Well, 2020 has just started and there is already something for Orson Welles fans to look forward to.
Peter Tonguette, who wrote the highly informative Orson Welles Remembered: Interviews with His Actors, Editors, Cinematographers and Magicians back in 2007, will publish Picturing Peter Bogdanovich: My Conversations with the New Hollywood Director this summer.
Coming from University Press of Kentucky in June, the 204-page hardcover is divided into two halves. The first part is what Tonguette described as “a deep dive into Bogdanovich’s life and work.”
“I go through his career chronologically, making the case not only for individual films but also that he is among the most significant and talented American directors in the last century,” Tonguette said. “The second half of the book is a Q&A in the tradition of Peter’s own interview books with Ford and Welles, or Truffaut’s Hitchcock book — a major inspiration.”
The book will encompass Bogdanovich’s 1971 feature film The Last Picture Show, which garnered eight Oscar nominations and enthusiastic review, and subsequent efforts including Paper Moon, What’s Up Doc and Mask.
“I first interviewed Peter in 2003 and 2004 — and the material from those conversations is the kernel of the book — but we began doing interviews expressly for this project in 2010,” Tonguette said. “I’ve been working on the book, on and off, ever since. The most recent interview was done earlier this year, bringing us up to date with material on The Other Side of the Wind and The Great Buster.”
Given Bogdanovich’s decades-long involvement with The Other Side of the Wind and friendship with Welles, there will be plenty to interest Wellesians.
“Welles comes up repeatedly in a whole variety of contexts, but there is a specific section set aside for The Other Side of the Wind,” Tonguette said.
In addition to his feature films and documentaries, Bogdanovich talked with Tonguette about his work on the stage, projects for television and many as-yet unproduced efforts.
Early buzz on the book is that it’s essential for Bogdanovich fans,
Scott Eyman, author of John Wayne: The Life and Legend, likened Tonguette’s book favorably to Bogdanovich’s own This Is Orson Welles, while Josh Karp, author of Orson Welles’s Last Movie, says it is the “definitive portrait” of Bogdanovich’s life and career.
New York Times former film critic Dave Kehr summed it up by stating “Peter Tonguette has paid Peter Bogdanovich the ultimate compliment with this book-length interview that evokes — and surpasses in depth and detail — Bogdanovich’s own pioneering studies of such legendary directors as John Ford, Allan Dwan and Fritz Lang.”
Tonguette’s previous work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, Christian Science Monitor, Sight & Sound, and National Review. His books include Orson Welles Remembered, Peter Bogdanovich: Interviews and The Films of James Bridges.
(Picturing Peter Bogdanovich: My Conversations with the New Hollywood Director can be preordered online through University Press of Kentucky and Amazon.)
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