Difference between pages "Concept of Authorship (Discussion)" and "Douglas Sirk as Auteur (Discussion)"

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==Readings==
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==Equivalent characters in the 1934 and 1959 versions of ''Imitation of Life''==
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===Introduction, by John Caughie===
 
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'''Group 2'''
 
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#What are the basic assumptions of auteurist critics?
 
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#How did auteurism differ from previous film criticism?
 
  
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=== Edward Buscombe ===
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<table width="200" border="0">
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'''Group 3'''
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  <tr>
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#What elements of romanticism underpin auteurism?
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    <td><strong>1934</strong></td>
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#What is the difference between Hawks and "Hawks"?
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    <td><strong>1959</strong></td>
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#*'''Student response:''' Hawks is the person, the director, while 'Hawks' is the structure named after the director. Another person could, or instance, follow the structure and produce a movie with a 'Hawks' structure, but it would still not be a movie directed by Hawks. Also, a certain style could be unconscious and part of 'Hawks' but not necessarily a conscious decision by Hawks. The 'Hawks' structure is a sort of culmination of everything about Hawks, whether it is all intended or not. "The structure is associated with a single director, an individual, not because he has played the role of artist, expressing himself or his own vision in the film, but because it is through the force of his preoccupations that an unconscious, unintended meaning can be decoded in the film, usually to the surprise of the individual concerned... It is wrong, in the name of a denial of the traditional idea of creative subjectivity, to deny any status to individuals at all."
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  </tr>
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  <tr>
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    <td>Bea</td>
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    <td>Lora</td>
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  </tr>
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  <tr>
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    <td>Delilah</td>
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    <td>Annie</td>
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  </tr>
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  <tr>
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    <td>Jessie</td>
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    <td>Susie</td>
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  </tr>
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  <tr>
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    <td>Peola</td>
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    <td>Sarah Jane</td>
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  </tr>
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  <tr>
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    <td>Steve</td>
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    <td>Steve</td>
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  </tr>
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</table>
  
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=== ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' ===
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==Readings==
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'''All Groups'''
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==="Three-Way Mirror: Imitation of Life"===
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#What is "formalism" and how did it relate to ''Cahiers''-style auteurism?
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Lucy Fischer sums the previous approaches to ''Imitation of Life'' and then addresses her own concerns about the film:
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#What is "personalism"?
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# "The question of women and work"
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# "The issue of race"
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=== ''Movie'' ===
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# "The matter of star biography"
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'''Group 4'''
 
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#What was ''Movie''?
 
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#How did ''Movie'''s approach to auteurism differ from that of ''Cahiers du Cinéma''?
 
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#*'''Student Response:''' _Movie_ attempted to go about film criticism with a more rational and objective approach. While both magazines held high the significance of the role of the director, _Movie_ was more moderate than _Cahiers du Cinéma_ in its application of auteurism. The British magazine employed a more "gestalt" approach, which acknowledged trends of good directors but also respected the result of complexes of input beyond the director (producer, photographer, etc.).
 
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=== Andrew Sarris ===
 
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'''Group 1'''
 
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#What, according to Sarris, are the three premises of the auteur theory?
 
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#*'''Student response:''' According to Sarris, auteur theory has three premises. "[T]he technical competence of a director as a criterion of value," explains that directors must posses some kind of skill to make a good film. The next criterion has to do with the director's style. That the director must have a distinguishable personality, and his film will reflect the way he thinks and feels. These recurring characteristics of style in the film serve as his signature. Finally, auteur theory is concerned with interior meaning or the "temperature of the director on set." This is the more ambiguous of the premises as is cannot be specifically written out. It is, at the clearest, almost mise en scene mixed with the imbedded meaning of the film projected by the director. These three premises imply that the success or grade of the film rely completely on the director and his specific style and personality.
 
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#*Explain, if you can, what Sarris means by "élan of the soul".
 
  
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'''All Groups'''
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Discuss these "concerns":
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#What does Sarris mean when he uses the term "mise-en-scene"? ('''Hint''': it's ''not'' how Bordwell and Thompson use it in ''Film Art''.)
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#'''All Groups:''' According to Fischer, what "cliché" is there about women's employment in the decade 1948-58? Why is it untrue?
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#*And how does this image (below) illustrate it?
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#'''Group 3:''' Often, films place women in the position of choosing between work outside the home and staying at home and nurturing children. How does ''Imitation of Life'' deal with this conflict—both in terms of Lora ''and'' Annie? Does Annie fit a "mammy" stereotype? What does Fischer have to say about African Americans and domestic labor?
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[[Image:Rules Moment07.jpg|thumb|left|Jean Renoir in ''Rules of the Game'' (French title: ''La Règle du jeu'').]]
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#*And how does the presentation of work vs. motherhood differ in the 1934 and 1959 versions?
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<br style="clear: both;">
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#'''Group 4:''' It's not just work and motherhood that are inflected with issues surrounding race. Fischer also sees a connection between race and "performance," between race and imitations (plural) of life. What different forms of performance, of playing a role, are evident in ''Imitation of Life''? Who performs and why?
 +
#*How does changing the white mother form the "Pancake Queen" to a performer change the story's meaning?
 +
#'''Grad Group:''' We'll discuss Turner as a star more fully next week, but what themes (or polysemy) does Fischer say were associated both with Turner (embodied in the Johnny Stompanato scandal) and Turner's ''character'' in ''Imitation of Life''?
  
