2024-02-19 16:14
Conflagration (Directed by Kon Ichikawa)In a career extending from the mid-1930s to the mid-2000s, Kon Ichikawa directed almost 80 films that ranged widely in genre, form, and tone. He h… Read More
Blog Directory > Arts & Entertainment Blogs > TV & Film Blogs > Diary Of A Screenwriter tv-and-film Blog >
2023-12-14 16:43
Werner Herzog is celebrated as one of the most influential and innovative filmmakers of our time, but his ascent to acclaim was far from a straight trajectory from privilege to power. Aba… Read More
2023-12-14 16:42
Shadows (Directed by John Cassavetes)John Cassavetes’ Shadows (1959) is one of the pioneering works of American independent cinema. Made for $40,000 with a non-profes… Read More
2023-10-31 17:36
The Manchurian Candidate (Directed by John Frankenheimer)George Axelrod was born in New York City, the son of silent screen actress Betty Carpenter. He often frequented Broadway theatre as a… Read More
2023-09-16 08:06
Peeping Tom (Directed by Michael Powell)Michael Powell graduated from ‘quota quickies’ of the 1930s to a distinguished career in partnership with Emeric Pressburger, directing… Read More
2023-05-19 21:17
Mulholland Dr. (Directed by David Lynch)In terms of style, theme and structure, David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. is less a story about dreams than it is about the corrupt, twisted fantasy… Read More
2023-04-13 00:26
Being John Malkovich (Directed by Spike Jonze)One of modern cinema’s most celebrated screenwriters, Charlie Kaufman’s work includes surreal fantasy Being John Malkovich, cerebral… Read More
2023-03-01 13:30
Pickpocket (Directed by Robert Bresson)Bresson is the exemplar of transcendental style: his form is predictable and is “the operative element,” the subject matter itself simply t… Read More
2022-12-04 14:21
Glengarry Glen Ross (Directed by James Foley)
‘There’s no such thing as talent; you just have to work hard enough.’ – David Mamet
One of the… Read More
2022-06-22 16:07
Summer with Monika (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)Summer with Monika, directed by Ingmar Bergman, has always inspired devoted admirers. In The 400 Blows, François Truffaut thought a pres… Read More
2022-06-22 16:07
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Directed by Volker Schlöndorff)Volker Schlöndorff (born March 31, 1939 in Wiesbaden, Germany) initially worked as an assistant to directors L… Read More
2022-06-08 22:47
Happy End (Directed by Michael Haneke)Born in Germany in 1942, Haneke was raised in Austria, by actor-director father and his mother who also acted. He graduated from the University of Vienn… Read More
2022-05-17 23:27
Mikey and Nicky (Directed by Elaine May)Elaine May is a writer and filmmaker and actor and improviser, but beyond that, she is an artist whose career-long quest for truth has driven her to c… Read More
2022-05-09 15:55
A Woman Under the Influence (Directed by John Cassavetes)John Cassavetes wrote A Woman Under the Influence (1974) primarily to provide his wife Gena Rowlands with a significant role. Initial… Read More
2022-04-26 23:18
Werner Herzog was born in the Bavarian capital of Munich in 1942. Herzog's family relocated to Sachrang, a tiny village near the Austrian border, just before the end of World War II. Herzog… Read More
2022-04-20 23:39
Scarface (Directed by Brian De Palma)In his book Scarface Nation, critic Ken Tucker assesses the lasting cultural impact of Brian De Palma’s 1983 cult hit Scarface – an exuberant… Read More
2022-03-16 10:28
The Raven (Directed by Roger Corman)Starting his Hollywood career as a runner for Fox in 1950, Roger Corman quickly discovered he had very little tolerance for studio ways and its crumbling… Read More
2022-02-14 13:16
Faces (Directed by John Cassavetes)“John Cassavetes’ Faces is the sort of film that makes you want to grab people by the neck and drag them into the theater and shout: "Here!" It… Read More
2022-02-06 17:22
Psycho (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)Once a week for ten years, beginning in 1955, Hitchcock introduced his popular television show with a formal “good evening, ladies and gentlemen&rd&hell…Read More
