Book Description
Mr. Caine gives you a once-in-a-lifetime chance to rob him blind! The man who's hypnotized the camera lenses for a quarter of a century reveals the most closely guarded secrets on script preparation. working with the director, forming a character, voice, sound, and movement. Pearl by pearl he lays out the Caine wisdom on everything from set politics to set decorum, the film bureaucracy and more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Life between "Action" and "Cut"
A great book. Michael Caine is one of the best in the business, and part of the fun crowd.This book gives wonderful insight into the world of acting in film, behavior on/off the set, "the take," and more.

listen to what the man says...
acting is acting and if you can act onstage, you can act on-camera, probaly true but still before you make your move to the silver screen, read this book...Michael Cain reveals insider secrets, tips and straight forward talk about acting from a grand master..what a gem of a book for anyone interested in film...

Nothing but net...
This book is short and sweet, right to the point and actually pretty fun to read. Michael Caine knows what he's doing (ridiculously obvious comment of the day) and he gives a lot of great tips to actors and filmmakers alive. I am a director and I've read dozens of books on directing and there are things in this slim volume that I have never seen anywhere else.

Spot On
Michael Caine's awareness of what makes screen acting different than the stage, and his ability to perform with that awareness and then share it with others is a gift to all actors, as well as those who want to understand what makes an actor great and a movie superb or a bomb. There is nothing better for acting on screen.

a good tool for filmmakers and film actors
Caine provides a succinct account of where he's been and what he's learned in the world behind the camera.Tips are thrown at the actor as we visit Caine's memories and experiences in film.There were only a few pieces of knowledge I was able to pull from the text in the end, and in that sense I feel a little shortchanged.But the book was an interesting and easy read, and should be read by anyone whose experience behind the camera has been very minimal or independent.

Main theme:If you want to act and entertain OTHER PEOPLE, don't treat people like [...]. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
"A spirited autobiography...Michael's memoir may be even more noteworthy for the juicy, offbeat-on-wry anecdotes Caine, a veteran of more than seventy films, supplies with costars."
PEOPLE
He was born Maurice Joseph Micklewehite in London's impoverished East End. And yet Michael Caine emerged as one of the world's most versatile, enduring, and beloved actors of our time. With the easy charm of a natural raconteur, Caine takes us onto the sets and into the homes of Hollywood's most talented celebrities. Candid, vibrant, and warm, here is a captivating self-portrait of a man who is at once sublimely ordinary and freshingly unique, one of the greatest actors in film today.e ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A BLOODY GOOD AUTHOR -Not a lot of people know that!
Being British myself and also someone who works in HOLLYWOOD'S Movie & TV industry, I have to say that this is one of the best autobiographies of someone in the same business I've ever read. Michael Caine lays out his rags to riches life with complete candor and in a very engaging narrative style.

His total honesty and recall, specially of his rise to fame in the 1960's, makes the reader really feel part of the scene. Caine's book is most revealing in the behind the scenes goings on in the making ofhis movies. I'll not spoil it for you by going into detail, but our cockney actor friend certainly got around to meeting just about all of the "in" people of the day and many before they were household names to the rest of us. He mentions the good, bad and the ugly and doesn't spare himself when looking back on the mistakes he has made.

For aspiring young actors, there are lessons to be learned here. Caine has a separate book for that, but still he offers up some informed pieces of guidance in this work. As an Englishman, he's probably the most famous and iconic actor to ever come of old blighty and blimey if ee' don't alf make it one ell' of a read!

Great read but could have been better
Michael Caine is one of my favourite actors, and "What's it all about" is one one fascinating read. It has an excellent witty conversational style, which makes it very engaging, especially in the earlier parts. I always took Caine to be a dyed-in-the-wool Brit (he looks like one, and says so in the book himself) and so was surprised and amazed at the amazing life he's led... brought up in a poor family, survived the World War, went to war in Korea and almost got killed himself, struggled like hell, led a debauched lifestyle, and so on.

"What's it all about" is one of the best autobiographies I've read if you just count the first half, let's say before Caine settles with his family in LA; after this it seems to eschew those little tidbits of gossip, life and human nature for the mundane: what parties/restaurants/hotels/people/homes/flats they went to/ate in/stayed in/met/bought/rented, and so on. This part is quite dull, though it does have the occasional witticism. Also some things are missing... incredibly there's no reference to the one Caine quote which - let's just say - not a lot of people know. Also I'd have liked him not to be silent about his "conquests".

