THE ART OF FILM

John Box had one of the most continuously productive design careers in British cinema, winning a record four Academy Awards and four BAFTAs. After learning his craft in the 1950s, he shot to fame with Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Directors from David Lean and Carol Reed to Michael Mann and Norman Jewison have valued his experience, as he brought 'a vocabulary of life' to bear on the new challenges posed by each film. Whether creating China in Wales for The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), or revolutionary Russia in Spain for Dr. Zhivago (1965), imagining the future in Rollerball (1975) or the mythic past in First Knight (1995), Box shaped screen worlds across five decades, helping to establish the traditions of British production design which continue today. His greatest wish was that his career should encourage others by example. Based on interviews with John Box and the full co-operation of many of his key collaborators, this lavishly colour-illustrated book focuses on solutions to design problems and provides a unique insight into the production designer's role in the collaborative business of filmmaking.

April 2009
208 pages

978-1905674-94-7 (pbk)

£24.99

£21.24 with 15% online discount add to basket

Ian Christie is Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck College. He has written and edited numerous books, including volumes on Powell and Pressburger, Russian cinema, Martin Scorsese and Terry Gilliam.