grabbed a copy of Men Women and Chainsaws at the weekend, and made me think I could really stand to read more about films given more much of my life I spend watching them
any personal favourites? i also have a copy of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls - but I get the sense that wasn’t all that well researched or the people it discusses aren;t very happy with it
Just felt hard to judge it given it was one of the classic Fopp £3 purchases rather than soemthing I actively chose! Glad it’s still worth a read though
Easy Riders Raging Bulls is very good, though it is a bit harsh on Star Wars. The Devil’s Candy is meant to be very good, it’s about the disastrous film adaptation of Bonfire of the Vanities.
Bukowski’s Hollywood is good for a bit of frustration at the system being anti creativity.
I remember reading Blue Movie by Terry Southern ages ago and it was weird how it was sort of a satire of the making of a porn film but also was itself quite trashy and porny
I definitely recommend the two books by William Goldman mentioned above. Adventures in the Screen Trade is great because it talks about successful films he wrote, and Which Lie Did I Tell? is great because it talks about a lot of films that didn’t work out so well
Julie Salamon - The Devil’s Candy - really fun and detailed book about why Brian De Palma’s adaptation of ‘Bonfire of the Vanaties’ was a mess, despite the talent involved
Steven Bach - Final Cut… (insert long subtitle I can’t be arsed to write) A similar thing to the above, only about Michael Cimono’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’
Keith Phipps - Age of Cage - good film critic going through Nic Cage’s entire career film by film and making the case for why he’s mostly underrated
Peter Biskind - Easy Riders, Raging Bulls is really good about the 1970s. Another of his books - Down and Dirty Pictures is also really good - about the rise of independent cinema in the late 80s and 90s. I think the book does a pretty good job of portraying Harvey Weinstein as an asshole, but only in the context of him as a producer. You can fill in the gaps about much he was an asshole the rest of the time.
Any or all of Roger Ebert’s books are good. ‘I really really really (insert how many) hated this movie’ and ‘your movie sucks’ are both fun reads of his negative reviews
James B Stewart - Disney War - good book about Michael Eisner’s reign at Disney