Movies and Money [Paperback]

David Puttnam (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vintage | Publication Date: January 25, 2000

"A fascinating history."--Time Out New York

The acclaimed producer of such classic films as Chariots of Fire and The Killing Fields, and the only European ever to head a major Hollywood studio, former Columbia Pictures chief David Puttnam has written a fascinating behind-the-scenes history of the movie business and of the unique and frequently unholy alliance between commerce and art that underpins it.

Puttnam's story moves from the early days of cinema and the rivalry between Edison and the Lumiere brothers, through the rise of the studio system, and up to the present day, with European filmmakers and politicians struggling to protect their industry and even their cultural identity from a triumphant and all-devouring Hollywood. In the process he introduces a host of colorful characters: from Goldwyn and Zanuck to Eisner and Ovitz. Movies and Money is a groundbreaking book that will change our understanding of the movie business.

"Excellent.... A book so well written that it can easily be read at a single sitting."--San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner

"Puttnam has a dry sense of humor, and most of his book is jammed with astonishing anecdotes and seething portraits of the personalities of film history."-- Newsday

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ex-Columbia Pictures chief David Puttnam was knighted for making the world safe for British film with hits like Chariots of Fire and The Killing Fields. If any other ex-studio chief wrote a book called Movies and Money, it would be essentially similar to Roger Corman's How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime.

But Puttnam's book grew from his Oxford lectures--it's a scholarly history of the struggle for cultural supremacy between the film establishments of Hollywood and Europe. L.A. won the battle from the first shot. Despite massive totalitarian-government support, Russians shunned the masterpiece The Battleship Potemkin in favor of Douglas Fairbanks's Robin Hood. Today, 80 to 90 percent of Europe's filmgoers go to U.S. films, and Hollywood's influence is everywhere. Warner Bros. offered Puttnam extra money to reshoot Local Hero with a happy ending that would have destroyed its pro-pastoral, anticommercial message. He refused--but he admits it would've earned $20 million more with the Hollywood ending. The Crying Game was a flop in England, then a U.S. smash, thanks to superior Yank marketing. Four Weddings and a Funeral was made in England, cannily released Stateside, then repatriated as "America's No. 1 Smash Hit!"

Puttnam yearns to see European film get on its feet and fight back with hits of its own, supported with more savvy marketing. He's not just a film professional and historian. He's a local hero. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1908, the French film impresario Charles Pathe, who single-handedly transformed a rag-tag business of lab technicians and carnival sideshows into the first vertically integrated film company, ruled the fledgling movie industry on both sides of the Atlantic. By the end of WWI, Hollywood, which as late as 1913 was merely a dusty colony in suburban L.A., had begun to dominate the overseas film market. Today, according to Puttnam, a British film producer who headed Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988, 80% of Europe's box office comes from American movies. In this trenchant business history of the cinema, Puttnam explores how the balance of economic power has shifted between European and American studios over the years, and how producers, directors, stars and agents, as well as movies, television and new media, have jockeyed for control of the market. The bulk of the book is a panoramic portrait of American cinematic imperialism, from the patenting of Edison's first coin-operated kinetoscope to the international release of Jurassic Park, which coincided with the vexed GATT negotiations of 1993, as European filmmakers successfully fought off Hollywood's attempts to abolish tariffs on film exports (an anxious cover story in L'Express at the time featured a dinosaur striding across Paris). Puttnam fills each chapter with lively anecdotes, business statistics and micro-profiles of industry players from Louis Lumiere to Michael Ovitz. But these details are all marshaled to support an overriding polemic: only by adapting to the changing patterns of marketing, distribution and consumer demand, Puttnam says, can European film producers combat American box office dominance. Unfortunately, Puttnam belabors this argument to the point that, at times, his book might be mistaken for the opening PR sally of the GATT negotiations scheduled for 2000.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 346 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (January 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067976741X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679767411
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #813,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Acidic analysis of the European movie industry., October 3, 2002

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Movies and Money (Paperback)

For insider David Puttnam, Europe who invented the movie, lost the movie industry battle due to external (two World Wars), but mostly internal causes:
1. Europe, unlike the US, didn't see the movie industry as a totality (control of production + distribution + theatres)
2. Europe didn't want to understand the market (the consumer demand) and the power of marketing.
3. the suicidal movie theorization by the left. As an example, J.L. Godard claimed that his struggle against the commercial imperialism of Hollywood was analogous to the eternal struggle of the working class against monopoly capitalism. Yet he was forced to acknowledge that 'workers don't come to see my films'.
4. the vanity of the European film critics, who supported selfregarding movies, while the public went out to see US films.
5. social causes: Hollywood defied the wishes of the US cultural elite and made 'popular' movies.

The movie industry in Europe has still not fundamentally changed since the publication of the book, but all inter- and subventions of the EEC commission will be wasted money, unless there is a big change of mind.
The author gives implicitly some obvious measures for a revival:
- take into account the consumer market.
- a big part of the movie budget should be spent on marketing and promotion.
More, there should be coproductions with TV channels and movie theatre companies on a European, or better, world scale. The market of each European country is not big enough to create a profitable movie industry.
European big budget movies should be shot in English.
It is easier said than done, but CANAL+ for instance has understood the challenge.
Puttnam's book is absolutely not boring, but a must read for every European film maker.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Movies from an International and Financial Vantage Point, February 22, 2001

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Movies and Money (Paperback)

David Puttnam (with Neil Watson) has written a book that has a different, and often very personal, perspective from the usual film histories. It is a broader, more international examination into the reasons for Hollywood gaining world wide dominance of the film industry. This is not about movies per se but is, instead, about the business and politics of making movies. It includes many anecdotes, told in a basically chronological format, from the beginning of the industry to the recent times. Much of this information was new to me as most film histories concentrate on the movies and the men and women who create these works. This one concentrates on the men who finance these works. An interesting book for those interested in the deals behind the deals that make the movies we love.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent look at film...but not for the casual filmgoer, November 8, 2005

By 

Eric Nelson "alipius" (RACINE, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Movies and Money (Paperback)

This book does not have scandalous stories about stars and troubled film productions...if you're looking for those types of stories William Goldman and Peters Bart & Gruber have excellent titles that will give you insite into film and satisfy your pop culture curiosities.

What Puttnam achieves is a detailed history of film that shows the struggle that filmmakers on both sides of the Atlantic attaining a balance between art and commodity. Puttnam offers great insights and introduction to film's early years. Coming from the unique view of a European who became a Hollywood insider, he's able to interpret history in a way that few others saw.

Casual readers should look elsewhere, but people interested in the business of film and it's history on both sides of the Atlantic will find this book interesting and accessible.