MBR: The Theatre/Cinema/TV Shelf

The Theatre/Cinema/TV Shelf

Notes to An Actor
Ron Marasco
Ivan R. Dee
1332 N. Halsted Street, Chicago, IL 60622-2694
1566637570, $24.95 www.ivanrdee.com

NOTES TO AN ACTOR: PRACTICAL ADVICE SHAPED TO THE WAY ACTORS WORK
should be in the collections of any library catering to drama
students, whether at the high school to college levels or be it a
general-interest lending library. It comes from the author's own
experience in the profession as both an actor and as a director and
acting teacher, and provides a more practical, user-friendly book
providing insights on exactly how actors work. Tips from a director's
viewpoint, rather than the usual acting text, are particularly useful,
gleaned from everyday life.

Film Talk
Wheeler Winston Dixon
Rutgers University Press
100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8099
9780813540788, $22.95 http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu 1-800-446-9323

Film Talk: Directors at Work is an amazing, behind-the-scenes glimpse
of filmmaking from the 1940s to the modern day. Eleven up-close-and-
personal interviews with contemporary film directors, speaking frankly
about their work, comprise frank-talk this insider's view of the
industry. The directors interviewed are "old masters" Ronald Neame,
Val Guest, Budd Boetticher, and Albert Maysles; "cult visions" Jack
Hill, Monte Hellman, and Robert Downey Sr.; and "new voices" Takashi
Shimizu, Jamie Babbit, Bennett Miller, and Kasi Lemmons. More than
fifty rare photographs illustrate this one-of-a-kind testimony sure to
appeal to movie lovers of all walks of life.

Cinema of Obsession
Dominique Mainon and James Ursini
Limelight Editions
c/o Hal Leonard Corporation
777 West Bluemound Road, Milwaukee, WI 53213
9780879103477, $24.95 www.halleonard.com 1-800-637-2852

Filmmaker Dominique Mainon and film journalist James Ursini present
Cinema of Obsession: Erotic Fixation and Love Gone Wrong in the
Movies, an in-depth discussion and analysis of modern cinema that
revolves around the dark side of human attraction, from erotic
obsession to heartbreak and jealousy to deception and even murder in
the name of love. Black-and-white photographs illustrate Cinema of
Obsession throughout, and the text offers commentary on numerous
specific films including "Fatal Attraction", "Basic Instinct", "The
Killers", "Wild at Heart", "Last Tango in Paris", "Vertigo", and many
more. Accessible to lay readers and cinema scholars alike, Cinema of
Obsession lives up to its title and is indispensable for connoisseurs
of movies that deconstruct human romantic bonds.

Sitcoms
Ken Bloom & Frank Vlastnik
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
151 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
9781579127527, $29.95 www.blackdogandleventhal.com 1-800-722-7202

The collaboration of Ken Bloom (playwright, theater director, radio
host, arts consultant, and president of Harbinger Records) and Frank
Vlastnik (actor, photo researcher, and editor), "Sitcom: The 101
Greatest TV Comedies Of All Time" is an illustrated showcase of the
television situation comedy alphabetically ranging from 'The Adams
Family' to 'WRKP in Cincinnati'. Profusely illustrated with some 400
photographs of the stars and the sets, "Sitcom" offers so much more
than a simple recitation of statistics and trivia to inform the reader
as to everything that went into the creation of a truly classic sitcom
beginning with the writing and casting, thorough to the directing and
acting. In addition to the photos (some taken behind-the-scenes),
there is an abundance of expert commentary; biographies of directors,
writers, and actors; 'off-set' infobits; and insights into what made
these shows so popular with the public. Very highly recommended for
both personal and community library Television History collections as
a work of seminal research and meticulous effort, "Sitcoms" is a
fascinating, informative, entertaining, and engaging read.

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