John Huston: Interviews

This collection of interviews brings the filmmaker John Huston vividly to life in his own words. Huston (1906-1987) had an extraordinary career that spanned more than forty years and nearly fifty films. Among these are such classics as The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead.

In these interviews ranging from 1952 to 1985 Huston talks about his approach to directing, the influence of painting upon his camera work, his association with stellar actors (Humphrey Bogart, Montgomery Clift, Errol Flynn, Marilyn Monroe, and others), his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influence that the authors James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway had on his movies. Full of anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, John Huston appears here as a man who had a rich, full life-amateur boxer, vagrant artist, painter, big-game hunter, director, and born storyteller.

As a filmmaker particularly identified with the literary masterworks he transformed into cinema (Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood, James Joyce's The Dead, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana), Huston explores literary influences on his films. For him the act of writing is essential and basic. "I don't make a distinction between writing and direction," he says. "But to write and to direct one's own material is certainly the best approach. The directing is kind of an extension of the writing."

Huston is known also for his innovative interaction with actors. In 1952 he said, "The trick is in the writing and casting. If you cast the right people, using only good actors, and adjust the script to suit the actors you've chosen, then it's best to leave them to work out their own gestures and movements. Your job is to explain to them the effect you want, and your skill lies in being able to do that exactly and vividly."

The Huston who emerges from these interviews is a gifted raconteur, an admirable professional, and indeed a figure whose real life matched his prodigious legend.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578063280
• ISBN13: 9781578063284
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Company for All Who Love Movies

If Ernest Hemingway had made movies, they would have looked something like John Huston's. The passion, intelligence, and joie de vivre of Huston's films are reflected in this set of articulate interviews. Pour yourself a good drink, and listen as one of Hollywood's best raconteurs spins yarn after yarn in this splendid volume of a valuable series.

Listening to a Fascinating Man

This is a terrific book. It consists of interviews with John Huston from 1952-85. Not only does the reader find out about Huston's ideas on filmmaking and get some inside info on the making of classic films, but he will find out about the breadth of Huston's interests, which extended beyond filmmaking to art and philosophy. Here, truly, was an intelligent man. The most interesting thing to me about Huston was that he started in the classic studio age and survived its downfall to make films that were fresh, interesting and important even in the Eighties. These interviews show Huston's mental flexibility. He admires "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Rocky," and "Taxi Driver." Huston is also quite frank about his own films. I will never be tempted to see "Roots of Heaven" or "Barbarian and the Geisha." I have to see "Moby Dick," which he considered one of his films that never got its due. I was sorry when this book ended.

An informative and insightful compilation

Ably edited by independent scholar and freelance writer Robert Long, John Huston: Interviews is an informative and insightful compilation of interviews with the late John Huston (which took place from 1952 to 1985) in which he personally comments on his life and projects as an acclaimed filmmaker. Among the movies that are surveyed within this context are The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead. The observations range from his approach to directing; the influence of painting upon his camera work, and his association with stellar actors, to his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influences of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway upon his movies. Replete with numerous anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, we are presented with a body of work and a filmmaker's life that will be immensely appreciated by students of his work and a man whose personal life was as prodigious as his professional career. John Huston: Interviews is also available in paperback ..., [price]

An informative and insightful compilation

Ably edited by independent scholar and freelance writer Robert Long, John Huston: Interviews is an informative and insightful compilation of interviews with the late John Huston (which took place from 1952 to 1985) in which he personally comments on his life and projects as an acclaimed filmmaker. Among the movies that are surveyed within this context are The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead. The observations range from his approach to directing; the influence of painting upon his camera work, and his association with stellar actors, to his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influences of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway upon his movies. Replete with numerous anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, we are presented with a body of work and a filmmaker's life that will be immensely appreciated by students of his work and a man whose personal life was as prodigious as his professional career.