Sayles on Sayles - Softcover

John Sayles isn't just the "Great American Novelist/Filmmaker", he's one terrific interview subject: smart, funny, and fully informed about the farce that is Hollywood and the tragedies of American history. Film Comment magazine's Gavin Smith is one of the sharpest, most thorough interviewers of directors in American journalism. Sayles on Sayles explains how a guy who sold his blood for money and only took creative-writing courses to keep his grade point high enough to avoid the Vietnam draft wound up winning an O. Henry Award, how his National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle nominations for Union Dues fed his career as a writer for B-movie tsar Roger Corman (and his continuing relationship with Titanic director James Cameron), and the bumpy road from Return of the Secaucus Seven to double Oscar nominations, masterpieces such as Matewan and Lone Star, and such writing gigs as Apollo 13--which paid better than selling one's blood. What precisely did Tom Hanks brilliantly do to improve Apollo 13? What did Jeffrey Katzenberg do to Baby It's You when he realized it wasn't enough like Porky's? How did Nashville inspire Secaucus Seven, and why does Sayles think The Big Chill owes nothing to his film? What crucial influence did Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man have on early Sayles, and on one great scene in The Brother from Another Planet--a film that came to Sayles in a dream? Get this book and find the answers from one of the best American storytellers of recent times.

"Sayles, critically acclaimed and more than established, has proven his directing, editing, writing, and even acting ability in relation to independent filmmaking. But what many people probably don't know is just how creative this man is. He has published novels and short stories, directed plays, made some of Bruce Springsteen's music videos, and written screenplays for numerous other directors' television and movie productions. Sayles is a man of many hats, few pretenses, and a great deal of thought. Though his language, in this interviewlike format, is utterly down to earth, his ideas are big and his dedication to the craft of filmmaking, from whatever angle, is obvious. Sayles believes that the personalism of his work in based, not in the facts of his life, but in the interests he has, which he pursues through his scripts and films. There is something truly self-sacrificing in that approach, particularly for a writer in this confessional-trend culture, and it must certainly account for the sincerity and subtlety in Sayles' fine body of work."--"Booklist" "This in-depth look at the work of one of America's most successful maverick filmmakers is another fine contribution to Faber and Faber's 'Directors on Directors' series. As an accomplished writer, director, and actor, Sayles is a rarely talented triple threat. His movies, including" The Brother from Another Planet, The Secret of Roan Inish, "and "Lone Star, "have won critical acclaim for their uncompromising honesty and their adamantly individual vision. Unlike many independent directors, Sayles truly works outside the Hollywood mainstream, contemplating unpopular subjects and problems, rarely casting stars, yet doing wellenough to make film after film. He got his start with B-meister Roger Corman, cranking out quickie, though generously subtextual, genre scripts such as "Piranha" and "Alligator"--in which, as Sayles once remarked, 'the alligator eats its way through the entire socioeconomic system.' He has also made money by taking on occasional acting gigs, by writing a well-received novel and a short-story collection, and by turning his hand to (usually uncredited) stints at Hollywood script-doctoring. It's worth noting that he pulled together no more than just enough money to fund his first film, iReturn of the Secaucus Seven, considered by some to be the wellspring of the modern indie movement; it established Sayles's reputation. This Q-and-A chronicle, despite inevitable generic limitations, provides a fascinating film-by-film analysis of his creative process. From his ideas about acting to his theories of editing to why he has favored a certain lens, Sayles remains articulate throughout, and often revealing. He's well-served by collaborator Smith, an associate editor of "Film Comment, "who asks the right questions and shows a rich, nuanced understanding of Sayles and his work. An invaluable companion piece to Sayles's films."--"Kirkus Reviews"