Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers: What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Greatest Directors

by Robert Schnakenberg, Mario Zucca (Illustrator)

Strange-But-True Tales of Cross-Dressers, Drug Addicts, Foot Fetishists, and Other Legendary Filmmakers.
 
With outrageous and uncensored profiles of everyone from D. W. Griffith to Quentin Tarantino, Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers reveals the little-known secrets of all your favorite directors. Why did Charlie Chaplin refuse to bathe for weeks at a time? Was Alfred Hitchcock really missing a belly button?  Is Walt Disney’s corpse preserved in a state of suspended animation? And why on earth did Francis Ford Coppola direct a 3-D pornographic movie? The legends of the silver screen will never be the same!

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Biography, Art, History, Media Tie In, American

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

About the author

Robert Schnakenberg has been called "the Howard Zinn of nerd pop culture." He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Old Man Drinks, Christopher Walken A-to-Z, Secret Lives of Great Authors, and the New York Times bestseller The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray. His work has appeared in Penthouse.

Reviews

[alper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yazar sanki Hollywood kapısını epey tırmalamış ama bir türlü aralayamamış ve bu kitapla hıncını yönetmenlerden çıkarmış gibi. Bir yönetmen imajı çizmeye çalışılmış: Bu adamlar seks, alkol, uyuşturucu düşkünü, aktris seçimlerini yatak odalarında yapan adi zamparalar olarak resmedilmiş. Büyük beğeniyle izlediğim Bergman, Kubrick, Hitchcock, Truffaut gibi yönetmenlerle ilgili yazdıklarındaki üslubu yadırgadım. Ama bu durum gıcık olduğum Godard için kullanılan "Entelektüel kalpazanlık" ifadesine ve o bölümde anlatılanlara kıs kıs gülmeme mani olmadı.

Kitabın geneline bakacak olursak ucuz magazin dergileri seviyesindeki dili hoşuma gitmedi. Bizim de kutsallarımız var yazar efendi! Öyle kafana göre Bergman'a, Kubrick'e, Hitchcock'a sallamana izin vermem, verdirmem! Şaka şaka bu kadar ciddiye alınacak bir kitap değil. Ama arada şöyle bir karıştırırım ben bunu…

Beğendiğim Bölümler:
Godard,
Fellini
Sergio Leone
Steven Spielberg,
Martin Scorsese
Woody Allen

Birkaç dedikodu da paylaşsaydım keşke. :)

Yönetmenleri sağdan soldan değil de direkt kendilerinden dinlemek isterseniz:
Hitchcock
Sinematografi İnsan Yüzüdür
Stanley Kubrick

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very funny and enjoyable book, mainly because I'm familiar with every filmmaker mentioned. There were certainly details that I had never heard before of, such as how Chaplin rarely changed his clothes and smelled terrible or that Fellini was obsessed with psychics. There were a lot of common themes: everyone, especially the 70s directors, seems to have a number of intense phobias (Kubrick, germs; Lucas, snakes); many, many directors had substance problems; and a lot of the directors were jerks on set. These ideas, by themselves, are not surprising in the least yet the stories presented--e.g. John Ford asked actors to bend over so he could literally kick them in the ass--give the directors some real flavor. While the writing can be hyperbolic at times, it's all in good fun.

[Özlem Güzelharcan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bu serinin "yazarlar" ını okumuş, çok beğenmiştim. Aynı şeyi yönetmenler için söyleyemeyeceğim. Sıkıcı ve abartılı bir anlatımı var. Bir de belli ki yazarın bazı yönetmenlere özel bir garezi, gıcıklığı var, öyle ki yerden yere vurup durmuş kendilerini. (Bkz. Roman Polanski.) (Bkz. Bir Polanski fanı olarak Martı) Dursun yine de rafta. Arada bakılabilir.

[Erikka · Rating 4 out of 5]

After sifting through a simply unforgivable amount of typos, this book wasn't all that bad. It wasn't as interesting as the others in the series, probably because I'm not a huge film junkie, but it was still really informative, pretty funny at times, and makes me very curious about why only the most bizarre people become "auteurs" (a word for director that the author uses just so so many times). Seriously, some of these guys (and with the exception of an insert and the Nazi Leni Riefenstahl, they are all guys) are really screwed up. This is a pretty fun read, provided the grammar errors don't make you want to stab your eyes out.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick, fun read, but not much substance and too much conventional opinion that praises the obvious films while damning anything personal and idiosyncratic or non-lucrative at the box office. A lot of the gossip is sleazy and entertaining, but often exaggerated and contradictory. Many factual errors.

