Above the Line is a dazzling gathering of insights and anecdotes from all corners of the film industry. The interviews (portions of which originally appeared in Playboy and Movieline) explore from the inside the skills, intelligence, experiences, and emotions of eleven key players who produce, write, direct, act, and review the movies, including Oliver Stone, Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Robert Evans, Lily Tomlin, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Harrison Ford, Robert Towne, Sharon Stone, and Siskel and Ebert. Witty, scathing, gossipy, generous, the interviewees show just what make the movies work from "above the line"—from the perspective of those whose names go above the title. These are the "talent"—the gifted individuals, often with inflated egos, often torn by doubts—each representing a piece of the puzzle that somehow gives rise to the best in moviemaking today.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"If there is a Mozart of interviewers, Larry Grobel is that individual." -- Joyce Carol Oates, from the introduction to Above the Line
About the Author
Lawrence Grobel has been a freelance writer for more than thirty years, writing for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Playboy, Movieline, and many other periodicals; Playboy called him “the interviewer's interviewer” after his historic conversation with Marlon Brando. Grobel has written several books, including Conversations with Capote, Talking with Michener, and The Hustons. He lives in Los Angeles.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You know how the movies were once called "Talkies"...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Above The Line: Conversations About The Movies (Paperback)
Lawrence Grobel has been writing the finest interviews with the world's famous for the past twenty years. Finally, a compilation of his best work has arrived. The thing that sets Grobel apart from most interviewers is research. He makes a consistent effort to never repeat the same old tired questions. This is apparent throughout this book. I highly recommend both the Robert Evans interview and the Oliver Stone, but they're all pretty great. Be sure to check out Grobel's work each month in Movieline and Palyboy magazines as well.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informative and a style beyond compare!,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Above The Line: Conversations About The Movies (Paperback)
Lawrence Grobel is a brilliant entertainment interviewer. I have admired his work and by reading "Above the Line: Conversations about the movies", his work inspires me even more. As an entertainment writer, I've always wanted to conduct my interviews like Grobel's. One thing about Grobel's style is that he's smart, he's a man who does his research and although I have never met the man, his interviews are intelligent, informative and it leaves me complete. Where magazines tend to have the typical questions that are becoming so damn repetitive in many entertainment publications (and also to short), when you read this book you can tell by his conversations with people like Harrison Ford, Sharon Stone, Oliver Stone and more that they have a certain respect for this man. I can't wait to read the next book from Grobel (which I hope there is another one) and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading entertainment interviews and to those who are interviewers as well. "Above the Line" is deserving of the five stars.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
THE FIRST TIME I MET ROBERT EVANS at his office at Paramount Studios, in the summer of 1993, he was sitting behind a round glass table looking at ad copy for Sliver, which was about to open. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Van Damme, The Godfather, Jack Nicholson, Los Angeles, Natural Born Killers, Tom Cruise, Oliver Stone, Robert Evans, The Cotton Club, Harrison Ford, Star Wars, San Francisco, Silence of the Lambs, The Two Jakes, Woody Allen, Jodie Foster, John Wayne, Van Gogh, Francis Coppola, Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, Wall Street, Academy Award, Anthony Hopkins New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
THE FIRST TIME I MET ROBERT EVANS at his office at Paramount Studios, in the summer of 1993, he was sitting behind a round glass table looking at ad copy for Sliver, which was about to open. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Van Damme, The Godfather, Jack Nicholson, Los Angeles, Natural Born Killers, Tom Cruise, Oliver Stone, Robert Evans, The Cotton Club, Harrison Ford, Star Wars, San Francisco, Silence of the Lambs, The Two Jakes, Woody Allen, Jodie Foster, John Wayne, Van Gogh, Francis Coppola, Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, Wall Street, Academy Award, Anthony Hopkins New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 69
books:
See all 69 books this book cites
2
books
cite this book:
- Natural Born Killers: Tie-In by John August in Front Matter, page 55, and page 105
- The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris on page 24, page 135, and page 320
- Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas on page 263, page 271, and page 272
- The Cotton Club (St Martin's Original Screenplay Series) by Francis Ford Coppola in Front Matter, page 45, and page 48
- Tough Guys by Ian Don on page 113, and page 130
See all 69 books this book cites
- The Art of the Interview: Lessons from a Master of the Craft by Lawrence Grobel in Back Matter
- Climbing Higher by Montel Williams in Back Matter
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
