Adventures of a Suburban Boy - Softcover

John Boorman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057121696X ISBN 13: 9780571216963

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2004

Synopsis

Boorman begins with his archetypal English suburban boyhood in the 1940s and 50s, then recounts his big break during the 'gold rush' era of British television in the 1960s, and his subsequent graduation to feature film-making: initially with pop stars The Dave Clark Five on Catch Us If You Can, then with the legendary Lee Marvin on his first Hollywood picture - and first masterpiece - Point Blank. Among the many friends and collaborators of whom Boorman offers vivid portraits therein are Marvin, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Marcello Mastroianni, Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren and Nicol Williamson.

About this title

About the Author

John Boorman was born in London in 1933. After working as a film reviewer for magazines and radio, he joined the BBC in 1955 as an assistant editor, and later directed a number of documentaries. His first feature was 'Catch Us If You Can' in 1965. His latest film, Country of My Skull, opens in 2003. He is a five-time Academy Award-nominee, and was twice awarded Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for Leo the Last (1970) and The General (1998). He is the author of Money Into Light: The Emerald Forest - A Diary, as well as the being the co-founder and editor of Faber & Faber's long-running series Projections: Film-makers on Film-making.

From Publishers Weekly

British film director Boorman, famed for Deliverance, Excalibur and The General, is a product of WWII. More specifically, he comes out of the semidetached suburbs of WWII London. His memoir-part family history, part film bio-is both tender and restrained. Boorman's emotional life was shaped by his parents' triangulated marriage-his mother was in love with his father's best friend-and his longing to escape the drabness of suburban life. "I vacillated between overweening ambition and despair," he notes. Enamored of broadcasting, he got a job editing news clips for Britain's ITN network in 1955 and became so adept, he was recruited by the BBC, where he rose to produce documentaries. Yet film remained his first love. He got his break in 1965 with Catch Us if You Can. The die was cast: Boorman became a darling of British cinema, eventually seeking recognition in Hollywood. By all accounts, he did not achieve the financial success others did, but he managed, despite occasional setbacks, to fulfill his artistic vision. Why, he asks, are people so drawn to moviemaking? "We are escaping the vague dissatisfactions of safe and comfortable lives. We want to be extended, tested." Boorman pushes the envelope, creating inspired cinema on small budgets, often in dangerous locales. A devoted father, he also discovers the gift of friendship with Lee Marvin and Jon Voight. Not a lurid tell-all, this is an honest appraisal of a life well lived. It begins and ends with Hope and Glory, Boorman's semi-autobiographical film about a boy's suburban childhood, whose critical acclaim proves that the suburbs served him well. 40 b&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 057121696X
• ISBN 13: 9780571216963
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320