Storefront Demme - BOOK CLUB

All right, I admit it, this isn't a real book club. But it includes a book by Oprah Winfrey so it almost qualifies. This is simply a list of books, related to Jonathan Demme and his films. If you'd like to suggest any additions, please contact me.

What Goes Around Comes Around, by Michael Bliss and Christina Banks
To my knowledge, this is the only book written about Jonathan Demme. It is an academic analysis of Demme's work, not a biography. Fortunately, the book explores the emotional and entertaining side of Demme's films, as well as the cerebral side. Published in 1996, What Goes Around Comes Around covers Jonathan Demme's career from Caged Heat to Philadelphia. A chapter is devoted to each film (a few films share chapters) and while, in some cases, a lengthier analysis would be welcome, for the most part, Bliss and Banks do a good job. The analysis is approached differently in each chapter. For example, in the Swing Shift chapter, the Goldie Hawn version is compared to Demme's version and, in the Philadelphia chapter, the critical response to the film is challenged. Of particular note is Bliss and Banks' dissection of the political content in each of Demme's films. The book also includes two interviews, one with Jonathan Demme and another with editor Craig McKay. (paperback)

The Silence of the Lambs: paperback, hardcover, and audio book

The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris
The second Hannibal Lecter novel by Thomas Harris (after Red Dragon, before Hannibal) and the source material for Ted Tally's screenplay. As expected, most fans of the book prefer it to the film but the differences aren't that pronounced (aside from the fact that one is a novel and the other is a film). The audio book is abridged and read by Kathy Bates. For more, see The Silence of the Lambs book page at Random House's official Thomas Harris site. (paperback, hardcover, audio book)

The Silence of the Lambs (BFI Modern Classics), by Yvonne Tasker
Part of the British Film Institue's Modern Classics series, this book-length analysis of The Silence of the Lambs film was published in February 2002. Although I haven't read it yet, I'm familiar with other entries in the series, most of which include 15 or 20 black-and-white photographs. This edition is 96 pages long. According to the book's back cover "Yvonne Tasker explores the way the film weaves together gothic, horror, and thriller conventions to generate both a distinctive variation on the cinematic portrayal of insanity and crime, and a fascinating intervention in the sexual politics of genre. She identifies the film as a key reference point for tracking the 90s obsession with police procedure and serial killing, analyzing its key themes of reason and madness, identity and belonging, aspiration and transformation." Tasker is an author and lecturer whose main areas of interest are gender and sexuality. For more, read the review at kamera.co.uk. (paperback)

Beloved: paperback, hardcover, and audio book

Beloved, by Toni Morrison
The second novel made into a film by Jonathan Demme, Beloved won Toni Morrison international acclaim and some major awards (The Nobel Prize, The Pulitzer Prize). If you enjoyed the film, this may enrich the experience, as Demme was again very faithful to his source material. Of course, even at almost three hours, the film couldn't include everything. For those of you who feel daunted by the written word, the audio book is unabridged and read by Morrison, herself. For more, see the Beloved page at Anniina's Toni Morrison Page. (paperback, hardcover, audio book)

Journey to Beloved, by Oprah Winfrey (photographs by Ken Regan)
Filled with intimate (sometimes too intimate) production stories, this is a journal that Oprah Winfrey kept while making Beloved, in the summer of 1997. On Jonathan Demme, Winfrey is very complimentary ("my hero," she writes). She describes his methods of improving her performance and even his occasional frustration with her (ie. after having a few drinks and laughing at dailies, Oprah is chastised by Demme). The book is also illustrated with revealing production photographs by Ken Regan. Although no longer readily available in stores, Journey to Beloved is carried by most libraries and is not a time-consuming read. For more, read the review at cnn.com. (hardcover)

The Manchurian Candidate: paperback, and audio book

The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon
This 1959 novel by Richard Condon (Prizzi's Honor, Winter Kills) provided the source material for John Frankenheimer's classic 1962 film, and Jonathan Demme's upcoming re-make. Paperback summary: "The Manchurian Candidate is the fictional account of a far-from-ordinary G.I. who is brainwashed while held as a Korean POW. He returns to the United States as a programmed, remote-controlled killer. The Manchurian Candidate is a remarkable penetration of the human mind, its foibles and its ultimate malleability." Unfortunately, most editions of the novel are currently out-of-print. (paperback, audio book)

The Manchurian Candidate (BFI Film Classics), by Greil Marcus
Part of the British Film Institute's Film Classics series, this book-length analysis of John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate was released in September 2002. From the summary on the book's back cover: "As Marcus reconstructs the drama, this is a movie in which the director and actors were suddenly capable of anything, beyond any expectations. He shows how The Manchurian Candidate has burrowed deeply into American culture, becoming at once an ineradicable piece of folklore and a mystery yet to be solved." (paperback)

Island on Fire: Passionate Visions of Haiti From the Collection of Jonathan Demme (exhibit catalog)
This catalog for the 1997 exhibit of Jonathan Demme's Haitian art collection is available at medalia.net. According to their site, it includes "over 200 pages of beautiful reproductions, articles, and commentary. It is one of the most informative catalogs that we have come across, and the quality of the reproductions is excellent. If you are a collector of Haitian art, if you want to learn about the art and its people or you were unable to make it to the exhibit but still want to know what all the fuss was about, we recommend that you get a copy for yourself."

For the complete Jonathan Demme interview ("Demme on Demme") from Projections 1, see Demme on Demme.

See the book sections on Roger Corman and Pauline Kael, for information on their respective books.