2021-12-15 22:13
The Trial (Directed by Orson Welles)In discussing his 1962 film adaptation of Franz Kafka’s literary classic The Trial, Orson Welles confided to Peter Bogdanovich, that ‘what mad… Read More
2021-12-15 22:11
David Mamet is a playwright and screenwriter renowned for his precise representation of American vernacular, which he uses to investigate the link between language and action. Mamet was… Read More
2021-12-15 22:11
Rear Window (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplays for Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), an… Read More
2021-11-02 22:44
Apocalypse Now (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola)A new documentary about the writer and filmmaker John Milius recently premiered at the SXSW in Texas (see trailer here). Made… Read More
2021-11-02 22:43
Memento (Directed by Christopher Nolan)Beginning in early childhood, Christopher Nolan made short films with action figures and an 8mm camera borrowed from his father. Nolan maintained an in… Read More
2021-10-19 13:51
Nosferatu (Directed by Werner Herzog)Based on F.W. Murnau’s silent classic, Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) was a dual-language production shot simultaneou… Read More
2021-10-19 13:51
The Wild Bunch (Directed by Sam Peckinpah)Sam Peckinpah died of heart failure at the age of 59 on December 28th, 1984, following years of hard living. The following day a brief obi… Read More
2021-10-19 13:43
Psycho (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)When Alfred Hitchcock was interviewed by Francois Truffaut in the fall of 1962, he had this to say on Psycho: ‘It wasn’t a message that stirr… Read More
2021-09-29 13:42
Affliction (Directed by Paul Schrader)Paul Schrader’s powerful Affliction (1997), adapted from the novel by Russell Banks, charts the inexorable decline into violence of a small-town N… Read More
2021-09-29 13:41
Vengeance is Mine (Directed by Imamura)Vengeance Is Mine is an intricately woven depiction of a sociopath's 78-day killing spree, but it is also a strange and profoundly empathetic depiction… Read More
2021-08-30 11:55
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (Directed by Luis Buñuel)The range of Jean-Claude Carriere’s collaborations over nearly six decades is extraordinary: Jes&ua&hell…Read More
2021-08-09 16:47
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Directed by George Roy Hill)William Goldman was a prolific author and screenwriter, best known for the 1987 film The Princess Bride, which was adapted fro… Read More
2021-07-09 09:22
M (Directed by Fritz Lang)Born in 1890, Fritz Lang grew up in Vienna during the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The son of an architect and his Catholic wife, Lang attended art scho… Read More
2021-07-06 08:30
Sorcerer (Directed by William Friedkin)Born in Chicago in 1935 William Friedkin began his career as a television documentary maker in the 1960s. His first feature film in 1965 was Good Times… Read More
2021-07-02 17:34
Rififi (Directed by Jules Dassin)Jules Dassin (1911–2008) was born in Middletown, Connecticut in the United States. At an early age his family moved to New York where he was raised in… Read More
2021-06-29 12:15
The Conformist (Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci)Bernardo Bertolucci was born in 1941 to a prosperous family in Parma, Italy. His father was a well-known poet and critic. Starting out himself… Read More
2021-06-23 22:37
Day For Night (Directed by Francois Truffaut)Francois Truffaut’s Academy Award-winning Day For Night (1973) celebrates the pleasures and creative tribulations inherent in filmmaki… Read More
2021-06-13 18:13
Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (Directed by Don Siegel)Don Siegel, born 1912 in Chicago, excelled in high-octane action films with tightly woven plots. He regularly collaborated with actor Cl… Read More
2021-06-12 16:34
Celine and Julie Go Boating (Directed by Jacques Rivette)Jacques Rivette came to the fore with the French New Wave movement in post-war Paris, starting out as a journalist and film cri… Read More
