Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers: What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Greatest Directors

300 Pages·2009·38.85 MB·English

by  Robert Schnakenberg

Copyright © 2010 by Quirk Productions, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2009937589
eBook ISBN: 978-1-59474742-7
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59474-434-1
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank Michael Carney for his assistance in researching this book.
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
D. W. GRIFFITH
January 22, 1875–July 23, 1948
CECIL B. DEMILLE
August 12, 1881–January 21, 1959
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
April 16, 1889–December 25, 1977
JOHN FORD
February 1, 1894–August 31, 1973
HOWARD HAWKS
May 30, 1896–December 26, 1977
OSCAR MICHEAUX AND OTHER OVERLOOKED DIRECTORS FROM
HOLLYWOOD’S GOLDEN AGE
FRANK CAPRA
May 18, 1897–September 3, 1991
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
August 13, 1899–April 29, 1980
LUIS BUÑUEL
February 22, 1900–July 29, 1983
WALT DISNEY
December 5, 1901–December 15, 1966
LOUIS B. MAYER AND OTHER LEGENDARY PRODUCERS
LENI RIEFENSTAHL
August 22, 1902–September 8, 2003
ELIA KAZAN
September 7, 1909–September 28, 2003
AKIRA KUROSAWA
March 23, 1910–September 6, 1998
ORSON WELLES
May 6, 1915–October 10, 1985
INGMAR BERGMAN
July 4, 1918–July 30, 2007
ED WOOD JR. AND OTHER MASTERS OF SCHLOCK
FEDERICO FELLINI
January 20, 1920–October 31, 1993
ROBERT ALTMAN
February 20, 1925–November 20, 2006
SAM PECKINPAH
February 21, 1925–December 28, 1984
STANLEY KUBRICK
July 26, 1928–March 7, 1999
SERGIO LEONE
January 3, 1929–April 30, 1989
DON SIEGEL AND OTHER MASTERS OF GENRE FILMS
JEAN-LUC GODARD
December 3, 1930–
FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT
February 6, 1932–October 21, 1984
ROMAN POLANSKI
August 18, 1933–
WOODY ALLEN
December 1, 1935–
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
April 7, 1939–
BRIAN DE PALMA
September 11, 1940–
ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ AND OTHER OVERLOOKED WOMEN DIRECTORS
WERNER HERZOG
September 5, 1942–
MARTIN SCORSESE
November 17, 1942–
GEORGE LUCAS
May 14, 1944–
DAVID LYNCH
January 20, 1946–
OLIVER STONE
September 15, 1946–
STEVEN SPIELBERG
December 18, 1946–
STEPHEN KING AND OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAD NO BUSINESS DIRECTING
MOVIES
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR
September 24, 1949–
THE COEN BROTHERS
JOEL COEN
November 29, 1954–
ETHAN COEN
September 21, 1957–
SPIKE LEE
March 20, 1957–
QUENTIN TARANTINO
March 27, 1963–
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
“When the legend becomes fact,” John Ford famously counseled, “print the legend.” There
are a lot of legendary stories told about famous film directors—and many of them are true.
In the pages of Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers, we’ll attempt to sort out the facts from
the fables, keeping in mind Ford’s dictum and allowing for the large amount of
mythologizing (self-and otherwise) that goes on in Hollywood and in capitals of cinema
around the globe. Welcome to a world where the booze flows freely, the “casting couch” is
open for business 24/7, and your ability to finance your next masterpiece is limited only by
the budget you’ve allotted for blow.
Movie directors have been called the last cowboys, likened to gods, and analogized to
chefs, CEOs, and Peeping Toms. From the earliest days of the medium, they assigned
themselves tremendous power over the casts, crews, and creative content of their pictures
while assuming few of the accompanying responsibilities. Producers ponied up the money
to make their artistic visions come to life, but at the end of the process they were often left
quite literally holding the bag—an empty one that once was filled with the cash of a
thousand Pasadena dentists. This business model has generated some remarkably good—
and some stunningly bad—movies and supplied the fodder for a thousand great director
anecdotes, many of which we retell here. From such imperious tyrants as Cecil B. DeMille
to public provocateurs like Spike Lee, directors have always had a knack for bullying their
subordinates, feuding with their rivals, and stirring up trouble with the suits.
Also in the mix are the personal quirks, weird habits, and pathological predilections that
are par for the course for every fabulously successful creative person. Between these
covers lurks one of the strangest collections of cross-dressers, toe suckers, germophobes,
control freaks, and sex addicts ever assembled. Here you’ll find the answers to a thousand
trivia questions you can use to confound your movie-mad friends: Which famous director
was obsessed with croquet? Who devoted an entire room in his mansion to books about
Napoleon? Is it really true Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button?
If film directors truly are like voyeurs, using their cameras to show us aspects of the
human experience we might not otherwise see, then it’s only fair that we turn the tables on
them. Let’s peep into their rear windows for a change, look in their celluloid closets,
debunk a few urban legends, and find out what makes the great modern mythmakers tick.
Like a stag reel you pull out of the shoebox and screen for special friends, these secret lives
should be shared with anyone who can handle a walk on the wild side of movie history.
And so, without further ado … Dim the lights! Roll ’em!