanted to know what a film director does, this would be it. Minghella is unparalleled in the lucidity and ease with which he dissects the director’s role in making a film. The book is compiled from a series of interviews, revolving around different aspects of the filmmaking process, from the general to the specific. However, there is a unity to the tone that makes it a totally coherent work, instead of the cut-and-paste job you might expect. It’s true, Minghella has only made 4 films that he feels warrant discussion. (The fifth, Mr. Wonderful, is saved for a brief chapter at the end, detailing what went wrong with it.) Still, he mines more advice and explanations about his creative role from those four films than most other directors are capable of finding in a whole career’s worth.
Obviously the fact that he’s an accomplished playwright means that he’s more at ease with language than most filmmakers, and every page is full of fascinating surprises, as he manages to put complex ideas and aspects of his creative process into words.
I should only add that this isn’t a book I would necessarily recommend to everyone. Minghella demonstrates such a ferocious intelligence that this would likely be over the head of the average casual film buff. This is not “Directing For Dummies.” (“… For Dummies” is a highly successful series of books over here filled with pictures, graphs and easily digested blurb writing like in Time or Newsweek.) Instead, this is more like The Economist or The Wall Street Journal. Dense, challenging, but endlessly rewarding to those who want to be informed and have their perspective broadened.
by M.A.WHEATLEY
good