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William Wyler
The Life and Films of Hollywood's Most Celebrated Director
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During his forty-five-year career, William Wyler (1902–1981) pushed the boundaries of filmmaking with his gripping storylines and innovative depth-of-field cinematography. With a body of work that includes such memorable classics as Jezebel (1938), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Ben-Hur (1959), and Funny Girl (1968), Wyler is the most nominated director in the history of the Academy Awards and bears the distinction of having won an Oscar for Best Director on three occasions. Both Bette Davis and Lillian Hellman considered him America's finest director, and Sir Laurence Olivier said he learned more about film acting from Wyler than from anyone else. In William Wyler, Gabriel Miller explores the career of one of Hollywood's most unique and influential directors, examining the evolution of his cinematic style. Wyler's films feature nuanced shots and multifaceted narratives that reflect his preoccupation with realism and story construction. The director's later works were deeply influenced by his time in the army air force during World War II, and the disconnect between the idealized version of the postwar experience and reality became a central theme of Wyler's masterpiece, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). None of Wyler's contemporaries approached his scope: he made successful and seminal films in practically every genre, including social drama, melodrama, and comedy. Yet, despite overwhelming critical acclaim and popularity, Wyler's work has never been extensively studied. This long-overdue book offers a comprehensive assessment of the director, his work, and his films' influence.
About the Author:
Gabriel Miller, professor of English at Rutgers University, is the author or editor of numerous books, including The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man, Clifford Odets, and William Wyler: Interviews.
Press Reviews:
"This book does a very thorough job of analyzing Wyler's films and provides incisive insights into what may have been the director's intentions as he crafted scripts, composed images, and edited film. A very enlightening study of Wyler."—Tom Matthews, screenwriter for Mad City and author of Like We Care
"With his commanding knowledge of film history, meticulous research and deeply insightful analysis, Gabriel Miller makes a powerful case for declaring Wyler one of our two or three greatest film directors and reminds us that this great artist's unprecedented versatility was a virtue and not a vice."—James Verniere, The Boston Herald and the National Society of Film Critics
There is a lot to enjoy in William Wyler: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Most Celebrated Director. ... If you want a crash course in Wyler, from a filmmaking standpoint, pick up a copy.
-Journeys in Classic Film
Miller's great accomplishment is identifying Wyler's worldview as social conscience coupled with skepticism over the value of pacifism.
-Shepherd Express Milwaukee
In this detailed survey of Wyler's work, Miller does a credible job of supporting his argument that Wyler "most certainly belongs in the company of the most accomplished and distinguished of American directors."
-History News Network
Miller gives Wyler's style the depth it truly deserves, discussing the director's use of deep-focus photography (years before Orson Welles famously used it on Citizen Kane) and his careful compositions. He also touches on Wyler's work with actors, which was often fiery. Wyler was a perfectionist who knew exactly what he wanted; unfortunately he could be maddeningly inarticulate when it came to telling his performers just what that was. —Star-Ledger
-Nj.com
For the true movie lover, the only pleasure that can come close to matching that of steeping oneself, Norma Desmond-like, in the flickering images of a great movie is wallowing a long, exhaustive, in-depth biography of a beloved filmmaker. And in terms of all the things that matter - research, organization, access, industry and adulation - William Wyler: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Most Celebrated Directory by Gabriel Miller hits the mark.
-New York Journal of Books
See the publisher website: University Press of Kentucky
See the complete filmography of William Wyler on the website: IMDB ...
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