Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist

Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist

Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist

Designing Movies: Portrait of a Hollywood Artist

Hardcover

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Overview

This retrospective on the career of Academy Award-winning production designer Richard Sylbert takes readers behind the scenes of some of the most influential films of the past fifty years.

The Manchurian Candidate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Dick Tracy. The common factor behind these diverse, visually ground-breaking cinematic masterpieces is the work of legendary production designer Richard Sylbert. Basing the book in part on the late designer's Hollywood memoirs, writer Sylvia Townsend, with the participation of Sylbert's widow, screenwriter Sharmagne Sylbert, has enhanced the production designer's original manuscript with candid interviews from some of his most famous collaborators, including Warren Beatty, Roman Polanski, and Francis Ford Coppola. The result is a book that takes readers behind the scenes of some of the most influential and highly acclaimed films of the past fifty years.

This is a portrait of a highly driven, sometimes tempestuous visionary who wasn't afraid to fight for the artistic integrity of the worlds he created on screen. Movie lovers will find in-depth discussions of the making of such modern classics as Reds, Carnal Knowledge, Shampoo, and The Cotton Club. More than thirty illustrations capture Sylbert's creative process from early sketches to completed sets and locations.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780275986902
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 09/30/2006
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Richard Sylbert was an Academy Award-winning production designer. His credits include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Reds, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, The Cotton Club, and Dick Tracy.

Sylvia Townsend is an editor and writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times. She developed an interest the film industry in the late 1970s, when she worked as an intern for The Hollywood Reporter.

Sharmagne Leland-St. John-Sylbert is a poet, concert performer, lyricist, artist, and filmmaker. She has worked as an actress, production designer, and screenwriter, and is Editor-in-Chief of the poetry e-zine Quill and Parchment.com. She is author of Unsung Songs and Silver Tears and Time.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments Sylvia Townsend
1. Thoughts on Production Design
Richard Sylbert
2. Introduction to Richard Sylbert
Sylvia Townsend
3. New York in the 1950s and William Cameron Menzies
Richard Sylbert
4. A Chance to Design a Feature Film in Town
Richard Sylbert
5. Baby Doll
Richard Sylbert
6. The Fugitive Kind
Richard Sylbert
7. A Face in the Crowd
Richard Sylbert
8. Long Day's Jourbaney into Night
Richard Sylbert
9. The Manchurian Candidate
Richard Sylbert
10. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Richard Sylbert
11. The Graduate
Richard Sylbert
12. Rosemary's Baby
Sylvia Townsend
13. Catch-22
Sylvia Townsend
14. The World of the 1970s
Richard Sylbert
15. Carnal Knowledge
Richard Sylbert
16. Chinatown
Richard Sylbert
17. Shampoo
Sylvia Townsend
18. Reds
Sylvia Townsend
19. The Cotton Club
Sylvia Townsend
20. Tequila Sunrise
Sylvia Townsend
21. Dick Tracy
Sylvia Townsend
22. Carlito's Way
Sylvia Townsend
23. My Best Friend's Wedding
Sylvia Townsend
Afterword
Sharmagne Leland-St. John-Sylbert
Notes
Index
Photo essay follows

What People are Saying About This

Peter Biskind

"Dick Sylbert was arguably the most gifted production designer of his generation. When he died, he left the kernel of a memoir, which has been used as the basis for this riveting account of his life in the movies."

Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N'Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

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