Limit this search to....

Whom God Wishes to Destroy . . .: Francis Coppola and the New Hollywood
Contributor(s): Lewis, Jon (Author)
ISBN: 0822316021     ISBN-13: 9780822316022
Publisher: Duke University Press
OUR PRICE:   $94.95  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: June 1995
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Annotation: ""Whom God Wishes to Destroy "is a marvelously entertaining yarn on the perks and pitfalls of a Hollywood player, as well as the cautionary tale of a creative 'genius' who begins to believe his own publicity. . . . Lewis's clear and enjoyable prose makes the book a must read for all those interested in the complex exchange between industry and artistry in contemporary Hollywood."--Justin Wyatt, "Detour Magazine"

"With wry wit and rigorous attention to detail, Lewis analyzes how Coppola's dream operated, how and why it never became reality, and how a celebrated director created a body of work as notable for its agonized genesis as for its creative substance."--"Entertainment Weekly "

"Lewis has produced a fascinating, informative, and often sobering cautionary tale about the privilege of ownership, power and independence, and 'the inevitable isolation of the individual artist.'"--Graham McCann, "Times Literary Supplement"
"Lewis demonstrates a marvelous ability to combine, with both rigor and innovation, a productive attentiveness to the stylistic aspects of filmic works themselves and a sharp capacity to situate those works within the economics and politics of an industry. His book offers the necessary detail on Coppola's films and career while also using the case of Coppola as a model to say larger, more far-reaching things about today's Hollywood and the place, or non-place, of the creative figure within it."--Dana Polan, author of "In a Lonely Place"
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Performing Arts | Film - Direction & Production
- Biography & Autobiography | Entertainment & Performing Arts
Dewey: 791.430
LCCN: 94-44270
Lexile Measure: 1480
Series: Molecular and Chemical Physics; 4
Physical Information: 0.85" H x 6.24" W x 9.58" (1.23 lbs) 208 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
In March 1980 Francis Coppola purchased the dilapidated Hollywood General Studios facility with the hope and dream of creating a radically new kind of studio, one that would revolutionize filmmaking, challenge the established studio machinery, and, most importantly, allow him to make movies as he wished. With this event at the center of Whom God Wishes to Destroy, Jon Lewis offers a behind-the-scenes view of Coppola's struggle--that of the industry's best-known auteur--against the changing realities of the New Hollywood of the 1980s. Presenting a Hollywood history steeped in the trade news, rumor, and gossip that propel the industry, Lewis unfolds a lesson about power, ownership, and the role of the auteur in the American cinema. From before the success of The Godfather to the eventual triumph of Apocalypse Now, through the critical upheaval of the 1980s with movies like Rumble Fish, Hammett, Peggy Sue Got Married, to the 1990s and the making of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein, Francis Coppola's career becomes the lens through which Lewis examines the nature of making movies and doing business in Hollywood today.