Sayles on Sayles (Directors on Directors S.) [Paperback]

John Sayles (Author), Gavin Smith (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Directors on Directors S. | Publication Date: February 19, 1998

John Sayles is a filmmaker of many faces: the writer/director of authentically independent films rooted in good talk, character study and social reflection (The Return of the Secaucus Seven, Baby, It's You, Brother from Another Planet, Matewan, and Passion Fish). He has also crafted vibrant, sardonic projects for Roger Corman (Piranha, Alligator and The Lady in Red), as well as working as a screenwriter-for-hire (The Hollowing, Apollo 13).

Recent films such as City of Hope and Lone Star exhibit his great gifts as he follows his characters' complex journeys towards self-honesty and personal truth.

Twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, he has also written novels, short stories, a book on low-budget film-making, and created the television series Shannon's Deal.

In Sayles on Sayles, Gavin Smith takes Sayles step by step through the trajectory of his career and film-making practice, and in the process illuminates the work of the one of the truly authentic US independent film-makers.

Gavin Smith is a contributing editor to Film Comment.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If the U.S. were to boast one great independent film director, he would be John Sayles. Since 1979, more than 10 years before the new wave of Indie pictures challenged the conventions of Hollywood moviemaking, Sayles has been creating magnificent and utterly original films. Even more remarkably, they differ radically from one another. Who could guess that the director of The Return of the Secaucus Seven and Baby It's You could turn around and make The Brother from Another Planet, that the man behind the fabulous Secret of Roan Inish was capable also of the socially conscious Matewan, City of Hope, and Lone Star?

This interview book, another in Faber and Faber's remarkable series devoted to filmmakers on their work, is published to coincide with the release of Men with Guns, Sayles's film for 1998. The director speaks about the way he works ("I wrote The Brother from Another Planet in about a week."), the themes of his films ("There is a fantasy children's movie in The Secret of Roan Inish, but finally there is also this realistic core to it."), and his political sensibilities ("One of the ideas I was trying to get at in Lone Star is that race is an illusion but culture is very real."). Perhaps because he is such a fine writer, Sayles proves an amazingly articulate speaker. Fans of the director, as well as those discovering Sayles for the first time, will be delighted by the director's personal insights and stories.

From Publishers Weekly

Smith's book-length interview with independent filmmaker John Sayles chronicles Sayles's start as a novelist (Union Dues, 1977, was nominated for a National Book Award), his apprenticeship writing horror scripts (The Howling, 1980) for producer Roger Corman, occasional work as an actor and a playwright, a sojourn writing television and directing music videos and, primarily, the writing and directing of independent features like Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). Sayles speaks with refreshing candor and lack of pretension. His voice enjoyably mixes the vocabulary of a lifelong reader and writer with the idioms of a street-smart survivor: "The writing in both [The Return of the] Secaucus Seven and Lianna is generally very oblique. There's a lot of kitchen sink quotidian detail." His discussions of his films and his attempts?for aesthetic and financial reasons?to preserve the spontaneity of acting and to keep his editing austere ("A cut is very much a tear") place him in the tradition of cinematic realists. One highlight is Sayles's analogy comparing the flash-cutting techniques of style-conscious films to a fast-talking vacuum-cleaner salesman out to close a deal before the customer can stop and think. Smith, an associate editor at Film Comment magazine, provides well-directed questions, and Sayles responds so that hardly a page goes by without an insight about filmmaking and film trends, an engaging digression or an apt turn of phrase.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (February 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571192807
• ISBN-13: 978-0571192809
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,267,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For lovers of Sayles' work this book is essential, October 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sayles on Sayles (Directors on Directors S.) (Paperback)

If you're new to Sayles' movies or a long time fan, this book is a must. Gavin Smith asks probing and significant questions and Sayles provides insights about himself that are refreshingly matter of fact. The book is organized chronologically and examines each of Sayles' films. I have only seen Eight Men Out and Lone Star as of now but after this book I'm trying to see as many as I can. I've seen Lone Star twice and I'm going to buy the video. I rank it as one of my 10 all-time favorite movies because it is brilliant on so many levels.

5.0 out of 5 stars For Fans of Jon Sayles, June 27, 2011

By 

Jim (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sayles on Sayles (Directors on Directors S.) (Paperback)

Now in his early 60's Jon Sayles has a prolifict Body of Work that includes acting, writing novels, screenplays for others as well as for movies he has directed. He is considered in his directing work as an independent filmmaker. This book is written in a question and answer style with Gavin Smith and includes discussions of 3 of his novels, 10 of his films and plus several screenplays that he did for Roger Corman and others. His TV work on the series Shannon's Deal is also covered. In the Introduction and Chapter One we learn about Sayles' up bringing and early years in school and with Eastern Slope Playhouse in New Hampshire where he had his early professional acting experience.

I was most interested in the sections on his directed films The Return of the Secaucus Seven, Matewan, Eight Men Out, Passion Fish and Lone Star each which I have already seen, plus the sections on his books Pride of the Bimbos and Union Dues which I intend to read.

Sayles characterizes himself as "subverbal." Paradoxically, his stories contain a high degree of dialogue between characters who he calls "witnesses" to the subject he is exploring. I especially enjoyed the analysis of his work and his process of selecting the subjects that he does.

This is a specialized book that I would recommend for anyone interested in studying Sayles' early work or working in the film business. The Appendix summarizes his work to 1997.