One thing that really got me though is the mistakes... I dont know whether these are just typos or Sir Michael fiddling with the truth a bit. For example, on page 5 (hardcover) he says at birth his weight was 8 lb 2. Later (page 348), this becomes 6 lb 2. Another instance: on page 35 he is 6 ft tall at age 15 having added a foot in two years, yet on page 25 he is 5 ft 11 at age 11. On page 330, he says "Since then I've only drunk wine" as a result of finding out about his excessive drinking. Yet we have many references later to the drinking of all kinds of spirits, including vodka. There are more such mistakes, which makes me think the book wasnt proofread at all.

But all in all, this is a very good read, even if you dont know Michael Caine. If nothing, it at least gives the message that dreams can be achieved if you try hard enough and never give up.

The heroic actor
If Michael Caine's life resembles that one of the average actor, next time I request an autograph from Nicole Kidman or Kevin Spacey, I may be dwelling on their heroic background, rather than on their assumingly obscure and profligatious foreground. Maurice Micklewhite's biography is just a piece of inspiration for any quitter. It can outdo Anthony Robbins' tapes any day. A fighter in Korea, a victim of malaria, a reluctant B-movie castmember, a happy hedonist, a drunk, an opportunist, and aventually a model husband and father. He's had it all. Michael Caine carries enormous weight in his movies not just because of his acting guile, but mainly because of his charismatic persona. His diversification of characters portrayed, whether in "The Man Who Would Be King", "Funeral in Berlin", "The Eagle Has Landed" or "The Cider House Rules", offers the spectator the unusual challenge of discerning him from prior roles, a task traditionally reserved to a Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness or Ralph Richardon. Can't help but fall in love with the lad.

A great example of "follow your dream"
This book is inspiring.Michael Caine knew at a very young age that he wanted to act, and through perseverance, he has become highly successful and one of the most respected actors of our time, with two Academy Awards to his credit.This should serve to encourage those with dreams but who tell themselves "I'll never make it."

This is the real thing.Caine starts at the beginning and tells it all without indiscreet name dropping.He mentions that he does not plan to write another autobiography and so does not want to leave anything out.That makes for a really great read.

But what's really special about this autobiography is how approachable Caine seems to be.He comes across as just a regular guy whom you could approach on the street and say hi.Considering that most of the other autobiographies I've read, however great they may be, still seem like stories told by a celebrity who has deigned to share his/her life story, that in itself is an amazing accomplishment.

Michael Caine's rules
Michael Caine, one of film's most durable actors, tells his story through 1992 in the autobiography WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

How many film performers have done as much as well as Michael Caine? For more than forty years, the actor has delivered shining performances in dramas, thrillers and comedies. He's carried flicks as a leading man, shared the spotlight as a costar, contributed to emsemble casts and has even take small roles.

In WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT, Michael Caine vows this book is the only autobiography he will write. I hope he changes his mind. I am sure Mr. Caine had to leave a lot of good stories out of his first volume. And since its '92 publication, he has been knighted and won another Oscar.Why not another book?

The most noteworthy aspect of WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT is that Michael Caine, despite having done almost everything you could want to do, has had the same personal and professional ups and downs as you and me. He tells stories we've all been through, such as being nervous about meeting women and his strained relationships with friends. (Of course, you and I would not be pals with actor Terence Stamp.)

This Michael Caine fan wants more movie-making anecdotes. If Mr. Caine does publish a second autobiographical volume, I request a synopsis of the making of each of his ninety-something films. He barely mentions two of my favorites: WATER and especially the obscure comic gem WITHOUT A CLUE.

Bravo to Michael Caine for not kissing and telling. He alludes to the bedroom activity that made the 1960s what it was for the rich and famous but does not name names.

The night Michael Caine won the Best Supporting Actor for CIDER HOUSE RULES, ceremony host Billy Crystal had been making fun of Caine's role in a JAWS film. Yet Mr. Caine did not return the dig during his acceptance speech, despite notorious Crystal bombs such as MR. SATURDAY NIGHT, FORGET PARIS, and FATHER'S DAY.

Unless, of course, Michael Caine's saving those remarks for his next autobiography!

