Cold Mountain: The Journey from Book to Film (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook Series)
- Book Review,
by Charles Frazier (Foreword), et al
From Publishers Weekly
Frazier's mythic novel about a wounded Confederate soldier's return to his sweetheart in the mountains of western North Carolina achieved critical and popular acclaim, and the film version of it promises to be one of this winter's biggest movies. This book explains how the film's directors, producers, actors, designers and other collaborators made the transition from page to screen, using period illustrations, movie stills, passages from the screenplay and interviews with the cast and crew. In his introduction, director Anthony Minghella describes how he and his crew struggled to replicate the novel's focus on nature while they were filming in Romania; he also deprecates the process of adaptation: "Beautiful stories are plundered, seemingly in the most perverse ways." Yet the filmmakers' painstaking attention to detail suggests that Frazier's novel has not been ravaged in its transposition to the silver screen. And fans of backstage stories will appreciate this book's insights into how the filmmakers depicted the intricate relationship between Ada (played by Nicole Kidman) and Ruby (played by Renée Zellweger) and how they shot the battle scene in which Inman (Jude Law) is severely injured. 185 illustrations. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The movie Cold Mountain, which opened Christmas Day 2003, was based, of course, on Charles Frazier's best-selling National Book Award-winning novel of the same name, published in 1997. The transformation of the novel from print to screen is documented in precise, lively detail in this oversize photos-and-text album that is, as Frazier himself says in the foreword, "about the process, not the product." Fascinating commentary on script adaptation, location scouting, set building, casting, shooting, and even editing are matched with stills and behind-the-scenes shots. The result is an easy-to-digest education in not simply how this particular movie was made but also, by example, how all movies on this grand scale are made. Consequently, one need not have seen the movie to appreciate the "process" so vividly explained here. For active movie collections. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
In the tradition of the Newmarket Moviebooks on Chicago, Frida and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—the fascinating, full-color companion of the new film from the director of The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Coming from Miramax Films in December 2003, Cold Mountain stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Directed by Academy Award®-winner Anthony Minghella who also wrote the screenplay, Cold Mountain is based on Charles Frazier's best-selling Civil War novel of the same name and tells the story of Inman (Law), a wounded confederate soldier who is on a perilous journey home to his mountain community, hoping to reunite with his pre-war sweetheart, Ada (Kidman). In his absence, Ada struggles to survive, and revive her father's farm with the help of intrepid young drifter Ruby (Zellweger). The Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook is annotated with illustrations, movie stills, production design sketches keyed to the screenplay, costume designs, sidebars, and commentary from the cast and crew.
About the Author
Anthony Minghella's first film as a writer/director—Truly, Madly, Deeply—was a great success both in Britain and in the United States, winning several awards. The English Patient, which he adapted for the screen and directed, has won more than 30 awards, including nine Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Director, two Golden Globe awards, and six BAFTAs. The Talented Mr. Ripley, which Anthony adapted for the screen and directed, was nominated for five Academy Awards®, including Best Adapted Screenplay, and for seven BAFTAs, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Dan Auiler is the author of Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic, Hitchcock's Notebooks and Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot.
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