Another director, Jim Jarmusch, also makes spartan staging the order of the day with his anthology comedy "Coffee and Cigarettes," a series of ruminations on life offered while the actors down caffeine and nicotine, a pastime that ratchets up the neuroses for the performers, all of whom play themselves.
As powerful as books can be, channeling a large, politically motivated group into a coffee table anthology might seem to be aiming a little low.
Another of their latest money-makers is The Beatles Anthology, a 368-page coffee-table book filled with interviews, photos, lyrics and other nostalgia.
With her tastes and style well-honed, she gained a passion for editorial work at Vogue while interning for their coffee-table anthology, The World in Vogue: People, Parties, Places.
At Barnes & Noble bookstores in New York, tables are stacked high with titles related to 9/11, a grouping that includes not just books about Sept. 11, but also picture-book tributes to the World Trade Center, poetry anthologies about New York, coffee-table books about the American flag and stocking-stuffer-type books on the inspirational words of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
In the foreword to "The Best of Punch Cartoons," a coffee-table-size anthology edited by Helen Walasek, he writes that Punch is still "a national treasure".
The space appeared bright and cozy: the perfect family living room, with a sofa, easy chairs, and a coffee table that held, among other things, an anthology of Mad magazines.
"Coffee and Cigarettes," which Mr. Jarmusch made over 17 years, often during breaks from other projects, is an anthology of conversations, most among famous or semifamous people, who play themselves -- sometimes, sort of.
Every "Peanuts" anthology ever.
