Directing the Non-Actor, Volume One

In the 1960s, filmmaker James Blue embarked on a Ford Foundation-funded odyssey across three continents. His mission was to interview over sixty directors about their methods for unlocking the exciting potential of cinematic performance as revealed by Italian neorealism: coaxing authentic human behavior from people who have never acted. Now, six decades later, editor Richard Herskowitz has fulfilled Blue's vision with this landmark collection.

Volume One of Directing the Non-Actor brings together, along with a comprehensive account of Blue's motivations, process, and findings, extraordinary conversations with Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Satyajit Ray, and others, and revelatory testimonies from the non-actors themselves. What emerges is a master class in the craft of capturing life on screen: from Bresson's exacting control to Godard's improvisatory freedom, from Italian neorealism's streets to Québec's New Wave.

Essential reading for filmmakers, scholars, and anyone captivated by the mysterious space where cinema meets reality.

Directors interviewed: John Boorman, Robert Bresson, Shirley Clarke, Miloš Forman, Jean-Luc Godard, Gilles Groulx , Susumu Hani, Claude Jutra, Paul Morrissey, Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir and Jacques Rozier. Actors interviewed: Carroll Baker, Warren Beatty, Richard Grenier, Johanne Harrelle, François Lafarge, Macha Méril, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée, Barbara Ulrich and Anne Wiazemsky.