For now, read WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

I nformative Material
I thought this book was especially good for letting us know the real Michael Caine -his East London background, his dogged determination to succeed and his progression towards becoming an icon in the movie industry. The revelation about his unknown long lost brother was a surprise. Overall well worth reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

best book ever written.
this is without a doubt the finest book ever written.it's packed with worthless trivia and obscure facts that you will never use and will fill up parts of your brain that should be used for something else.feel the power of this great book. ... Read more

Product Description
In the centurey or so after Behn and other female playwrights of the Restoration, women took thier place among men as dramatists; this was a still period, however, when women often met with hostile reception and ingrained male prejudice. The plays in this anthology show the range of work that women were writing for the stage, from immensely sucessful comeedies about love and marraige to social satire, melodrama and tragedy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ben Wicks shows but the tip of the iceberg
Images of Guernica burning in their minds, recalling the Zeppelin and Gotha raids of World War One, the authorities in Britain in 1938 plotted the most massive transhumance of humanity ever conceived.To their credit, within 72 hours of Neville Chamberlain's announcement that the UK was at war with Germany, some three and a half million vulnerable non-combatants - mainly children under 13 years of age - were evacuated from the cities of Britain to "safe" rural locations.

They came from Tyneside, from Teeside, from Merseyside, and of course from Thameside.From teeming slums, from elegant Georgian townhouses, from leafy suburbs, from upper or middle-class families, or from underemployed or unemployed working class homes.

Ben Wicks chronicles this unprecedented event.Following the planning process, from as early as 1924, he narrates the steps, the fears, the analyses that led inexorably to the decision to shred wholefamilies to pieces, to commit to the charity of strangers the care of Britain's future, Britains youth.

The history of human social development is the history of the perpetual conflict between an agrarian lifestyle, and the life of city dwellers.The evacuation of more than 3,500,000 city folks to rural communities in the Great Britain of 1939 is but one more chapter in this history.But it is a poignant chapter.Three million displaced persons is a statistic; one such is a tragedy.Mr Wicks delves beneath the statistics to expose the tragedies, but also the triumphs.From interview to interview with the displaced children, we slowly piece together a picture of a Britain slowly shrugging off the class consciousness of the `20s, gradually emerging from the prudery of Victoriana, and preparing itself to meet and overcome the ultimate challenge of Nazi Germany.

If I had to make any criticism of this book it would be its brevity.Yes, the author had to pick and choose between thousands of personal accounts.Yes, some editing was essential.But the story of over two million children ripped from the bosom of their families demands to be told.Mr Wicks has exposed the tip of the iceberg.The other ninety percent remains, still, hidden. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Very Special Book Review
Not many people know that Michael Caine was born in 1933, the son of a Billingsgate fish porter.Then again, not many people would care either, so it is hard to see how this book became the "number one bestseller" that its cover claims it to be. The introduction of this book gives you something of an insight into Michael Caine, the man.Who was he?What moved him?Why did he become whatever it was that he became?It seems that as a young child, li'l Mikey became aware of the power of a well timed fact.Apparently, they make you feel better for not having received a proper education.They are also useful for a bit of one upmanship when you come up against a "know-all".Unfortunately, and it really does pain me to have to point this out to a man of Michael's obvious calibre, it seems that Michael is the know-all. After all, this book is a collection of facts that Michael Caine has put together because he knows them, but not many other people know them. It also seems that, along with his knack for absorbing useless and highly dubious bits of information, Sir Michael Caine has a rare talent for self promotion. Another extremely unfortunate point that has to be made is that many of Caine's `facts' are, even to the layman, clearly spurious.Incorrect, that is, or if not incorrect certainly insanely difficult to verify.Like the fact that `Some soft drinks are made sweeter by adding coal'.Or that `An American aircraft in Vietnam shot itself down with one of it's own missiles'. Not many people know that.That's because it is NOT TRUE.Or IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE. Michael's only valid point, and I think this is the point on which the success of the book hinges, is that facts, especially highly irrelevant and inexplicably timed facts, can be very funny.They can be even funnier if read aloud in a pseudo-Cockney accent.Believe me, I've tried it.If you want to give it a go, simply peruse the pages of this book and read each useless fact aloud.Pretty funny, huh?And believe me, it gets funnier and funnier the more you do it. Actually, despite its faults, and largely because of them, this book rates pretty highly on my list of things to do in a social setting.And you really can't discount the fact that there is a huge picture of Michael Caine on the front.Now that's a selling point. ... Read more