2016 has so far proven to be a
good year for books, especially of the Eastwood variety. Earlier this year we
were finally treated to Peter Hanley’s long anticipated book on the making of The Good, the bad and the ugly – a
mammoth undertaking that had our bookshelves creaking under its sheer weight
and size. Of course, books of such stature do not tend to arrive that often, so
I felt fairly safe in the knowledge that my bookshelves would at least have
sufficient time to draw breath and recover under the strain before any other
similar size slabs were due to be released on Mr Eastwood. It appears I misjudged
that ever so slightly - as waiting in the wings was Tobias Hohmann’s second
volume on Clint Eastwood. Before we look at his new book, I felt it was a good
time to catch up on the story so far and to catch up with the man himself…
Tobias Hohmann’s enormous two
volume set of books on Eastwood is truly an impressive piece of work. It’s
perhaps all too easy to collate a career overview or a ‘films of’ type book on
Eastwood, there’s certainly enough of a career there. Setting aside 3 or 4
pages for each of the man’s films would soon result in a pretty decent size
book – but in all honesty, it’s already been done a fair amount of times
before. So, what makes Hohmann’s books any different from the rest? Well,
straight away it should be pointed out that these two books are written in
German, they are after all, German books. Now, if a book that isn’t in English
is enough to put you off, please do not waste your time in reading any further.
But quite frankly, you’ll be missing out on all the riches that these books
actually have to offer.
Long term fans and collectors
will of course remember that books printed in foreign text have never really put
us off before. One immediately thinks back to those glorious Japanese cine
books of the 1980s. We might not have been able to read of word of them, but
they are still visually stunning. I think I ended up with four Japanese books
in total. Then of course there was Francois Guerif’s book, a French text only
book which worked so well on many levels and ended up being a must in any serious
Eastwood collection. The point being, I still couldn’t image my collection
without the inclusion of these books, they are now essential. The Japanese cine
album books are also so collectable these days – and in any part of the world!
Tobias Hohmann’s books work in
much the same way, they are firstly a visual splendour, and they are simply
beautiful in their presentation. Hohmann’s original book, part one of this
amazing set, was originally released in 2015, and unfortunately did tend to
slip under the radar among a great deal of Eastwood fans, myself included.
Fortunately, I was later able to catch up with part one which covers the period
1930-1979.
I spoke with Tobias Hohmann recently and first asked him why? Why
another book on Clint Eastwood?
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| Thomas Pollmer (L) and Tobias Hohmann (R) |
‘To be honest, I wasn't the one
who started this project – it was Thomas Pollmer, a man who probably has one of
the greatest Eastwood collections in the world. He has collected nearly
everything about Clint over many decades - it´s incredible what he has in his
Cellar! Thomas had really enjoyed one of my previous books, the focus of which
was Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, and it was Thomas who thought that a book
about Eastwood, presented in a similar style, and with the same degree of
passion behind the project would be great. But I agree with you, my initial
thoughts were the same - why another book on Eastwood? There are several other
books on the market already, and it was very unlikely that Eastwood or the people
around him would help us. But then I thought a little more about it, and I
finally came to the conclusion that a great deal of these books and their
approach were often very one sided. The books often reflect a genuine like for
Eastwood or the complete opposite, or they focussed solely on his movies or
about his private life – but I wanted to achieve something which perhaps reflected
a healthy balance between the two. I also believed that you couldn´t entirely separate
his private life and his career or for that matter perhaps his career choices and
how his private life may have influenced those choices. There was also the fact
that Eastwood remains a total legend, his career is just incredible and for me,
he´s the last of the classic Hollywood icons. You only have to look at Eastwood’s
career over the last 50 years – I mean which other actor or director has
achieved so much? So overall, I thought there were enough reasons there to put
something together with a fresh feel to it, a slightly different perspective,
but overall, I wanted it to also look exceptionally good. When I met with
Thomas again, we discussed the format and how we would like to take it, and
from there on he placed his trust in me.’
I asked Hohmann, if he always
intended his project to be an enormous two volume set?
‘For me personally, yes always. Firstly,
you just have to look at how many films he made, look at the kind of fulfilling
life he’s had and continues to live – it just can´t work within one book with
maybe 500 pages? My publisher on the other hand, he didn´t like this idea at
first, but I knew that they would agree. I said to them, “What’s the point if
we have 300 pages and we were still in the year 1970?” So I’m glad they finally came around and agreed
or we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now (laughs). But seriously, you
have to do it correct if you’re doing something on Eastwood, he deserves that
degree of respect. Now, with his career and life over the two books and over
1.000 pages in total, I think we can at least say we really tried to do it
justice. If this was the wrong approach - all of the blame is on me.’
I have to say, I don’t really
believe Mr Hohmann has too much to worry about. The sheer size of these books
is really overwhelming and weighty beasts they are too. The lay out here is
very impressive and has each particular chapter opening with a full page
reproduction of the relevant German cinema poster, but it all gets even better…
Throughout book one there are several very nice fold-out format pages that show
off posters really beautifully. However, instead of the double page posters
presented in the usual centre spread style (where the centre of the poster is
often lost in the centre of the book’s binding), it is instead presented here
in a rather unique way, with the right side page folding out (to the right) to
reveal a nice flat, full on presentation of the film’s artwork. It’s a concept that
I’ve certainly never seen before and it all works wonderfully well.
