Robert Wise on His Films

Robert Wise on His Films PDF Author: Sergio Leemann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Each of the thirty-nine films that Wise has directed is presented here in photographs, a complete cast and credits listing, a story synopsis, and, most importantly, Robert Wise's own comments. Robert Wise on His Films is illustrated with 270 photographs and includes a short biographical portrait of Wise that draws heavily on his own words and Forewords by director Arthur Hiller and screenwriter Nelson Gidding.

Robert Wise on His Films

Robert Wise on His Films PDF Author: Sergio Leemann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Each of the thirty-nine films that Wise has directed is presented here in photographs, a complete cast and credits listing, a story synopsis, and, most importantly, Robert Wise's own comments. Robert Wise on His Films is illustrated with 270 photographs and includes a short biographical portrait of Wise that draws heavily on his own words and Forewords by director Arthur Hiller and screenwriter Nelson Gidding.

Self and Society in the Films of Robert Wise

Self and Society in the Films of Robert Wise PDF Author: Justin E.A. Busch
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786460113
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
One of the most versatile Hollywood filmmmakers, Robert Wise had a number of renowned films under his directorial belt, including The Day The Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Nonetheless, Wise remains a rarely studied Hollywood figure--while many filmgoers know and love his films, few recognize his name. This book, the first in-depth analysis of Wise's cinematic achievement, uncovers the elements that link the director's diverse cinematic subjects and examines the ways in which tensions between individuals and their societies are explored. His films are seen from a new perspective that will heighten an appreciation for the range and depth of his overall body of work.

The Films of Robert Wise

The Films of Robert Wise PDF Author: Richard C. Keenan
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810866633
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
From his early days as a film editor at RKO studios, where he helped Orson Welles shape Citizen Kane, to his success as a director and producer of musical blockbusters of the 1960s, Robert Wise had a long and illustrious film career. Unlike contemporaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford or Howard Hawks, however, Wise's films lack any clearly discernible characteristics to signify his work. There are few striking camera angles or visual flourishes that might distract from the primary obligation to present the story. And like Hawks, Wise never specialized in one or two genres, but brought his directing skills to all manner of films. His work as a director resists auteur categorization, and that is a chief reason why some critics have been unduly negative in their consideration of his work. In The Films of Robert Wise, Richard Keenan examines the nearly forty features that represent the director's career—from Curse of the Cat People in 1944 to A Storm in Summer (2001), the only television production Wise ever directed. Keenan offers a reappraisal of Wise's films so that the true quality of his work can be better appreciated. Keenan argues that if there was a flaw in Robert Wise as a director, it was that he lacked the ego and temperament of the artist, which was not necessarily a flaw at all. Indeed, Wise was a conscientious craftsman who saw his work not primarily as a vehicle for his own ideas and visual style, but as an opportunity to present narrative that—quite simply—engages, informs, and entertains. It was this perspective that helped produce a number of memorable films over the years, including the gritty noir Born to Kill, the one-two punch of The Set-Up and Somebody Up There Likes Me, the sci-fi prophecy The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the gripping indictment of capital punishment, I Want to Live!—classics all. Wise also won a pair of Oscars for two of the most memorable—not to mention successful—musicals of all time: West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Drawing on more than 30 hours of interviews with Wise—as well as additional interviews with a number of his collaborators—Keenan offers a welcome reassessment of the director's work. In his analysis of each film, Keenan reveals both Wise the craftsman and the artist. In doing so, The Films of Robert Wise finally confers upon this underappreciated director the recognition he deserves.

Robert Wise

Robert Wise PDF Author: Wes D. Gehring
Publisher: Indiana Historical Society
ISBN: 0871952963
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Born in Winchester, Indiana, Robert Wise spent much of his youth sitting in darkened movie theaters enthralled by the swashbuckling heroics of screen legend Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Through these viewings, Wise developed a passion for film—a passion he followed for the rest of his life, making movies in Hollywood. Nationally known film historian Wes D. Gehring explores Wise’s life from his days in the Hoosier State to the beginning of his movie career at RKO studios working as the editor of Orson Welles’s classic movie Citizen Kane. Wise is best known for producing and directing two of the most memorable movie musicals in cinema history, West Side Story (co-director Jerome Robbins) and The Sound of Music, for which he won four Academy Awards—two Best Picture and Best Directors Oscars. But, as Gehring notes, other than Howard Hawks, Wise was arguably Hollywood’s most versatile director of various celebrated genre films.

Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures (Revised Edition)

Robert Wise: The Motion Pictures (Revised Edition) PDF Author: J.R. Jordan
Publisher: BearManor Media
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
Robert Wise, the young editor of Citizen Kane, earned his directorial stripes at RKO, particularly with The Body Snatcher and The Set-Up, films of amazing quality and dark sensibility. Wise later found himself at Warner Brothers, MGM, and 20th Century Fox, consistently directing pictures of depth and versatility. The man behind the searing crime film, Odds Against Tomorrow, followed such success with the upbeat West Side Story. Wise guided the great, multi-character drama of Executive Suite and also turned his attention to warfare with The Sand Pebbles. He was the personification of the finest, old style “studio director” and ultimately became a two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Director. Wise not only made films his way, he made them the right way, directing classics such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Sound of Music, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Joe Jordan’s book, which includes over twenty interviews, presents a thorough analysis of the Robert Wise canon. “Robert Wise remains one of the great architects of American movies of this last century; the steady, easy personality, hiding a will of steel that allowed him to guide his movies with a hand of knowledge, and authority, and soar in every single genre he undertook. With one of the most wide-ranging careers of any filmmaker ever, J.R. Jordan’s book more than does Robert Wise justice in critically assessing his incredibly versatile work, as well as honoring the man who quietly created some of the finest and most famous movies of all time.” - C. Courtney Joyner Author of The Westerners: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Writers, and Producers “Meticulous research by J.R. Jordan makes this a thorough study of director Robert Wise, which classic film fans will appreciate. Jordan examines the body of Wise’s work in a film-by-film journey, his information woven neatly with interviews of participants providing the voices. They are the soundtrack, and Jordan’s careful presentation of the material is the long tracking shot that lures us into a sudden, sharp, and breathtaking close-up, echoing the director’s own careful craftsmanship.” - Jacqueline T. Lynch, Author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. “With this extremely readable volume film historian J.R. Jordan gives us a rigorous examination of Robert Wise’s career and contributions to American cinema. Wise often goes underappreciated but Jordan does this pioneer justice. Jordan’s prose is accessible and uncompromising at once. This book is a must read for anyone who appreciates the gift of cinema to humanity.” - Tony Kashani Author of Movies Change Lives: Pedagogy of Constructive Humanistic Transformation Through Cinema (Minding the Media) "If you’re a Robert Wise fan, this is the book for you.” – Nicholas Meyer: Author, Screenwriter, Director “J.R. Jordan’s examination of Wise’s work and influence behind the camera is well-researched and offers a fine overview of the multi-talented Wise.” – Hometowns to Hollywood “There are some filmmakers whose work is so surprisingly disparate, their genius gets lost in the floodlights shined on more focused artists. In crisp, clear prose, J.R. Jordan captures the complexity of the career of one of these fascinating filmmakers, Robert Wise.” – Walter C. Metz: Co-Editor of Film Criticism “A book you will particularly enjoy once you’ve seen the films.” – Stars and Letters “J.R. Jordan’s book avoids the gossipy as well as the memoir-driven approach typical of too many film-focused tomes these days.” – Cinebeats “Director Robert Wise, remembered mostly for West Side Story and The Sound of Music, receives a much needed and long overdue examination with this excellent book by J.R. Jordan.” – Strictly Vintage Hollywood

Haunting of Hill House

Haunting of Hill House PDF Author: Shirley Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Robert Wise

Robert Wise PDF Author: Frank Thompson
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 0313278121
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The first book-length study of the career of the director of such classic films as The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music, this volume combines thorough cast and crew credits, critical responses, awards and nominations, production notes, and comments from the director himself resulting in a unique overview of a remarkable career. In addition, a complete annotated bibliography of all books, articles, and interviews by or about Wise is included. An interesting feature is the examination of many of his unproduced projects. Wise's career began with RKO as an editor for such films as Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), when he then stepped in for director Gunther von Fritsch to complete Curse of the Cat People (1944). At 20th-Century Fox, Wise directed The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), and Run Silent, Run Deep (1958). West Side Story (1961), which Wise codirected with choreographer Jerome Robbins, marked the beginning of the third phase of his career, a period marked by mammoth productions that met with overwhelming approval commercially and critically. West Side Story Audrey Rose (1977).

