Book Description
Peter Bogdanovich, known primarily as a director, film historian and critic, has been working with professional actors all his life. He started out as an actor (he debuted on the stage in his sixth-grade production of Finian’s Rainbow); he watched actors work (he went to the theater every week from the age of thirteen and saw every important show on, or off, Broadway for the next decade); he studied acting, starting at sixteen, with Stella Adler (his work with her became the foundation for all he would ever do as an actor and a director).
Now, in his new book, Who the Hell’s in It, Bogdanovich draws upon a lifetime of experience, observation and understanding of the art to write about the actors he came to know along the way; actors he admired from afar; actors he worked with, directed, befriended. Among them: Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, John Cassavetes, Charlie Chaplin, Montgomery Clift, Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda, Ben Gazzara, Audrey Hepburn, Boris Karloff, Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, Frank Sinatra, and James Stewart.
Bogdanovich captures—in their words and his—their work, their individual styles, what made them who they were, what gave them their appeal and why they’ve continued to be America’s iconic actors.
On Lillian Gish: “the first virgin hearth goddess of the screen . . . a valiant and courageous symbol of fortitude and love through all distress.”
On Marlon Brando: “He challenged himself never to be the same from picture to picture, refusing to become the kind of film star the studio system had invented and thrived upon—the recognizable human commodity each new film was built around . . . The funny thing is that Brando’s charismatic screen persona was vividly apparent despite the multiplicity of his guises . . . Brando always remains recognizable, a star-actor in spite of himself. ”
Jerry Lewis to Bogdanovich on the first laugh Lewis ever got onstage: “I was five years old. My mom and dad had a tux made—I worked in the borscht circuit with them—and I came out and I sang, ‘Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?’ the big hit at the time . . . It was 1931, and I stopped the show—naturally—a five-year-old in a tuxedo is not going to stop the show? And I took a bow and my foot slipped and hit one of the floodlights and it exploded and the smoke and the sound scared me so I started to cry. The audience laughed—they were hysterical . . . So I knew I had to get the rest of my laughs the rest of my life, breaking, sitting, falling, spinning.”
John Wayne to Bogdanovich, on the early years of Wayne’s career when he was working as a prop man: “Well, I’ve naturally studied John Ford professionally as well as loving the man. Ever since the first time I walked down his set as a goose-herder in 1927. They needed somebody from the prop department to keep the geese from getting under a fake hill they had for Mother Machree at Fox. I’d been hired because Tom Mix wanted a box seat for the USC football games, and so they promised jobs to Don Williams and myself and a couple of the players. They buried us over in the properties department, and Mr. Ford’s need for a goose-herder just seemed to fit my pistol.”
These twenty-six portraits and conversations are unsurpassed in their evocation of a certain kind of great movie star that has vanished. Bogdanovich’s book is a celebration and a farewell.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Not as good as "Who the Devil Made It?".......2006-11-10
I enjoyed this book, but it is not as good as some of Bogdanovich's past writings about Orson Welles, or his compilation book on directors, "Who the Devil Made It?". This book has a more "gossipy" quality than academic feel to it. For instance, according to a recent book about Jimmy Stewart; Kim Novak denies ever having an affair with Jimmy Stewart as Bogdanovich claims here. She said that he was married, and that she was in love with the director of "Bell, Book & Candle", Richard Quine, while she was working on that movie. She also denied the affair during Hitchcock's "Vertigo". However, if you are wanting to read a book that has first person accounts with Hollywood's finest movie actors I recommend this book. (I believe the only person that Bogdanovich writes about that he never personally spoke with is Marilyn Monroe.)
Me Too.......2006-09-03
Not quite up to the standard of his previous book on the famous directors he interviewed, it is nonetheless a charming complement and animated by the same quiet excitement. Bogdanovich is a great film director--when he wants to be--but not quite a great writer, and I found that while I could read three or four of these personality profiles in a row, that was my limit before they all started to blur. So it is a book to be savored not devoured.
It is produced on the patented Knopf film book model, everything luxe and overstuffed, with dozens of photo illustrations and an exquisute care about the presentation. I always think these Knopf books are like a film buff's pornography, for it's all about the pleasure of sinking into them. In this case, we get to glimpse close-up a handful of Hollywood's greatest stars, among them Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda. Tighter close-ups involve Bogdanovich's own directing of Audrey Hepburn (sad story), River Phoenix (sad too) and Boris Karloff, the first star in any of Bogdanovich's movies. This might have been sad, but Karloff emerges eerily in control of himself and his image.
