In a conversation with Errol Morris at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Werner Herzog stated that you can't be a filmmaker without reading books. More recently, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky shared a list of his own favorite books. Taking their suggested reading lists in tandem, we now have a list of ten "must read" books from a pair of auteurs; the first five are Aronofsky's selections and are on the topic of movies, and the second five are Herzog's and aren't limited to a particular topic. I've only read three of the ten; how about you?
- Making Movies by Sidney Lumet
- The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler
- Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
- The Ragman's Son by Kirk Douglas
- Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut
- Georgics by Virgil
- The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway
- The Warren Commission Report
- Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
- The Poetic Edda translated by Lee M. Hollander
- True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo
The hawk-eyed among you will note there are actually eleven books in the above list; I never was very good at math. For more on the Aronofsky selections -- or to check out Herzog's "Rogue Film School," where his selections were culled from -- see the links below.
Links:
[via Filmmaker Magazine]
Herzog photo by erinc salor; Aronofsky photo by Niko Tavernise
