(RE)DISCOVER IN POCKET FORMAT THE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN
JEAN-BAPTISTE THORET AND PETER BOGDANOVICH ON THE OCCASION OF THE FILMMAKER'S RETROSPECTIVE AT THE CINÉMATHÇAISE FRANÇAISE IN APRIL 2023
PETER BOGDANOVICH, CINEMA AS ELEGY
Conversations with Jean-Baptiste THORET
13.5 cm x 19 cm | 222 pages
ISBN: 979-10-93798-18-9
A cult filmmaker of American cinema from the '70s-'80s. The idol of Quentin Tarantino, Noah Baumbach & Wes Anderson
Born in 1939 in New York State, Peter Bogdanovich began his career as a film critic. In 1968, he directed his first film, Target, a realistic thriller about an aging fantasy film star (Boris Karloff) confronted with the arbitrary violence of Vietnam America. Two years later, Bogdanovich set up his camera in Texas and shot The Last Picture Show, in the company of a young generation of promising actors (Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Ellen Burstyn) and Ben Johnson, one of John Ford's favorite actors. After this film, a huge public success and an instant classic, Bogdanovich's career was launched: he would follow in particular with Let's Go Doctor? (1972), modern screwball comedy with Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand, Cotton Candy (1973), Daisy Miller (1974), Nickelodeon (1976), Saint Jack (1979), And Everybody Laughed (1981), Mask (1985), Texasville (1990) and the recent Broadway Therapy.
This conversation between Peter Bogdanovich and Jean-Baptiste Thoret began in 2009 and ended in 2018. The director discusses his films, his encounters, his childhood and his personal dramas, his conception of directing and the sometimes cruel backstage of Hollywood. He discusses his exploits and his setbacks with American studios, and his passion for the great masters of the seventh art, from John Ford to Orson Welles.
Jean-Baptiste Thoret is a director (We Blew It, 2017, Michael Cimino, an American Mirage, 2021), critic and film historian. He is the author of a dozen books including American Cinema of the 70s, Michael Cimino, the Lost Voices of America, 26 Seconds, America Splattered and, with Bernard Benoliel, Road Movie, USA. He has also written about Dario Argento, John Carpenter, George Romero and Sergio Mann. Between 2012 and 2015, he co-produced the program During the Works, the Cinema Remains Open on France Inter.
Published in large format in 2018, here is finally Le Cinéma comme élégie in its pocket version on the occasion of the filmmaker's retrospective at the Cinémathèque française in April 2023.
Released on April 6, 2023