[Sergio GRANDE · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Three and a half movie stars.

Schnakenberg is a decent writer and, I think, a better researcher. I’ve read his gossipy writings on Christopher Walken and Bill Murray. They are easy reads full of info but sometimes a little short on sources.

This book is in the same mould of a National Enquirer with some class sprinkled on it. It is like an anthology of disposable gossip magazines outing:

-the paedophiles: Charles Chaplin; Polanski –of course.

- the insatiable sex fiends: Hitchcock; Howard Hawks; Luis Buñuel (habitual attendee to Chaplin’s orgies); Robert Evans; Elia Kazan; Harvey Weinstein; Robert Altman; Sam Peckinpah.

- the egotistical tyrants and sadists: Chaplin again; John Ford; Walt Disney; Akira Kurosawa; Orson Welles; Ingmar Bergman; Sergio Leone.

- the racists, homophobes, xenophobes and Fascists: Frank Capra; Disney; Leni Riefenstahl; Ingmar Bergman.

- the phobic: Chaplin (rubber); Hitchcock (eggs); Luis Buñuel (fear of being watched while having sex); Stanley Kubrick (banned people with the flu from his sets, forbade his driver to driver faster than 30mph, intense fear of flying due to his obsessive habit of listening to Heathrow’s air traffic controllers for hours on end).

- the personal hygiene problems: Chaplin; hard-drinking, wake-and-bake Robert Altman.

- the inveterate gamblers: Howard Hawks; Robert Altman.

- the believers in hocus pocus: John Ford; Fellini; Ingmar Bergman (saw ghosts).

- the uncontrollable addicts: Sam Peckinpah; Robert Altman; Martin Scorsese; Oliver Stone.

and

- the plain weird: Frank Capra (had a huge portrait of Mussolini in his bedroom); Hitchcock (loved cross-dressing); Disney (DeMolay Legion of Honor –Freemason) and he also scoured the frontlines during WWI collecting German helmets to sell as souvenirs, sometimes adding bullet holes to up the price; Orson Welles (ordered dinner for four and polished it by himself); Ingmar Bergman plotted to murder his baby sister and when that plan failed, tried to kill his brother Dag by setting his bed alight. He was also a germaphobe who needed to wash his hands several times a day; Robert Altman spent a season shooting a movie in Kansas and he skipped every lunchtime meal in order to go to a local bordello and get a $2 blowjob instead; Stanley Kubrick refused to see any doctor he didn’t know and once he had his dentist flown from the Bronx to London but because the man wasn’t licensed to practice in England, the procedure took place at the American Embassy premises.

I’ve already written too much, and I’ve left out dirt and gossip on Jean Luc Godard; François Truffaut; Roman Polanski; Woody Allen; Francis Coppola; Brian De Palma; Werner Herzog; Martin Scorsese; George Lucas, David Lynch; Oliver Stone; Steven Spielberg; Pedro Almodóvar; The Coen Brothers; Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino because I knew this lot would pique your curiosity.

You know what to do if you’re interested.

[Marla'dan Alıntılar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mart ayında yazardan Büyük Yazarların Gizli Hayatları’nı okuyup çok sevince nisan ayında da elimdeki diğer kitabı Büyük Yönetmenlerin Gizli Hayatları’nı okudum.

İsminden kitabın içeriğinin ne olduğunu anlamışsınızdır. Tarihteki birçok ünlü yönetmenin hayatı kısaca anlatılmış, sonra onlarla ilgili çok ilginç, farklı, bazen dehşet verici anekdotlar anlatılmış. Neredeyse her sayfada anlatılanlarla ilgili eğlenceli çizimler de var. Hatta bazılarını kitabın kapağında görüyorsunuz. Bu da kitabın sıkıcı olmasının önüne geçmiş.

Yazarların hayatını okuduğumda şöyle bir cümle yazmışım: “Kitapta adını daha önce hiç duymadığım yazarlar da vardı. Okuma yolunda daha keşfedilecek ne çok yazar, ne çok kitap var, diye düşündüm.” O kitapta anlatılan isimlerin çoğuna aşinaydım. Yönetmen konusunda daha kötü olduğum ortaya çıktı. İsmi geçen yönetmenlerin üçte birini ilk kez duydum, üçte birinin adını biliyorum ama hiçbir filmini izlememişim, geriye kalan üçte birinin ise en azından bir filmini izlemişim. Her sene yaptığım okuma hedefleri, planları, listeleri vb. gibi bir de film izleme çalışması yapsam keşke. İzlenecek o kadar çok şey var ki aralarında tercih yapmak zor oluyor. Bir kere oturup bir izleme listesi çıkarmayı, sonra o listeden film açıp açıp izlemeyi planlıyorum.

