Martin Scorsese

Controversy and acclaim mark Martin Scorsese's career from his earlier iconoclastic New York films like Mean Streets and Raging Bull to the more recent The Last Temptation of Christ, GoodFellas and Cape Fear. In Martin Scorsese: A Journey, Mary Pat Kelley, writer and prize-winning filmmaker, traces Scorsese's life and work through interviews with Scorsese as well as more than twenty major motion picture figures, providing a rare look at the process and inspiration behind the films of America's premier director. Martin Scorsese: A Journey includes exclusive interviews with Robert De Niro, Barbara Hershey, Harvey Keitel, Ellen Burstyn, Willem Dafoe, Paul Newman, Liza Minelli, Joe Pesci, Nick Nolte, Sandra Bernhard, and Rosanna Arquette; and includes a new Foreword by Andy Dougan, author of Untouchable: A Biography of Robert De Niro.

From one of the world's most acclaimed directors comes an absorbing and informative look at American film and its practitioners, from silents to the movies of the 1970s, and how it shaped Martin Scorsese's own artistic vision. Scorsese revisits all kinds of movies that had strong influences and effects on him - not only the prestige titles from major directors and studios - but also the lesser praised B-movies and other undervalued genres. What he responds to - and celebrates - is film itself: the movies that make fullest use of the medium's potential and the directors who created them. Throughout the book, interviews, film stills and dialogues are used to illustrate each chapter's overriding theme. Scorsese shows us the many different guises a film director must assume: that of storyteller, illusionist, smuggler and iconoclast. Through an examination of some of American film's most enduring genres - Westerns, Musicals, films noirs, Gangster Films, to name a few - we see the growth and lasting influence of older movies not only on the work of Scorsese but also on that of other directors.

"It includes: a unique insight into the creative processes of one of the world’s greatest film-makers, from his first shorts to his most recent masterpieces, through interviews given throughout his career to his friend Michael Henry Wilson, starting in 1974; exceptionally full documentation from his personal archives, including family photographs, photographs taken on set, original scripts, sketches, notes and storyboards; a key reference work for both the many fans of the director of Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976) and Casino (1995), and for industry professionals looking for keys to the master’s work; his recent films (The Departed, 2006; Shutter Island, 2010) have enjoyed major popular and critical success; a biography and a complete filmography.

Story of the manners and morals of New York society in the late 1800s, focusing on a handsome young lawyer who cannot decide between passion and propriety in his women.

"In Kubrick, author and screenwriter Michael Herr gives a personal look at the allegedly reclusive, compulsively brilliant director. He also recounts the evolution of their unique friendship, from their first meeting at a screening for The Shining in 1980, to their collaboration on the screenplay for Full Metal Jacket, through years of marathon phone conversations on topics ranging from film and technology the philosophy and literature - the last of which occurred just days before the director's death.". "In describing Kubrick, Herr strips away the myths surrounding his friend, revealing a man who was not introverted and misanthropic (as the media and his biographers claimed), but instead warm, gregarious, and endlessly inquisitive. He was also profoundly complicated. Though he loved America - and even embraced such pop culture touchstones as professional football and TV sitcoms - he permanently emigrated to England because of his distrust of Hollywood. Though he disdained elitism, he would only allow the most brilliant and talented inside his inner circle. He had a tremendous love and respect for the actors and screenwriters he worked with, but his style of filmmaking often led to bitter confrontations."--BOOK JACKET.

Ruling elites in Venezuela, the United States and Europe, and even Hugo Chavez himself though for different reasons, have been eager to have the world view him as the heir to Fidel Castro. But the truth about this increasingly influential world leader is more complex, and more interesting.. The Chavez that emerges from Bart Jones' carefully researched and documented biography is neither a plaster saint nor a revolutionary tyrant. He has an undeniably autocratic streak, and yet has been freely and fairly re-elected to his nations presidency three times with astonishing margins of victory. He is a master politician and an inspired improviser, a Bolivarian nationalist and an unashamed socialist. His policies have brought him into conflict with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and major oil companies. They have also provided a model for new governments and social movements in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina. When in September 2006 he declared at the United Nations that 'the devil came here yesterday ... the President of the United States', it was clear that he was taking on challenging the most powerful nation on earth, in conscious imitation of the Liberator, Simon Bolivar.From the Trade Paperback edition.

The story of four poor Italian brothers and their mother who leave their country home and move to bustling Milan with hopes of improving their bitter fortune. The family is thrown into chaos when two brothers fall in love with the same woman.

An account of the life of Tibet's Dalai Lama and his struggle to rule a nation at one of the most challenging times in its history.

The story of life and coming-of-age in New York's Little Italy.

"An illustrated biography, with rare and never-before-seen photographs from the archives of Sony Music Entertainment"--Page of dust jacket.

A behind-the-scenes account of life at Ealing Studios - one of the great cinematic success stories of post-war Britain, and a byword for a particular strain of comic filmmaking that continues to inspire imitators over half a century on. This will be the first full narrative history of the studio, focusing on its output in the late 1940s and '50s, when the movies made there were in astonishing (and revealing) synchronicity with the national mood. Told through the memories of the people who worked and performed there, The Secret Life of Ealing Studios will explore how a small group of maverick filmmakers, some of Britain's most fondly remembered movie stars, and a lot of unsung backroom boys and girls created pictures that presented a unique and enduring view of British identity, and which have since become classics. Particular emphasis will be placed on the filming of Hue and Cry (1947), Passport to Pimlico (1949), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Whisky Galore (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), along with war films such as The Cruel Sea (1953). At the heart of the story will be the figure of Michael Balcon - perhaps the closest Britain has ever come to producing a movie mogul in the Hollywood mould - and iconic actors such as Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness, Margaret Rutherford and Sid James.