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Two stories which have been made into films. In "Smoke" a novelist, suffering from writer's block and the violent death of his wife, is inspired by a young black boy to write again. The action of "Blue in the Face" partly takes place in the cigar shop which was the focal point of "Smoke". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A worthwhile read for fans of Auster and film-making alike
I bought this title as a long time fan of Auster and also of the two films.It is the first and only screenplay book I have bought as I find them generally redundant, always inferior to the film, and usually not veryreadable. Firstly, the screenplay, written by Auster is very readable asthe film is mostly dialogue and as such flows nicely, even as a script, notbogged down with description of actions, or camera angles.If you are afan of the film, there is little new here, though there are a few lines ofdialogue that weren't in the final cut.The transcript of Blue in the Faceis exactly what you see on screen as this film was mostly improvised. Auster also includes his lengthy notes to the actors about their scenes andthis is enlighteningas it shows which ideas made the film and which onesdidn't, and of those that made it, which ones worked or not.There is alsoan in-depth interview with Auster about the two films which is very goodindeed and is both informative and witty.Finally, there is the originalshort story"Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" which was theoriginal inspiration for "Smoke"If you've seen the film, you'llknow the tale but it is great to see the original version in print, andinteresting to see how it made the tarnsition to the screen.All in all avery worthwhile and highly readable collection. ... Read more

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incl essays on translations of Mallarme et al ... Read more

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Blandness blinded by brilliancy
The book is in many ways a fascinating voyage into and around the thoughts of Paul Auster and the processes that take place when he writes. Unfortunately, too much space is spent on retelling small coincidences, which lose their power and magic after being repeated, they become bland, everyday events.The interviews make it all worth while though. Austers eloquence and openness make for informative reading. ... Read more

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"I don't like this. Someone's inside my head. Not even my dreams belong to me. My whole life has been stolen."
August Brill, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic, now a depressed widower confined to a wheelchair, spends much of each night lying awake, thinking about his life and creating stories to keep himself amused. Living with his divorced daughter Miriam and his granddaughter Katya in Brattleboro, Vermont, August has made no progress at all writing his book, a memoir he hopes to leave to posterity. Instead he watches films with his granddaughter, analyzing how filmmakers use objects as symbols to convey human emotions.

Each person in the novel is "in the dark," searching for identity and the meaning of life and love, but each is also trying to reconcile his/her present life with the accidents of his own history. The death of August's wife, and his own accident, have left him dependent on Miriam. Miriam's abandonment by her husband has left her vulnerable and responsible for the household, and Katya, his granddaughter, is almost paralyzed from the death of her lover, feeling that she did not love him enough. All feel like failures.

This absurdist novel gains excitement--and its main plot--each night when August, sleepless, invents characters living different kinds of lives in an alternative reality--one so close to our own reality that its plausibility becomes frightening. In his on-going stories, August flashes back to the year 2000, in which the Presidential election has led to riots and the demand to abolish the Electoral College. Eventually New York, New England, and nine states in the Midwest, seceded, precipitating the Second Civil War, against President George Bush and the Federals.

The novel opens with action from Brill's alternative reality and switches back and forth with reality. Owen Brick, a young man dressed in fatigues, is trapped in a deep hole, unable to escape. He has no idea where he is or how he got there, but he cannot avoid his mission to assassinate the creator of the war--August Brill, who also created him. As the novel switches from present reality into the alternative reality and back, the author makes thoughtful observations about writing and its ability to create realities, but on the plot level (which ends after 2/3 of the book), it is also suspenseful, exciting, and a great deal of fun. Sly humor peeks through much of the alternative reality plot line, and the ironic twists on several levels keep the reader entertained. The characters grow as they share their family histories, and as the Second Civil War rages in one reality, the real characters, like Brill and his friends, remember the very real horrors of the Second World War and Iraq. Intense and clever, Auster's novel examines important issues of war, reality, and identity in fewer than two hundred pages. Mary Whipple

The New York Trilogy (Green Integer)
The Invention of Solitude
The Book of Illusions: A Novel
Travels in the Scriptorium: A Novel
Three Films: Smoke, Blue in the Face, and Lulu on the Bridge

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The author of the hit films "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face" makes his directorial debut with a bittersweet romance. ... Read more

