Thursday 26 January 2012

Long awaited book on the making of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly due soon

Last week I was contacted by Dr. Peter Hanley, author of the forthcoming book The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - A tribute to the experts behind the scenes. The Clint Eastwood Archive was proud to be asked to help contribute towards this book and of course, only too happy to help. Peter intends to keep me right up to date as the production nears completion. In the meantime, here are some of the things we can look forward to.

The aim of this book project is essentially to document this classic film in great detail. Highlights will include over 20 interviews with cast and crew, more than 140 rare behind-the-scenes stills, and detailed analysis of the historical background (including numerous historical comparison photos, sketches), documentation of the film locations, lobby cards, posters and more.


INTERVIEWS WITH CAST AND CREW

An extensive volume of information, amounting to over 40,000 words, has been gained by the generous input of cast and crew. The following were interviewed on one or more occasions: Tonino Delli Colli (director of photography), Franco Di Giacomo (camera operator), Sergio Salvati (assistant camera operator), Eros Bacciucchi (special effects), Giovanni Corridori (assistant special effects), Ennio Morricone (music), Bruno Battisti D’Amario (guitar), Carlo Leva (assistant art director), Elisabetta Simi (wife of Carlo Simi, art dir.), Carla Leone (wife of Sergio Leone), Giancarlo Santi (assistant director), Fabrizio Gianni (assistant director), Eugenio Alabiso (editor), Luciano Vincenzoni (story/script), Eli Wallach (the Ugly), Silvana Bacci (actress in deleted scene), Chelo Alonso (actress), Ricardo Palacios (actor in deleted scene), Alberto Lardani (son of Iginio Lardani, titles), and more . . .

EXTENSIVE COLLECTION OF STILLS

The book will be lavished with numerous stills, including over 140 behind-the-scenes stills, most of which have been scanned from original negatives or stills and not previously published. The format of the hard-covered book will be about 28 x 26 cm, which will allow much space for large glossy photos (on high-quality glossy paper). Each still will be accompanied by a detailed legend.

LOBBY CARDS & POSTERS

An extensive collection of mostly Italian, as well as Spanish, French and German lobby cards and posters will be dispersed throughout the book.

FILM LOCATIONS

The shooting locations will be presented in the form of “comparison” photos, taken using a small aperture and a tripod-mounted camera. All location photos will be accompanied by 3D GPS coordinates, as well as a vivid description of the terrain and comments from Spanish locals.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The vast majority of the American Civil War (1861- 1865) was fought in the East, in states such as Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, whereas Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was, by definition of a western, set in the West. In 1862, though, there was a Civil War battle lasting one day on the Rio Grande, led on the Confederate side by the drunken General Sibley. This battle was followed by several days of fighting in Glorieta Pass. These relatively small engagements did not escape the meticulous preproduction research of Sergio Leone and colleagues, who made numerous references to Sibley's 1862 New Mexico campaign. A brief outline of this campaign and its “appearances” in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are highlighted in the book.

DELETED SCENES

In collaboration with expert Ulrich Angersbach, a detailed description of cut scenes will be provided in the book. The legendary cut “Socorro” scene will be reconstructed with the help of stills and interviews with actors involved in this sequence. In addition, a synopsis of the original script for the complete film will be provided and differences between the script and film will be elucidated.

ATTENTION TO DETAILS

One of the characteristics of a Sergio Leone film, especially The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is attention to detail. Historical details of the Civil War period were closely studied and reproduced on the wide screen, albeit with embellishments. Numerous examples of this attention to detail will be presented throughout the book.

Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood 1979-1983

A belated  happy new year to everyone. Sorry I did not post my usual Christmas wishes last year, but it has been a very busy time for me. However, I can start the new year here with a very special book that we started promoting way back in 2011.
Long considered lost, these extensive interviews between legendary Rolling Stone journalist Paul Nelson and Clint Eastwood were discovered after Nelson's death in 2006.
 
