Great Britons of Stage and Screen: Volume III: Behind the Scenes (paperback)
Great Britons of Stage and Screen: Volume III: Behind the Scenes
by Barbara Roisman Cooper
6”x9” size
374 total pages
ISBN 9798887711553
Barbara Roisman Cooper’s fifth book looks at a group of distinguished artists and creators behind the scenes of theatre and film productions. Great Britons of Stage and Screen: Volume III, Behind the Scenes features a dozen interviews with the most honored filmmakers and theatrical professionals of the past 75 years. All of these interviews were personally conducted by Roisman Cooper in Los Angeles, London, and New York over a period of five years.
Great Britons of Stage and Screen, Volume III, examines the artistic processes of these stage and screen professionals, many whom have received Oscars, BAFTAs, Oliviers, and Tonys. In the interviews, they reveal what they do and how they do it.
Among the interviewee subjects are: Production Designer Sir Ken Adam (seven James Bond films; Dr. Strangelove…; and Barry Lyndon); the doyenne of script supervisors, Angela Allen (fourteen films with John Huston, including The African Queen; and The Third Man); Julie Harris (Oscar for Darling and both films with The Beatles, Help! and A Hard Day’s Night).
Among others who shared their stories are: Choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne, Playwright Sir Ronald Harwood, Editor Anne V. Coates, and Composer Rachel Portman, the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Music Score.
Readers who are interested in what goes on behind the scenes will find this book an outstanding introduction to how these artists create great films and theatrical experiences.
This is the third of four books in Roisman Cooper’s Great Britons series featuring in-person interviews with film and stage professionals. [Part II: Behind the Scenes will be published by BearManor in summer 2024.]
Barbara Roisman Cooper’s thoughtful and illuminating conversations with actors and directors as part of her Great Britons of Stage and Screen series have been powerful and entertaining. She now brings us this new volume, focusing on so many of the “behind the camera” artists and professionals who are vital to the collaborative art of moviemaking.
– Bill Kramer, Chief Executive Officer
Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Barbara Roisman Cooper has once again expanded her amazing library of British interviews with her latest, Great Britons of Stage and Screen: Volume III: Behind the Scenes. Her research is extensive and always provides the reader with an incredible film history, including charming, as well as “juicy,” anecdotes from her interviewees, as well as those with whom they worked. She captures their personalities and quirks while subtly allowing the reader to share the incredible lives of British film and stage artists.
– Julia Holofcener, Producer
Having previously published two excellent volumes of interviews with British actors and directors, respectively, Barbara Roisman Cooper turns her trained eye on the technical professions behind the camera, from cinematographers to production designers, composers to script supervisors. Providing a wealth of biographical information on film professionals often ignored by film historians, Roisman Cooper’s interviews are both insightful and entertaining.
– Jan-Christopher Horak, former director,
UCLA Film & Television Archive
To understand contemporary theatre and film making, Great Britons of Stage and Screen: Volume III: Behind the Scenes is one book you cannot do without. The joy of this book is that, among others, Barbara Roisman Cooper has interviewed Playwright Sir Ronald Harwood, a lovable, ageless man. She has also gathered together within the covers of a single volume twenty-two a dozen interviews with, among others Gerry Fisher, Oswald (Ossie) Morris (see also: Volume IV), and Freddie Francis, three of the finest cinemaphotographerss England has yet produced; not to mention Production Designer Ken Adam (Who could forget the War Room from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove…!); and Costume Designer Anthony Powell (see also: Volume IV), all multiple award winners. This volume is a remarkable achievement. All I can say is, “Wow.”
– Tony Palmer, Director
GREAT BRITONS of STAGE AND SCREEN: VOLUME III, BEHIND THE SCENES' Media Coverage is currently in five newspapers in the the greater Los Angeles area. Here is a synopsis: Barbara Roisman Cooper’s Great Britons of Stage and Screen: Volume III, Behind the Scenes features a dozen interviews with the most honored filmmakers and theatrical professionals of the past 75 years. All of these face-to-face interviews were conducted by Roisman Cooper over a period of five years. The book examines the artistic processes of these stage and screen professionals, many of who have received Oscars, BAFTAs, Oliviers, and Tonys. In the interviews, they reveal what they do and how they do it. This is the third of four books in Roisman Cooper’s Great Britons series featuring in-person interviews with film and stage professionals.
Author Book Signing and Some Surprise Activities:
Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 1:00 p.m
Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of
"Great Britons of Stage and Screen: Actors – Directors – Behind the Scenes"
Barnes & Noble in The Commons at Calabasas, 4735 Commons Way, Calabasas, CA