World Directors in Dialogue: Conversations on Cinema

by Bert Cardullo

Focusing on practical matters related to filmmaking-acting, design, cinematography, directing, writing, and editing, World Directors in Dialogue: Conversations on Cinema collects probing interviews with 13 major international directors. Representing Italy, France, Belgium, England, Iran, China, India, and Japan, these artists answer questions about how they work, the meanings of their movies, and the relationship of their pictures to other directors' films as well as to other arts. Some of the most acclaimed directors in the world are featured here, including Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Rashomon), Satyajit Ray (Aparajito, Pather Panchali), Luchino Visconti (Death in Venice, The Leopard), Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry, Under the Olive Trees), Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs, Il Posto), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (L'Enfant, La Promesse), Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, To Live), Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake), and Ken Loach (Kes, Raining Stones). This collection also includes the final interviews with Eric Rohmer (Claire's Knee, My Night at Maud's) and Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows, Day for Night), as well as a rare interview with Jacques Tati (Mon Oncle, M. Hulot's Holiday). With a complete filmography for each director, as well as detailed bibliographies and a comprehensive index, World Directors in Dialogue is a book to which one can return again and again for insights, anecdotes, and a vision of what it was to be an auteur in the 20th century and beyond.

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Bert Cardullo is Professor of Media and Communication at the Izmir University of Economics in Turkey. His books include Playing to the Camera, An Idea of the Drama, and Screen Writings.

Reviews

[Dany · Rating 4 out of 5]

"After all, there is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself." -Akira Kurosawa

There's an interview in here for every type of world cinema fan. I personally read the book for Kurosawa, Ray, and Kiarostami, but found all the interviews to be informative and inspiring in their own ways.

[Kevin Hinman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As cliche as it might sound, there's something in Bert Cardullo's interview book for every film fan, whether you're a French New Wave buff or are drawn into the minimal kitchen sink dramas of Leigh and Loach. Cardullo's interview style might not be for everyone, sometimes, as is the case with Zhang Yimou, badgering the subject in order to illicit what he wants to hear, but it never fails to produce interesting results.

Jacques Tati's wonderful comedy analysis is worth the price of the book alone, but you also get Rhomer and Truffaut waxing nostalgic about their early days, and the rise of the New Wave, and a lengthy Kurosawa piece. Even those directors whose work I was unfamiliar with gave compelling interviews. Abbas Kiarostami's argument for the avant-garde is fascinating and intelligent, and Satyajit Ray's interview had me kicking myself for never checking out his much-lauded body of work. World Directors in Dialogue is funny, insightful, and inspiring, and never more so than at Visconti's closing remark.

BC - If cinema hadn't existed...what would you have done?
LV - I would have invented it.