Hollywood voices: interviews with film directors

by Andrew Serris

Hollywood is also a country of the mind. The natives – Cukor, Mamoulian, Preminger, Sturges – talk to the visitor about the practicalities of being a film director, how to survive, how to do what one wants to do while still pleasing one’s masters, how indeed to be one’s own master. Then there are the fugitives – Huston, Losey, Polonsky, Ray, Welles – whose statements reflect both Hollywood’s failure to contain its cleverest children and the pressure for a radically individualistic alternative to Hollywood.This absorbing collection of confrontations centers on the director’s responsibility and on the auteur theory. Talking to William Pechter in 1962 Polonsky describes his blacklisting and sees no possibility of making films again. Mamoulian discusses with Andrew Sarris, and Cukor with Overstreet, the details of their craft. Preminger, in conversation with Ian Cameron, Mark Shivas and Paul Mayersberg, maintains his absolute creative autonomy. Welles, in a long interview originally published in Cahiers du Cinema, talks about his career in the theatre and cinema, his relationship with Hemingway, his feelings about America, his isolation. The interviews by Penelope Houston and John Gillett with Losey and Ray raise, by contrast, specific problems of critical response and communication. There are no irrevocable conclusions in this lively and undogmatic volume.Andrew Sarris provides a general introduction, as well as critical notes on the individuals included.(Original synopsis provided in first edition)

180 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Cullen Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating selection of interviews with great directors. The Orson Welles and John Huston interviews stand out as the best, particularly Huston's philosophies on the commercial nature of a film, and Welles' many discussions on actors, screen direction, and screen writing.