ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME - Invaluable.... I am sometimes asked if there is one book a filmgoer could read to learn more about how movies are made and what to look for while watching them. This is the book. --Roger Ebert The New York Times Book Review Why does a director choose a particular script? What must they do in order to keep actors fresh and truthful through take after take of a single scene? How do you stage a shootout--involving more than one hundred extras and three colliding taxis--in the heart of New York s diamond district? What does it take to keep the studio honchos happy? From the first rehearsal to the final screening Making Movies is a master s take delivered with clarity candor and a wealth of anecdote. For in this book Sidney Lumet one of our most consistently acclaimed directors gives us both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art craft and business of the motion picture. Drawing on forty years of experience on movies that range from Long Day s Journey into Night to Network and The Verdict--and with such stars as Katharine Hepburn Paul Newman Marlon Brando and Al Pacino--Lumet explains how painstaking labor and inspired split-second decisions can result in two hours of screen magic.