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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} John Huston Interviews by Robert Emmet Long BOOKSHELF. In the late 1980s, Robert Emmet Long ’56 wrote more than 50 profiles of filmmakers for a reference work, World Film Directors , which covered renowned directors such as John Huston, Ingmar Bergman and George Cukor. One filmmaker whose works caught Long’s attention was director James Ivory of the independent Merchant Ivory Productions. Long wrote to Ivory, asking for his cooperation regarding a book Long hoped to write about the director’s career. When he did not receive a response, Long wrote to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the primary screenwriter for most of Ivory’s films, and mentioned that friends of his were friends of her brother, S.S. Prawer, a noted scholar of German literature at Oxford. The day after Long wrote the letter, Ivory invited Long to join him, producer Ismail Merchant and Jhabvala at Ivory’s house on the Hudson. Upon their first meeting, Ivory agreed to give Long his full cooperation. It helped that, at the time, Ivory was adapting two Henry James novels, The European and The Bostonian . Long is a noted James expert and has published two highly regarded works on the novelist; Long’s knowledge of the subject gave Ivory more incentive to cooperate. The Films of Merchant Ivory , first published in 1991 and extensively updated in 1997, gave readers unprecedented access to the filmmaking process of Merchant Ivory Productions. Long conducted interviews with Ivory, Merchant and Jhabvala and labored over the large Merchant Ivory archive for behind-the-scenes photos and movie stills, editing a book that is widely considered the standard work on the production company. “Merchant Ivory films are observant, civilized and, of course, visually captivating, and sometimes they are perfect,” said Long, who named Shakespeare Wallah (1965) and The Remains of the Day (1993) among his favorites. Having gained Ivory’s trust and friendship, Long proposed an interview book with the director. James Ivory in Conversation: How Merchant Ivory Makes Its Movies (University of California Press, $24.95), published in April, is a collection of interviews with Ivory that spans three years, examines more than 40 years of filmmaking and offers Ivory’s reflections on his body of work. Long demonstrates his own extensive knowledge of Merchant Ivory films and their source materials by asking provocative and pointed questions throughout the book. “Ivory is a perfectionist in the extreme,” Long remarked. “You can’t ask him boob questions; you always have to be well prepared.” As much as the book delves into details of the director’s decision-making process and critical analyses, the interviews are hardly dry academic exercises. James Ivory in Conversation essentially is a series of intellectual and engaging chats between two friends who are up on their subject. “I wanted Ivory’s urbanity to show,” Long said. “I consider him the most articulate filmmaker in America.” Long describes Merchant, who died in May, as a “most mercurial person” with shifting moods and contradictions in his personality. Merchant had a talent for extracting money from financiers, Long said, but he was devoted to art. It was through Merchant that Long was able to meet actors such as Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve and Paul Newman. Long’s latest book is another achievement in a prolific career as an independent scholar and freelance writer. His first job after graduating from the College was as an investigator for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., which he says he never took seriously. He soon found himself in San Francisco in the wake of the Beats. “Everyone there wanted to be a writer,” said Long, “so I was right in my element.” Eventually, Long started graduate school in the Northeast. He would go on to write hundreds of reviews and essays for national magazines before publishing his first two books in 1979 — The Achieving of The Great Gatsby and The Great Succession: Henry James and the Legacy of Hawthorne . While his early work centered primarily on literature, Long has since ventured into writing about theater and film. His diversity of interests may have been partly inspired by Mark Van Doren, “a man of great charm” whom Long idolized as an undergraduate. After hearing Van Doren’s “magnetic voice” on radio as a high school student, Long took his class at the College, “The Narrative Art,” and found the professor’s lecturing abilities “mesmerizing.” “He was very versatile, and was constantly being published; I wanted to be like him,” Long said. With more than 40 books and hundreds of articles and essays to his credit, Long continues to produce. A collection of actress-turned-director Liv Ullmann’s interviews will appear in spring 2006; the final interview is by Long, and excerpts can be found online. Long, who recently has focused his writing on theater, is working on two projects. The first is a book