Auteurs and Authorship: A Film Reader

Auteurs 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. The book draws on a wide variety of sources to highlight the major debates, criticisms, and analyses of traditional auteur theory and authorship in cinema. For the first time, classic and lesser–known film reviews are gathered in one convenient student volume. Francois Truffaut, Andre Bazin, Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael, Peter Wollen, and Robin Wood are among the critics featured. The lifetime cinematic achievements of established directors such as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Douglas Sirk, Frank Capra, Kathryn Bigelow, and Spike Lee are examined. The essays are organized chronologically, except in cases where flexibility adds an important historical or practical dimension. The book is an ideal resource for use in courses on authorship in the cinema, auteur theory, film theory, film criticism, film aesthetics and history of film.

Dedication. Acknowledgments. Figures and Captions. Preface: How to Use this Book. Introduction. Part I: Classic Auteur Theory. Introduction. 1. Francois Truffaut: A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema (1954). 2. André Bazin: La Politique des Auteurs (1957). 3. Ian Cameron: Films, Directors and Auteurs (1962). 4. Andrew Sarris: Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962 (1962). 5. Pauline Kael: Circles and Squares (1963). 6. Peter Wollen: The Auteur Theory (1969) (excerpt). 7. V.F. Perkins: Direction and Authorship (1972) (excerpt). 8. Edward Buscombe: Ideas of Authorship (1973). 9. Robin Wood: Ideology, Genre, Auteur (1977). Bibliography. Part II: The Contexts of Authorship. Introduction. 10. Roland Barthes: The Death of the Author (1968). 11. Charles Eckert: The English Cine–Structuralists (1973). 12. Graham Petrie: Alternatives to Auteurs (1973). 13. Claire Johnston: Women’s Cinema as Counter–Cinema (1973). 14. Angela Martin: Refocusing Authorship in Women′s Cinema (2003). 15. Richard Kosarzski: The Men with the Movie Cameras (1972). 16. Richard Corliss: Notes on a Screenwriter′s Theory, 1973 (1974). 17. Gore Vidal: Who Makes the Movies? (1976). 18. Peter Lehman: Script/Performance/Text: Performance Theory and Auteur Theory (1978). 19. Jerome Christensen: Studio Authorship (2006) (excerpt). 20. Matthew Bernstein: The Producer as Auteur (2006). 21. Bruce Kawin: Authorship, Design, and Execution (1987). Bibliography. Part III: Close Readings. Introduction. 22. Maurice Yacowar: Hitchcock′s Imagery and Art (1977). 23. Editors of Cahiers du Cinema: John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln (1970). 24. Paul Willeman: Towards an Analysis of the Sirkian System (1972). 25. Paul Kerr: My Name is Joseph H. Lewis (1983). 26. Michael Budd: Authorship as a Commodity: The Art Cinema and The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1984). 27. Claire Johnston and Pam Cook: The Place of Women in the Cinema of Raoul Walsh (1974). 28. Judith Mayne: Female Authorship Reconsidered (The Case of Dorothy Arzner) (1990). 29. Barry Keith Grant: Man’s Favorite Sport?: The Action Films of Kathryn Bigelow (2004). 30. Michael DeAngelis: Todd Haynes and Queer Authorship (2006). 31. J. Ronald Green: Twoness′ in the Style of Oscar Micheaux (1993). 32. S. Craig Watkins: Spike’s Joint (1998) (excerpt). Bibliography

Barry Keith Grant is Professor of Communication, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Film Genre: From Iconography to Ideology , Film Genre Reader , The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film , Five Films by Frederick Wiseman , Voyages of Discovery: The Cinema of Frederick Wiseman and Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video .

"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