Going to the Movies A Personal Journey Through Four Decades of Modern Film

Featuring insights ... analysis ... great films and filmmakers from "the most-sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world"(The Hollywood Reporter). A life in film. An extraordinary career. An unforgettable story from noted lecturer, teacher, and bestselling author Syd Field. What makes a great movie great? ... An actor legendary? ... A screenplay extraordinary or just ordinary? Syd Field has spent a lifetime seeking answers to these questions. His bestselling books on the art and craft of screenwriting have become the film industry's gold standard. Now Syd Field tells his own remarkable story, sharing the insight and experience gleaned from an extraordinary career. Using classic movies from the past and present from Orson Welles'Citizen Kaneto Andy and Larry Wachowski'sThe Matrix Field provides a guided tour of the basic elements common to all great films. Learn what makesLa Grande Illusiona groundbreaking, timeless classic ... howCasablancateaches one of the most important elements of creating memorable characters for the screen ... whyPulp Fictionmight be one of the most influential films of our time. Discover the legendary filmmakers, films, and stars who shaped Field's understanding of the medium.... Meet Jean Renoir, the great French director who steered his young Berkeley protege away from medicine into film.... Watch a dazzling young Francis Ford Coppola as he directs his thesis film at UCLA.... Spend an amazing summer with Sam Peckinpah as he shares the screenwriting techniques behind his classic westernThe Wild Bunch. Rich in anecdote and insight,Going to the Movieswill both entertain and inform, deepening every moviegoer's appreciation of the magic behind the silver screen.

Syd Field is the internationally acclaimed screenwriter, producer, teacher, lecturer, and author of the bestselling books <b>Screenplay</b>, <b>Selling a Screenplay</b>, <b>The Screenwriter’s Workbook</b>, <b>Four Screenplays</b>, and <b>The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver</b>. Published in 1982, <b>Screenplay</b> has been translated into seventeen languages and is used in more than 350 colleges and universities across the country. At present he is creative consultant to the governments of Mexico, Argentina, Austria, and Brazil, and has been a script consultant for Roland Jaffe’s film production company, 20th Century Fox, the Disney Studios, and Tri-Star Pictures. He lives in Beverly Hills, California.