The puzzling one is Sidney Poitier, and the story of his collaboration with PB on "To Sir With Love Part II" is one of those head0scratching stories. It might almost be fictional, a praody of Hollywood swallowing its own tail. You can't believe they made a sequel to the original TO SIR WITH LOVE, and then that it came and went without a single trace, except this scrap of memoir, is startling proof that sometimes we truly do cast our pearls before swine. Some buried Caesar indeed as Omar Khayham used to sing in his desert tents to the stars.
The chapter on John Wayne is perhaps the book's greatest success, and it is interview-based. But he is not always the world's most incisive interviewer, and his conversation with Marlene Dietrich reveals nothing new, because apparently she did not want it to. I did like the raw come-ons Ryan O'Neal, Bogdanovich's companion during the encounter with Dietrich, made to her. "I dream about your legs and I wake up screaming," he leers.
Dietrich replies, "Me too."
Quite Interesting.......2006-01-08
Peter Bogdanovich is a director, film historian and critic, who better to write such a work as this than he. Truly he has poured his heart into this work and it definitely shows.
In this book we find many stories of actors that we have longed loved and admired, such as Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Henry Fonda and so many more. His insights on these famous people are wonderful, detailed and interesting. You will find many of your questions answered and you will read information that will surprise and amuse you.This is a work that will be cherished by many for years to come; a remembrance of yesterday that should never be forgotten, and this book will help that to be.
Revealing, affectionate portraits of screen legends.......2005-11-07
Peter Bogdanovich's book "Who the Hell's In It?" is an affectionate tribute to various movie stars he knew and/or admired. The list is a starry one: Lillian Gish, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Stella Adler, Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Sal Mineo, James Stewart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Boris Karloff, John Cassavetes, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, Marlene Dietrich, Anthony Perkins, Frank Sinatra, Ben Gazzara, Audrey Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Marilyn Monroe.
If you're looking for dirt, you're barking up the wrong tree. Bogdanovich's chapters are almost reverential. It's clear that he knew some of the stars better than others. His chapter on Humphrey Bogart is almost entirely based on interviews with Lauren Bacall and others who knew the legendary star. He writes a chapter on Marilyn Monroe, when he only saw the screen goddess once. Same with Charlie Chaplin. These chapters don't really cover new territory, but it's a joy to read Bogdanovich's awe and adoration of these stars. He has a great style of writing, and most of all, a little-boy sense of wonder that he met these stars, if only for the briefest moments. One of my favorite moments is when he talks about asking Marlon Brando for an autograph as a teenager. There's also a brief but heartbreaking anecdote about Montgomery Clift.
But other chapters are much more in-depth. The chapter with Jerry Lewis recounts in great detail Lewis's painful estrangement from Dean Martin. So many years later, Lewis still seems hurt that Martin told him, "You're only a dollar sign to me." Martin and Lewis's reconciliation is similarly touching. There's also revealing interviews with John Wayne and Henry Fonda. Bogdanovich also talks about his friendship with River Phoenix, who died too young from a drug overdose, but was apparently an enchanting young man. Chapters about Audrey Hepburn, Sal Mineo, Jack Lemmon, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart are similarly affectionate. Bogdanovich seems able to capture the speaking voices of Grant and Stewart -- as you read the pages, you can almost hear Grant in his clipped, unique accent, and Stewart's slow drawl. Bogdanovich admits that sometimes he called up Cary Grant just to hear his voice. It seems Bogdanovich knew some better stars better than others, but he stubbornly refuses to "dish" on any of them. The closest he comes is when he suggests that Jimmy Stewart romanced some of his leading ladies in the 1950's. I dont view this adoration as a bad thing. There are the Kitty Kelley's of the world to dish the dirt. Biographies have covered the "dark" side of these stars, and these are the biographies that are get more buzz. But it's refreshing to read about the kinder, more human side to stars Bogdanovich adored and admired so much.
Book Description
This popular series from Boosey and Hawkes features favorite orchestral works in full-score format. Combining high-quality production with affordable prices, each volume of the Masterworks Series features: full-size format; full-color fine art covers; newly published introductory notes, commentaries and illustrations; more. Essential scores for every library! A revised edition (1993) including Bartok's alternative ending.
Customer Reviews:
The one to get!.......2007-05-21
Larger size for failing eyes. I bought my first copy in the mid-60s, the miniature score, and paid almost 50% more for a score 50% smaller. If you collect scores, add this one to your collection!
Solid score.......2007-05-09
This is a good full score of one of Bartok's most famous pieces. It includes some notes about the piece as well as the composer's original program notes. It also includes both the original and alternate endings to the 5th movement. I used this for study with a high school music class.
