A-Z Great Film Directors

by Andy Tuohy (Illustrator), Matt Glasby

A striking, design-led reference book, A-Z Great Film Directors features Andy Tuohy's portraits of 52 directors significant for their contribution to cinema including kings of world cinema Wong Kar-Wai and Akira Kurosawa, arthouse pioneers Fritz Lang and David Lynch as well as the often under-appreciated female directors Kathryn Bigelow and Jane Campion.

With text by film journalist Matt Glasby, each director's entry will also have a summary of the essential things you need to know about them, why they're important, a list of their must-see films, and a surprising fact or two about them, as well as images of their key films throughout.

So whether you're already a film afficionado, or looking for a helpful cheat to pass convincingly as an arthouse fan, you'll love this guide to international directors, past and present.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Media Tie In

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2015

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, I was the idiot who bought this turkey so I should publicly confess here. It was some time ago but I’m still resenting it. The blurb says this is

A striking, design-led reference book

This means that there is a teeny page-if-that bit of breathless prose on each director with a completely useless page sized caricature of the said director (by Andy himself) and a list of five movies to see plus a couple of stills. 4 stupid pages per director.

I see the back cover blurb describes the book as “an ACCESSIBLE guide” – this means “don’t worry, it’s 90 per cent pix, you can flip through it in ten minutes, easy”.

The blurb continues:

So whether you're already a film aficionado, or looking for a helpful cheat to pass convincingly as an arthouse fan, you'll love this guide to international directors, past and present

What this means is : avoid this ridiculous inane chunk of cheese. Don’t do what that sucker Paul Bryant did. Learn from his error.

[Magdalena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Не съм отбелязвала другите две от същата поредица, въпреки че много ми харесаха. Но определено трябва да дам звезди за адски готините кратки анализи на критика Мат Гласби. Като цяло чуден наръчник, от който може да обогатиш лесно и базисно кино културат си, а също и да избереш филм за четвъртък вечер. (така се запалих да гледам Вернер Херцог) Портретите, разбира се, са очарователни.

[Krasi Karaivanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Една дума... СТРАХОТНА!

[Jasmin Mohd-zain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book !

The colours, the paper, the design and weight of this hard cover coffee table book ♡.

The contents were fairly selected and gave exposure to more directors and movies for me to discover.

Just enough as an introduction to them directors..and just enough to track down their movies and widen your taste in cinema.

Did i say i loved this book? Heh heh

[Shazzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphically acceptable, but as film literature, this isn't up to snuff. The text makes a lot of "first" claims about directors, which any film historian will tell you is folly. The early years of cinema are still too shrouded in mystery, thanks to an incalculable number of lost films, to ever really make a "first" claim. The collection of selected directors also reeks of testosterone, not only in its overwhelming male-ness, but in the types of films being lauded over and over. Where was Agnes Varda, who would have easily and worthily filled the vacant 'V' spot? Where was the modern thinking man's quirk, Wes Anderson? The spiritual Tarkovsky? The iconoclastic Catherine Breillat? The emotional hitman, Spike Jonze? The master that was Robert Altman? Did we really need John Carpenter -and- David Cronenberg?

As bathroom reading for the neophyte film fan, however, I'm sure this is just fine.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the fact that Touhy limited himself to 52 directors, but just consider some of the names he left out:

Howard Hawks
John Huston
Jean-Pierre Melville
Andrei Tarkovsky
Steven Soderbergh

and perhaps the two of most current directors making an impact on cinema today:

Wes Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson

I also take issue with referring to Fritz Lang's The Big Heat as a "minor classic." (I'd advise Tuohy to stay away from Lee Marvin and hot coffee.)

As an introductory book for anyone interested in film, the book isn't bad. It's probably a good starting point, but so, so much has been left out.

[Sarah McGinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect book for film buffs and those who want to know more about film! I'm using this to figure out all the classics I should watch. Striking visuals make this a lovely book to gift or display on your coffee table. Highly recommend it!

[5centreview · Rating 5 out of 5]

Прекрасна документална книга за киното, с опис на най-великите творци в него. Допадна ми карикатурният стил на портретите, в духа на творчеството на режисьора, и каретата с любопитна информация и най-важните и значими творби.

[Martin Petrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Винаги ми е интересно да погледна нечия подборка, било то с книги, филми или режисьори, в случая претендираща и за достоверност. Реално всеки може да направи такъв топ и не споря грам за съдържанието му. Но самите режисьорски справки са леко схематични и еднообразни и липсва лично мнение, с което дори и да не съм съгласен, пак би било по-добре от просто суха статистика.

Портретите на Анди Туи са супер. Това най-много ми допадна.

Разсмя ме фактът, че „Метрополис“ на Фриц Ланг бил инспириран от творба, създадена десетилетия по-късно („1984“). Също така се говори за 6-те Оскарови статуетки на Фелини, а той няма нито една. Нямам представа дали е грешка при превода или просто неточност.

Като цяло като ориентировъчен справочник в света на големите режисьори върши работа. За нещо повече – регистрирайте се в Letterboxd, моля.

[Jacky · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a cinephile, I loved this book. It's a pretty good list of great film directors with some pretty interesting details that I didn't know. I really liked how the author tried to be inclusive and included numerous international directors who are not American, British or French. However, I didn't agree nor like everything about the book. I would say that I disagreed with maybe 10% of the list in that I found some of the directors to not be great but just above average. I'm also disappointed that many great directors were not included in the book. I hope they would publish another version of this with a more updated list. Overall, a great book for any movie lovers.

[christine ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a cinephile, this book was an extreme pleasure to explore and look at. The illustrations and the design are on a whole different level. My only issue is that I don't fully agree with the 52 names that are mentioned in this book and that's why I'm giving it four stars, instead of five. Nevertheless, if you are interested in movies, THIS book is your go-to guide.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author mentions that there are so few women directors mentioned because that's a reflection of the industry but even when this came out there were still so many impactful ones he could have included (seriously no Agnes Varda?) and it just felt like a lazy excuse. It's a quick coffee table read but you're not missing out if you skip it.

[Aaron Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of directors to know.

[Ina Stoianova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Чудесна разходка из света на киното. Породи интес към някои изпуснати заглавия.

[Gabe Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book but limited amount of directors and each only really had a snippet of info that isn’t really expansive.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Behoorlijk interessant. Echt veel informatie is er niet gegeven, maar het is een leuk overzicht.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this because it really helped rekindle my love of films, something that was dwindling towards the end of 2015 (I blame studying the subject). The books has a great mix of female and male directors, people of colour and international directors as well as contemporaries and founding fathers, such as Méliès, Eisenstein and Orwell. It's witty and snappy, a quick read with beautiful images. Each entry provides you with a few films you should see by that director, a lovely feature that has helped me add a plethora of films to my 'to watch' list in 2016. I did find some of the phrasing quite repetitive, but a great read nonetheless.

[Doxie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are more abusers in this book than there are women, and they didn't even include Varda. Absolute Fuckery. Still, it's a good introduction to notable filmmakers, however it's a gateway drug, nothing more, nothing less.

[tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

♥♥♥♥♥

[Zara Shepherd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to watch more films