based on his coming to know Julian Beck and Judith Malina of The Living Theatre while a College sophomore. The book is about The Living Theatre in the context of American avant-garde movements of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. His other project, with The American Theatre Wing, is four volumes of edited transcripts from its televised panel discussions (“Working in the Theatre”), in which noted theater figures discuss aspects of their profession. Long, in addition to having more theater books planned, hopes to work again with Ivory. John Huston. A look at the staying power of Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View and the age of conspiracies. Tributes. Giuseppe Rotunno: 1923-2021. A tribute to one of the best cinematographers of all time. Features. Kirk Douglas: 1916-2020. A tribute to Kirk Douglas. Features. Robert Forster: 1941-2019. A tribute to Robert Forster. Features. 20 Years of Steven Soderbergh's The Limey. The Limey is the point when Soderbergh confidently admitted his comfort zone is the genre film. Features. Albert Finney: 1936-2019. A tribute to Albert Finney. Features. The Great Performances of 2018. The RE staff on some of their favorite performances of 2018. Features. Sheila O'Malley's Top Ten Films of 2018. Sheila O'Malley's ten best films of 2018. Interviews. The Absurdity of Life: Elizabeth Chomko and Robert Forster on What They Had. An interview with writer/director Elizabeth Chomko and actor Robert Forster about their Chicago family dramedy, What They Had. Festivals & Awards. 45 Movies to see at the 54th Chicago International Film Festival. An in-depth look at what's playing this month at the Chicago International Film Festival. Festivals & Awards. The New York Film Festival 2018 Preview. A preview of the 56th annual New York Film Festival. Festivals & Awards. Venice Film Festival 2018: A Star is Born, The Other Side of the Wind. A review of new films by Bradley Cooper and, believe it or not, Orson Welles. Far Flungers. Escape to Victory: Soccer and War run the world. A look at Escape to Victory in light of the World Cup and world events. Chaz's Journal. A Sense of Kindness: Andrew Haigh on Lean on Pete. An interview with the writer/director of 45 Years and Lean on Pete. Features. Bright Wall/Dark Room October 2017: "All We Did is Survive" by Amy Woolsey. An essay about Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk," from the latest edition of the online magazine Bright Wall/Dark Room. Features. We Should Be So Lucky: A Tribute to Harry Dean Stanton. The staff pays tribute to Harry Dean Stanton. Festivals & Awards. The Big Knockover: "Noir City: Chicago" Brings Heist Films to the Music Box Theater. 18 noir films, all in 35mm, will screen at Chicago's Music Box Theater from Friday, August 25 through Thursday, August 31. Features. Michael Parks: 1940-2017. A tribute to the late actor Michael Parks. Interlopers in a Foreign Land: “Beat the Devil” Returns to Theatres. A piece on "Beat the Devil," returning to the Film Forum this weekend. Interviews. A Supreme Artist: Pascal Mérigeau on "Jean Renoir: A Biography" An interview with author Pascal Mérigeau, whose latest work celebrates the life of filmmaker Jean Renoir. TV/Streaming. Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: December 15, 2016. The latest on Blu-ray, DVD, and Netflix, including Heart of a Dog, Southside with You, Florence Foster Jenkins, and many more! Ebert Club. #289 November 15, 2016. Matt writes : Music legend Leonard Cohen passed away on November 7th, and became the latest in a long string of celebrity deaths this year that have inspired an outpouring of grief among fans. The Unloved, Part 32: "Youth Without Youth" Our intrepid savior of cinema's underrated films turns his eye to Francis Ford Coppola's most personal film. Interviews. Restoring the Classics: Phil Hopkins on Blu-ray Restoration Label the Film Detective. An interview with Phil Hopkins, founder of the Blu-ray restoration label The Film Detective. Interviews. True Love Never Did Run Smooth: Rebecca Miller on "Maggie's Plan" An interview with director Rebecca Miller about her film "Maggie's Plan." John Huston : Interviews. This collection of interviews brings the filmmaker John Huston vividly to life in his own words. Huston (1906-1987) had an extraordinary career that spanned more than forty years and nearly fifty films. Among these are such classics as The Maltese Falcon , Key Largo , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , The African Queen , The Night of the Iguana , Prizzi's Honor , and The Dead . In these interviews ranging from 1952 to 1985 Huston talks about his approach to directing, the influence of painting upon his camera work, his association with stellar actors (Humphrey Bogart, Montgomery Clift, Errol Flynn, Marilyn Monroe, and others), his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influence that the authors James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway had on his movies.

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