Richard Fleischer : journeyman /
"When the Fleischer family emigrated from 19th century Eastern Europe, fleeing anti-Semitic persecution and prejudice, they settled into their niche in Brooklyn: the textile business, which provided them with a comfortable working-class life. When it came time for the second generation of Brook...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Lexington, Kentucky :
University Press of Kentucky,
[2026]
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| Series: | Screen classics (Lexington, Ky.)
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "When the Fleischer family emigrated from 19th century Eastern Europe, fleeing anti-Semitic persecution and prejudice, they settled into their niche in Brooklyn: the textile business, which provided them with a comfortable working-class life. When it came time for the second generation of Brooklyn Fleischers to take up the mantel of tailoring, however, Max Fleischer had a very different vision of his American Dream. Max was the inventor of the rotoscope and amongst the most influential figures in American animation. His son, Richard Fleischer, born in 1916, would turn out to have a passion for filmmaking of his own. One might say Richard had big shoes to fill, although the Golden Age of Hollywood that he came to prominence in led him not to the animator's pencil but the director's chair. In his early days, he garnered an Academy Award for Best Documentary with Design for Death (1948). Richard Fleischer became best known for his commercially successful films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Doctor Dolittle (1967), Soylent Green (1973), and Conan the Destroyer (1984). Across his extensive, storied career, which continued through the American New Wave, Fleischer worked with such varied luminaries as Kirk Douglas, Orson Welles, Jean Hagen, Mia Farrow, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Much of Fleischer's catalogue once occupied the category of "lowbrow," but, as Jason A. Ney argues in Richard Fleischer: Journeyman, to dismiss the cultural impact Fleischer made in the form of popular film would be deeply misguided. Fleischer, as evidenced by the wide range of genres in his filmography, was a multifaceted man. Indeed, this comprehensive biography is the story of a man who was both a prolific Hollywood director and son of an early Hollywood animator. Ney takes readers on a journey from the earliest days of his Flicker Flashbacks (1943-1948) to Fleischer's final, experimental short film Call from Space (1989). Throughout, Ney shows how Fleischer navigated Hollywood's shifting standards and various trends, maintained a balanced and even humorous outlook on his career's ups and downs, and was regularly appreciated by those who worked with him. In addition to drawing on existing interviews and Fleischer's archived personal papers, Ney conducted original interviews with Fleischer's children, giving this project a touch of the personal and a behind-the-scenes access feel. While Fleischer penned a memoir in 1993, Ney's biography will be the first and most comprehensive of its kind"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Physical Description: | xi, 410 pages, 14 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781985904286 1985904284 9781985904323 1985904322 |