Fred Schepisi by Tom Ryan

Fred Schepisi by Tom Ryan

In the New Yorker, Stephen Schiff has described Fred Schepisi (b. 1939) as "probably the least-known great director working in the mainstream American cinema—a master storyteller with a serenely muscular style that can make more flamboyant moviemakers look coarse and overweening." Schepisi’s launch in Australia during the country’s film renaissance of the 1970s and his ongoing international work have rightfully earned him a reputation as an actors’ director. But he has also become a skillful stylist, forging his own way as he works alongside a talented team of collaborators.

This volume includes twenty interviews with Schepisi and two with longtime collaborators, cinematographer Ian Baker and composer Paul Grabowsky. The interviews trace the filmmaker’s career from his beginnings in advertising, through his two early Australian features—The Devil's Playground and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith—to his subsequent work in the United States and beyond on films as various as Plenty, Roxanne, A Cry in the Dark, The Russia House, Six Degrees of Separation, Empire Falls, Last Orders, and Eye of the Storm. Schepisi’s films are diverse thematically and visually. In what is effectively a master class on film direction, Schepisi discusses his creative choices and his work with actors and collaborators behind the scenes. In the process, he provides a goldmine of insights into his films, his filmmaking style, and what makes him tick as an artist.

Tom Ryan is a former cinema studies lecturer and an Australian critic who has been a regular contributor to film magazines and the arts pages of newspapers for almost forty years. He is author of The Films of Douglas Sirk: Exquisite Ironies and Magnificent Obsessions and editor of Baz Luhrmann: Interviews, both published by University Press of Mississippi, and has contributed to numerous anthologies about film and sport.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781496855688
ISBN 10	149685568X
Title	Fred Schepisi
Author	Tom Ryan
Series	Conversations With Filmmakers Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	University Press of Mississippi
Year published	2025-02-17
Number of pages	236
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.