2021-06-10 20:41
The Wild Bunch (Directed by Sam Peckinpah)The Wild Bunch, directed by Sam Peckinpah, is considered one of the most significant films in the history of American popular culture. It establishe… Read More
2021-06-10 14:36
Takashi Miike’s prodigious output can be linked to two factors: the emergence of digital video and a reluctance to become tied to a single genre, showing a flexibility in style and the… Read More
2021-06-09 21:43
Beau Travail (Directed by Claire Denis)Claire Denis was born in Paris in 1948. Her parents moved to Africa shortly after she was born, and she spent her formative years travelling with her f… Read More
2021-06-09 19:16
Hell or High Water (Directed by David Mackenzie)David Mackenzie's Hell or High Water is a tight, superbly-acted update of the outlaw western. Making the most of its remote locations and a so… Read More
2021-06-09 15:44
Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (Directed by Werner Herzog) Werner Herzog’s remake of Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans is indebted to Abel Ferrara’s notorio… Read More
2021-05-27 14:27
Madadayo (Directed by Akira Kurosawa)From the Spring 1993 Issue of KINEMA Fred Marshall speaks with Akira Kurosawa about his film Madadayo (No, Not yet!).“When I make a film like this… Read More
2021-05-27 13:42
On the Waterfront (Directed by Elia Kazan)In the fall of 1973, after a two week retrospective of his films at Wesleyan University, Elia Kazan delivered a timeless speech on directing for fil… Read More
2021-05-27 13:12
A cult figure in the United States but an auteur abroad, Leone broke ground—and box-office records—with Fistful of Dollars (1964), the first in a series of westerns that would es… Read More
2021-05-27 12:37
The Tomb of Ligeia (Directed by Roger Corman)‘For Roger Corman, filmmaking was always a delicate balance between profitability and vision. Tight budgets made it easier for a film to re… Read More
2021-05-27 12:35
Federico Fellini: Juliet of the Spirits‘International success came to Fellini with “La Dolce Vita” (1959) starring Marcello Mastroianni in his first great role as a journal… Read More
2021-04-27 13:58
This is the second part of an interview by Gerald O’Grady with Theo Angelopoulos in Athens, 1990. Translated by Steve Dandolos and Stefanos Papazacharias.GO: It seems to me that… Read More
2021-04-27 13:58
‘Theodoros Angelopoulos’s considerable achievements in cinema during the 1970s and 1980s have made him not only the most important Greek filmmaker to date, but one of the truly c… Read More
2021-04-19 15:49
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Directed by Clint Eastwood)Clint Eastwood frequently refers to an aspiration for “realism” in his films. He was attracted to Midnight in… Read More
2021-04-19 14:22
From the Life of the Marionettes (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)Made during his self-imposed exile in Germany, Ingmar Bergman’s From the Life of the Marionettes offers a lacerating portra… Read More
2021-04-19 14:22
Mirror (Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky)In Moscow, Tonino Guerra, Italian poet and screenwriter (who worked with Petri, Rosi, Antonioni, and with Fellini on Amarcord) met with Andrei Tarkovsky… Read More
2021-04-05 13:39
Luchino Visconti: Rocco and His BrothersAt once lyrical and brutal, this family saga is fatalist film noir expressed through a purity of vision; like the saintly Rocco (Alain Delon) himself… Read More
2021-04-05 13:36
Cold Water (Directed by Oliver Assayas)‘A spirit of rebellion has always run through the work of French writer-director Olivier Assayas, but it is perhaps most acutely felt in his mast… Read More
2021-03-22 21:02
Add captionNo Country for Old Men is a pitch-perfect thriller that delivers the pleasurable fear and suspense expected of the genre even as it sends its conventions to the shredder. It… Read More
2021-03-22 17:42
Tucker (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola)Arnold Schulman started out as an aspiring playwright, studying form and structure with Robert Anderson, Clifford Odets, and others. He learned to wr… Read More