Domingo Yayınları’ndan çıkan kitabın baskı kalitesi çok iyi. Kağıdı kalın ve beyaz renginde. Normal kitaplardan daha ağır. Son zamanlarda kitap fiyatlarındaki artışlar düşünülürse en azından böyle kaliteli baskılar görmek isterim. Domingo Yayınevi’ni tebrik ediyorum özeni için.

Ben bu tarz kitapları çok severim. Tabii ki anlatılan her şeyi aklımda tutamıyorum. Bazen karşıma zaten bildiğim şeyler de çıkıyor ama yine de bu tarz bilgi veren kitapları okumayı seviyorum. Siz de eğer sinema ve yönetmenler ile ilgiliyseniz ve bu tarz kitaplar okumayı severseniz gönül rahatlığıyla öneriyorum. Alıntılara bakmadan geçmeyin.

https://suleuzundere.blogspot.com/202...

[Cm P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories and anecdotes about famous directors. Easy to read, funny and amazing. But writer should avoid to classify somethings according to himself. I mean, it's a bit inappropriate saying "...with his terrible movie bla bla bla". The name of book is Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers, not "Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers, from my point of view and I judge them easily".

[Drew Raley · Rating 1 out of 5]

A mishmash of thirdhand gossip poached from Wikipedia and imdb. A faux-R. Crumb illustrator does his best to fill space, but even a cursory fact-check will render much of this book worthless. What a waste.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and easy-to-digest, but the author's flippant tone and surprising amount of typos were distracting. I also wouldn't have minded a little more variety in the directors who were selected, though the small sections on lesser-known filmmakers did introduce me to a few new ones.

[Bladimir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Demasiado superficial, muchas inconsistencias en los hechos, errores en nombres y una mezcla muy extraña entre películas con títulos originales y otras con su traducción al español lo que hace difícil verificar los datos.

[Anastasia Frideriki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Εκλεπτυσμένος κίτρινος τύπος που φέρνει στην επιφάνεια τα κακώς κείμενα και τις παραξενιές σπουδαίων σκηνοθετών, πολύ ευχάριστο στο διάβασμα. Εξαιρετική μετάφραση από τον Νίκο Σταμπακη, κράτησε το ύφος και τον τόνο της πρωτότυπης έκδοσης και το προσάρμοσε εύστοχα στα ελληνικά δεδομένα

[Christian Hamaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I noted a 1-star GoodReads review of this book that asserts most of the stories and details in these pages can be found on Wikipedia. Have at it if that's your way of gathering information, but I appreciated that these anecdotes were collected between two covers, in print. Yes, the stories tend toward the lurid or just strange - there's not a lot in here that's admirable, frankly - but I learned some things about filmmakers and films I thought I knew well. I know those films and filmmakers a bit better now, thanks to this book.

[Michael Vasilescu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the other 2 books of the series so I took this one in my hands with enthusiasm.
To be honest I had the impression that I has reading a gossip magazine rather than a book. Everything was oriented towards scandal and bizzare things like they were criminals with a long long list of wrongdoings. One phrase that really put me off was referring to the concepts of Carl Jung “archetypes” and “ mental collective” as being fuel for the intellectual phychosexual delirium of Federico Fellini.
A bit over the top.

#gossipmagazine

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ďalšia zaujímavá kniha z tejto edície, ktorá nám tentokrát predstaví známych režisérov v inom svetle. No v inom svetle - svet šoubiznisu a filmu nebol nikdy ehm jednoduchý a bez incidentov. Niektoré osobnosti boli pre mňa neznáme, takže som si znova odniesla zopár nových zaujímavých poznatkov (okrem iného :D). O pravdivosti daných výrokov a faktov nemá podľa mňa moc zmysel polemizovať, niektoré veci sú naozaj iba na pobavenie, ale rýpať sa v tom a dohľadávať sa pravdy, to asi fakt nie. :D

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

A boring trivia book with a title fit for the content: secret, "what teachers never told you". Things like the birth date gathered through channeling with the spirits of the dead. Or the "astrological sign", like there is only one. Or the nationality! Now who would have known that secret? Major films which are unknown to the greater public.

