Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In the New Yorker, Stephen Schiff has described Fred Schepisi (b. 1939) as probably the least-known great director working in the mainstream American cinema a master storyteller with a serenely muscular style that can make more flamboyant moviemakers look coarse and overweening. Schepisi s launch in Australia during the country s film renaissance of the 1970s and his ongoing international work have rightfully earned him a reputation as an actors director. But he has also become a skillful stylist, forging his own way as he works alongside a talented team of collaborators.
This volume includes twenty interviews with Schepisi and two with longtime collaborators, cinematographer Ian Baker and composer Paul Grabowsky. The interviews trace the filmmaker s career from his beginnings in advertising, through his two early Australian features The Devil s Playground and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith to his subsequent work in the United States and beyond on films as various as Plenty, Roxanne, A Cry in the Dark, The Russia House, Six Degrees of Separation, Empire Falls, Last Orders, and Eye of the Storm. Schepisi s films are diverse thematically and visually. In what is effectively a master class on film direction, Schepisi discusses his creative choices and his work with actors and collaborators behind the scenes. In the process, he provides a goldmine of insights into his films, his filmmaking style, and what makes him tick as an artist.
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