Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age: At the American Film Institute

by George Stevens Jr. (Editor)

The first book to bring together these interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute’s renowned seminars—a series that has been in existence for almost forty years, since the founding of the Institute itself.

Here are the legendary directors, producers, cinematographers and writers—the great pioneers, the great artists—whose work led the way in the early days of moviemaking and still survives from what was the twentieth century’s art form. The book is edited—with commentaries—by George Stevens, Jr., founder of the American Film Institute and the AFI Center for Advanced Film Studies’ Harold Lloyd Master Seminar series.

Here talking about their work, their art—picture making in general—are directors from King Vidor, Howard Hawks and Fritz Lang (“I learned only from bad films”) to William Wyler, George Stevens and David Lean.

Here, too, is Hal Wallis, one of Hollywood’s great motion picture producers; legendary cinematographers Stanley Cortez, who shot, among other pictures, The Magnificent Ambersons, Since You Went Away and Shock Corridor and George Folsey, who was the cameraman on more than 150 pictures, from Animal Crackers and Marie Antoinette to Meet Me in St. Louis and Adam’s Rib; and the equally celebrated James Wong Howe.

Here is the screenwriter Ray Bradbury, who wrote the script for John Huston’s Moby Dick, Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man, and the admired Ernest Lehman, who wrote the screenplays for Sabrina, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and North by Northwest (“One day Hitchcock said, ‘I’ve always wanted to do a chase across the face of Mount Rushmore.’”).

And here, too, are Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini (“Making a movie is a mathematical operation. It’s absolutely impossible to improvise”).

These conversations gathered together—and published for the first time—are full of wisdom, movie history and ideas about picture making, about working with actors, about how to tell a story in words and movement.

A sample of what the moviemakers have to teach us:

Elia Kazan, on translating a play to the screen: “With A Streetcar Named Desire we worked hard to open it up and then went back to the play because we’d lost all the compression. In the play, these people were trapped in a room with each other. As the story progressed I took out little flats, and the set got smaller and smaller.”

Ingmar Bergman on writing: “For half a year I had a picture inside my head of three women walking around in a red room with white clothes. I couldn’t understand why these damned women were there. I tried to throw it away . . . find out what they said to each other because they whispered. It came out that they were watching another woman dying. Then the screenplay started—but it took about a year. The script always starts with a picture . . . ”

Jean Renoir on actors: “The truth is, if you discourage an actor you may never find him again. An actor is an animal, extremely fragile. You get a little expression, it is not exactly what you wanted, but it’s alive. It’s something human.”

And Hitchcock—on Hitchcock: “Give [the audience] pleasure, the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, History, Anthologies

736 pages, Hardcover

First published February 21, 2006

Reviews

[Anthony McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

INVALUABLE FILM HISTORY.
Anyone who is interested in the history of film has to read this excellent collection of AFI seminar conversations.
There are more than thirty enlightening, entertaining and historically important question and answer sessions in this 700 page book, featuring mainly the 'golden age' of filmmaking. Directors are the main focus but there is also a fair representation of other artists including cinematographers, writers and producers; and if you think it's just Hollywood, think again, as four foreign-language directors are also included.
Each 'conversation' runs approximately 20-25 pages in length and is accompanied by a filmography and some excellent, many rare, photographs.
As you would expect with any project involving George Stevens Jr., this is a classy, invaluable document of film history.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immensely fun, George Stevens Jr.'s interviews with some of the greatest creative Hollywood forces from the Golden Age of Hollywood not only leaves the reader wanting more but wanting to fill in the gaps of their own movie lists. Compiled from years of guest speakers at the American Film Institute, the book holds the wisest and funniest stories from such great people as Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Ray Bradbury, David Lean, Gene Kelly, and Ingmar Bergman. Though most directors, there are a smattering of screenwriters, actors, and cinematographers to round out the conversation. Whether you have seen all their filmographies or not, there is always something to learn from the masters of the art. There is a sequel of sorts: Conversations at the American Film Institute with The Great Moviemakers -- The Next Generation, from the 1950s to Hollywood Today. A title as long as the book itself, but I am sure it will be just as fulfilling.

