Sir Christopher Frayling

THE HOLLYWOOD HISTORY OF ART by Christopher Frayling (October 2025) - There has never before been a full-length book devoted to the fascinating story of THE HOLLYWOOD HISTORY OF ART, in all its glory. This profusely illustrated volume will fill this surprising gap. This coffee table volume is a must for readers interested in the history of art and of film, film buffs, collectors, viewers of TV miniseries and films about artists, museum and gallery-goers. - Pre-order. 👉 Linkinbio @christopherfrayling - For all press enquiries contact Jill Potterton: [email protected] - - - - - - - - - - - #christopherfrayling #hollywood #historyofart #vincentvangogh #fridakahlo #basquiat #tonystella #reelartpress

JUST ANNOUNCED! - THE HOLLYWOOD HISTORY OF ART by Christopher Frayling (October 2025) - There has never before been a full-length book devoted to the fascinating story of THE HOLLYWOOD HISTORY OF ART, in all its glory. This profusely illustrated volume will fill this surprising gap. Ever since the dawn of the sound era, Hollywood has made a series of elaborate feature films about the lives of the great visual artists, including (among many others) Charles Laughton as Rembrandt; George Sanders as Gauguin; José Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec; Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh; Charlton Heston as Michelangelo–and, more recently on a smaller scale, Jeffrey Wright as Jean-Michel Basquiat; Derek Jacobi as Francis Bacon; Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock; Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo (at last a female artist!); and many others, pitched at more niche audiences. These films have represented the lives of artists in ways that ‘chime’ with public expectations and public attitudes. Although often dismissed out of hand by art historians and curators, these films can tell us a great deal about how art and artists have entered the cultural bloodstream of modern Western societies. This coffee table volume is a must for readers interested in the history of art and of film, film buffs, collectors, viewers of TV miniseries and films about artists, museum and gallery-goers. - Pre-order. 👉 Linkinbio @christopherfrayling - For all press enquiries contact Jill Potterton: [email protected] - - - - - - - - - - - #christopherfrayling #hollywood #historyofart #vincentvangogh #fridakahlo #basquiat #tonystella #reelartpress

COMING SOON. - SERGIO LEONE by Himself, compiled by Leone’s acclaimed biographer Christopher Frayling, gathers together all his significant interviews, essays and articles, to create a director’s eye view of a body of work which over the past half century has had a decisive influence on world cinema, especially action cinema. The book is profusely illustrated with previously unseen photographs from the Leone family collection and the Angelo Novi archive, both now housed in the Cineteca in Bologna. It also includes previously unpublished commentary from Leone’s long-suffering producers. The release of SERGIO LEONE by Himself in 2024 coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of the Italian release of “A Fistful of Dollars” and the fortieth anniversary of “Once Upon a Time in America”. - To pre-order 👉 Linkinbio @reelartpress - - - - - - #sergioleonebyhimself #sergioleone #christopherfrayling #reelartpress #bookoftheday

Tony Seiniger (1939 - 2026) - Seiniger was frequently called the ‘Godfather of movie advertising.’ A true titan in the industry, his distinguished career included over 2,500 era defining campaigns spanning 50 years. He was also a fun and generous man. RIP - Posters from: “1001 Movie Posters: Designs of The Times” Edited: Tony Nourmand @reelartpress Introduction: Christopher Frayling @christopherfrayling Text: Alison Elangasinghe @alielan Art Director: Graham Marsh @ivyconnection - - - - - - - - #TonySeiniger #artdirector

Tony Stella (1988-2026) I was deeply shocked and saddened to hear that Tony Stella @studiotstella passed away a few days ago. I was first introduced to Tony’s work by @marauder_midnight in 2019. I finally spoke to Tony in 2024 to see if he would be interested in illustrating the cover of our new Christopher Frayling book “Sergio Leone by Himself”. During our Zoom call he told me that he used to regularly visit my movie poster gallery many moons ago. He owned all my movie poster books from back when I was a vintage movie poster dealer and he was living in London as an art student at The Royal College of Art where he also attended lectures by Christopher who was the Rector there at the time! These were only two of many synchronicities that regularly occurred at every step with Tony. We laughed and talked about the cover. He said that he understood what I was after and asked to be left alone while working on it. A short while later he sent me his finished artwork which was perfect and exceeded my expectations even though it had almost nothing to do with what I had asked for! In 2025 Tony illustrated the cover for another of Christopher’s books, “The Hollywood History of Art” which he called his favourite work. Last September I spent a day with Tony at his studio in Berlin. We spent the day going through his work both digitally and in person. We stuffed ourselves with delicious Turkish Kebabs for lunch and spent the afternoon talking cinema, his love for his daughter, posters and a book about his work and how it could be done. He showed me some of his favourite books and artworks. The day flew by. Tony was a rare talent who absorbed and understood every genre and decade of cinema, using his limitless imagination and skill to prolifically produce some of the most stunning images in cinema. Over the last 40 years I have seen many archives and works from illustrators and poster artists across all decades and countries and I cannot think of anyone better. Rest in peace 💔 my friend & VIVA Tony Stella! ✌️ Tony Nourmand @reelartpress - - - #tonystella

#Bristol Our plans for today are… more Sergio Leone! #SilentFilm Day pass and tickets via Bristol Headfirst and on our website.

