Customer Reviews

Cinema by the Bay

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From the very first spread, I knew CINEMA BY THE BAY was going to be a very special book. The helicopters flying over the beach in APOCALYPSE NOW is one of the most referred to scenes in modern film history, for all of the elements of war and tragedy that it evokes, but also because it is a scene that demands watching on the big screen. Not only the big screen of a movie theater, also evocatively referred to by the layout of the first page, but the big screen of the imagination, which all good movies reside on.

With that one choice Sherrly Avni brings home not only what is special about the filmmakers covered in her well-researched and totally accessible book, but what was important about the studios founded and fueled by the creative and business efforts of those men and women: that the works created by those artists and companies were defiant, revolutionary, often strokes of genius that come on like an invading army going to war full of dreams to change the landscape while at the same time shackled by the politics of an industry rooted so deeply in its old ways that breaking free was sometimes an impossible task. That all these studios were born in the same area of California amongst a group of creative people who alternated between being mentors and students of each other's work was hardly an accident, and as I made my way across the pages of the book, first learning more about the films of American Zoetrope, The Saul Zaentz Company, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Pacific Data Images than I'd ever learned in a thousand books and magazine articles, then delving into the meatier director biographies, it was clear to me why these filmmakers have been the people who have shaped the way we all look at movies for most of the last century.

The book's layout is great, the writing crisp and direct, and filled with first hand observations from the people who lived the challenges of making the movies what they are today. I can't recommend the book more highly. If you're a fan of movies or just a fan of people and companies that defy the odds, you have to get this book!

The pervasive influence of the San Francisco Bay Area on the American film industry certainly makes for a rich pictorial of quite a tapestry of movies. At first, it seems like the commonality of location would make for a contrived listing, but this book is not just about filming locations. What local arts writer Sheerly Avni does is a solid if rather lightweight job of capturing the frenzied spirit that has marked Northern California's moviemaking scene since the early 1970's. Unsurprisingly, she tends to get effusive about her publisher, George Lucas, and his limited output as a director, but it is a forgivable breech when one considers the breadth of films, both renowned and almost forgotten, that she writes about here.

The book is divided neatly into two sections, the first devoted to the five studios based in the Bay Area (Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope, Lucasfilm and the Saul Zaentz Company, as well as the CGI powerhouses of Pixar and PDI) and the second to the filmmakers who are either from here or have chosen toe base themselves here. They include not only Coppola and Lucas but also Carroll Ballard, Clint Eastwood, Phil Kaufman, Michael Ritchie, Chris Columbus and Wayne Wang among others. A complete filmography is included for each studio and director, and Avni provides plenty of interesting information about the productions. The best part of the book is really the treasure trove of production photos provided for each major film presented, many rarely seen before. I also like how certain overlooked films of quality, such as "Tucker: A Man and His Dream", receive renewed attention here, as well as vastly talented filmmakers like Ballard, who do not usually receive much media attention.

Michael Sragow, film critic for the Baltimore Sun, provides the book's invaluable introduction, which summarizes the long history that Northern California has had on cinema starting with Charlie Chaplin's use of Niles in the East Bay as a shooting location for many of his early silents. Alfred Hitchcock is another filmmaker known for his love of Bay Area locations as seen in "Vertigo", "Shadow of the Doubt" and "The Birds", a topic covered thoroughly in Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal's entertaining "Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco". In the meantime, this is a worthy coffee table book providing ample evidence of how San Francisco has been an enduring creative touch point for much of the best of American cinema.

From the founding of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope to Pixar's struggles to stay fresh, I learned so much about the Bay Area's contribution to American film reading this book. (And who knew film producer Saul Zaentz discovered Creedence Clearwater Revival in a prior life as a record producer?) I always thought of "The Godfather" as the region's major movie claim to fame, but this book covers five studios, and 12 independent directors, most of whose names even the most casual filmgoer will recognize. Of course, "Star Wars" and "Amadeus" are covered, but so are less likely suspects such as "Rumble Fish" and "A Perfect World."

The photographs and images are amazing, but Avni's spunky text really makes it. I will be giving this book to my dad, who has lived in the Bay Area for more than 30 years, for Christmas.

This book is a major disappointment. To start, San Francisco has a rich, interesting film history, where many artists have made some great films. This book, sadly, does not come close to covering or doing justice to any of them. Where is the covering of Canyon Cinema, and the indie scene that sprang up in the 60's? Apparently, San Francisco filmmaking began with George Lucas and Francis Coppola.

It is unsurprising then to learn that this is published by Lucas Books--the thing revolves around American Zoetrope (president: Coppola; ex-co-president: Lucas), Lucasfilm, and Pixar (originally a division of Lucasfilm).

Okay, thats not a crime--these three giants truely do make up the bulk of the areas filmmaking history. They have great legacies behind them and interesting, complicated histories to discuss. If only the book accomplished this. What we get are a lot of photographs from the movies and summaries of their plots.

Thats basically all this is--you get a few pages of background on the various companies, and then a list of their films, with accompanying plot summaries and some general production anecdotes. In other words, stuff almost everyone already knows. Informative? No. Candid? Not really. Interesting? Only if you know absolutely nothing about these people.

But even if you DO know nothing about these people, this book is a terrible introduction, and as a general history of the Bay area's filmmakers its equally inappropriate for its omissions and passing, rather superficial coverage of smaller names like Carrol Ballard and John Korty. There's really no scenario under which I can recommend this book. Skip it.

This book sums up the last four decades of filmmaking that has come out of the Bay Area. When you see all these films collected between the covers of this book, one realizes just how much Coppola, Lucas, Eastwood, Kaufman, Saul Zaentz, and Pixar have contributed to our collective movie consciousness. The writing is crisp and lucid, but the images [many never seen previously] and page layouts are astounding. This would make a wonderful gift for *any* movie lover, but even those with a casual interest in film will find it captivating. I am pretty sure this is the first book from Lucas Books, and I applaud it.

"Cinema By The Bay" by San Francisco-based film and culture writer Sheerly Avni is a profusely illustrated survey of influential, full-length, post-1960s feature films produced by five movie studios located in the San Francisco Bay Area (American Zoetrope, The Saul Zaentz Company, Lucasfilm Ltd., Pixar Animation Studies, and Pacific Data images), or which were directed by independent filmmakers living and working in Northern California (many of whom were recent graduates of the California Institute of the Arts and Stanford - where they had studied experimental animation). Enhanced with the inclusion of an informed and informative introduction by film critic Michael Sragow, filmographies, an index, credits and acknowledgments, "Cinema By The Bay"is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Cinema History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.