Description
Book SynopsisAuteurs and Authorship: A Film Reader offers students an introductory and comprehensive view of perhaps the most central concept in film studies. This unique anthology addresses the aesthetic and historical debates surrounding auteurship while providing author criticism and analysis in practice.
Trade Review"This book is a classroom. One hopes that by reading it, eager young cinephiles may pass through words into the true life of the screen." (
Quarterly Review, December 2009)
"Presents an arresting, thoughtful procession of ideas about who makes a movie."
Afterimage "The question of authorship in cinema remains a crucial area of debate. Barry Keith Grant's excellent reader, which brings together most of the important French, British and American material, looks set to become a required text on the subject." Jim Hillier, University of Reading, England
"Without doubt the best collection available on film authorship, which remains the single most challenging issue in film studies and the abiding mystery of cinema. From the groundbreaking polemics of the 1950s and ‘60s to cutting-edge analyses by top contemporary scholars, Auteurs and Authorship examines this endlessly salient topic in a remarkable array of essays that, taken together, provide the most comprehensive, in-depth treatment available." Tom Schatz, University of Texas, Austin
“Deep and fulfilling examination of the theory ... [and] inclusion of virtually every valuable essay on cinema auteurism makes [it] an indispensable book.” RogueCinema.com
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vii
Preface: How to Use This Book xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Part I: Classic Auteur Theory 7
1 A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema (1954)
François Truffaut 9
2 De la Politique des Auteurs (1957)
André Bazin 19
3 Films, Directors and Critics (1962)
Ian Cameron 29
4 Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962 (1962)
Andrew Sarris 35
5 Circles and Squares (1963) (excerpt)
Pauline Kael 46
6 The Auteur Theory (1969) (excerpt)
Peter Wollen 55
7 Direction and Authorship (1972) (excerpt)
V.F. Perkins 65
8 Ideas of Authorship (1973)
Edward Buscombe 76
9 Ideology, Genre, Auteur (1977)
Robin Wood 84
Further Reading 93
Part II: The Contexts of Authorship 95
10 The Death of the Author (1968)
Roland Barthes 97
11 The English Cine-Structuralists (1973)
Charles W. Eckert 101
12 Alternatives to Auteurs (1973)
Graham Petrie 110
13 Women’s Cinema as Counter-Cinema (1973)
Claire Johnston 119
14 Refocusing Authorship in Women’s Filmmaking (2003)
Angela Martin 127
15 The Men with the Movie Cameras (1972)
Richard Koszarski 135
16 Notes on a Screenwriter’s Theory 1973 (1974)
Richard Corliss 140
17 Who Makes the Movies? (1976)
Gore Vidal 148
18 Script/Performance/Text: Performance Theory and Auteur Theory (1978)
Peter Lehman 158
19 Studio Authorship, Corporate Art (2006)
Jerome Christensen 167
20 The Producer as Auteur (2006)
Matthew Bernstein 180
21 Authorship, Design, and Execution (1987)
Bruce Kawin 190
Further Reading 200
Part III: Close Readings 201
22 Hitchcock’s Imagery and Art (1977)
Maurice Yacowar 203
23 John Ford’s Young Mr Lincoln (1970) (excerpt)
Editors of Cahiers du Cinéma 212
24 Towards an Analysis of the Sirkian System (1972)
Paul Willemen 228
25 My Name is Joseph H. Lewis (1983)
Paul Kerr 234
26 Authorship as a Commodity: The Art Cinema and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1984)
Michael Budd 249
27 The Place of Women in the Cinema of Raoul Walsh (1974)
Pam Cook and Claire Johnston 255
28 Female Authorship Reconsidered (The Case of Dorothy Arzner) (1990) (excerpt)
Judith Mayne 263
29 Man’s Favorite Sport?: The Action Films of Kathryn Bigelow (2004)
Barry Keith Grant 280
30 Authorship and New Queer Cinema: The Case of Todd Haynes (2006)
Michael DeAngelis 292
31 Twoness and the Film Style of Oscar Micheaux (1993)
J. Ronald Green 304
32 Spike’s Joint (1998) (excerpt)
S. Craig Watkins 317
Further Reading 323
