MIDSECTION: DESIGNED FOR FILM
Of all the crafts contributing to the corporate vision of the Hollywood film, art direction is the one allied to most of the traditional arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, and of course stage design. But despite (or because of) these honorable antecedents, the art director’s crucial role in the glory of the American film has been little noted. A new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and our 36-page Midsection, should help spotlight his special achievements. Assembled by Mary Corliss and Carlos Clarens, the Midsection emphasizes the art director’s involvement in the kinetic as well as the painterly aspects of film production—the motion as well as the picture. The introductory essay pays special attention to the great names in art direction: William Cameron Menzies, Cedric Gibbons, Hans Dreier. And in a series of interviews, ten distinguished art directors, whose experience totals some 440 years, talk vividly about creating some of the Hollywood images we remember best: Tara, the yellow brick road, the attack of The Birds, the old dark Psycho house
FEATURING: Robert Boyle, Ben Carré, Robert Clatworthy, A. Arnold Gillespie, Dale Hennesy, George Jenkins, Boris Leven, Eugene Lourié, Jack Martin Smith, Lyle Wheeler
BURT REYNOLDS
The actor-director talks with Joseph McBride and Brooks Riley about his several careers and his new film, The End
COME ON WITH THE RAIN
Or how another Freed Unit product became the all-time favorite musical. John Mariani tells the story in interviews with the principals
JOURNAL
David Overbey looks at French film since 1968 to see where it went
MISS PIGGY
Elliott Serkin on the brightest new star in the television sty
LOUIS MALLE’S PRETTY BABY
Interviewed by Dan Yakir
On movies, children, and America
BOOKS
James Mark Purcell on United Artists
John Hughes on Jacques Rivette
LETTERS
Kenneth Anger, Donfeld, John Springer on “The Role That Got Away”
PEOPLE WE LIKE
Samson Raphaelson on James M. Cain
INDEX
Everything you wanted to know—and more—about Film Comment, 1977
INDUSTRY
Hollywood is making beaucoup bucks these days—but the exhibitors are hurting. Stuart Byron reports
BACK TALK
By Stuart Byron
Inside stuff on Dustin Hoffman, Martin Scorsese, and G+W
BULLETIN BOARD
