Product Description

Peter Bogdanovich -- director, screenwriter, actor, and critic -- interviews sixteen legendary moviemakers...from Fritz Lang to Afred Hitchcock to Otto Preminger to master animator Chuck Jones. WHO THE DEVIL MADE IT is a fascinating chronicle of Hollywood and the grand art of making movies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76405 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 864 pages

Customer Reviews

Indispensable
Peter Bogdanovich pioneered the director interview in English, and this wonderful collection will give endless pleasure to film buffs. The book-length interview with Allan Dwan alone is worth the price of admission. Bogdanovich always did vast amounts of study before sitting down to talk with his subjects, and his expertise and enthusiasm encouraged them to open up in a way they usually did not with other interviewers. Anyone writing about the careers of the directors Bogdanovich interviews has to start with his work on them. A fitting companion piece is Bogdanovich's encyclopedic interview book "This Is Orson Welles."

enjoyable... why is peter bogdanovich such a hollow shell?
very, very enjoyable... the only irritation is that peter bogdanovich comes across so much like a critic rather than a filmmaker... meaning his opinions seem studied rather than felt... like he has read a lot of film criticism and has come upon his own "opinions" by averaging those of other critics... there is a huge difference between this book and truffaut's interview with hitchcock, for example... bogdanovich's opinions almost seem like guesses... none of them seem to come from the heart... you get the idea that he has led a sheltered and very, very easy life... nonetheless, this is vastly entertaining.

A treasury of film knowledge and personalities
Peter Bogdanovich has written a book that is for the movie enthusiast. I suspect the general reader may find some of the interviewees obscure, and the topics technical. I feel that is their loss. For the student of film or film history, this is a treasure trove of information, ideas, experiences, and feelings about films taken from interviews with some of the most distinguished directors in movie history. The author's selection is not encyclopedic, but the directors' experience spans from the earliest years of silent film to the present. These men are not just informative, but their strong and distinctive personalities show in each interview, giving the sense that one has actually met and understood many of them. Some of the interviews are brief, or even very idiosyncratic, but the best are delightfully personal. This is a long book, but affords many pleasant evenings of good conversation. It also makes one want to go back and see the films again!