Contents

Acknowledgments

Part I: What the Director Does

Chapter 1   • Introduction

What Does the Director Do?

Who Is the Director?

How Did We Get Here

Where Are We Today?

The Structure of the Book

How I Came to Write This Book

Chapter 2   • The Director’s Idea

The Unity of the Production

Chapter 3   • The Competent Director

What the Audience Wants

Directors and Competence

Case Study I. The Competent Director: Antoine Fuqua (“King Arthur,” 2004)

Case Study II. The Competent Director: Simon Wincer (“The Lighthorseman,” 1087)

Chapter 4   • The Good Director

How the Director’s Idea Works

A Case Study in Good Directing: Michael Mann’s “Collateral”

Adding Value to a Project

The Director’s Idea

Chapter 5   • The Great Director

Voice

Three Contemporary Great Directors in America

Three Contemporary Great Directors Outside America

Chapter 6   • Text Interpretation

The Case of Steinbeck’s East of Eden

Interior/Exterior

Young/Old

Male/Female

Political/Sociological/Psychological

Tone

Chapter 7   • The Camera

The Shot

Camera Placement

Proximity

Objectivity

Subjective Camera Placement

Camera Height

Camera Movement

Movement from a Fixed Point

Movement from Movement

Lighting

Art Direction

Sound

The Edit

Continuity

Clarity

Dramatic Emphasis

New Ideas

Parallel Action

Emotional Guidelines

Tone

The Main Character

Conflict

Story Form

Chapter 8   • The Actor

Casting

The Character Arc

An Aside about Actors as Directors

Philosophies of Acting

Outside In

Inside Out

The American School

The European School

Part II: The Case Studies of Directing

Chapter 9   • Sergei Eisenstein: The Historical Dialectic

Introduction

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Directing for the Edit

Chapter 10 • John Ford: Poetry and Heroism

Introduction

“The Grapes of Wrath” (1940)

“My Darling Clementine” (1946)

“They Were Expendable” (1945)

“The Searchers” (1956)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actors

Directing the Camera

Chapter 11 • George Stevens: The American Character—Desire and Conscience

Introduction

“Alice Adams” (1935)

“Gunga Din” (1939)

“The More the Merrier” (1943)

“A Place in the Sun” (1951)

“Giant” (1956)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actors

Directing the Camera

Chapter 12 • Billy Wilder: Existence at Stake

Introduction

“The Lost Weekend” (1945)

“Sunset Boulevard” (1950)

“The Apartment” (1960)

“Double Indemnity” (1944)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 13 • Ernst Lubitsch: The Life Force of Romance

Introduction

“Trouble in Paradise” (1932)

“Ninotchka” (1939)

“The Shop Around the Corner” (1940)

“To Be or Not To Be” (1942)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actors

Directing the Camera

Chapter 14 • Elia Kazan: Drama as Life

Introduction

“Panic in the Streets” (1950)

“On the Waterfront” (1954)

“East of Eden” (1954)

“America, America” (1963)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 15 • François Truffaut: Celebrate the Child

Introduction

“The 400 Blows” (1966)

“Stolen Kisses” (1968)

“Love on the Run” (1978)

“Day for Night” (1972)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 16 • Roman Polanski: The Aloneness of Existence

Introduction

“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)

“Chinatown” (1974)

“Tess” (1981)

“The Pianist” (2002)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 17 • Stanley Kubrick: The Darkness of Modern Life

Introduction

“2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)

“Barry Lyndon” (1975)

“Full Metal Jacket” (1987)

“Eyes Wide Shut” (2000)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 18 • Steven Spielberg: Childhood Forever

Introduction

“Jaws” (1975)

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)

“E.T.” (1982)

“Saving Private Ryan” (1998)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actors

Directing the Camera

Chapter 19 • Margarethe Von Trotta: Historical Life and Personal Life Intersect

Introduction

“The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum” (1975)

“The Second Awakening of Christa Klages” (1977)

“Marianne and Juliane” (1981)

“Rosenstrasse” (2004)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 20 • Lukas Moodysson: Empathy and Its Limits

Introduction

“Fucking Åmål” (1998)

“Together” (2000)

“Lilja 4-Ever” (2002)

“A Hole in My Heart” (2004)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 21 • Catherine Breillat: The Warfare of Sexuality

Introduction

“Romance” (1999)

“Fat Girl” (2001)

“Sex Is Comedy” (2002)

“Anatomy of Hell” (2004)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 22 • Mary Harron: Celebrity and Banality

Introduction

“I Shot Andy Warhol” (1995)

“American Psycho” (2000)

Text Interpretation

Directing the Actor

Directing the Camera

Chapter 23 • Conclusion

Appendix •    Finding the Director’s Idea

Strategy for Reading the Script

Moving Toward Interpretation

Choosing the Director’s Idea

Index