2021-03-16 15:04
Dead Ringers (Directed by David Cronenberg)Beginning with The Dead Zone (1983), a straightforward adaptation of a horror novel by Stephen King, Cronenberg moved closer to the mainstream. The… Read More
2021-03-12 16:04
Night of the Living Dead (Directed by George Romero)With his first film, Night of the Living Dead (1968), director George Romero made a spectacular debut. Shot for a mere $70,000 with a cast… Read More
2021-03-12 16:03
Taxi Driver (Directed by Martin Scorsese)While attending film school at UCLA, Paul Schrader saw the film, Pickpocket (1959), which essentially formed the path of his career. During his stay… Read More
2021-03-01 12:10
An Actor’s Revenge (Directed by Kon Ichikawa)An Actor’s Revenge, the English name given to the 1963 Japanese film Yukinojo henge (Yukinojo the Phantom), is the perfect title for… Read More
2021-03-01 12:08
Michelangelo Antonioni: The Eclipse (L’Eclisse)‘It seems to me that L’Eclisse is one of the most interesting films of and about the middle of the last century, when humanit… Read More
2021-02-22 20:52
The Lodger (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)The emotions of the audience are the pivotal point in Hitchcock's narrative world; these emotions are invoked by "gripping situations", which in turn… Read More
2021-02-22 19:47
The Wrong Man (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)Meeting with journalist Lillian Ross in New York when he was presenting ‘The Soft Skin’ (La peau douce) at the New York Film Fest… Read More
2021-02-11 14:59
Pickpocket (Directed by Robert Bresson)Bresson is the exemplar of transcendental style: his form is predictable and is “the operative element,” the subject matter itself simply t… Read More
2021-02-07 02:26
Raging Bull (Directed by Martin Scorsese)Paul Schrader, screenwriter of Mishima, Raging Bull and Patti Hearst, on balancing fiction and history:Interviewer: In dealing with truth… Read More
2021-02-07 02:26
Le Samourai (Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville)The great Jean-Pierre Melville, director of Le Samourai and Le Deuxième Souffle, on the thriller as modern tragedy:I think the… Read More
2021-02-01 19:07
Francis Coppola’s breakthrough came with The Godfather (1972), an enormously successful, vivid adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name. A big box-office hit, The Godfat… Read More
2021-01-26 16:58
Federico Fellini: I VitelloniHaving avoided conscription during the Second World War (apparently because his medical records were destroyed by Allied bombing), Fellini began a productiv… Read More
2021-01-16 17:27
Sweet Smell of Success (Directed by Alexander Mackendrick)A fast-paced, cynical journey through New York Sweet Smell of Success (1957), directed by Alexander Mackendrick, stars Burt Lancaste… Read More
2021-01-16 17:27
Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (Directed by Alain Resnais)‘There is a great deal to be moved by in ‘Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime’... The true subject is not what we k… Read More
2021-01-16 17:22
Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-born screenwriter who wrote and produced innovative and visually striking motion pictures in collaboration with British director Michael Powell, most notab… Read More
2021-01-16 17:19
Adaptation (Directed by Spike Jonze) Adaptation tells the story of a misunderstood and socially inept screenwriter called Charlie Kaufman struggling to adapt Susan Orlean’s dense… Read More
2021-01-16 17:18
Being John Malkovich (Directed by Spike Jonze)One of modern cinema’s most celebrated screenwriters, Charlie Kaufman’s work includes surreal fantasy Being John Malkovich, cerebral… Read More
2021-01-16 17:17
Seven Samurai (Directed by Akira Kurosawa)The great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, described by Stephen Spielberg as ‘the pictorial Shakespeare of our time’, was famously relu… Read More
2021-01-16 17:17
Mean Streets (Directed by Martin Scorsese)‘You don’t make up for your sins in church – you do it in the streets.’
