Sidney Lumet: Interviews

Conversations With Filmmakers Series

by Joanna E. Rapf (Editor)

Sidney Lumet (b. 1924) is considered one of the most gifted and socially conscious American filmmakers of his generation. His best-known movies--including Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, 12 Angry Men, and Network--have garnered him an Honorary Academy Award in 2005, multiple Oscar nominations for Best Director, the D. W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement, and numerous other tributes.

This book features over twenty interviews with the director, including an interview conducted by the editor for this volume. One of the few mainstream directors who works outside of Hollywood, Lumet discusses how his home base, New York City, fuels his films. Candid, outspoken and occasionally brash, Lumet talks passionately and clearly about his work with great actors (among them Al Pacino, Faye Dunaway, River Phoenix, and Sean Connery) and acclaimed screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky.

Insisting that moviemaking is collaborative, Lumet often notes his determination to find styles that serve the many different kinds of stories he has told, such as the social drama The Pawnbroker, the crime films Prince of the City and Serpico, the intimate family piece Garbo Talks, the play adaptation Long Day's Journey into Night, and the television series 100 Centre Street.

Joanna E. Rapf is professor of English and of film and video studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. She is the author of On the Waterfront and Buster Keaton: A Bio-Bibliography, and her work has appeared in Film Quarterly, Literature/Film Quarterly, Post Script, and Journal of Popular Culture.

Genres: Film

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 4, 2005

Reviews

[David Sterritt]

I’ve just read through “Sidney Lumet: Interviews,” a volume in the Conversations with Filmmakers series initiated by my late and still-lamented friend Peter Brunette, and there are quite a few points of interest in the book, notwithstanding the repetitions and redundancies inherent in the format of the series. The volume’s editor, Joanna Rapf, has generally made solid choices and I’m pleased to find that my own 1977 contribution is not the worst of the lot, although perhaps not the best either. Sidney never considered himself a great artiste, and I concur in that opinion, but he was enormously energetic, impressively prolific, and occasionally inspired. While his filmography is mixed, it’s impossible to ignore.

[Joe Millye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interviews are all very good and provide solid information for film buffs. I'd like to see something, though, that delves a bit deeper into the director's early influences. Maybe just a little more of a human interest piece could be included.