Barry Keith Grant

Fritz Lang: Interviews - Conversations with Filmmakers Series Barry Keith Grant

Publisher Marketing: The films of Fritz Lang depict an entrapping, claustrophobic world in which people are controlled by larger forces. His overriding theme is the struggle against fate and against the traits of human nature that doom us. His life and work spanned six decades of film history-from the silent era through the golden age of German Expressionism of the 1920s and the classic studio system in Hollywood to the rise of the international co-production. In Hollywood he worked for every major studio except Disney. He made blockbusters, modest B movies, and everything in between. Among his films are classics of German cinema-including "Metropolis" and "M." In America he made some of the most notable crime movies ("Fury"), noir films ("The Big Heat"), and Westerns ("The Return of Frank James") of the studio era. Despite the different time periods, nations, and genres in which he worked, his films remain stylistically consistent. Lang (1890-1976), a notoriously difficult interviewee, granted relatively few interviews apart from short publicity exchanges in the promotion of his films. Fully aware of his public persona, he was a canny self-promoter who carefully constructed half-truths and myths about himself. This fascinating collection covers his conversations about his life and his works over a period of forty years. They reveal how cinema for Lang was an intensely personal art. "For me," he said, "cinema is a vice. I love it intimately. I've often written that it is the art form of our century." Review Citations:

Booklist 10/01/2003 pg. 291 (EAN 9781578065776, Paperback)

Library Journal 11/01/2003 pg. 86 (EAN 9781578065776, Paperback)

Booklist 10/01/2003 pg. 291 (EAN 9781578065769, Hardcover)

Library Journal 11/01/2003 pg. 86 (EAN 9781578065769, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Grant, Barry Keith Barry Keith Grant is Professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University. He is the author or editor of many books, including 100 Science Fiction Films, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and four editions of Film Genre Reader.