Auteurs and Authorship

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.

• Examines a number of mainstream and established directors, including John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Douglas Sirk, Frank Capra, Kathryn Bigelow, and Spike Lee
• Features historically important, foundational texts as well as contemporary pieces
• Includes numerous student features, such as a general editor's introduction, short prefaces to each of the sections, bibliography, alternative tables of contents, and boxed features
• Each essay deliberately focuses across film makers’ oeuvres, rather than on one specific film, to enable lecturers to have flexibility in constructing their syllabi

List 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

"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

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. 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.