Book Recommendation: C.W.T.G.M.O.H.G.A.A.T.A.F.I.

Bearing the unwiel­diest of titles, Conversations with The Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age at the American Film Institute nev­er­the­less deserves a spot on your summer reading list. AFI founder George Stevens Jr. col­lects inter­views with many of Hollywood’s great dir­ectors, plus a handful of cine­ma­to­graphers and writers, and a few for­eign dir­ectors as well. Drawn from the AFI’s renowned sem­inars, each is a delight. And I’m only thirty pages in so far.

I’d buy the book just for a par­tic­ular gem from Raoul Walsh. While making In Old Arizona (1928), a freak acci­dent res­ulted in the loss of his eye. When doc­tors asked if he’d like to have it replaced with a glass one, he snapped, “Hell no. Everytime I’d get in a fight, I’d have to put it in my pocket.” He wore a black eye­patch for the rest of his life. (Note to self: track down his auto­bi­o­graphy, Each Man In His Time. He’s got a lot of great stories. Sadly, the book is cur­rently out of print.)

Check out this great list of interviewees:

• Harold Lloyd
• Raoul Walsh
• King Vidor
• Fritz Lang
• Frank Capra
• Howard Hawks
• James Wong Howe
• Mervyn LeRoy
• Rouben Mamoulian
• George Folsey
• William Wyler
• George Stevens
• William Clothier
• Alfred Hitchcock
• George Cukor
• Billy Wilder
• John Huston
• Ray Bradbury
• Elia Kazan
• Fred Zinnemann
• David Lean
• Stanley Cortez
• Robert Wise
• Ernest Lehman
• Gene Kelly
• Richard Brooks
• Stanley Kramer
• Hal Wallis
• Jean Renoir
• Federico Fellini
• Ingmar Bergman
• Satyajit Ray

If you buy from Amazon using this or the above links, you’ll help sup­port Toronto Screen Shots.

Senses of Cinema art­icle on Raoul Walsh by Tag Gallagher

Tagged as: Books, Directors, Interviews