Inspired by Scorsese’s own experiences o… Read More
2020-12-21 13:38
The Passenger (Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni)Originally released in 1975, Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger is, on one level, a thriller about a man trying to escap… Read More
2020-12-07 11:00
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s cinema is deeply embedded in Italian culture: hence the confusion that many British and American critics have felt when confronted with his work. This is not only… Read More
2020-11-30 12:02
Rocco and His Brothers (Directed by Luchino Visconti)MARTIN SCORSESE ON VISCONTI’S ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERSThe film-maker pays tribute to Luchino Visconti, whose cinematic masterpiece Ro… Read More
2020-11-23 12:02
Three Women (Directed by Robert Altman)Three Women by Robert Altman is set in a dusty, underpopulated California resort town, where a naive southern waif, Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek), idolizes… Read More
2020-11-16 01:11
Nixon (Directed by Oliver Stone)Writer-director Oliver Stone was in the final weeks of postproduction on Nixon when this interview was conducted. Under unavoidable pressure, appearing a bit… Read More
2020-08-20 13:48
Fahrenheit 451 (Directed by Francois Truffaut)There are things that Truffaut did in those early movies that left a lasting impression: the opening expository section of ‘Jules and Jim… Read More
2020-07-31 12:45
The 400 Blows (Directed by Francois Truffaut)A cinephile from a young age, François Truffaut first made his cinematic mark as an outspoken critic for Cahiers du cinéma in the 1… Read More
2020-07-31 12:34
Orphée (Directed by Jean Cocteau)A poet and novelist who became a film-maker in his forties, Jean Cocteau proceeded to write and direct films on fantastic themes, marked by great visu… Read More
2020-07-31 12:31
Cries and Whispers (Directed by Ingmar Bergman)The great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman held a seminar with the Fellows of the Center for Advanced Film Studies on October 31, 1975 in which… Read More
2020-07-31 12:27
Me and Orson Welles is the latest film from director Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused). Set in late-1930s New York, it’s both a nuanced, entertaining look at Orson Welles… Read More
2020-07-31 12:26
M (Directed by Fritz Lang)Fritz Lang was born in fin-de-siècle Vienna in 1890, the son of a construction magnate. He abandoned art school to serve in the Austrian army durin… Read More
2020-07-31 12:22
Night And The City (Directed by Jules Dassin) ‘Night and the City’ is Jules Dassin’s masterpiece and one of a string of superb film noirs Dassin made in the late 1940s… Read More
2020-07-31 12:22
Faces (Directed by John Cassavetes)John Cassavetes’s fourth feature, “Faces,” from 1968, is a classic independent production made before such things were in vogue. He finan… Read More
2020-07-31 12:20
Initially published in the Jan/Feb 1998 issue of Creative Screenwriting the following interview with Quentin Tarantino was conducted shortly after the release of Tarantino’s Jackie Bro… Read More
2020-07-31 12:18
Vampyr (Directed by Carl Dreyer)‘Through style one infuses a film with a soul, and that is what makes it art,’ wrote Carl Theodor Dreyer. Running until March 23, this month… Read More
2020-07-31 12:15
Kelly Masterson started as a playwright in the 1980s with limited success. He wrote the original screenplay for ‘Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead’ in 1999. A powerfu… Read More
2020-07-31 12:14
City Lights (Directed by Charlie Chaplin)‘If only one of Charles Chaplin's films could be preserved, ‘City Lights’ (1931) would come
the closest to representing all… Read More
2020-07-31 12:12
Mulholland Drive (Directed by David Lynch)David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’ was originally developed as a two-hour pilot for a TV series in 1999, but was rejected by ABC. It… Read More
2020-07-30 22:16
The Searchers (Directed by John Ford)One of the key figures leading the renaissance of American cinema in the 1970s, Peter Bogdanovich (b. 1939) began his career as an actor, taking classes… Read More
2020-07-30 22:16
Vertigo (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)In 1963 Peter Bogdanovich prepared the first complete Alfred Hitchcock retrospective in America, ‘The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock’ at The Mus… Read More
2020-07-30 22:15
Solaris (Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky)‘I was on very intimate terms with Tarkovsky. I always felt like he was my younger brother. Drinking together, we sang the theme of Seven Samurai… Read More
2020-07-30 22:14
La Cérémonie (Directed by Claude Chabrol)Born in 1930, Claude Chabrol was the first of the French New Wave directors into production with Le Beau Serge (1958). He went on to di… Read More
2020-07-30 22:07
Badlands (Directed by Terrence Malick)The son of an oil company executive, Terrence Malick grew up in Texas and Oklahoma. He went to Harvard and later to Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes… Read More
2020-07-30 22:06
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Directed by Werner Herzog)Werner Herzog, director of Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo and Nosferatu, on the art of storytelling and the importance of search… Read More
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