Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An inspiring study of the writers craft, September 16, 1999
By A Customer
This is a book for writers. Sure, it's full of pictures, but mostly it's about the pursuit of story. Everybody thinks actors and directors make movies, but it's the writer who creates the characters, dreams up the story, makes us care what happens. These are some of the world's greatest writers and they are incredibly candid here. It's funny to me that every magazine interviews novelists, but who interviews screenwriters other than Variety and, now, these guys? Screenwriters must be the most invisible, hardworking artists on the planet. Lumme and Manninen offer a very unusual glimpse, literally and figuratively, of the idea makers of Hollywood. Manninen achieved the impossible, finding compelling ways to photograph people who must spend 99% of their lives staring at a computer. The common trait in all the portraits is the writer's twinkle in the eye. There's an idea banging around in that head, maybe a couple. I found this a very refreshing take on the creative process. It is puzzling that Screenwriters is apparently the first such book. Personally, I'd like to hear more from the people who are pretty much the acknowledged masters of modern storytelling. Bonus: In addition to a bunch of funny and interesting anecdotes, there are a good many real writing tips divulged. I felt genuinely inspired by this book, and I don't even have an idea for a screenplay. Maybe I'll get one now. Two thumbs way up.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An inspirational exploration, November 18, 1999
By A Customer
Because writers are behind the scenes -- way behind the scenes -- we can only guess what they are trying to tell us with each new screenplay. That's why I loved seeing their faces and hearing their words -- listening to some of them go on and on about their craft and others sum up their reactions to years of hard work in 10 or 20 well-chosen words. I didn't need this book when I bought it -- or at least I didn't think so. Now I turn back to it time and again for inspiration. I don't feel as if I've been talked down to, rather that I got a glimpse deep into the writers' souls.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A rich, textured portrait of the Hollywood screenwriter., June 26, 1999
With "Screenwriters: America's Storytellers in Portrait", Lumme and Manninen have created a rich and varied collection of photographs, anecdotes, and dialogue that show us the world of the Hollywood screenwriter. Film, and whether we like it or not, Hollywood film, is the art form, the central mode of storytelling and cultural construction, of the twenieth century. Although it is of undeniable value to question and criticize the Hollywood film and its role in our culture, one must recognize that the creators of these stories are responsible for a massive shaping, an important defining of our ideas and dreams. What is perhaps most impressive about Manninen's photographs is their ability to richly recontextualize the role of the Hollywood screenwriter, both past and present. Beneath the often blinding surface gloss that is mainstream film's marketed exterior, there is a world of pure and true story creation, every bit as complex, emotional and vital as the regularly accepted role of the "legitimate" writer of novels and short stories. Manninen's work establishes a textured, intimate landscape of the writing life through photographic portraits that manage to elevate the screenwriter to the level of the celebrity, the star, but with an important exception: rather than being images steeped in the unattainable perfection of the actor's image, these charming, often gritty portraits are extremely human, resonating with the personalities of their subjects and our proximity to them. From symbolic water imagery (Kasdan, Arch, Schulman and Anderson) to sophisticated black and white (Benton, Darabont and Goldman), and through unusual, brilliant color (Melvin Van Peebles' chair-leaning, cigar-smoking blue room is a revelation), Manninen has created photos with the imagination of the screenwriters he shot: Each photograph tells a story through an image, each picture is action, emotion and character. Importantly, Manninen and Lumme have included many women screenwriters in the collection, and the book's interviews, anecdotes and quotes by screenwriters are funny and insightful. I've read a good many screenwriting books that have incuded interviews and screenwriting stories, but here are a number of candid, unusual tales unavailable elsewhere, a tribute to the level of comfort and trust that these writers must have felt with Manninen and Lumme. Whether you are a lover of film, photography or writing, this is a fine and important contribution to your collection. "Screenwriter: America's Storytellers in Portrait" is the rare work that manages to not only dazzle and move the reader / viewer with its stunning portraiture, but to give us an understanding of what makes these culture creators tick.
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