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This
superb anthology, comprised of thirteen interviews with the noted
film director conducted between 1968 and 2005, is an essential book
for Peter Bogdanovich enthusiasts. Born in 1939, he is best known
for such motion pictures as Targets (1968), The
Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up, Doc? (1972), Paper
Moon (1973), and Mask (1985). The Charles Whitman/UT
Tower murders of August 1966 partially served as the inspiration
for Targets, while The Last Picture Show, Bogdanovich's
genuine masterpiece, was based on Larry McMurtry's legendary coming-of-age
novel set in a dying West Texas hamlet.
Cinephiles also recognize Bogdanovich as a leading film historian.
He has authored such important studies as The Cinema of Orson
Welles (1961), The Cinema of Howard Hawks (1962), The
Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock (1963), Fritz Lang in America
(1969), Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film
Directors (1997), and Who the Hell's In It: Portraits and
Conversations (2004). At times, moreover, Bogdanovich has had
an extremely tumultuous life, including much-publicized affairs
with Cybill Shepherd and Dorothy Stratten.
An opinionated interviewee, he provides numerous insights into the
world of cinema and the movie industry. Consider the following three
observations by the filmmaker:
"A movie should be like a dream. It washes over you; you don't know
what's affecting you; you can't do anything about it; you're taken
away."
"We all write about the wonderful days of Hollywood, but it was
always shitty. People were always going through hell. And they're
always going to when you have an art that is essentially ruled by
money. And it's so expensive that it has to be…You can't make a
movie without some money. Even a little movie costs more than most
of us have. It's always going to be like that because there are
people who are interested in money and there are people who are
interested in art. And the two of them usually aren't the same."
"Essentially, I think in some way you have to be an actor to be
a good director. Also, you have to hear it in your head the way
a composer or a conductor hears a score…When I'm working on a script
I already hear it and see it a certain way, and then it's a question
of getting the actors to sound that way and the crew to make it
look that way. Sometimes an actor does something that's different,
and I say, 'Hey, I like that. Keep that. I hadn't heard or seen
it like that.' That's a gift. But, generally speaking, you're sort
of trying to get them to do it the way you've heard it."
Informative and entertaining, these discussions with Bogdanovich
initially appeared in such journals as American Film, L. A. Weekly,
Literature/Film Quarterly, and Venice Magazine; two interviews
are previously unpublished. An Introduction, Chronology, Filmography,
and Additional Resources section round out Tonguette's excellent
book.
This volume is part of the University Press of Mississippi's Conversations
with Filmmakers Series. Other texts in this commendable collection
include Laurence F. Knapp's David Fincher: Interviews (2014),
Anthony Kaufman's Steven Soderbergh: Interviews (2015), Karla
Rae Fuller's Ang Lee: Interviews (2016), and Robert Ribera's
Martin Scorsese: Interviews (2017).
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