B&H Masterworks Library version of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.......2006-12-12
This is THE edition to buy. Good print, adequate size, everything you need is there.
Book Description
Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra has proven to be one of the most popularly successful concert works of the twentieth century. It is seen by its champions as an example of Bartók's seamless blend of Eastern European folk music and Western art music, and by its detractors as indicative of the composer's artistic compromise. This book contains a discussion of the historical and musical contexts of the piece, its early performance history and critical reception. It also includes the first complete movement-by-movement synopsis of the Concerto, as well as detailed technical information about the work.
Book Description
Pantomime in One Act, after a Libretto by Menyhert Lengyel.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Information, Poor Delivery
- An wonderful introduction to a complex composer
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Bela Bartok (20th-Century Composers)
Kenneth Chalmers
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
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ASIN: 0714831646 |
Amazon.com
The 19th century saw the flowering of modern nationalism as the various peoples of Europe who had previously been culturally silent began to make themselves heard. Along with the invigorating effects on art, nationalism also led to provincialism and occasional bigotry. Examining Bartók, author Kenneth Chalmers uncovers an intellectual whose research into folk music was genuinely nationalistic and, at the same time, broad-minded. Bartok's research covered not just Hungarian sources; it also reached out to other European ethnic groups--even as far as North Africa. Just as Bartok's nationalism managed to be cosmopolitan, his compositions served as a contemporary idiom that escaped the sterile orthodoxy of serialism. Chalmers's portrait of this proud and withdrawn man captures his single-minded commitment to his music and explains why Bartok's works are among the most accessible contemporary scores to enter the repertory after WWII.
Book Description
The 19th century saw the flowering of modern nationalism as the various peoples of Europe who had previously been culturally silent began to make themselves heard. Along with the invigorating effects on art, nationalism also led to provincialism and occasional bigotry. Examining Bart+k, author Kenneth Chalmers uncovers an intellectual whose research into folk music was genuinely nationalistic and, at the same time, broad-minded. Bartok's research covered not just Hungarian sources; it also reached out to other European ethnic groups--even as far as North Africa. Just as Bartok's nationalism managed to be cosmopolitan, his compositions served as a contemporary idiom that escaped the sterile orthodoxy of serialism. Chalmers's portrait of this proud and withdrawn man captures his single-minded commitment to his music and explains why Bartok's works are among the most accessible contemporary scores to enter the repertory after WWII.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Information, Poor Delivery.......2004-07-17
This publication offers excellent biographical information on the life of Béla Bartók. Chalmers eloquently describes the composer's most famous compositions, concentrating on the aspects of his personal life that influenced their genesis rather than their fastidious technical complexities. If you are interested in the theoretical aspects of Bartók's music, I instead recommend Elliott Antokoletz's "The Music of Béla Bartók: A Study of Tonality and Progression in Twentieth-Century Music." The most unfortunate element of the book reviewed here is the authors prose. The publication is littered with incomplete, run-on and just plain terrible sentence structure. Overall, this is a quaint and interesting book, but Chalmers' prose is incredibly difficult to comprehend. I, personally, do not enjoy having to read a simple sentence two and three times to understand a simple thought that could have been portrayed in a straight-forward form.
An wonderful introduction to a complex composer.......2000-07-24
This book is a fabulous introduction to the music of a man whose compositions are often a bit difficult to understand. Kenneth Chalmers eloquently takes the reader on a journey through Bartok's life and music. In spite of the fact that there are some musical details, Chalmers did not get bogged down in alot of the compositional jargon that might dissuade one to read this particular biography.
All in all, this book gets my highest praise and I enthusiastically encourage anyone who wants to learn a little more about Bartok, one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th Century, to read it.
Average customer rating:
- One of the basic scholarly works on the composer's style.
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Bartok's Chamber Music
Janos Karpati
Manufacturer: Pendragon Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Customer Reviews:
One of the basic scholarly works on the composer's style........1999-01-22
The author, Janos Karpati, musicologist and professor of the F. Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, is equally well known as a Bartok specialist and as a distinguished scholar of the music of the East, especially that of Japan. The Introduction is planned to define the place and relative weight of chamber music within the whole oeuvre. Cahpter 2, Forerunners and Contemporaries is an important summary of stylistic similarities. "Monothemiticism and Variation" investigates an important underlying principle of Bartok's art. Karpati introduces his most original analytical concept, "mistuning". In Karpati's hand this expression turned into a strictly formulated theoretical concept: on p. 211 a table explains how acoustic intervals can be replaced by "mistuned" ones either a semitone lower or a semitone higher.
