Interview
After I delivered a speech at the University of Basel, Switzerland, last month, I did what is probably the longest interview of my life. It deals with how I got into film, my observations of changes in the industry and the UCLA film program during the past 50 years, and some thoughts about the current state of filmmaking and what the future might bring. It’s probably more than you’d ever want to know about me, but I’m printing it in its entirety below. https://xecutives.net/component/content/article?id=604
Special Interview Hollywood: Howard Suber
- Geschrieben von Christian Düblin
Howard Suber is one of the most experienced film specialists and UCLA lecturers. He helped establish and chaired the Critical Studies and PhD programs, the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the UCLA Producers Program. He has worked with thousands of film students, but also with Hollywood film industry specialists, famous screenwriters, producers and directors. Although he technically took early retirement 20 years ago, he has been invited back to teach every year since, and in the fall will begin his 50th year on the UCLA film faculty. Suber started to lecture very early on History of Film and also Film Structure and he published two books about movies and the film business. In a time when the film and movie industry was beneath the dignity of Harvard University as a field of study, Suber became an autodidact and, ran the student film club and was self-educated, mostly in European films, because among intellectuals and academics, American film was not considered worthy of serious consideration. In his interview with Christian Dueblin Howard Suber talks about his lecturer career, about his work with film students and he explains Hollywood patterns. Suber explains why American films is about film genres where the rest of the world is about film movements. Take a look behind the scenes of a big film industry, together with Howard Suber, author of the book “The Power of Film”. “Wise, kind, and direct. Howard Suber’s advice is as piercing as Don Corleone telling Michael who not to trust, and just as vital. “I LOVE this book!” that’s what David Koepp, screenwriter Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, says about the living film legend Suber. Read more 
So, Film, TV or Videogames Kill?
When Psycho came out in 1959, a teenager killed his grandmother, and at the trial tried coping that old plea used in ecclesiastical and civilian courts for centuries, “The Devil made me do it.” Seeing Hitchcock’s film, the killer claimed, made him so mentally deranged he was compelled to kill his grandmother. His defense failed.
When the National Rifle Association’s Wayne Lapierre spoke for 25 minutes on Friday about the mass murder of children and teachers in a school in Newtown, Connecticut, much of his time was devoted to answering his own rhetorical question, “isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?” Various politicians echoed Lapierre’s accusations. But then, some politicians always have.
For the last 2,500 years, the most popular and memorable dramatic stories have tended to be filled with sex and violence. Some people have always been offended by this, and periodically throughout its history, theaters have been condemned, censored, and shut down as a result. Other people have argued that, rather than being a danger to individuals and society, the depiction of these deep human impulses on stage and screen produces “catharsis.” Read more
ABOUT HOWARD SUBER
Howard Suber has taught generations of screenwriters, directors, producers, and film scholars at UCLA’s celebrated film school for 46 years. Today, his former students are creating films and television programs and teaching film studies throughout the world. Read more
LETTERS TO YOUNG FILMMAKERS – Recommendations
“Letters to Young Filmmakers is full of wisdom, insight, anecdote, and knowledge distilled from years of experience, relationships, and contemplation. His genuine understanding of how the film business operates makes his advice to young filmmakers sound, inspiring and, above all, useful.”
— Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival, 1990-2010; Chief Creative Officer, Tribeca Enterprises.
“Wise, kind, and direct. Howard Suber’s advice is as piercing as Don Corleone telling Michael who not to trust, and just as vital. I LOVE this book!”
— David Koepp, screenwriter Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
“This master teacher of film provides us with a multitude of brilliant insights and sound, sage, advice. He has mentored generations of writers, directors, and producers with his intelligence and compassion for the art of film and the industry that sometimes manages to produce it.”
— Tom Sherak, President, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Read more
THE POWER OF FILM – Recommendations
“Those lucky enough to take Howard Suber’s legendary classes in UCLA’s Film School made many others want to read his book-in-progress. Now that he has delivered it, filmmakers, scholars, and anyone else with a serious interest in film can rejoice. A fascinating and thought-provoking work.”
— Alexander Payne – Director/Screenwriter, The Descendents, Sideways, About Schmidt, Election
“Howard Suber’s understanding of film storytelling fills the pages of this wise, liberating book. Much of it is surprisingly contrary to what ‘everyone knows.’ A remarkable work.”
—Francis Ford Coppola
“What Aristotle did for drama, Howard Suber has now done for film. This is a profound and succinct book that is miraculously fun to read.”
–David Koepp – Screenwriter
War of the Worlds, Spider-Man, Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park Read more
