Making Movies - Sidney Lumet

Lumet seems to have constructed a hugely impressive body of work as a movie director without gaining the reputation of a Scorsese or Kubrick. On the evidence of this fascinating nuts-and-bolts guide to the film-making process from initial idea to release, this is probably because he is a craftsman who values the collaborative input of actors and technicians and disdains the auteur theory of the director as the sole author of a work.

I was struck by the sheer scale of the effort in making a movie - painting locations to fit the colour palette, the complexities of lighting, and the sheer tedium of balancing the sound mix and so on. I'm not sure the knowledge that the climactic interchange between Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb in 12 Angry Men was constructed with each character's contributions shot a week apart in order to accommodate lighting equipment adds to my enjoyment of the film, but it certainly adds to my admiration of it.