Long Live the Director

The protagonist is a master's student in film who wakes up one morning to find himself transported to Los Angeles in 1925, reborn as a young man from an impoverished Polish immigrant family. Sound film has yet to become widespread; Hollywood stands on the eve of its transition from the silent era to its golden age; the eight major studios hold sway over their respective territories; and names like Chaplin and Griffith are still writing film history. Drawing on his knowledge of film history and classic movies, the protagonist starts out from a small cinema on the verge of bankruptcy—writing screenplays, recruiting actors, raising investment, registering a company—and step by step makes his own films, navigating the studio floor, premieres, critics, and studio moguls, while gradually becoming swept up in movements such as neorealism and the New Wave.

The novel advances through a structure of "one film after another," revolving around screenplay writing, the shooting process, premieres, and film reviews. It draws heavily on real classic films and the people and events of film history, while also fictionalizing the protagonist's power struggles with political figures, religious forces, and Wall Street capital. Enormously long and told through multiple interwoven storylines, it is one of the more influential works of early entertainment fiction.