Clint Eastwood has forged a remarkable career as a movie star, director, producer and composer. These newly discovered conversations with legendary journalist Paul Nelson return us to a point when, still acting in other people’s films, Eastwood was honing his directorial craft on a series of inexpensive films that he brought in under budget and ahead of schedule. Operating largely beneath the critical radar, he made his movies swiftly and inexpensively. Few of his critics then could have predicted that Eastwood the actor and director would ever be taken as seriously as he is today. But Paul Nelson did.

The interviews were conducted from 1979 through 1983. Eastwood talks openly and without illusions about his early career as an actor, old Hollywood, and his formative years as a director, his influence and what he learned along the way as an actor—lessons that helped him become the director he is today. Conversations with Clint provide a fresh and vivid perspective on the life and work of this most American of movie icons.

I spent most of the latter half of 2011 excitedly waiting for the arrival of this book. After several conversations with Editor Kevin Avery, my expectations were certainly running high. So when Conversations with Clint Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983 arrived, I wasted little time in uncovering some new stories from this interesting period of Eastwood’s career. I have to admit, once I had started reading, I struggled to put the book down. Yes, I realise that any other long-time Eastwood fan might endure the same problem, but it had been a very long time since I had been so engrossed. Perhaps it was because the interviews were retrospective and from my era? The book wastes little time or space for photos, its pages are comprehensive and packed (from cover to cover) with solid one-to-one interviews. Eastwood seems incredibly at ease throughout, an iconic figure that is both interesting and intellectual, but above all, he remains a realist. This fascinating compilation of interviews cover a five year period, perhaps not his must fruitful in terms of box office receipts, but certainly a period which covered more personal films such as Bronco Billy and Honkytonk Man. Nelson naturally unravels the transformation and maturity in the actor/director as his career and life progress into more challenging areas. Nelson also allows Eastwood to answer in his own relaxed style and pace which, as a result, brings out witty, sensitive and philosophical responses. The conversations between Eastwood and Nelson are so relaxed and informal; you almost feel the urge to engage in the wonderful exchanges. Paul Nelson's Conversations with Clint is an exemplary read, and a praiseworthy piece of work on the part of Editor Kevin Avery who has collated it in such wonderful fashion. A 5 star read that I would recommend to all readers, regardless of whether you are an Eastwood fan or share an interest of film in general. Superb!

ISBN: 9781441165862

288 Pages, paperback

Please contact Continuum to order your copy NOW!

Reviews

Kevin Avery has performed a great service to film lovers by bringing to light Paul Nelson’s remarkable interviews with Clint Eastwood. Nelson was an appreciator of Eastwood in the seventies, before he had won wide critical recognition. In these fascinating and wide-ranging conversations, the actor-director discusses with complete candor both the art of his films and the realities of filmmaking in Hollywood.
- Andrew Sarris, Author of "Notes on the Auteur Theory" (1962)

"Paul Nelson was the first serious film aficionado who, way back in the early '70s, turned me on to the importance of Clint Eastwood as an actor, filmmaker and American icon. He showed me the S&W Magnum .44 he kept under a pile of sweaters in his closet. ‘Same as Dirty Harry,’ he said, explaining that if he was going to write about men with guns he had to know how it felt in his hand. We were both devoted to F. Scott Fitzgerald and hoping that Clint Eastwood would play Gatsby in the upcoming film, which, of course, he didn't." “The repartee between these two straight shooters is more revealing of the inner workings of Hollywood and the creative process of Clint Eastwood than anything I've ever read before.”
-Elliott Murphy, singer-songwriter

"At a time when most critics didn’t take Clint Eastwood seriously, he had no admirer more prescient or loving than the late Paul Nelson. And Nelson—still insufficiently appreciated for his stubborn indifference to fashionability, but a smoke-wreathed legend to his 1970s colleagues—will never have a posthumous rescuer more devoted and scrupulous than Kevin Avery. Unguarded, searching, and occasionally very funny, the uniquely intimate interviews collected in Conversations With Clint morph as we read into the ideal script for a lost Eastwood movie on the nature of friendship. I’m sure Paul would be pleased that the alternate title that kept springing to mind was that of a John Ford Western: Two Rode Together.”
-Tom Carson, critic for GQ and author of Daisy Buchanan’s Daughter

