There are many books that we can read to delve into the works of those directors or directors that we like so much, whether they are written by them or by other people who have been able to analyze their professional career from the absolute skill that their professionalism gives them. In recent years we have been able to read many interesting books on all kinds of directors, from the most recent to the most classic, and today we have gathered the essential ones.
Hayao Miyazaki, Quentin Tarantino, Akira Kurosawa and many other movie icons whose works continue to be analyzed to this day and which have served to endure his legacy and transcend other more recent works, and even other media such as video games.
The invisible world of Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most iconic people in directing animated films. and his studio, co-founded with Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli, is one of the most beloved in recent years. ‘Spirited Away’, ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, ‘Princess Mononoke’ and an endless number of works that have made him renowned in the industry to the point of transcending to other media such as video games and, specifically, standing out in projects like ‘Ni no Kuni’.
The invisible world of Hayao Miyazaki
The invisible world of Hayao Miyazaki is a very comprehensive study on the director’s career that is written by Laura Montero Plata. Its 272 pages talk about Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli, the sociocultural environment framed in each of the films and, how could it be otherwise, good artistic work is included in the form of illustrations. Everything you wanted to know about Miyazaki gathered in a book with great technical load and a price of 24 euros.
The Walt Disney Archives
Short films, series and movies. Walt Disney’s work has reached every corner with characters as marked as Mickey Mouse, but also with great classics like ‘The Lion King’, ‘Hercules’ and others with which we have grown up a whole generation. Highlighting its most obvious point, animation, we can find some key pieces to better understand Walt Disney’s career.
The Walt Disney Archives. His Animated Films 1921-1968.
The Walt Disney Archives is the first book in a collection that features the first works of Disney in great detail. Such as ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (1937), ‘Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree’ (1966) or ‘The Jungle Book’ (1967). It is a complete work of 512 pages in hard cover. which includes, in addition to a detailed review of Walt Disney’s career, a complete collection of sketches and illustrations of his works. In this case, its price is 20 euros.
cinema meditations
If we fast forward to the present day, one of the most recognizable filmmakers is Quentin Tarantino. Works like ‘Kill Bill’, ‘Reservoir Dogs’, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and many others are great classics that we have almost certainly enjoyed more than once. The director has threatened more than once with his withdrawal, but we still have the hope of being able to see at least one more work.
Film Meditations is his first novel written, and it is a book where he analyzes from his extensive experience the most influential films of the 70s. An analysis from his own experience as a filmmaker that highlights old classics with a huge number of references, and which also denotes enormous quality, approaching his own work in the cinema. There are 424 pages of “pure Tarantino” that more than one follower of his works will end up loving, and for only 21.90 euros.
Something like an autobiography
We have tried to ensure that all the books are in Spanish to facilitate reading, but we could not ignore Akira Kurosawa and his novel Something like an autobiography. We could consider that Kurosawa is one of the most influential filmmakers in Japan, since his works, or the way of making them, have transcended to other media such as (again) in video games, with projects like ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ .
Something Like An Autobiography
Something like an autobiography is a 240-page book in English where we can know in great detail both the life of Kurosawa and his great career in cinema. Successes and failures of a director who manages to develop his own experience in his early years and how the people of his time reacted to each of his works. This book can be found at a price of 15.19 euros.
Sofia Coppola: Forever Young
If we talk about female film directors, we can find a huge number of figures with classics that we can enjoy today as if it were the first time we’ve seen them. Sofia Coppola has a great career as both a director and an actressusing deep films to even win an Oscar for best screenplay with ‘Lost in Translation’.
Sofia Coppola: Forever Young
Sofia Coppola: Forever Young is a critical study with text and illustrations about the director’s career that covers different aspects and stages of her career, marked by her “hyper-feminine” aesthetic. Her prowess in the cinema has been well recognized in each of the films where she has worked, and we can find a deep look into her past in this 288-page book in English that is priced at 33.56 euros. .
The personal files of Stanley Kubrick
If there is something better than seeing ‘2001, a space odyssey’, it is being able to read the trajectory, experience and long paragraphs detailing each of the scenes of the films of stanley kubrick. The director is an icon in the world of cinema with works that have remained for posterity, and whose book written by Alison Castle offers us a review of Kubrick’s understanding and analysis.
The personal files of Stanley Kubrick
The personal files of Stanley Kubrick is a very complete book of 704 pages with a Spanish translation where we can approach Kubrick’s works from a different and detailed perspective in writing. It includes both text and illustrations of his works, interviews and rigorously studied documentaries for a price of 16 euros.
Conversations with Billy Wilder
Another of the great movie personalities with an excellent career is Samuel Wilder, better known for Billy Wilder. His beginnings as a screenwriter served to shape his work as a film director, creating intense works such as ‘Midnight’ or ‘The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’. We are facing essential works by a director who, at the time, reached the depths of Hollywood.
Conversations with Billy Wilder
Conversations with Billy Wilder It is the novel where the writer and director agreed for the first time to talk about his most personal life and his career in the cinema. His experience in Hollywood, friendships, anecdotes and a review of his most important films in his filmography throughout 464 pages that we will devour in a very short time. Written by Cameron Crowe, we can find this book for 15.50 euros.
In the face of so many film directors, surely we have left behind great literary works with which we can learn in detail about the films and personal lives of those classic film figures that we have liked so much. And what work can you not stop recommending?
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