The Director's Vision: A Concise Guide to the Art of 250 Great Filmmakers [Paperback]

Geoff Andrew (Author), Joel and Ethan Coen (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1999

Covering the true originals of classic Hollywood, the masters of world cinema, the more distinctive contemporary filmmakers, and a number of downright eccentrics, The Director’s Vision is a guide to 250 of the all-time great visual stylists. These filmmakers are each given a single film still that exemplifies their work; the accompanying text explores how they exploit the cinematic arts—composition, color, camera angle and movement, lighting, sound, sets, and action—to convey their thematic obsessions and artistic visions. This simple premise builds into one of the most fascinating, visually arresting, and insightful of all film books. Never have the images of cinema and the words written about it been so expertly tied together. The result is an entertaining and genuinely enlightening film reference.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a refreshingly literal examination of "moving pictures," Geoff Andrew, film editor of London's Time Out magazine, explores the work of 250 filmmakers, one frame at a time. Andrew's approach is akin to yelling "Freeze!" in the middle of a movie, and then analyzing the frozen image as if it were a stand-alone photo. His technique is enormously successful, revealing the individual elements of composition--background, staging, lighting, body positioning, facial expression--that when compiled add up to the overarching feeling a film transmits to viewers. Dissecting a single frame also has the effect of sparking immediate appreciation for the countless factors a great director must not only be aware of but also give constant attention to.

Following the hilariously self-mocking foreword by Joel and Ethan Coen (which eliminates any possibility of the book being labeled stodgy or high-falutin), Andrews admits in the introduction that his selection process was difficult. He focuses on only those directors with a "recognizably distinctive visual style," and the selected stills are those that are "somehow representative of the filmmaker in question, which is not the same as saying it is the most beautifully visual image (let alone the most familiar) from his or her finest or most famous film."

In addition to the meticulously chosen stills, Andrew's text demands your involvement in the picture. He begins each explanation with a description of the shot: "Sex, violence, fear: a chanteuse has forced an innocent youth she's found watching her from the closet to strip and make love to her at knifepoint; but is someone now watching them?" Continuing his analysis, he illustrates how this scene fits into the director's vision for the film, and how it relates to his or her complete body of work. Insightful, incisive, and intelligent, Andrew makes clear to movie fans what skilled directors must know in their very being--if one picture paints a thousand words, a film is capable of millions. --Brangien Davis

From Library Journal

This is a frustrating volume. As film editor of London's Time Out and programmer of London's National Film Theatre, Andrew is a gifted critic. He provides trenchant observations about the directors assembled here, but he's limited by his form. Arranged alphabetically by director, entries come with partial filmographies and See Also references to similar filmmakers. About a third of each entry discusses a film still that supposedly exemplifies the style of the director in question. These stills--like the directors chosen for inclusion here--are generally well considered, and Andrew should be congratulated for his coverage of African, Asian, and Central European directors. But because each entry is limited to approximately 300 words, we get only the most tantalizing of generalizations. As a result, the book succeeds as neither a reference work nor a lavish coffee-table book. It is simply too concise to be of any great value for libraries.
-Neal Baker, Earlham Coll., Richmond, IN
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press; 1st edition (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556523661
• ISBN-13: 978-1556523663
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Opinionated and certainly not a 'concise guide', but fun., August 1, 2000

By 

Atul Varma (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Director's Vision: A Concise Guide to the Art of 250 Great Filmmakers (Paperback)

This book is by no means what it is advertised as: it's not a "concise guide" to the art of 250 directors, it doesn't tell you "how the world's greatest filmmakers create their spellbinding visions" and "the secrets behind their unique styles." In fact, it's rather misguided in my opinion because it uses auteur theory and assumes that the director is the one who creates the entire picture contained in the movie frame, as though the he or she is the "painter" of an entire film's moving image; but in fact a very large part of what goes into the frame is done by the cinematographer, the production designer, and many other people. It surprises me because I don't even think the word "cinematographer" is mentioned even once in the whole book, yet the cinematographer often puts at least as much work into a film's visuals as a director, if not more. The author of this book is also quite opinionated and really ticks me off sometimes when he bashes some of my favorite directors, claiming that their work is "half-baked humanism" and "insubstantial" while giving no real reasons to support his claims because he's only got half a page to tell us about the director, his life, his visual style, and his films.

On the other hand, though, this book is a blast to just flip through. I haven't heard of a lot of the directors in this book, and often one of the half-page frame grabs alone has made me want to go out and get one of a director's films from my local library. Indeed, a lot of great directors such as War-Kai Wong, Takeshi Kitano, Nicholas Roeg, and Krystof Kieslowski were introduced to me through this book, mainly through the stunning visuals of their movie stills; I actually don't value the text very much because of its heavily biased, opinionated nature, and the fact that sometimes the descriptions give spoilers for the films they describe, which is a shame for the films that I haven't seen yet. Rather, if I see a frame I'm really interested in, I'll briefly read the text for some basic information, and then go to the IMDB (Internet Movie Database) for a more objective view of the filmmaker's work.

Anyways, don't get this book if you really want "a concise guide to the art of 250 filmmakers;" *do* get this book if you just want to flip through the pages and see some of the most beautiful images you've ever laid your eyes on, and find out about some amazing directors you may have never heard of. Just make sure you take the author's opinions with a very big grain of salt.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great minipedia for directors, February 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Director's Vision: A Concise Guide to the Art of 250 Great Filmmakers (Paperback)

This is an impressive study on a lot of different directors. It's well written, intelligent, and concise, and the Coen Brothers' foreword is a hoot. Still, I can't help thinking of those who didn't make the cut: Miyazake, Alex Proyas, Anthony Minghella, Ang Lee, Rob Reiner, Richard Donner and those that were questionable choices (Joe Dante? Are you kidding me?). I'm really hoping for a sequel to this book. Also there's probably going to be controversy about the scenes and movie selections. I really enjoy when the author goes into the actual technical details of the frames, such as the Blade Runner shot, yet there are times when judgements are too focussed on the filmmaker's career. But it makes a great conversation piece and gets the dialogue of film going. There are no easy answers in this book. Only information that generates excitement, wonder and interest. This is a film fan's book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Picture Saves a Thousand Words, September 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Director's Vision: A Concise Guide to the Art of 250 Great Filmmakers (Paperback)

When I got this book, I was disappointed in the lack of text. I would have preferred less directors and more exposition. Still, I come back to it time and again for the beautiful photographs. For that reason, I would have give in four stars but for one fatal defect. THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPOILERS! IMO, it is a crime to give away the ending of a movie like "The Bicycle Thief" to name only the most egregious example. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.