“This is what happens when an artist interviews an artist: Nelson’s acute critical engagement with Eastwood’s films yields more insight from the moviemaker than any reader could have hoped for. Can a collection of interviews be called poignantly brilliant? This one is.”
-Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

“I found that Conversations with Clint is invaluable reading, not just because it’s a uniquely in-depth series of interviews with someone who always had a sense of himself as an enduring figure. It also takes us inside the head of Paul Nelson—the interviewer himself—whose states of mind complete the story. The best interviews have always been two-sided—a conversation—and Conversations is just that: a compelling look at an extended eyeball-to-eyeball encounter, complete with blinks and flinches.”
-Elvis Mitchell, host of KCRW’s The Treatment

“An amazing find! Hip journalist Paul Nelson's lengthy, detailed, casual yet riveting, long-believed lost conversations with the iconic director-producer-star Clint Eastwood, who has had one of the most extraordinary careers in the history of the American screen. A must for any true film lover.”
-Peter Bogdanovich, director, writer, actor, critic

“Paul Nelson’s resurrected ‘lost’ interviews represent deep-dish Clint. Nelson recognized the magnitude of the actor-director’s talents earlier than most—Eastwood had only made it up to Sudden Impact in 1983 by the time of the final interview—and they clearly had an easy rapport. The result sees the star opening up on his early struggles, how he learned from observing on Rawhide, his close collaborations with Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, money, politics, celebrity, and why he prefers early Bergman and Kurosawa to their later films. Clint has given many interviews, but this is one of his best, definitely of great interest to anyone who takes his work seriously.”
-Todd McCarthy, critic for The Hollywood Reporter

Eastwood consistently provides subtle insight into the life of an actor and his decision making process speaking frankly about what he saw in roles or projects, and what he thought of the results.
-Offbeat (New Orleans)

Nelson failed to finish or publish any features based on these lengthy interviews, which are valuable for their insights into Eastwood's mind and developing art during a crucial transitional period. Highly recommended for any reader interested in Eastwood's films.
LJ Express (online)

Amazing... One of the great things about the book is Eastwood's detailed discussion of the nature of the influences that led [Eastwood] to direct, and the allusions that come to mind for him while making films.
-The New Yorker’s “Front Row” blog

Eastwood sounds less like the monosyllabic Dirty Harry character he was most famous for playing at the time than like a brilliant, thoughtful, articulate- talkative, even- director and actor.
-Men’s Journal

Out of nowhere comes a great book on the Clint Eastwood of 30 years ago, when, more than just a big star, he was a divisive symbol of American populist justice. Their fluid, far-reaching conversation should have been put in a time capsule. Happily it was.
-Sight & Sound

The interviews- more like conversations, not mere question-and-answer sessions- show us an Eastwood who is (in marked contrast to many of his iconic characters) articulate, thoughtful, friendly, and outspoken. Reading his thoughts on a wide variety of subjects- religion, the genesis of his own directing style, Dirty Harry, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and much more- we feel, for pretty much the first time, as though we've seen Eastwood the man and not just Eastwood the movie star or acclaimed director...this treasure trove of new material brings altogether fresh insight into the man and his career.
-Booklist

One of the best film books of the year is also one of the most unusual.
The Wall Street Journal online

A fascinating selection of writings.
-BAFTA Online

Reading these interviews almost makes you feel sorry for Nelson, who never had the chance to be the first to herald Eastwood as the auteur he would eventually become. Fortunately, Conversations with Clint shows that he was, at least, the first to recognize it.
-The Independent Week

This is a quick read and a fine portrait of a megastar halfway through an iconic career.
-Griffintainment