Peter Biskind (born 1940) is an American cultural critic, film historian, journalist and former executive editor of ''
Premiere
A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...
'' magazine from 1986 to 1996.
Biography
He attended
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...
and wrote several books depicting life in Hollywood, including ''Seeing Is Believing,'' ''
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood'' is a book by Peter Biskind, published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' is about the 1960s and 1970s Hollywood, a period of Amer ...
,'' ''Down and Dirty Pictures,'' and ''Gods and Monsters,'' some of which were bestsellers. In 2010, he published a biography of director and actor
Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...
, entitled ''Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America.''
Biskind is a contributing editor at '' Vanity Fair''. His work has appeared in publications such as ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
,'' ''
Paris Match
''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly news magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features.
History and profile
A sports news magazine, ''Match l'intran'' (a play on '' L'Intransigeant ...
,'' ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
,'' ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
,'' ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' (London), and the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
,'' as well as in film journals such as '' Sight and Sound'' and ''
Film Quarterly
''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...
''. He and his wife Elizabeth Hess were both on the editorial staff of '' Seven Days'' magazine in the late 1970s.
He served as the editor-in-chief of ''
American Film
The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...
'' from 1981 to 1986.
Biskind's books have been translated into more than thirty languages.
Criticism
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
had been critical of Biskind since the publications of ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' and ''Down and Dirty Pictures'', saying: "Biskind has a way of massaging his stories to suit his agenda." In particular, Ebert drew attention to an alleged encounter with director
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...
at a film festival, where Haynes presented his film ''
Poison
Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...
''. According to Biskind's claims, Ebert declared: "Who the hell is Todd Haynes?" when introduced to him, and snatched his hand away from an offered handshake. Ebert denies this event ever took place, as did Christine Vachon, Biskind's alleged source of the anecdote.
Selected bibliography
Books
*(1983). ''Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties''. New York: Pantheon Books.
*(1990). ''
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...
Companion: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About All Three Godfather Films''. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.
*(1998). ''
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood'' is a book by Peter Biskind, published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' is about the 1960s and 1970s Hollywood, a period of Amer ...
: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock-'n'-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood''. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
*(2004). ''Down and Dirty Pictures:
Miramax
Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California.
It was initially a leadi ...
, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film''. New York: Simon & Schuster.
*(2004). ''Gods and Monsters: Thirty Years of Writing on Film and Culture From One of America's Most Incisive Writers''. New York: Nation Books.
*(2010). ''Star: How
Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...
Seduced America''. New York: Simon & Schuster.
*(2013). ''My Lunches With Orson: Conversations between
Henry Jaglom
Henry David Jaglom (born January 26, 1938) is an English-born American actor, film director and playwright.
Life and career
Jaglom was born to a Jewish family in London, England, the son of Marie (née Stadthagen) and Simon M. Jaglom, who w ...
and
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
''. New York: Metropolitan Books.
*(2018). ''The Sky is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids and Superheroes Made America Great For Extremism''. New York: The New Press.
Essays
*Peter Biskind's "Foreword" and his essay "Inside Indiewood" (April 3, 2000) are included in: Bromley, C. (2000). ''Cinema Nation: The Best Writing on Film from 'The Nation,' 1913–2000''. New York: Thunder Mouth Press/Nation Books.
"Reconstructing Woody" ''Vanity Fair'', December 2005.
* Thunder on the Left: The Making of ''Reds'' , ''Vanity Fair'', March 2006.
* The Vietnam Oscars , ''Vanity Fair'', March 2008.
*Biskind's ''Vanity Fair'' articles "Midnight Revolution" and "Thunder on the Left" are included in:
Graydon Carter
Edward Graydon Carter, CM (born July 14, 1949) is a Canadian journalist who served as the editor of '' Vanity Fair'' from 1992 until 2017. He also co-founded, with Kurt Andersen and Tom Phillips, the satirical monthly magazine '' Spy'' in 1986 ...
, editor (2008). ''Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood: Rebels, Reds, and Graduates and the Wild Stories Behind the Making of 13 Iconic Films''. New York, N.Y.:
James Toback
James Toback (; born November 23, 1944) is an American film director and screenwriter. His screenplay for ''Bugsy'' won the 1991 Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for best screenplay of the year and was nominated for both the Academy Awa ...
, editor of ''Variety'' magazine
Peter Bart
Peter Benton Bart (born July 24, 1932) is an American journalist and film producer, writing a column for ''Deadline Hollywood'' since 2015. He is perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure (1989–2009) as the editor in chief of ''Variety'', an ...