The Best Books Written by Filmmakers

The French film director Robert Bresson was one of the great artists of the 20th century and among the most radical, original, and radiant stylists of any time. He worked with nonprofessional actors — models, as he called them — and deployed a starkly limited but hypnotic array of sounds and images to produce such classic works as A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, and Lancelot of the Lake. From the beginning to the end of his career, Bresson dedicated himself to making movies in which nothing is superfluous and everything is always at stake. Notes on the Cinematograph distills the essence of Bresson’s theory and practice as a filmmaker and artist.

Long before he directed Wicked, In The Heights, or the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu was a movie-obsessed first-generation Chinese American, helping at his parent’s restaurant in Silicon Valley and forever facing the cultural identity crisis endemic to children of immigrants. Growing up on the cutting edge of 21st-century technology gave Chu the tools he needed to make his mark at USC film school, and to be discovered by Steven Spielberg. With striking candor and unrivaled insights, Chu offers a firsthand account of the collision of Silicon Valley and Hollywood — what it’s been like to watch his old world shatter and reshape his new one.

For over half a century, Werner Herzog has challenged, enriched, and expanded our understanding of the truth. His films and books have mixed fiction and nonfiction, documentary and drama, reality and imagination. Invariably, Herzog goes beyond the appearance of what is true in search of a higher truth, or what he has often referred to as the “ecstatic truth.” In The Future of Truth, a great artist ventures an answer to one of humanity’s deepest, most eternal questions. Mixing memoir, history, politics, poetry, science, and fierce opinion, he writes with dazzling originality and panache, urging readers to be unflagging and imaginative in the pursuit of truth, endless though the quest may be.

Sidney Lumet, one of our most consistently acclaimed directors, gives us both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture. Drawing on 40 years of experience in movies that range from Long Day’s Journey into Night to Network and The Verdict — and with such stars as Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino — Lumet explains how painstaking labor and inspired split-second decisions can result in two hours of screen magic.

Famed independent screenwriter and director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids, Machete) discloses all the unique strategies and original techniques he used to make his remarkable debut film El Mariachi on a shoestring budget. This is both one man’s remarkable story and an essential guide for anyone who has a celluloid story to tell and the dreams and determination to see it through. Part production diary, part how-to manual, Rodriguez unveils how he was able to make his influential first film on only a $7,000 budget.

From iconic Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa, this autobiography traces Kurosawa’s early childhood through his teenage years. Recollecting memories of his schooldays, time spent with his elder brother, the Great Kantō earthquake, and the destruction left in its aftermath. Providing intimate insight into the man behind the worldwide successful 1951 Rashomon, this book also provides a provocative account of the Japanese film industry.

A masterclass on the art of directing from the Pulitzer Prize-winning (and Oscar and Tony-nominated) writer of Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow, The Verdict, and Wag the Dog. Calling on his unique perspective as a playwright, screenwriter, and director David Mamet illuminates how a film comes to be. He looks at every aspect of directing — from script to cutting room — to show the many tasks directors undertake in reaching their prime objective: presenting a story that will be understood by the audience and has the power to be both surprising and inevitable at the same time.

Elia Kazan was the 20th century’s most celebrated director of stage and screen, and this monumental book shows us the master at work. Kazan’s list of Broadway and Hollywood successes — A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront — is a testament to his impact on directing. This book, drawn from his notebooks, letters, interviews, and autobiography, reveals Kazan’s method: how he uncovered the “spine” of each script, how he analyzed each piece in terms of his own experience, and how he determined the specifics of his production. In the final section, “The Pleasures of Directing” — written during Kazan’s final years — he offers advice and insight for budding artists, writers, actors, and directors.

In these pages, the beloved journalist, writer, and filmmaker Nora Ephron takes us from her first job in the mailroom at Newsweek to the six stages of email, from memories of her parents’ whirlwind dinner parties to her own life now full of Senior Moments (or, as she calls them, Google moments), from her greatest career flops to her most treasured joys. Filled with insights and observations that instantly ring true, I Remember Nothing is a delightful, poignant gift from one of our finest writers.

Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films (Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate themes of injustice, betrayal, and terror — on both an intimate and national scale. Lee writes deeply and hauntingly about conflicts between family, the powerful and the vulnerable, conformists and rebels. Snowy Day and Other Stories introduces English readers to a master storyteller.

For fans of American comedy, All About Me! unveils behind-the-scenes stories from Mel Brooks, a master storyteller and filmmaker. It traces his journey from a Depression-era Brooklyn kid to a National Medal of Arts recipient. Brooks’ career began in Sid Caesar’s writers’ room and continued with his work on Get Smart and comedy albums. His film career soared with The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and more. The memoir delves into his collaborations with comedy legends and his personal life, including his marriage to Anne Bancroft, offering fans a deeper look at his legendary work and friendships.