John Huston: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (Paperback)

~ Robert Emmet Long (Editor) "THE DRIVE AND RUTHLESSNESS of his films and the gory publicity stories (there's a particularly nasty one about a fight with Errol Flynn-but they are..." (more)
Key Phrases: John Huston, Moby Dick, The Maltese Falcon (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Part of an acting dynasty that included his father, Walter Huston, and daughter Angelica Huston, screenwriter-turned-director John Huston (The Dead; Prizzi's Honor) lived life large as an itinerant painter, gambler, drinker, romancer, big-game hunter and, ultimately, enormous Hollywood legend. In John Huston: Interviews, editor Robert Emmet Long (Ingmar Bergman; The Films of Merchant Ivory) gathers 21 interviews with Huston that span the years 1952 to 1985 nearly the length of his entire career in which the director reveals aspects of his personal life as freely as he discusses his distinguished career. Long provides a fitting introduction, followed by a chronology of Huston's life and career and a filmography. ( Mar.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Huston, who died in 1987, led a very sociable life and, like Stone, made his mark in film initially as a screenwriter. The first piece in his collection is an article by Karel Reisz, which appeared in Sight and Sound in 1952. At that time, Huston had already directed The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , The Asphalt Jungle, and The African Queen . This narrative "interview" catches Huston at a time when his star is well on the rise. The last interview is by Lawrence Grobel in Playboy , when Huston was suffering from terminal emphysema and living in Las Carletas, Mexico, a remote place, then accessible only by boat, in 1985. Huston would direct one more film, The Dead , based on a story in James Joyce's Dubliners . Bonnie Smothers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578063280
• ISBN-13: 978-1578063284
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #239,564 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listening to a Fascinating Man, July 30, 2005

By	Michael Samerdyke (Big Stone Gap, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a terrific book. It consists of interviews with John Huston from 1952-85. Not only does the reader find out about Huston's ideas on filmmaking and get some inside info on the making of classic films, but he will find out about the breadth of Huston's interests, which extended beyond filmmaking to art and philosophy. Here, truly, was an intelligent man.

The most interesting thing to me about Huston was that he started in the classic studio age and survived its downfall to make films that were fresh, interesting and important even in the Eighties. These interviews show Huston's mental flexibility. He admires "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Rocky," and "Taxi Driver." Huston is also quite frank about his own films. I will never be tempted to see "Roots of Heaven" or "Barbarian and the Geisha." I have to see "Moby Dick," which he considered one of his films that never got its due.

I was sorry when this book ended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Company for All Who Love Movies, May 7, 2007

By	C. C. Black (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If Ernest Hemingway had made movies, they would have looked something like John Huston's. The passion, intelligence, and joie de vivre of Huston's films are reflected in this set of articulate interviews. Pour yourself a good drink, and listen as one of Hollywood's best raconteurs spins yarn after yarn in this splendid volume of a valuable series.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An informative and insightful compilation, January 11, 2002

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Huston: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (Hardcover)

Ably edited by independent scholar and freelance writer Robert Long, John Huston: Interviews is an informative and insightful compilation of interviews with the late John Huston (which took place from 1952 to 1985) in which he personally comments on his life and projects as an acclaimed filmmaker. Among the movies that are surveyed within this context are The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead. The observations range from his approach to directing; the influence of painting upon his camera work, and his association with stellar actors, to his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influences of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway upon his movies. Replete with numerous anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, we are presented with a body of work and a filmmaker's life that will be immensely appreciated by students of his work and a man whose personal life was as prodigious as his professional career. John Huston: Interviews is also available in paperback ..., [price]