[Callum Vandenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of movies from the golden age of Hollywood, and this book was a really good insight into some of the minds that created these golden age films. I was familiar with some of filmmakers in this book, but others not as much. Either way, the ideas and knowledge shared here are truly valuable.

[Bleak Mouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interviews by George Stevens Jr. with the great film directors who arose during the day when film directors were considered simple craftsmen, as most indeed were. The usual wits and loudmouths come across splendidly. The rest strike one as a mite dull, although it is fascinating that they are so dull. One noteworthy lesson is that each has a separate and distinct "theory" of everything (probably at the promptings of overzealous film students), and they all disagree with one another entirely. This should tell you something about the making of movies, classic and otherwise.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. A MUST READ.

Not a good review? Read it and then do better than me.

That's a challenge!

[John Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a marvelous book based on candid interviews conducted primarily in the 1970s by the AFI's George Stevens Jr. with top directors from Hollywood's Golden Age. Among those interviewed are Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Mervin Leroy, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, George Cukor, John Huston, and George Stevens, the author's father.
Stevens Jr. notes that virtually all the directors failed to go out on their own terms. While they had been powerful men calling the shots in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, by the time they reached the end of the line they couldn't dictate the direction of their films; corporate lawyers did.
The interview with the witty Billy Wilder is worth the price of the book. For example, as he discusses how a director has to play different roles, he pines: "You have to be a sycophant. You have to be a sadist. You have to be a nurse. You have to be a cook. You have to be a philosopher. You have to demean yourself. you have to be a screamer. It just depends on the actor."

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine, Q&As with Harold Lloyd, William Wyler, Billy Wilder, James Wong Howe or Satyaht Ray on making movies. They are among dozens in this collection offering insight on enthralling audiences with storytelling, performances, cinematography and editing. Why that last, quizzical Garbo scene for 90 feet of film? Why did certain scenes in Ben Hur look the way they did (and what’s with that introductory chariot lap)? What’s the purpose of making movies? Billy Wilder answered that one by saying it was a little too late for him to become a gardener.

Anyway, these conversations at the AFI are valuable windows into dealing with actors, studio pressure, making films while the script was still being written, and sussing out audiences in previews.

There are heartfelt answers to the “why” of movies as well?

I’m not sure if the AFI has a second volume that pays attention to women directors and filmmakers of color as well. As enlightening as this is, it is only a partial story.

[Alec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Retreads familiar ground if you’ve read anything of guys like Hawks, Wilder, Cukor etc, but invaluable for its interviews with cinematographers, writers and ‘non-auteur’ directors.

Probably worth it just for the conversations w James Wong Howe and Rouben Mamoulian. Fellini’s was too short doe

[Stefan Hedmark]

⭐️

[Tom Newth · Rating 4 out of 5]

by default, consistently interesting - 30 or so big names - and some gratifyingly less big - blathering on about their art. the title forewarns of a slightly typical AFI self-congratulation and blinkeredness, tho bergman, fellini, renoir and ray close the book. of course major names are lacking, and there's not a lot very probing, but it's nice to hear this stuff from the horse's mouth.
surprisingly (or not?) mamoulian comes off as by far the most remarkable and i learned that stanley cortez is ricardo's brother and looks like an amusingly wonky version of him. if you've any interest at all, there's no excuse not to.

[Carol Niehaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning the directors evaluation of their work on some of my favorite classic films. I particularly enjoyed learning about the relationships these celebrated directors had with their producers, actors, cinematographers and writers. I could have easily omitted about 150 pages from this lengthy book and still feel satisfied that the topic was adequately addressed.

[michal k-c · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the books I return to most often. The interviews are great, but the best part about this is that out of all of these people (some of the most talented to ever be in the business), there is absolutely no general consensus on how to make a movie. Good reminder that there is no right way to approach most endeavours

[Lee]

Ideal bedside reading.

[Susan Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best college textbook ever.