From Publishers Weekly
In his restrained yet emotive recent film version of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie , director Paul Newman strove, in his own words, "to make cinematic virtue of claustrophobia." An experienced cast aided his efforts: his wife Joanne Woodward as obsessive matriarch Amanda Wingfield; John Malkovich as her son Tom, the drunken poet; Karen Allen as Tom's fragile sister; and James Naughton as the "gentleman caller." In this day-by-day log of the film rehearsals, Stern, an Academy Award-winning screenwriter and a friend of the Newmans, records seemingly every nuance, every set direction, every argument. Although this diary has the cozy, self-indulgent feel of a home movie, cinema and theater buffs will watch with interest as Williams's drama is translated onto celluloid.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The author, a screenwriter and long-time friend of Newman's, attended rehearsals which preceded that director's filming of The Glass Menagerie. This rambling, uncritical journal is the result. (The 1987 film had a limited theatrical release, received lukewarm critical response, and is currently available on video.) Numerous personal asides and digressions inflate a narrative which would be more effective condensed to long article form. Though Stern claims to write with "the flat, dispassionate tones of an astronaut," even Newman's many admirers might take exception to the book's reverent view of its subject. For all its pretensions, there is less wit and insight here than in many other "insider" accounts of film productions. Not recommended.
- Stephen Rees, Bucks Cty. Free Lib., Levittown, Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Stephen Rees, Bucks Cty. Free Lib., Levittown, Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
