Mixed feelings....

I concur with others who have both applauded this audiobook's content while deploring its form. Mr. Harris' stimulating, insightful, and intricately detailed look at a key turning point in film history is, I would say, instantly indispensable to students and ardent fans of cinema. Sadly, Mr. James' narration is rife with egregious mispronunciations of names, titles, terms, etc. A few examples among many: "bespeckled" for "bespectacled", "shiska" for "shiksa", "diosan" for "diocesan", "main" for "mien", "Shilo" for "Chaillot", "Brickus" for "Bricusse", "E-LYE-a" for "Elia" Kazan, "bi-AH-pic" for "biopic", "Jean Monroe" for "Jeanne Moreau", "Romero" for alfa "romeo", "Bro-CO-li" for Cubby "Broccoli', and many more. Of course, blame cannot be placed solely on the narrator. His director or producer...or someone...should have exercised some quality control over an audiobook that shows every sign of having been rushed into production. It's especially important that a work of informative fact exhibit accuracy in all its elements. Mispronunciations aside, however, Mr. James' performance is energetic and clearly expressed.

29 people found this helpful

Would It Be Too Much To Ask?

First of all, great book. Lots and lots of delicious back lot gossip about films I've loved for years. The material is well assembled and the connections the author makes are wonderful.

BUT... would it be too much to ask for the narrator to check the pronunciations of the names? I mean, these are famous people. Leslie Caron is not "Leslie Karen" Sidney Lumet is not "Sidney Lummit" And while it's not a name, "vogue" is not pronounced "vogg" in French or English.

As much as I enjoyed the book, I had to wince every time the narrator mispronounced these names. The man's narrated 99 books for Audible.com. Can't they hire him a producer or have someone familiar with the material listen to his narration before they publish it?

34 people found this helpful

Great book, lazy reader

This is a truly wonderful book. Focusing on the 1968 Oscars enables Harris to encapsulate the transformations in cinema at that critical time. It's reminiscent of Peter Biskind's "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", but much more focused. The level of detail is wonderful.

I wanted to kill the narrator, though. He is generally listenable and reads with a good pace, but it's very obvious that he's just reading it cold without having done any preparation. This is a book about a bunch of Francophile Americans who changed Hollywood by taking inspiration from European cinema; it is thus very irritating to have it read by someone who is flummoxed by almost all non-English words and names; he can't even pronounce "attache" or "vogue", let alone "Jeanne Moreau". He also frequently misunderstands sentences, getting the pauses and intonations wrong.

This is a great book, though. It is well worth purchasing despite the slapdash production. Just don't expect it to lower your blood pressure.

8 people found this helpful

Fascinating story, but dreadful narration

Would you consider the audio edition of Pictures at a Revolution to be better than the print version?

No.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I didn't have a favorite character, but I was interested in reading about Mike Nichols's transition from comic writer/actor to director. And about what a dreadful person Rex Harrison was!

How could the performance have been better?

Where to begin? Lloyd James was awful. He said "marionette" instead of "martinet," pronounced Sidney Lumet's last name "Lummet," pronounced "biopic" as "bye-OP-ic," "Jeanne Moreau" as "Jeen Monroe," and many, many more. And these weren't one-time mispronunciations, either. His style of reading was also stilted and dull. I will avoid anything he reads in the future.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reaction. It was an interesting book.

6 people found this helpful

Great Insight Into a Changing Hollywood

I had put off buying this audiobook for over 2 years due to the reviews and comments about the narration and pronounciation. Very sorry I did.

This was a fantastic book! The stories behind each of the 5 films were VERY interesting. By the time I finished the book, I had seen all 5 of the movies (I had seen 3 of them previously).

Other than the obvious discussion of the 5 movies, other highlights of this book:

1. The story of the censorship code that quickly collapsed after a few exceptions were made. Two movies in particular were responsible for the change, one regarding nudity and one regarding language - both have interesting stories.

2. The behind-the-scenes mayhem with "Dr. Doolittle". Had been a big Rex Harrison fan (due to My Fair Lady) until I read this book. Changed my mind after reading this.

3. Interesting to see how "Best Picture" votes were 'bought' by the studios as early as 1967. Explains a number of puzzling things I've seen over the years in the Oscars. Must still be going on...

4. The treatment of Sidney Poitier during the filiming of one portion of "In the Heat of the Night" was quite shocking.

5. I was surprised to learn the general practice that caused pictures to be made in black and white even after color was available for decades. Very interesting.

If you aren't a Hollywood buff, you may not notice the pronounciation errors (I noticed a few, but not all those that are mentioned). Please note that these errors DO NOT get in the way of a fantastic book.

Don't make the same mistake I did and overlook this book for years due to the reveiws. It's a great book. As with all books of this length, a bit slow in spots, but definitely worth the time invested.

5 people found this helpful

A good listen - A valuable book

Pictures at a Revolution offers a well researched detailed account of a time at which an industry and a nation was shifting values. I only saw Doctor Dolittle in theatres of the 5 discussed in the book. As a child I had no awareness of the political or social climate of the times. As an adult, I was to appreciate the relevance they had to the history of film and Harris' assessments are spot on. His description of Dede Allen's editing brought the film alive for me despite the fact that it has been decades since I last saw the Bonnie & Clyde.

As someone who works in "the industry" I found this book insightful and believe it would appeal to anyone with an interest in film. It makes accessible the process of actually getting a movie made; the business and politics of it all in addition to the creative process. It is so much more than you will find in a glossy magazine.

But really, someone should have done something about the mispronunciations. The narrator is very listenable, but Sidney Lumet's name is, as mentioned in other reviews, NOT pronounced LUMMIT. It's just not.

11 people found this helpful

Amazing book ruined by absurd pronunciations

I have to agree with earlier posts. I love Hollywood, and I could love this book so much more ( a solid 5 stars!) but it's marred by the reader. Great to see others were also annoyed by the massacre of names and concepts by this ill-guided, ill-produced narrator. Even "foreign" names like Richard Burton are clammed. It takes something away from the experience, as another listener mentioned, to wince at howlers like biopic, (it doesn't rhyme with myopic!!). This guy shouldn't read without adequate supervision. It's so bad that Tantor should consider re-recording this book properly.

9 people found this helpful

Great stories, BUT where is this narrator from?

This book is truly fascinating in detail and broad scope. It succinctly tells with effortless continuity the tale of a brilliant year in movie-making. However, the narrator can't correctly pronounce anything. Where has this guy lived his entire life? You're going to have a tough go if you can't translate his mispronunciation of names familiar to any movie fan. At least he's heard of Sidney Poitier. He gets close on that one. Still, if you're a movie nut, you've got to hear these backstories. Really interesting stuff...

7 people found this helpful

Eye-opening!

As a director of 4 feature films, I found this audiobook to be transformative! It really reminded me of what filmmaking is really about...that is, ideas and attitude, which is what selected filmmakers of the 60's and 70's had in spades! The audiobook uses the past to remind us what future films have the potential to be!

2 people found this helpful

Love Movie History

Great book, look back at history of movies and an era the changed what we watch, who we watch, and why we watch movies

1 person found this helpful