Posters in the Lobby: Army of Darkness

Some pop art-inspired Japanese poster artwork for Army of Darkness. Dig the "Bruce Campbell" soup cans. Click for larger image.

In Memoriam: Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet was one of the great American filmmakers, responsible for over 40 films both classic and celebrated (12 Angry Men, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, and Murder on the Orient Express) to the unjustly overlooked (Fail-Safe, Family Business, and Find Me Guilty.) His 1962 film The Pawnbroker was one of the first U.S. pictures to openly deal with the Holocaust, and was instrumental in ending Hollywood's censorship laws regarding sexuality in cinema. He remained active in filmmaking well into his twilight years, ending his career with 2007's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which is perhaps the greatest film ever made by an octogenarian. He passed on today, in his Manhattan residence, from lymphoma.

Sidney Lumet's book, the aptly titled Making Movies, is one that, along with Frank Capra's The Name Above the Title and Walter Murch's In the Blink of an Eye, should be required reading for all young, aspiring filmmakers. It chronicles the creation of a motion picture from script to finished product, with all the technical details explained. (Chapter headings are titled like "Style: The Most Misused Word Since Love" and "The Mix: The Only Dull Part of Moviemaking.") The paradoxical role of the director is explained as both a world-is-your-oyster creative artist as well as a business-minded solver of a million little problems and a defeater of a thousand obstacles and stumbling blocks. As a quote from Steven Spielberg says on the back, "The craft of film would be a better place if every director were required to share with other romancers of film his process." I'd go further and say that if every working director in the world read Making Movies, there would be a whole lot of better movies being made.