Ismail Merchant's account of the filming of A Room with a View is really a song in praise of the Tuscan table. For while Merchant recounts the problems - both hilarious and daunting - in trying to shoot a movie in the crowded tourist mecca of Florence, his most passionate prose is reserved for those moments - and there were many of them - when he and his cast and crew stopped to sample the bounty of the Tuscan countryside and the world-famous creations of the Florentine kitchen. Accompanied by production shots and stunning still life photographs by Derrick Santini, Ismail Merchant's text lets the reader wander behind the scenes in the shooting of a major motion picture. We learn how, for example, a "view" was created from a room that, in fact, had no view, and how, amid angry demonstrators and hungry pigeons, fully dressed stars and extras managed successfully to complete the famous scene in the Piazza Signoria. But between takes, Ismail Merchant always returns to the table, whether it is set at Florence's famous Il Cavallino restaurant or in the stately Villa Maiano, whether it is really only a picnic spread out on a hillside or tripe eaten on the street. And, when not at the table, Merchant is in the markets, sampling the fruit and vegetables fresh from the farm that give Tuscan cooking its unique character. When the tale has been told, and the last meal eaten, to satisfy the reader's inevitable hunger, Merchant provides seventy recipes from antipasti to desserts that can be successfully prepared in any kitchen.

Interviews with the team that created the films Howard's End, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, The Remains of the Day, The White Countess, and The City of Your Final Destination, among many others

His partnership with director James Ivory has yielded a succession of acclaimed and award-winning films, including A Room with a View, Howard's End and The Remains of the Day. But Merchant's talents extend into the culinary world as well, as evidenced by this exquisite collection of over 100 recipes from his native India.

Five keys to creating authentic, distinctive work, whether you are a student, professional or simply love making films on your own For Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out, three professors at the renowned University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television interviewed fifteen outstanding filmmakers, then distilled their insights into the "Five I's" of creativity. Learn how to: • Uncover your unique creative voice (Introspection) • Work from real-life observations and experience (Inquiry) • Draw on your nonconscious wells of creativity (Intuition) • Strengthen your creative collaborations (Interaction) • Communicate at the deepest level with your audience (Impact) This comprehensive approach provides practical exercises that will enrich and transform your work, whether you are looking for a story idea, lighting a set, editing a scene or selecting a music cue. The participating filmmakers, who have collectively won or been nominated for 39 Oscars and 27 Emmys, are: Anthony Minghella, writer-director (The English Patient); Kimberly Peirce, writer-director (Boys Don't Cry); John Lasseter, writer-director-producer (Toy Story); John Wells, writer-producer (ER); Hanif Kureishi, writer (My Beautiful Laundrette); Pamela Douglas, writer (Between Mother and Daughter); Renee Tajima-Pe?a, director-producer (My America...or, Honk If You Love Buddha); Ismail Merchant, producer (The Remains of the Day); Jeannine Oppewall, production designer (L.A. Confidential); Conrad L. Hall, cinematographer (American Beauty); Kathy Baker, actor (Picket Fences); Walter Murch, sound designer-editor (Apocalypse Now); Lisa Fruchtman, editor (The Right Stuff); Kate Amend, editor (Into the Arms of Strangers); and James Newton Howard, composer (The Sixth Sense).

Bring on the Books for Everybody is an engaging assessment of the robust popular literary culture that has developed in the United States during the past two decades. Jim Collins describes how a once solitary and print-based experience has become an exuberantly social activity, enjoyed as much on the screen as on the page. Fueled by Oprah’s Book Club, Miramax film adaptations, superstore bookshops, and new technologies such as the Kindle digital reader, literary fiction has been transformed into best-selling, high-concept entertainment. Collins highlights the infrastructural and cultural changes that have given rise to a flourishing reading public at a time when the future of the book has been called into question. Book reading, he claims, has not become obsolete; it has become integrated into popular visual media. Collins explores how digital technologies and the convergence of literary, visual, and consumer cultures have changed what counts as a “literary experience” in phenomena ranging from lush film adaptations such as The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love to the customer communities at Amazon. Central to Collins’s analysis and, he argues, to contemporary literary culture, is the notion that refined taste is now easily acquired; it is just a matter of knowing where to access it and whose advice to trust. Using recent novels, he shows that the redefined literary landscape has affected not just how books are being read, but also what sort of novels are being written for these passionate readers. Collins connects literary bestsellers from The Jane Austen Book Club and Literacy and Longing in L.A. to Saturday and The Line of Beauty, highlighting their depictions of fictional worlds filled with avid readers and their equations of reading with cultivated consumer taste.

Tantalizing, Exquisite, And Remarkably Original Dishes From A Talented And Imaginative Master Chef Ismail Merchant Draws On His Childhood Memories Of Exquisite Indian Food To Create Quick, Delicious Meals. Included Here Are Hors D'Oeuvres And Drinks (Mustard And Chive Prawn Bites, Beer And Lemon), Soups (Ginger Broccoli Soup In Just Twenty-Five Minutes), Fish, Poultry And Eggs, Meat (Lamb With Onion And Tomatoes In Less Than Forty-Five Minutes), Vegetables, Salads, Rice, Lentils, Sweets (Cinnamon-Brandy Baked Pears, Sweet Saffron Rice), Pickles And Chutneys-Tasty, Fast-Cooking Meals Delivered In Clear, Easy-To-Follow Recipes, Along With Ismail'S Insider Anecdotes About Films And Stars. A Wonderful Book By A Brilliant And Passionate Cook. 'It Is An Exemplary Work And One Of The Most Original Departures From What You Normally Expect A Book On Indian Cooking To Be. It Is Not National. It Does Not Deal With Traditional Concepts. And It Is Not Regional. It Is Simply One Man'S Inspired Notion Of What His Native Land'S Food Should Taste Like. It Is Tailored To His Own Sophisticated And Remarkably Original Palate. And The Recipes Are Easy To Follow.' -Craig Claiborne

The author profiles six of the most popular names in the food industry and describes what it takes to become top chefs in the nation.