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domino harvey wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2026 3:33 am In 1969, Grove Press started a line of film scripts (different from the earlier Evergreen series) that did double duty as readers of contemporary press and critical reaction along with source material, if applicable, and ephemera related to the film, plus a ton of frame blow ups. Truly a Criterion Collection (ahem, or how it once was) approach to publishing scripts (one that the Rutgers series two decades later carried on, in part)

But I cannot find any source of how many films received this treatment. These are the only four I know of:

L’Avventura
Les quatre cents coups
Masculin Feminin
Rashomon

Is that it? I sure hope not, these things are incredible! The Godard one alone is a masterclass on what a book version of a deluxe boutique film release could be

One library to which I have access claims that, at the very least, an imprint named Grove Press published scripts for Tom Jones, La Nuit Americaine, and The Story of Adele H around that time. A similar edition of I Shot Andy Warhol (which reprinted, among other things, the SCUM Manifesto!) appeared much later. Do those four have an editor or author listed besides that of the screenwriters?

I can see inside the Tom Jones book on eBay, it’s just the script. Same for Adele H and Nuit (L’argent de poche likewise)

Grove Press was one of the original “outsider” presses. They also distributed movies, including I Am Curious (Yellow) and the original US run of Godard’s Week End!

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2026 3:48 amDo those four have an editor or author listed besides that of the screenwriters?

I only have Masculin Feminin but ordered L’avventura and 400. The intro to MF mentions I Am Curious Yellow, which was published one year prior but it appears its only supplemental material is court transcripts about its obscenity trial (can’t be sure though, because it is unreasonably hard for sellers to photograph the table of contents for a book they’re selling). It also doesn’t match the cover style of the other four books

Consulting Editor: Pierre Billard
General Editor, Film Book Series: Robert Hughes

Their edition was also compiled with Godard’s input in addition to Billard’s choices

"The Passenger" GP

I think there are more, but it's hard to say for certain. You say they're different from the Evergreen series? I'm not familiar with what was in that series. Did that have editions of the scripts for Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad?

I can find the four you listed in library catalogs, but they have "An Evergreen Black Cat book" as the series title, as well as "Film Book Series." But those four are the only ones I can find that have both series titles. There is a 1964 Grove Press edition of the script of Tom Jones with the "Film Book Series" title but not the "Evergreen Black Cat" series title, and then there are additional editions of scripts for films like The Passenger and The Story of Adele H. with the "Evergreen Black Cat" series title, but not "Film Book Series."

I can put together a list of what I can find within the next day or so. There aren't many, I just need to go to bed right now.

EDIT: oops, didn't see all the other responses above. But I'll still gather what I can find.

IIRC I Am Curious: Yellow was one of Grove’s all time best sellers, which is why it’s so easily available all these years later.

I went ahead & checked my copy (standard issue cover pb), and it is the complete script with heaps of b&w photos, along with the obscenity trial highlights, & nothing else

Walter Kurtz wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2026 4:24 am "The Passenger" GP

Includes two reviews, so better than some of these, but still not comparable to the four titles. These are books that run 280+ pages and a third of that is supplemental material, there’s no mistaking it. Can’t believe they didn’t do more of these if that’s in fact the case

Thanks Matt and pianocrash!

What are the best places to look for some of these Grove Press editions? I'm specifically interested in L’Avventura and Masculin Feminin. Looks like they're out of stock in many places

AbeBooks and eBay, or your local used book store if they have a film section. There’s a good looking copy of L’avventura on Abebooks for twelve bucks plus shipping (I hemmed between ordering it and one from eBay), Masculin Feminin (as Masculine Feminine btw) is much harder to find at a non obscene price right now but I think stuff like this goes in waves, I’ve seen it for like $20. Rashomon and 400 Blows seem more widely available at cheaper prices at the moment.

