The New York Times
The black-and-white, panoramic-format pictures that Bridges has taken on film sets and on location have a documentary intensity and sense of visual moment that are as striking as they are unusual. Perhaps the trick is that he exploits the distance between the high gloss of Hollywood productions and the deglamorized, behind-the-scenes format of his pictures, which take roughly the same proportion as CinemaScope. Even Michelle Pfeiffer looks to be an ordinary working stiff, although a gorgeous one. What seems sure is that Bridges knows that photography, like filmmaking, is an art about the illusion of not being an illusion. — Andy Grundberg
Publishers Weekly
Fans of the offbeat star of The Last Picture Show, Starman, The Big Lebowski and The Contender (as well as, more recently, Seabiscuit) get a closer look at his take with this collection of 119 of Bridges's set photographs. Sometimes blurry, and appealingly casual, these duotone shots fit nicely with Bridges's own persona as a quietly humorous, understated and unpretentious actor. Of his camera, a Widelux F8, Bridges says, "its viewfinder isn't accurate, and there's no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality." The panoramic shots (here about 12" x 10") of cluttered sets, exhausted actors and crew members intent on various tasks are a refreshing "inside" view of a world that director Peter Bogdanovich, in his introduction to the book, calls "haphazard, messy, familial, jumbled, frenetic, surreal, fragmented." Bridges's accompanying notes are concise and often hilarious: on the set of The Big Lebowski, Bridges recounts how, while sliding between the legs of the "Bowling-Pin Chorines" on a "little skateboard," he sees a lot more than he expected, thanks to a "hairy" prank pulled by the mischievous dancers. One recurring motif is the Comoedia/Tragoedia masks that Bridges asks fellow actors to make, bringing them back to the ancient roots of their profession: Martin Landau's expressive rendition, with ghostly drawings of old cars in the background, is especially haunting. Bridges doesn't forget his family, either: photographs of brother Beau and father Lloyd are particularly affectionate. While none of the photographs are scandalous, la Hollywood Babylon, and won't ruin anyone's reputation (although some will love the unguarded, unmade-up shots of Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as the shot of Bridges himself lying pensively on his stomach in his Tron costume), this is still a fun and down-to-earth peek inside a world often only seen through the overpolished lens of Hollywood. (Dec.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