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Un hombre mayor esta encerrado en una habitacion, sentado en una cama. No recuerda quien es ni que esta haciendo alli. los pocos objetos que hay tienen una etiqueta con su nombre. Sobre un escritorio ve una pila de fotografias y otra de papeles cuya importancia no es capaz de descifrar. Ignora que esta siendo vigilado: lo que leemos es el informe de los movimientos de este amnesico personaje al que llaman Mr. Blank y de las sucesivas visitas que ira recibiendo a lo largo del dia. Una serie de enigmaticos personajes relacionados de algun modo con su pasado, pretenden ajustar cuentas con el. Se sienten agraviados y ahora reclaman justicia. A pesar de todo. otros le muestran su gratitud, como la mujer que se encraga de cuidarle, Anna. Cada visita proporcionara nuevas pistas sobre la identidad y el oscuro pasado de Mr. Blank. Es esta, sin dudas, una enigmatica y fascinante reflexion puramente austeriana, sobre las inextricables relaciones entre lenguaje, memoria e identidad. ... Read more

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The insider's guide and perfect companion to the new film starring Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, and Vanessa Redgrave.Stunning and surreal, Lulu on the Bridge is a romantic mystery with a lot on its mind. It is the story of Izzy and Celia, two lonely, wounded, and mismatched strangers, transformed into soul mates by the uncanny powers of a phosphorescent stone. Destiny, as well as some bizarre and near-tragic circumstances, conspire to keep the lovers apart. But the audience and reader are privy to a grand and surprising finale that explains all. Thought-provoking, intriguing, and utterly romantic, Lulu on the Bridge offers a lyrical meditation on what distinguishes chance from fate, reality from illusion, and life from death. Following on the success of the screenplay cornpanion to Smoke and Blue in the Face, this book contains the shooting script; an interview with Paul Auster by Rebecca Prime; interviews with the producer, costume designer, editor, director of photography, and production designer; and stills from the film.
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Customer Reviews (7)

Very Interesting on How To Make A Movie!
No, I've only read this script/commentary, not seen the movie. Mr. Auster's otherworldly script may not be completely original, but still has its stunning and bizarre moments, two of his trademarks. Perhaps most interesting are the interviews at the end of the book, where making and producing this movie are described. The whole effort seems to be one of great cooperation among just about all participants. If you're a striving screenwriter or movie director, you can do a lot worse than reading this book a few times!

If you are a fan of the film.... YES!
I love the film. Now I can "take" the film with me
anywhere I want with this screenplay. I cherish
every word. I also love the fact that some of the
edited scenes are in the dialogue too. I just wish
the pictures could be in color. Other than that,
a must for any FAN of the film! "You can't live if
you don't eat, right?" "Right."

Didn't read the script but saw the movie, so....
In a word, it truly stinks. The "twist" ending would be just passable in a student film; here, from the author of The New York Trilogy, it's a colossal embarassment. When Willem Defoe went into "Singin' inthe Rain," I almost hid under the sofa. Ouch.

No way -- this is a trite, familiar bit of Twilight Zonery
Paul Auster is an exceptional writer and capable of great work-- for example, all of LEVIATHAN, MOON PALACE, and THE MUSIC OF CHANCEare excellent novels.TIMBUKTU, his latest, has plenty to recommend it as well.

But he's also capable of producing dreck (for instance, his close-to-unreadable novel MR. VERTIGO), and this script is in the dreck category.

Has the man never read "An Incident At Owl Creek Bridge"? Well, Ambrose Bierce used the gag at the core of this film many, many years before Auster did.Borges used it, too.That by itself is fine -- the fact that Homer wrote about war doesn't mean no one else should ever again -- but seems to think his gag is clever, orginal, and not telegraphed, when nothing could be further from the truth.(Frankly, the only reason I was in suspense until the end was that I couldn't believe that Auster would [re-]use such an obvious gag.)

LULU ON THE BRIDGE is crap.Pretentious writing, familiar ideas. Don't be suckered.

Auster is more than ever a brilliant story teller!
I have not been able yo watch Lulu on the Bridge at the cinema because of an unlucky timing, but being an 'Austerian', I did not hesitate buying the screenplay out of curiosity and perhaps fanaticism. However, I still keptsome distance in order to analyze properly the story itself. Despite allthat, I have fallen another time under the charm of the story and thecharacters. As usual, the reader (and probaly the spectator)is sent in aworld in which he (she) thinks he (she) has got the key of the mystery andfinally has not. Things are never as simple as they seem to be. Paul Austerplays sometimes some tricks which he explains from time to time in order todumbfound the reader(cf the French pun on 'Celia') but he mainly performs amagic show in which Izzy the ex-musician and Celia the actress/waitress aretwo engaging characters. The story is beautiful, clever, full of humanismand other symbols recurring in Auster's works (the dark room, the stone,thewall, the double,...)that one does not need to know to appreciate thestory. Then, open your book, listen to the music, let the story unfoldunder your eyes and perhaps you will feel 'More...connected.' ... Read more