And I don’t have the Rutgers Film in Print versions of L’avventura or Rashomon but there’s a decent chance there is some overlap in the supplemental pieces (moot point for me since the Grove version was significantly cheaper than the Rutgers for the Antonioni anyways) - the Godard and Truffaut films did not receive the Rutgers treatment for these films (they did ones on Breathless and Shoot the Piano Player, the latter of which would surely be superfluous given Focus On book is fully dedicated to these kind of supplemental materials. Rohmer’s Maud and Truffaut’s Metro also received Rutgers editions)

Thanks, I ordered the L’avventura! I'll keep an eye out for the others

domino harvey wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2026 3:57 am Grove Press was one of the original “outsider” presses. They also distributed movies, including I Am Curious (Yellow) and the original US run of Godard’s Week End!

About twenty years ago I saw a 16mm screening of Weekend at a Dallas museum and it was a Grove print. It had of course completely faded to pink, and two scenes with long monologues delivered by offscreen characters (the garbagemen and the FLSO member reciting Lautréamont) were dubbed into English, which was very strange.

I am also tangentially reminded of the forgotten Dustin Hoffman/Mia Farrow vehicle John and Mary where the two lovers first meet by arguing about the film in a NYC bar. Other than one off festival showings, even a well known director like Godard didn’t have a lot of his films shown commercially outside of Paris until many years after release, if at all. But you gotta imagine this was one of the easiest of his films to market at the time to hip young audiences, so it totally makes sense that they’d invest in it.

Went down a rabbit hole last night of Grove Press’ Evergreen Review, which gradually went from a typical slightly with it literary journal to a counterculture artifact selling hippie porn. What a time to be alive!

Barney Rosset, the founder of Grove Press, was a fascinating man. A documentary about him in his twilight years, when he was living off a pension in a small apartment after completely changing American culture forever by fighting for freedom of speech, is worth a watch

Here's what I can find apart from the 4 titles already known that have the "Film Book Series" title.

Film : complete scenario, illustrations, production shots (Samuel Beckett)
Evergreen original, E-502, 1969

The story of Adele H. : [the complete script of the film] (Truffaut)
Evergreen black cat book, B395, 1976

The Proust screenplay : À la recherche du temps perdu (Pinter)
An Evergreen book, 1977

I am curious (yellow) : a film (Sjöman)
Evergreen black cat book, B-184, 1968

La Guerre est finie (Resnais)
Evergreen original, E-452, 1967

Moderato cantabile (Duras)
Evergreen original, E-257, 1960

Day for night : [the complete script of the film] (Truffaut)
An Evergreen book, 1975

The passenger (Antonioni)
Evergreen black cat book, B-393, 1975

Au revoir les enfants : a screenplay (Malle)
An Evergreen book, 1988

Savages; a film (Merchant-Ivory)
Evergreen original, E-604, 1973

Events (1968/1969) : a film (Fred Baker)
Evergreen black cat book, B-287, 1970

Blue movie (Warhol)
An evergreen black cat book, B-250, 1970

Tom Jones : a film script
Evergreen original, E-381, 1964/1965

Danish blue, a film (Gabriel Axel)
An Evergreen black cat book, B-291, 1970

Freedom to love; a film (Kronhausen)
An Evergreen black cat book, B-289, 1970/1971

American graffiti : a screenplay (Lucas)
Evergreen black cat book, BC-373, 1973/1978

My dinner with André : a screenplay (Gregory/Shawn)
Evergreen book, 763, 1981

Last year at Marienbad (Resnais)
Evergreen book, 320, 1984

Hiroshima, mon amour (Duras/Resnais)
Evergreen book, 284, 1983

Three films [Through a glass darkly. Winter light. The silence] (Bergman)
Evergreen, E-531, 1970

Pull my Daisy. Text ad-libbed by J. Kerouac for the film by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, etc. [With illustrations.]
Evergreen Books. no. E294., 1961

Thanks Matt! It’s looking likely that the four titles I initially singled out were the only ones to receive the deluxe treatment.

Got my copy of 400 Blows in today and it looks like a real treasure trove, esp the Cahiers scrapbook, which includes fun things like the complete Conseil des dix for the month in which it was released (where it did not come in first!). Looking forward to diving in after a rewatch soon

As previously mentioned, adding details...

L'Avventura (Antonioni)
Evergreen black cat book, B-194, 1969

I have L'Avventura and The Passenger. I haven't had a glance at them for decades but especially L'Avventura seems to be quite exhaustive with interview, background info and eight critical essays or so besides the full script. And the original price printed on the cover was $1.95!

