Film Noir the Directors (Limelight)
Category: Books,Humor & Entertainment,Movies
Film Noir the Directors (Limelight) Details
About the Author With James Ursini, Alain Silver (Santa Monica, CA) wrote and edited The Noir Style, The Vampire Film: From Nosferatu to True Blood; director studies of David Lean, Robert Aldrich, and Roger Corman; Horror Film Reader, Gangster Film Reader, four Film Noir Readers, and Film Noir: The Encyclopedia. Other books include The Samurai Film, Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, and James Wong Howe the Camera Eye. His produced screenplays include White Nights (from Dostoyevsky'), 'the Showtime MOW Time at the Top, and Nightcomer (which he also directed). He has also produced a score of independent feature films and forty soundtrack albums. His commentaries may be heard and seen on numerous DVDs discussing Raymond Chandler, the gangster film, and the classic noir period. His PhD in theater arts/motion pictures, critical studies, is from the University of California, Los Angeles.In addition to the work with Alain Silver, James Ursini (Santa Monica, CA) wrote Directors on the Edge: Outliers in Hollywood and Femme Fatale: Cinema's Most Unforgettable Lethal Ladies with Dominique Mainon. His early study of Preston Sturges was reprinted in a bilingual edition by the San Sebastián Film Festival. Forthcoming in 2012 is American Neo-Noir, The Movie Never Ends. His film noir DVD commentaries (often with Alain Silver) are numerous. He has been a producer on features and documentaries, and lectured on filmmaking at UCLA and other colleges in the Los Angeles area, where he works as an educator. Read more
Reviews
I purchased this book because I was interviewed for it for a section on my step-father, Felix E. Feist. I found that section well done. A few of the other directors were known to me, some personally, most by reputation, and a few were unknown. While I'm not a serious aficionado of noir, I appreciate it and count a few of those films, Orson Well's Touch of Evil, my father's Devil Thumbs a Ride, and others, as well as calling attention to directors who are better known for other genres, like Sam Fuller and Billy Wilder. For any student of film in general, and noir in particular, this is a valuable volume. I limited it to four stars only because as another reviewer pointed out, there are any number of fine directors who were left out of this volume who were also worthy of note.