**"Invaluable.... I am sometimes asked if there is one book a filmgoer
could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for
while watching them. This is the book." --Roger Ebert, The New York
Times Book Review
**
Why does a director choose a particular script? What must they do in
order to keep actors fresh and truthful through take after take of a
single scene? How do you stage a shootout--involving more than one
hundred extras and three colliding taxis--in the heart of New York's
diamond district? What does it take to keep the studio honchos happy?
From the first rehearsal to the final screening, Making Movies is a
master's take, delivered with clarity, candor, and a wealth of anecdote.
For in this book, Sidney Lumet, one of our most consistently acclaimed
directors, gives us both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to
the art, craft, and business of the motion picture. Drawing on forty
years of experience on movies that range from Long Day's Journey into
Night to Network and The Verdict--and with such stars as Katharine
Hepburn, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino--Lumet explains how
painstaking labor and inspired split-second decisions can result in two
hours of screen magic.
