Book description
A formidable new generation of American film-makers are currently
in their prime: Paul Thomas Anderson, Alexander Payne, Sofia Coppola,
David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson, to name but six. Call them
'The Sundance Kids'. . . A conspicuous number of these talents first
kick-started their careers in the workshops of Robert Redford's
Sundance Institute in Utah, or made the big time after screening their
work at the Sundance Film Festival. Nowadays, acclaimed movies such as
Payne's Sideways, Jonze's Being John Malkovich and Coppola's Lost in
Translation have reminded people of that great period in the 1970s
spearheaded by Scorsese, Altman, and Sofia Coppola's father, Francis.
In this comprehensive study, James Mottram traces the roots of this
new generation to Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape - a
low-budget tour de force that premièred at Sundance en route to
conquering Cannes which persuaded some of the 'Sundance Kids' to first
pick up a camera. Mottram proceeds to analyse each director and their
oeuvre, placing each carefully within the context of the ever-changing
landscape of American cinema over the last fifteen years. And Mottram
poses the question - are we witnessing a new Golden Age of film-making?
James Mottram is a freelance film critic who has written for a
wide range of newspapers, including the Independent and the Guardian,
as well as film publications such as Empire, Hotdog, and Film Review.
His first book for Faber was The Making of Memento (2002) followed by
Batman Begins.
