The Self Preservation Society: 50 Years of The Italian Job takes us behind the scenes of the classic film

Loaded with Sixties swagger, and famed for its endlessly quotable dialogue, along with one of the most impressive car chases in movie history, The Italian Job is the ultimate celebration of ‘cool Britannia’. The iconic film celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019 and the monumental occasion is marked with an extravagant new book, THE SELF PRESERVATION SOCIETY: 50 YEARS OF THE ITALIAN JOB by Matthew Field. Based on more than 50 in-depth interviews with the cast and crew, and beautifully illustrated with hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and production documents from the filmmakers’ private collections, this new 335-page book takes a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at how the British classic made its way to the big screen.

As a follow up to Field’s original tome about the film, THE MAKING OF THE ITALIAN JOB, which he wrote at the young age of 19, the new breathtaking compilation includes a foreword by Sir Michael Caine and an introduction by Academy Award-winning Producer Michael Deeley, and reveals facts about the film that have never surfaced before, including the whereabouts of the iconic cars used in filming.

For Field it is more than just a film. “The Italian Job was the first film I ever saw – the first movie to enter my consciousness. I saw it sometime in 1985 when I was four years old. My dad showed me the 15-minute MINI Cooper chase and I immediately fell in love. We were a ‘Mini’ family – my parents had owned them, and both my grandmothers drove a Mini 1000. I would spend hours sitting on the driveway, clutching the steering wheel of my Nan’s Mini, lost in my own Italian Job dream.”

Half a Century later, Britain’s affection for the film shows no sign of waning. In 2017, it was voted the greatest British film ever made following a survey of 2,000 UK moviegoers. Caine writes in his foreword to the book, “People often ask me why it has endured. The Italian Job is a snapshot of that time – the 1960s – and perfectly encapsulated the decade: the cars, the fashion, the fun and the optimistic attitude that was in the air.”

”For me as a producer, to have made a movie, which is more popular than ever after 50 years, is very special, but to have it so sumptuously commemorated, as it is in this new book, is particularly rewarding.” – Michael Deeley.

THE SELF PRESERVATION SOCIETY: 50 YEARS OF THE ITALIAN JOB will be available on 5 June 2019 for the RRP of £45.00.