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Inside Bluebeard's Castle: Music and Drama in Bela Bartok's Opera
Carl S. Leafstedt
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Béla Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle
ASIN: 0195109996 |
Book Description
This is the first book-length examination of Bartok's 1911 opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, one of the twentieth century's enduring operatic works. Writing in an engaging style, Leafstedt adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the opera by introducing, in addition to music-dramatic analysis, a number of topics that are new to the field of Bartok studies. These new areas of critical and scholarly terrain include a detailed literary study of the libretto and a gender-focused analysis of the opera's female character, Judith. Leafstedt begins with a short introductory chapter that places Duke Bluebeard's Castle within the context of Bartok's early composing career, his discovery of folk music, and its impact on his later work. The book goes on to explore the composition's troubled history, its failure to win two early Hungarian opera competitions, and the three versions of the ending that resulted, discussed here in depth for the first time. The core of the book is devoted to the musical and dramatic organization of the opera and offers an analysis of the seven individual door scenes, including a detailed analysis of scene six, the "lake of tears" scene, illustrating the work's complex tonal organization and dramatic structure. A separate chapter places this darkly psychological version of the Bluebeard story within the broader context of European history and literature. Throughout the book, Leafstedt draws on original Hungarian source material, much of it newly translated by the author and available here for the first time in English, and he includes a generous selection of musical examples. Inside Bluebeard's Castle is an ideal starting point for research in twentieth-century music, Hungarian cultural history, and opera studies, as well as an invaluable guide for anyone interested in Bartok's only opera.
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Bela Bart-k: A Celebration
Benjamin Suchoff
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810849585 |
Book Description
This compilation of essays, lectures, and scholarly papers on Bart-k studies from 1953 to the present includes insights obtained by the author over a half-century career as a Bart-k specialist.Divided into three parts, chapters examine Bart-k as a multifaceted music figure: composer, folklorist, pianist, and teacher. As composer, it includes program notes, an introduction to his principles of composition, and theoretic-analytical discussion of selected works, including Mikrokosmos. As folklorist, it examines the outcome of Bart-k's fieldwork, methodology, and findings in East European, Arabic, and Turkist autochthonous folk music materials. Bart-k's American years are also discussed. The narrative is supported by a substantial number of musical examples and references.
Book Description
The stirring first quartet captures the composer's great stylistic rebirth, from the Romanticism of the opening movement to a finale inspired by Hungarian folk tunes. The second quartet combines disparate influences into a work of astonishing force and originality.
Book Description
The basic principles of progression and the means by which tonality is established in Bartók's music remain problematical to many theorists. Elliott Antokoletz here demonstrates that the remarkable continuity of style in Bartók's evolution is founded upon an all-encompassing system of pitch relations in which one can draw together the diverse pitch formations in his music under one unified set of principles.
Book Description
Bartók's music is greatly prized by concertgoers, yet we know little about the intellectual milieu that gave rise to his artistry. Bartók is often seen as a lonely genius emerging from a gray background of an "underdeveloped country." Now Judit Frigyesi offers a broader perspective on Bartók's art by grounding it in the social and cultural life of turn-of-the-century Hungary and the intense creativity of its modernist movement. Bartók spent most of his life in Budapest, an exceptional man living in a remarkable milieu. Frigyesi argues that Hungarian modernism in general and Bartók's aesthetic in particular should be understood in terms of a collective search for wholeness in life and art and for a definition of identity in a rapidly changing world. Is it still possible, Bartók's generation of artists asked, to create coherent art in a world that is no longer whole? Bartók and others were preoccupied with this question and developed their aesthetics in response to it. In a discussion of Bartók and of Endre Ady, the most influential Hungarian poet of the time, Frigyesi demonstrates how different branches of art and different personalities responded to the same set of problems, creating oeuvres that appear as reflections of one another. She also examines Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, exploring philosophical and poetic ideas of Hungarian modernism and linking Bartók's stylistic innovations to these concepts.
Customer Reviews:
a truly eye-opening explanation of Bartok and his works!.......1998-10-18
I am a fan of history-and-criticism books (especially on musical topics), but ONLY when they read with the clarity of logic and the authority of resourced research which is demonstrated by this wonderful book. The purposes and meanings which underlie so much of Bartok's work and music, from folk-song research to Cantata Profana and all of the stage works, are beautifully revealed. It is a true inspiration to read about the milieu which helped to create the great sense of purpose which drove Bartok to his greatness. (Derrill Bodley, Professor)
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