Post by Salzmank on Sept 13, 2017 4:44:28 GMT
It's late where I am, but I've been meaning to look for some time at Hollywood screenwriters, and I'd like to start it before I forget. I tend to look at films, especially "Golden Age" films but truly up to the '70s, from an auteurist perspective, more or less, which leaves the poor neglected screenwriter in a pickle. (spiderwort and I were discussing this topic on the board-that-cannot-be-named.)
Ben Hecht is probably the best known, but I've been thinking of some others: George MacDonald Fraser, whom wmcclain and I were discussing on another thread, determined the direction of the films he wrote more than those films' directors, I feel, as did Preston Sturges before he became a director. Certainly Paddy Chayefsky. (Sarris wrote that Marty, The Americanization of Emily, etc., are all "written rather than directed.")
Richard Corliss wrote a superb book on the subject, Talking Pictures--a writer-centered response to Sarris's The American Cinema--which I advise reading, but whereas Corliss is interested in rating and analyzing, I'd just like to herald some screenwriters who did excellent work but aren't well-known as screenwriters (e.g., Fraser again, or--to beat a dead horse--Sondheim and Perkins for The Last of Sheila, which will probably now forever be associated with me at this forum), especially nowadays. We all can do some rating and analyzing, too, of course.
Ben Hecht is probably the best known, but I've been thinking of some others: George MacDonald Fraser, whom wmcclain and I were discussing on another thread, determined the direction of the films he wrote more than those films' directors, I feel, as did Preston Sturges before he became a director. Certainly Paddy Chayefsky. (Sarris wrote that Marty, The Americanization of Emily, etc., are all "written rather than directed.")
Richard Corliss wrote a superb book on the subject, Talking Pictures--a writer-centered response to Sarris's The American Cinema--which I advise reading, but whereas Corliss is interested in rating and analyzing, I'd just like to herald some screenwriters who did excellent work but aren't well-known as screenwriters (e.g., Fraser again, or--to beat a dead horse--Sondheim and Perkins for The Last of Sheila, which will probably now forever be associated with me at this forum), especially nowadays. We all can do some rating and analyzing, too, of course.
