‘Screenwriting’ provides insights into the art

A new book on screenwriters since the 1930’s offers insights into the art of writing for the screen, an art often as much about what goes unsaid than what is said.
Drawing together international greats from the US, Ireland, Poland, Italy, Japan, France, Germany and Egypt, Screenwriting explores the craft of storytelling in the modern medium of cinema.
Screenwriting will be launched in the Irish Film Centre, 6 Eustace Street, Dublin 2 on Tuesday May 27 2003 at 7.00pm by Jim Sheridan, who is featured in the book.
The authors (pictured) are Belfast film editor Declan McGrath whose post-production credits include ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, ‘Reign of Fire’ and ‘Brassed Off’, he is also the author of Editing and Post-Production in the Screencraft series, and Felim McDermott who lectures in film and currently lives in Galway.
The 13 screenwriters gathered in this book are world-class storytellers, whose skill at delineating plot and capturing character make them internationally renowned and respected. The book explores screenwriters from the late 1930’s to those who only began writing in the late 1980’s.
Screenwriting offers insights from luminaries such as Paul Schrader (‘Taxi Driver’ – “Travis Bickle has the smell of sex about him; sick sex, lonely sex, repressed sex, but sex nonetheless”) and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (“Everything I tried to say in the break-up scene in ‘Room With A View’ was shown by Cecil sitting down and putting on his shoes very sadly. I didn’t write it and it was brilliant”)
Screenwriting also reflects the views of legendary Hollywood gurus such as William Goldman (“I constantly throw in surprises and twists. I oversurprise; it is a huge flaw of mine, but I am trapped inside my own skin with my own inadequacies and I am terrified you’re going to turn me off.”) and Robert Towne (“An awful lot of screenwriting is figuring out what not to say.”)
Screenwriting also features European luminaries such as Jean-Claude Carriere (‘Belle de Jour’), Krzysztof Piesiewicz (‘Three Colours Trilogy’) and Suso d’Amico (‘The Bicycle Thieves’).
Screenwriting is published by RotoVision, priced £29.95.
(SP)