Books

Praise for The Films of James Bridges (2011)

"Scrupulously researched, elegantly written... Here is a close, sensitive (and admirably fact-based) reading of one of the most powerful and personal filmmakers of the 1970s and 80s, whose work merits much wider recognition."

-- Dave Kehr, www.davekehr.com

"Peter Tonguette, one of our finest young scholars, follows his excellent book on Orson Welles with a warm, lively, and entirely fresh portrait of James Bridges and his films. Many film scholars are content to rehash old ground, but not Tonguette. He tackles the subject of an unjustly neglected American filmmaker and does exemplary and resourceful research in helping bring him alive as a man and as a director. Tonguette's portrait of Bridges is engaging, entertaining, and deeply insightful, and his analyses of the films are astute and should make readers who have neglected this important filmmaker look back at Bridges's work to study it more closely. Those who already know Bridges will find here many new and illuminating facets in the man and his films. Best of all, The Films of James Bridges has the quality of passionate involvement that a first-rate film book should have."

-- Joseph McBride, author of Steven Spielberg: A Biography, Searching for John Ford, and Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success

"Peter Tonguette is one of the most gifted of the younger generation of film scholars, and his new book The Films of James Bridges makes the case for a filmmaker who died too young to be fully defined in either the public, or, I suspect, his own, eye."
-- Scott Eyman, The Palm Beach Post, August 12, 2011

"Groundbreaking... Tonguette's meticulous analyses of individual sequences from the films are distinguished by an unashamed passion... Tonguette is to be applauded for his determination to rescue filmmakers from what he perceives as undeserved neglect."

-- Brad Stevens, Sight & Sound, August 2011

Praise for Orson Welles Remembered (2007)

"Tonguette is the most vigorous and painstaking of the younger Welles scholars, and his Orson Welles Remembered is invaluable for its information, especially about such late, unfinished projects as The Dreamers and The Magic Show."

-- Jonathan Rosenbaum, author of Discovering Orson Welles

"Orson Welles Remembered is a resolutely fascinating compendium of new interviews done with 30 of Welles' co-workers and compatriots... The stories are often endearing and uproarious... Tonguette has done cinephiles the world over a service."

-- Scott Eyman, The Palm Beach Post, October 14, 2007

"A fascinating oral history... Illuminating perspectives emerge throughout the book on the paradoxes of Welles."

-- Ben Walters, Sight & Sound, April 2008