Hollywood Victory

Hollywood Victory PDF Author: Christian Blauvelt
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762499907
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 535

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Book Description
From the Turner Classic Movies Library: Film and history buffs alike will enjoy this engrossing story of Hollywood's involvement in World War II, as it's never before been told. Remember a time when all of Hollywood—with the expressed encouragement and investment of the government—joined forces to defend the American way of life? It was World War II and the gravest threat faced the nation, and the world at large. Hollywood answered the call to action. This is the riveting tale of how the film industry enlisted in the Allied effort during the second World War—a story that started with staunch isolationism as studios sought to maintain the European market and eventually erupted into impassioned support in countless ways. Industry output included war films depicting battles and reminding moviegoers what they were fighting for, "home-front" stories designed to boost the morale of troops overseas, and even musicals and comedies that did their bit by promoting the Good Neighbor Policy with American allies to the south. Stars like Carole Lombard—who lost her life returning from a war bond-selling tour—Bob Hope, and Marlene Dietrich enthusiastically joined USO performances and risked their own health and safety by entertaining troops near battlefronts; others like James Stewart and Clark Gable joined the fight themselves in uniform; Bette Davis and John Garfield created a starry haven for soldiers in their founding of the Hollywood Canteen. Filmmakers Orson Welles, Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, and others took breaks from thriving careers to make films aiming to shore up alliances, boost recruitment, and let the folks back home know what beloved family members were facing overseas. Through it all, a story of once-in-a-century unity—of a collective need to stand up for humanity, even if it means risking everything—comes to life in this engrossing, photo-filled tale of Hollywood Victory.

Spy

Spy PDF Author: David Wise
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0375758941
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Spy tells, for the first time, the full, authoritative story of how FBI agent Robert Hanssen, code name grayday, spied for Russia for twenty-two years in what has been called the “worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history”–and how he was finally caught in an incredible gambit by U.S. intelligence. David Wise, the nation’s leading espionage writer, has called on his unique knowledge and unrivaled intelligence sources to write the definitive, inside story of how Robert Hanssen betrayed his country, and why. Spy at last reveals the mind and motives of a man who was a walking paradox: FBI counterspy, KGB mole, devout Catholic, obsessed pornographer who secretly televised himself and his wife having sex so that his best friend could watch, defender of family values, fantasy James Bond who took a stripper to Hong Kong and carried a machine gun in his car trunk. Brimming with startling new details sure to make headlines, Spy discloses: • the previously untold story of how the FBI got the actual file on Robert Hanssen out of KGB headquarters in Moscow for $7 million in an unprecedented operation that ended in Hanssen’s arrest. • how for three years, the FBI pursued a CIA officer, code name gray deceiver, in the mistaken belief that he was the mole they were seeking inside U.S. intelligence. The innocent officer was accused as a spy and suspended by the CIA for nearly two years. • why Hanssen spied, based on exclusive interviews with Dr. David L. Charney, the psychiatrist who met with Hanssen in his jail cell more than thirty times. Hanssen, in an extraordinary arrangement, authorized Charney to talk to the author. • the full story of Robert Hanssen’s bizarre sex life, including the hidden video camera he set up in his bedroom and how he plotted to drug his wife, Bonnie, so that his best friend could father her child. • how Hanssen and the CIA’s Aldrich Ames betrayed three Russians secretly spying for the FBI–including tophat, a Soviet general–who were then executed by Moscow. • that after Hanssen was already working for the KGB, he directed a study of moles in the FBI when–as he alone knew–he was the mole. Robert Hanssen betrayed the FBI. He betrayed his country. He betrayed his wife. He betrayed his children. He betrayed his best friend, offering him up to the KGB. He betrayed his God. Most of all, he betrayed himself. Only David Wise could tell the astonishing, full story, and he does so, in masterly style, in Spy.

Seeing Is Believing

Seeing Is Believing PDF Author: Peter Biskind
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805065636
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Seeing is Believing is a provocative, shrewd, witty look at the Hollywood fifties movies we all love-or love to hate-and the thousand subtle ways they reflect the political tensions of the decade. Peter Biskind, former executive editor of Premiere, is one of our most astute cultural critics. Here he concentrates on the films everybody saw but nobody really looked at--classics like Giant, On the Waterfront, Rebel Without a Cause, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers--and shows us how movies that appear to be politically innocent in fact carry an ideological burden. As we see organization men and rugged individualists, housewives and career women, cops and doctors, teen angels and teenage werewolves fight it out across the screen from suburbia to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, we understand that we have been watching one long dispute about how to be a man, a woman, an American--the conflicts of the period in action. A work of brilliant analysis and meticulous conception, Seeing Is Believing offers fascinating insights into how to read films of any era.