Scene by Scene: Film Actors and Directors Discuss Their Work

This book looks at over 40 of the most important film scenes from the last 50 years. Each of the scenes is fully illustrated and discussed with either the director of the film or one of the main actors. In the process it is revealed how the scene was made, what the influences on it were and how it relates to the film as a whole. Those interviewed include such famous names as Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Sean Connery, Martin Scorsese, Rod Steiger, Dennis Hopper, Tom Hanks, Roman Polanski, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jack Lemmon, Steve Martin and many others. The scenes included come from a range of seminal films, such as Some Like It Hot, Rebel without a Cause, Psycho, Easy Rider, Last Tango in Paris, Taxi Driver, Blue Velvet and Saving Private Ryan amongst others.
Presented in a lively and accessible manner by Mark Cousins and fully illustrated throughout, the book will appeal to the general reader and all those wishing to learn about the craft of film-making.

Mark Cousins is an author, film director and producer. He ahs directed a number of acclaimed documentaries and is co-editor of Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary (1998), a history of documentary film, as well as a regular contributor to Prospect magazine. Hew Was Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where he first developed the Scene by Scene format, which he now presents on BBC television.