It is in the books overall concept, its design and presentation in particular, which really help tip the balance and eclipse the limitations of its German only text. The large majority of pages are packed with an array of memorabilia;
lobby cards, advertisements and varying poster designs, all of which are put to
incredible use and flawlessly presented. It’s a wonderful way of utilising a
great deal of rare items and should prove particularly appealing to Eastwood
collectors.
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| Book 1 Cover Design B |
Book one is also available in a
choice of two cover designs. Design A is known as the montage cover (see top), a
beautifully conceived design which utilises some fabulous original artwork from
a various selection of classic Eastwood movie posters. I’m reliably informed by
Tobias that stocks of the Design A cover are now running a little short, but
more information on that further on. The design B for book one is the regular ‘Enforcer’
style cover.
Hohmann’s books have certainly
attracted a great deal of attention. His book on the career of Chuck Norris
(here) opened the door to James Fargo. Impressed with his book on Norris, the
director of The Enforcer and Every which way but loose was happy to talk with
Hohmann at length about the career of Eastwood. But perhaps even more
impressively, Hohmann was actually able to persuade Eastwood’s Fistful of
Dollars co-star Marianne Koch into talking exclusively for the book. I asked
Hohmann, how he managed to get Marianne Koch on board?
‘Marianne Koch´s participation
was a big surprise. I didn´t believe for a minute that she would be interested
in talking about this time in her life. She had finished her career as an
actress many years before and has worked since as a doctor. She simply didn´t
talk about her movie career, she hadn’t for a very long time. I thought I would
give it a try anyway and in the beginning she was very reserved and reluctant.
But I sent her some pictures from the book and eventually she said, “Okay,
let's see what I can remember.” She was great, a very nice and highly intelligent
woman. I adore her very much and she was also our guest of honour at the book
presentation which was unbelievable. We presented the book in a very nice cinema
in Munich, Starnberger. We arranged for a special showing of A Fistful of
Dollars where Marianne watched alongside us with the press and our guests and
friends. Marianne lives there also. She was so friendly and it was incredibly
kind of her to spend so much time with us. It was really great to hear her
stories and to meet her, she still looks wonderful.’
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| (Left to Right) Thomas Pollmer, Marianne Koch, 'Joe Kidd' and Tobias Hohmann |
In August 2016, Hohmann’s second
volume on Clint Eastwood became available to complete his epic book collection.
Covering the years 1980-2016 (and includes Eastwood’s latest ‘Sully’), the book
pretty much follows in the same style as Volume One, with each film chapter
kicking off with a beautiful reproduction of the original poster. There are
also those great little sidebars within each chapter – like the Pale Rider
section, how refreshing it is to see that space is also given to the short
lived Pale Rider beer which became a spin off product of the film! It is these
great little details that make Hohmann’s books really stand out. Delightful
touches such as when his children were born in relation to his films, the
co-stars and of course, such brilliant use of the hundreds of lobby cards to
illustrate along the way. For this second volume, Hohmann also managed to
secure some interview time with David Worth, director of photography on both
Bronco Billy and Any which way you can. ‘David Worth was great; he loved the
layout and concept of the books too. He´s one of the great storytellers who
loved to talk about his work with Eastwood.’ The author also managed to secure Wolfgang
Petersen, the director behind one of Eastwood’s greatest film’s from the 90s -
In the line of Fire.
‘Getting hold of Wolfgang
Petersen was not an easy task because he´s such a busy man. It took us months
to finally get an appointment. He was in Los Angeles at this time and was
preparing his new movie when I called him. His assistant politely informed me
that our time would be strictly limited to just thirty minutes. But I could
tell Wolfgang had a great deal of respect and love for Clint. In the end we
spoke for nearly two hours and it was a pleasure to hear his stories and
memories of Eastwood.’
Hohmann’s second volume book is a
real beauty and acts as the perfect companion piece to book one. There is just
the one cover option available for volume two – another great poster montage
which mirrors the excellent design A cover of volume one. As previously
mentioned, each of these top quality books consist of over 500 pages, each of
which are crammed with stunning illustrative material. The fact that these
books are written in German almost becomes a secondary factor, they are simply
that beautiful on the eye and fortunately we have yet to require the knowledge
of a language - in order to appreciate genuine beauty.
Quite honestly, I couldn’t
recommend them highly enough.
Below I have provided two sets of
links for each of the books. However, it is important to mention, in regards to
book one – the Amazon link does not guarantee one of the two available cover
designs – if ordering book one through Amazon it is entirely down to them which
of the cover designs they dispatch. If you require a specific cover design for
book one, please use the second link which is that of the publisher, there you
will have the option / choice of which cover you require.
Any link can be used for book two
as the artwork montage cover is the only option available.
My thanks to Tobias Hohmann for
talking to The Clint Eastwood Archive
Book One Links:
Book Two Links:
Some additional images from these wonderful books