I have three different editions of the L'Avventura script - all in English - and the Grove edition is the most extensive regarding "supplemental material".

Received my copy of L'Avventura, and the essays are interesting so far. I particularly like the recurring observations of the film's narrative spinning out into something vague and less stimulating as a compliment which I've long argued, with Penelope Gilliatt even making the point that audiences who fall asleep in the back half are often the film's most fervent fans!

I wound up finding a somewhat reasonably priced copy of Masculin Feminin from Canada, so I'll report back whenever that comes in. This is cool stuff, I wish some of the other Grove Press scripts got the same kind of treatment

It’s not from Grove, but there is a very interesting paperback publication of Bill Norton’s Cisco Pike that has quite a bit of commentary from him.

I’m a big fan of the published version of Rudy Wurlitzer’s script for Walker, which has a lot of supplemental material.

Oliver Stone’s Nixon and J.F.K. book tie-ins are gargantuan, and include scores of research material and essays from supporters and critics of said films

Some of the Rutgers Films in Print series have tons of material, but milage varies. I have copy a of Imitation of Life that has articles by and about Fannie Hurst (including one by Zora Neale Hurston) and Lana Turner, contemporary articles and reviews, interviews with Sirk, and then a bunch of commentaries and the screenplay. Letter from an Unknown Woman contains the complete Zweig story, an article from screenwriter Howard Koch about Ophuls and writing the film, a letter from Ophuls to John Houseman, and a transcription of notes written on the shooting script. Some don't have as much of interest as those, but I think all have several commentaries and other minor supplementary material, plus the screenplay.
I also know there are more available than what the Rutgers website has, Goodreads lists 22 including another version of L'avventura, as mentioned. I've bought several for ~$10 over the years and I think most of them can still be found for relatively cheap.

therewillbeblus wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2026 3:42 pm Received my copy of L'Avventura

I've only skimmed through the script, but I've already found extra bits not included in the film - spectacularly, more great one-liners from Corrado! Can't wait to see how many more humorous moments Antonioni initially gave him in the back half. The character practically turns the first half into a comedy

Really loving everyone posting the screenplay books that were published back in the day. After all, these books pre-date home media outside of certain 16mm versions or condensed 8mm versions, so it was one way to experience the film outside of TV broadcasts or repertory screenings. I have quite a few of those Evergreen books and some odd outliers from the time including a great copy of Cassavetes' script for Faces. There's one for Minnie and Moskowitz too that was printed by a much smaller publisher and goes for a pretty penny.

Does anyone have the Wisconsin/Warner series of books based off the donated Warner Bros. archive to the University of Wisconsin? I have a few of these and they're all beautifully printed with nice blow-ups from the films and notes regarding the screenplay.

Picked up the Dudley Andrews edited Rutgers book on Breathless and already learned something new: In an untranslatable running gag, Godard had characters utter the titles of other Francoise Sagan novels in dialog scenes shared with Seberg in the film (as a reference to her being in Bonjour Tristesse).

Also there was a longshot of Belmondo and Seberg in the same frame as Eisenhower and DeGaulle in a parade that the censors made Godard cut!

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Sat Sep 05, 2026 10:09 pm Really loving everyone posting the screenplay books that were published back in the day. After all, these books pre-date home media outside of certain 16mm versions or condensed 8mm versions, so it was one way to experience the film outside of TV broadcasts or repertory screenings. I have quite a few of those Evergreen books and some odd outliers from the time including a great copy of Cassavetes' script for Faces. There's one for Minnie and Moskowitz too that was printed by a much smaller publisher and goes for a pretty penny.

Does anyone have the Wisconsin/Warner series of books based off the donated Warner Bros. archive to the University of Wisconsin? I have a few of these and they're all beautifully printed with nice blow-ups from the films and notes regarding the screenplay.

No, but there was a series of RKO film scripts that were published during the 70’s, and I have one for Wagon Master

It’s frustrating that Harold Pinter’s unmade Proust script has been readily available for years, but you have to go to his archives to read what he originally wrote for The Handmaid’s Tale and The Remains of the Day