“The thirtieth book written by the great English cultural historian is called The Hollywood History of Art and published by Reel Art Press. The author analyses in detail the real lives of twenty-five great artists of the past in relation to the total fiction that the so-called ‘Mecca of Cinema’ has inculcated in us. He does this through...a book which weighs about as much as the marble of Michelangelo’s Moses” - The Hollywood History of Art by Christopher Frayling reviewed by Lorenzo Codelli, in @cinecittanews 13th March 2026 - 👉 Linkinbio - - - - - #christopherfrayling #historyofart #hollywoodhistory #artbooks #tonystella

LEN DEIGHTON RIP One thing the obituaries for the late Len Deighton have not mentioned enough, is that he was the first scriptwriter of Eon’s film From Russia With Love. I knew Len a bit, through his long association with the Royal College of Art, and I interviewed him at some length many years ago for a BBC Radio 4 series on Film and History (the Cold War episode). We talked about his early spy novels - especially The Ipcress File - and he slipped into the conversation that Harry Saltzman commissioned him to adapt Ian Fleming’s novel into a screenplay. He went on a recce to Istanbul, with Saltzman, director Terence Young and production designer Syd Cain (substituting for Ken Adam on this one occasion, who was otherwise engaged on Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove), and over breakfast each day, Len discussed the craft of screenwriting with Harry Saltzman. It was “like the best kind of film school,” he recalled. After returning home, Len began work on the screenplay. He made a start with the scenes set in London - especially, he remembered, James Bond’s relationship with M and the Whitehall establishment - but was soon replaced by screenwriter Richard Maibaum. Why was this? Partly - he thought - because of Len’s lack of experience of writing for film (at that time). Partly because he was taking so long about it. Maybe he wasn’t being generic enough in his approach. Had Len kept his typescript? No, he’d probably mislaid it during one of his many house moves... Its a fair bet that if he had completed From Russia With Love , there would have been much less of the snobbery with violence, and much more of the office politics. And lots of acronyms... Rest in peace Len Deighton. Christopher Frayling

Len Deighton (1929 - 2026)

It’s #WorldBookDay and we had to showcase our favourite #SergioLeone and Spaghetti Westerns books (which includes the many great titles by @christopherfrayling ). All set for our Leone Weekend in April. Weekend passes available via our website:

The Hollywood History of Art by Christopher Frayling reviewed in the March issue @apollomagazine - Todd McEwen welcomes a lavish account of big-budget films about painters which reveals what Hollywood can teach us about art history. From Charlton Heston writhing on a scaffold in the Sistine Chapel to Kirk Douglas’s dead ringer for Van Gogh, films about painters were prestige studio fare. 👉 Linkinbio - - - - - - - #christopherfrayling #historyofart #hollywoodhistory #artbooks #tonystella @christopherfrayling @reelartpress

ROBERT DUVALL, Rest in Peace I met the late Robert Duvall , once, at a reception celebrating the Film Industry at Number 10 Downing Street several years ago...It was while Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, and Robert was standing by himself clutching a drink... We talked about Open Range, Lonesome Dove and his then-recent work with Walter Hill, Broken Trail - about a grizzled cowboy (played by who else?) escorting a wagon-load of abandoned Chinese women across the 1890s West. He seemed touched that a Brit rated his Westerns so highly, and uttered one of his trademark genial chuckles. And we raised a glass to the survival of the Western - somehow - in the modern culture of film. I concluded that the Western had morphed from being a movie genre, once the backbone of Hollywood, into a kind of historical costume drama... another chuckle. He finished by saying “Who’d have thought I’d find myself in Number Ten Downing Street? Quite something for a jobbing actor...” He was so modest. He was famous for saying that his main ambition was to find regular and sustained work as an actor. And yet, with The Godfather , Apocalypse Now, Tender Mercies - and his Westerns, and the rest - he was up there with the greats. He was right about the actor bit, though - he was always an actor, a very distinguished one, rather than a pampered star. #robertduvall