A Life In Movies: Stories From 50 Years In Hollywood

A lively memoir . . . a firsthand work of cinema history . . . the testament of a pivotal figure in American moviemaking. Martin ScorseseThe list of films Irwin Winkler has produced in his morethanfiftyyear career is extraordinary: Rocky, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, DeLovely, The Right Stuff, Creed, and The Irishman. His films have been nominated for fiftytwo Academy Awards, including five movies for Best Picture, and have won twelve.In A Life in Movies, his charming and insightful memoir, Winkler tells the stories of his career through his many films as a producer and then as a writer and director, charting the changes in Hollywood over the past decades.Winkler started in the famous William Morris mailroom and made his first filmstarring Elvisin the last days of the old studio system. Beginning in the late 1960s, and then for decades to come, he produced a string of provocative and influential films, making him one of the most critically lauded, prolific, and commercially successful producers of his era.This is an engrossing and candid book, a beguiling exploration of what it means to be a producer, including purchasing rights, developing scripts, casting actors, managing directors, editing film, and winning awards. Filled with tales of legendary and beloved films, as well as some notsolegendary and forgotten ones, A Life in Movies takes readers behind the scenes and into the history of Hollywood.Charming and anecdote packed . . . popcorn for movie nerds. NewsweekA deftly written recollection of an eventful and happy life in a precarious and, frankly, insane business; a remarkably cleareyed look behind the scenes of moviemaking. Kevin Kline