And the drawings are ugly too.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been over a decade since I read Robert Schnakenberg's Secret Lives of Great Authors, but this was a timely read in the wake of David Lynch's passing. It is full of insights about directors (mostly) and some actors and producers I never knew. Ignore my dates. Not that long of a read; I have just been busy.

[Çağlar Ali Doğan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filmlerini severek izlediğim yönetmenlerin (Bir ikisinin hiçbir filmini izlemedim) sosyal hayatta ve sette ne kadar ilginç ve çoğu zaman aşağılık olduğunu okuyarak şaşırdım. İnsan idolüyle, kahramanıyla asla tanışmamalı derler ama çok şükür benim favorim Zack Snyder kitapta yoktu. Zaten herkesin hakkında iyi konuştuğu biri bu kitapta yer alamaz.

[Juandi Mora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro lleno de anécdotas -unas conocidas y otras no tanto- de los grandes directores del cine.

Curioso, entretenido y... con demasiado opinión sobre las películas del autor.

Para leer a ratos y para ganar algún quesito en el trivial.

[Akın · Rating 3 out of 5]

magazin bilgilerinin arasında kayda değer anektodlar da var. keyifli, iyi vakit geçirten bir kitap.

[David Keep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun gossip

As I get older my reading matter seems to be of the kind that can be read in the bathroom. This is one of the best of that genre. Also, I like the art

[Kaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

pop kitap olarak fena değil, keyifli okuması.

[Abhishek Jha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for gossip and trivia if you are a hardcore fan. Not for serious aspirant who wants to learn about craft or anything.

[Efe Tessmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

cheesy

[George Touros · Rating 1 out of 5]

Λίγο πλακίτσα, λιγο χαβαλές, κάμποση βιτριολη.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The horrible editing and pretentious word choices are a distraction from the interesting and bizarre stories of the world's most renowned filmmakers. I think the author changes tone, too, as the filmmakers become more contemporary. With early directors, he says things like "widely regarded as his worst" or "critics were harsh." By the time he is writing about Francis Ford Coppola, he just starts injecting his own opinions calling Sofia Coppola "untalented" and drawing many conclusions about other modern directors. It is a trap that authors of books about film history fall into. If this is intended to give a biographical view of these filmmakers, the editorializing does not fall into the main idea of the book. It is just not needed in this book.

The grammatical and spelling errors are egregious. The editor doesn't break the syllables up correctly at the end of lines. Names are spelled wrong throughout the book.

4.5 for biography
1 for writing style and editing

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was already familiar with most of the biographical anecdotes contained in this entertaining & quick little read. (Snob alert: It goes with the territory of being a grad student in film studies!)

Those enamored of the great auteurs should really seek out each one of the best biographies and memoirs quoted throughout the book, such as:

My Last Sigh - Luis Bunuel
Truffaut: A Biography - Antoine de Baecque & Serge Toubiana
Robert Altman: The Oral Biography - Mitchell Zuckoff
Howard Hawks - Todd McCarthy
I'm a Born Liar - Federico Fellini
Something Like An Autobiography - Akira Kurosawa

[Cagliostro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ένα βιβλίο εθιστικό με “γαργαλιστικές” λεπτομέρειες από την ζωή μεγάλων σκηνοθετών, οι οποίες μερικές φορές ακροβατούν μεταξύ ιστορίας και μύθου. Έρωτες, βίτσια, εμμονές, ιδιορρυθμίες, ναρκωτικά και πολλά άλλα παρελαύνουν στις σελίδες του βιβλίου καθιστώντας ορισμένους αστέρες πιο ανθρώπινους και ευάλωτους στα μάτια του αναγνώστη. Κοινός παρανομαστής για όλους είναι η μεγάλη αγάπη για τον κινηματογράφο στον οποίο μετέφεραν πολλά από τα βιώματα τους με τον δικό τους ξεχωριστό τρόπο. Για τον συνειδητοποιημένο λάτρη των ταινιών το συμπίλημα αυτών των ατελειών προσθέτει απλώς ένα ακόμη πιθανό δεδομένο στην προσπάθεια για την ερμηνεία μερικών αριστουργημάτων της 7ης τέχνης.

[M.electro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read.

I loved reading about how ridiculous some of the great filmmakers truly were, and some still are. It's fun in the sense that after reading, you will have the ability to drop some crazy knowledge the next time you have a movie night with friends, or the next time your film snob friends patronize you for not seeing the latest foreign indie art noir film.

[Cory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. I thought some of the comments were a little snarky (ex. Orson Welles' weight), and almost seemed like a personal vendetta (ex. Spike Lee), but a very informative read nonetheless.