The Essential Directors

From Turner Classic Movies, this is the essential guide to all the must-know detail on the style, achievements, and landmark films of the most influential directors in cinema history from the silent era through the 1970s.

For well over a century, those who create motion pictures have touched our hearts and souls; they have transported and transformed our minds, intoxicated and entranced our senses. One artist’s vision is the single most prominent force behind the scenes: the director. The Essential Directors illuminates the unseen forces behind some of the most notable screen triumphs from the aesthetic peak of silent cinema through the New Hollywood of the 1970s. Considering each artist’s influence on the medium, cultural impact, and degree of achievement, Turner Classic Movies presents a compendium of Hollywood’s most influential filmmakers, with profiles offering history and insight on the filmmaker’s narrative style, unique touches, contributions to the medium, key films, and distinctive movie moments to watch for. The work of these game-changing artists is illustrated throughout by more than 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs.

In The Essential Directors you’ll read how Cecil B. DeMille revamped religion to define an era, and how Oscar Micheaux broke barriers to become the most influential Black filmmaker of the 1920s. You’ll marvel at the efficient artistry of “One-Take Woody” Van Dyke and fall in love again with the sophisticated studio-era classics
of George Cukor. You’ll gain insight into how women like Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino built thriving careers in an industry ruled by men and discover what drove Mike Nichols to mix comedy with tragedy, becoming the highest-paid director of his day in the the process. The Essential Directors  presents the work of these game-changing artists and dozens more in this stunning volume.

• There’s something for every movie lover in The Essential Directors, and Sloan De Forest has created another essential text in the lineup of great books on movies by TCM and Running Press.
  John Evans, Conskipper
• "The Essential Directors is an essential work itself."
  Allan Arkush, director, producer, and film professor at the American Film Institute
• "Cinemaphiles will soak up every film factoid from Turner Classic Movies’ The Essential Directors, a new 344-page book by Sloan De Forest, who explores the most influential filmmakers from the silent movie years through the 1970s."
  The Hollywood Reporter
• "Author Sloan De Forest is a wonderful writer, one adept at zeroing in on the key works and styles of filmmakers from Chaplin to Spielberg while also providing useful contextual evidence for their importance."
  Christopher Schobert, The Film Stage
• "Fan-friendly and fun, this one belongs in the front row of any movie buff’s collection."
  Carolyn Mulac, Booklist
• "From epic dramas to laugh-out-loud comedies, readers will find TCM’s Essential Directors as the go-to source for the heavy-hitters behind the biggest movies in history."
  Borg