Preston Sturges Preston Sturges Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film "The Great McGinty", his first of three nominations in the category. Sturges took the screwball comedy format of the 1930s to another level, writing dialogue that, heard today, is often surprisingly naturalistic, mature, and ahead of its time, despite the farcical situations. It is not uncommon for a Sturges character to deliver an exquisitely turned phrase and take an elaborate pratfall within
Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room is a 2012 book by Geoff Dyer. The book is a discussion by Dyer of the film "Stalker" directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1979. The title is taken from the mysterious and enigmatic Zone which is a locus within the film itself. The work is based on a close, scene-by-scene reading with a large number of digressions, including autobiographical discussions such as the time and place where Dyer watched the film (and observations