The Passing of Sidney Lumet

I was very sorry to hear that the brilliant film director Sidney Lumet passed on this morning. 86 is a good, long life and he leaves behind some wonderful works. I never had the pleasure of personally meeting him, but I have met and worked with some who had worked closely with him on set.

50-something films starting off with “12 Angry Men” in 1957. Also “Dog Day Afternoon”, “The Wiz”, “Serpico”, “The Verdict” and of course “Network”. His films were very gritty, but human.

I read his book right after it came out several years ago. I wore it out reading it several times through. It is a fantastic look into making movies. I especially love his hatred of union blood suckers sprinkled throughout.

About Lumet on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001486/

I have always been so into Lumet because he understood actors – something that is just not as understood today …

Here is about half an hour from an interview with Lumet about his understanding of having good technical people and some technical aspects of working on live television:

Advice for those who want to get into television work  –

 

Yes! – always use prime lenses … nothing beats 100mm prime shooting on 35mm!

Category: Tony Rollo Blog