Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film » (Reprint)

Peter Biskind is the author of three previous books, including Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation saved Hollywood. He is a contributor to Vanity Fair and was formerly the executive editor of Premiere magazine. He lives with his family in Columbia County, New York.

Biskind chronicles the development of independent filmmaking and of its supporters, the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films, by focusing on the personalities involved. The result is a gossipy, and sometimes outrageous, anecdotal account of the machinations of the film industry's biggest players. Despite his breezy tone, Biskind offers some thoughtful analysis about the future of independent film and the perils of its success. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The New York Times

If you are even a casual reader of glossy magazines or gossip pages, you probably don't need Peter Biskind to tell you that Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax Films, is an outsize character: a big guy with big appetites and a temper the size of TriBeCa.

But Mr. Biskind's absurdly entertaining new book, Down and Dirty Pictures, is here to tell you that you don't know the half of it. Mr. Biskind compares Mr. Weinstein to Nixon, Mussolini, an undercooked pancake, Darth Vadar, the fat guy who projectile vomits in Monty Python's "Meaning of Life," even Lizzie Grubman in reverse-traction mode. And that's all before Chapter 1. — Dwight Garner