Arthur Penn: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (Paperback)

~ Michael Chaiken (Editor), Paul Cronin (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Bonnie and Clyde looms as large in these interviews with its director as it does in the history of American movies, in which it marks the division between studio filmmaking and the New American Cinema of the 1960s and ’70s. Even more than his colleague and near-exact contemporary Sidney Lumet (see Sidney Lumet: Interviews, 2005), Penn discusses technical moviemaking with clarity and verve. It helps that his Alice’s Restaurant and Little Big Man are scarcely inferior to Bonnie and Clyde; that his first film, The Left-Handed Gun, is one of the most storied victims of studio tampering; that his second, The Miracle Worker, is one of the best filmings of a play ever made (Penn is specific about how he could have made it better and says he ought to remake it); that he has always been cogently critical of the American film industry (a term he despises); and that most of these interviews come from French film journals accustomed to serious talk about movies. A real standout in the Conversations with Filmmakers series. --Ray Olson

Product Description

Beginning in 1957 with the release of his directorial debut The Left Handed Gun, Arthur Penn (b. 1922) quickly became an iconoclastic and influential American film director. Moving deftly between comedy and tragedy, realism and absurdity, his films Mickey One, Bonnie and Clyde, Alice's Restaurant, Little Big Man, and Night Moves speak to the troubled times--the 1960s and 1970s--in which they were made while remaining timeless in their unsettling portrayal of characters on the margins of society.

Arthur Penn: Interviews is the first collection to explore every stage of the director's career. These conversations span forty-five years, from his first in-depth discussion with Cahiers du cinéma in 1963 to a new interview from 2007, and reveal Penn's ever-changing ideas on the nature of film and filmmaking. This volume also presents newly translated interviews from European film periodicals, published in English for the first time.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (November 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604731052
• ISBN-13: 978-1604731057
• Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 0.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,701,775 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Collection, January 20, 2009

By	P. Jewkes (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A very welcome book considering how little has been published about the great director Arthur Penn. This collection of interviews dates back to the early '60s when Penn was fresh from his Broadway triumphs with TWO FOR THE SEASAW and THE MIRACLE WORKER. It covers most of Penn's film's (ranging from classics such as aforementioned THE MIRACLE WORKER to BONNIE & CLYDE to the much maligned THE CHASE to the sublime oddities such as THE MISSOURI BREAKS and PENN & TELLER GET KILLED). It's simply great to hear from Penn! Despite limited output, he's made some brilliant films. He's frank, open and honest...AND he's one of the very rare director's to defend Marlon Brando! One damper...the new interview (conducted for THIS collection) shows a rather cranky Penn, demeaning the interviews and interviewers in the book! Nevertheless, it's a must have.