Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Behind the Silver Screen : Behind the Silver Screen - Virginia Wright Wexman

Behind the Silver Screen

By: Virginia Wright Wexman (Editor)

Paperback | 31 October 2017

At a Glance

Paperback


$83.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $21.00 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

When a film is acclaimed, the director usually gets the lion’s share of the credit. Yet the movie director’s job—especially the collaborations and compromises it involves—remains little understood. 

The latest volume in the Behind the Silver Screen series, this collection provides the first comprehensive overview of how directing, as both an art and profession, has evolved in tandem with changing film industry practices. Each chapter is written by an expert on a different period of Hollywood, from the silent film era to today’s digital filmmaking, providing in-depth examinations of key trends like the emergence of independent production after World War II and the rise of auteurism in the 1970s. Challenging the myth of the lone director, these studies demonstrate how directors work with a multitude of other talented creative professionals, including actors, writers, producers, editors, and cinematographers.   

Directing examines a diverse range of classic and contemporary directors, including Orson Welles, Tim Burton, Cecil B. DeMille, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, and Ida Lupino, offering a rich composite picture of how they have negotiated industry constraints, utilized new technologies, and harnessed the creative contributions of their many collaborators throughout a century of Hollywood filmmaking.  
Industry Reviews
"A rare and useful contribution to the history of Hollywood film directors - their varied working conditions, their talented collaborators, and their sometimes limited but more often significant contributions to film art." -- James Naremore * author of Charles Burnett: A Cinema of Symbolic Knowledge *
"This fascinating collection of essays by established field historians goes further than any publication to date to challenge the mythologies that have grown up around the auteur director. This is achieved most notably by historical overview of the actual work of the studio director as it has evolved from 1895 to the present." -- Jane Gaines * author of Fictioning Histories: Women Film Pioneers *

More in Specific Films

The Art of Avatar Fire and Ash - Chris Prince

RRP $75.00

$55.75

26%
OFF
The Art of Star Wars : Andor (The Complete Series) - Phillip Szostak
The Art of Gravity Falls - Alex Hirsch

RRP $110.00

$76.99

30%
OFF
KPop Demon Hunters : The Official Deluxe Colouring Book - Random House Worlds
What Will the Neighbours Think : Love, Loss and Showbiz - Robyn Bishop
The Art and Making of Arcane - Elisabeth Vincentelli

RRP $79.99

$58.99

26%
OFF
Errol Flynn : The true story of Australia's Hollywood icon - Patricia O'Brien
JoJo A-Go!Go! : JoJo A-Go!Go! - Hirohiko Araki

RRP $43.99

$34.75

21%
OFF
The Director : International Booker Prize 2026 Shortlist - Daniel Kehlmann
Where The Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
The World of Avatar Updated Edition - Joshua Izzo

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
Barbie (TM): The World Tour : Barbie - MARGOT ROBBIE

RRP $50.00

$38.75

22%
OFF
I Feel Bad About My Neck : And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman - Nora Ephron
My Neighbor Totoro Film Comic : All-in-One Edition - Hayao Miyazaki
Into the Woods : How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them - John Yorke