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Pauline Kael, "Circles and Squares," ''Film Quarterly'' (reprinted in ''I Lost It at the Movies''), response to Sarris:
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==="Distanciation and Douglas Sirk"===
  
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:Sarris believes that what makes an auteur is "an élan of the soul." (This critical language is barbarous. Where else should élan come from? It's like saying "a digestion of the stomach." A film critic need not be a theoretician, but it is necessary that he know how to use words. This might, indeed, be a first premise for a theory.) Those who have this élan presumably have it forever and their films reveal the "organic unity" of the directors' careers; and those who don't have it - well, they can only make "actors' classics." It's ironic that a critic trying to establish simple "objective" rules as a guide for critics who he thinks aren't gifted enough to use taste and intelligence, ends up - where, actually, he began - with a theory based on mystical insight.
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#How does Sirk "intensify" elements of the melodrama genre?
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#Willemen concludes that the "distanciation effect" can be "used to parody the stylistic procedures which traditionally convey an extremely smug, self-righteous and ''petit bourgeois'' world view paramount in the American melodrama."
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#*''Petit bourgeois'' (pronounced "petty boor-jwah") is a French word meaning, literally, the "small middle-class", but more generally referring to a conservative wocial class of shop keepers and professionals. Thus, a ''petit bourgeois'' world view is one that is politically and morally conservative.
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#*'''Group 1:''' How might ''Imitation of Life'' be seen to be an attack on conservative values of the 1950s? Doe you think it succeeds at that?
  
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== Bibliography ==
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==Thinking further about remakes==
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All from ''Theories of Authorship'', John Caughie, ed. (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981):
 
  
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#Introduction, John Caughie, 9-16.
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#'''All Groups:''' There are many differences between the two versions of ''Imitation of Life''. One subtle change is the endings. How does each film end? (Refer to [http://www.tcf.ua.edu/jbutler/Diss/AppC/index.htm frame grabs here].) How do the endings signify different resolutions of the black daughter plotline and the white mother-boyfriend-daughter plotline?
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#Edward Buscombe, "Ideas of Authorship," 22-34.
 
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#''Cahiers du Cinéma'', 35-47.
 
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#''Movie'', 48-60.
 
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#Andrew Sarris, 61-67.
 
  
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==External links==
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[[Image:ImitationOfLife1934qq01 47 59qq.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Final scene, 1934 version.]]
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#[http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T440/AuteurTheory.htm Auteur Theory Illustrations]
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[[Image:ImitationOfLife1934qq01 49 48qq.jpg|none|thumb|200px|Final shot, 1934 version.]]
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#[http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/Bazin03.htm Auteurism's defining moment], according to Sarris.
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<br style="clear:both;"/>
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[[Image:ImitationOfLife1959qq02 02 53qq.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Final scene, 1959 version.]]
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[[Image:ImitationOfLife1959qq02 03 35qq.jpg|none|thumb|200px|Final shot, 1959 version.]]
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<br style="clear:both;"/>
  
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[[Category:TCF440/540 Discussion]]
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==Bibliography==
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# Lucy Fischer, "Three-Way Mirror: Imitation of Life," ''Imitation of Life: Douglas Sirk, Director'' ed. Lucy Fischer (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press) 3-28.
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# Paul Willemen, "Distanciation and Douglas Sirk," ''Imitation of Life: Douglas Sirk'', Director, 268-272.

Revision as of 15:11, 23 April 2008

Equivalent characters in the 1934 and 1959 versions of Imitation of Life

1934 1959
Bea Lora
Delilah Annie
Jessie Susie
Peola Sarah Jane
Steve Steve

Readings

"Three-Way Mirror: Imitation of Life"

Lucy Fischer sums the previous approaches to Imitation of Life and then addresses her own concerns about the film:

  1. "The question of women and work"
  2. "The issue of race"
  3. "The matter of star biography"

Discuss these "concerns":

  1. All Groups: According to Fischer, what "cliché" is there about women's employment in the decade 1948-58? Why is it untrue?
  2. Group 3: Often, films place women in the position of choosing between work outside the home and staying at home and nurturing children. How does Imitation of Life deal with this conflict—both in terms of Lora and Annie? Does Annie fit a "mammy" stereotype? What does Fischer have to say about African Americans and domestic labor?
    • And how does the presentation of work vs. motherhood differ in the 1934 and 1959 versions?
  3. Group 4: It's not just work and motherhood that are inflected with issues surrounding race. Fischer also sees a connection between race and "performance," between race and imitations (plural) of life. What different forms of performance, of playing a role, are evident in Imitation of Life? Who performs and why?
    • How does changing the white mother form the "Pancake Queen" to a performer change the story's meaning?
  4. Grad Group: We'll discuss Turner as a star more fully next week, but what themes (or polysemy) does Fischer say were associated both with Turner (embodied in the Johnny Stompanato scandal) and Turner's character in Imitation of Life?

"Distanciation and Douglas Sirk"

  1. How does Sirk "intensify" elements of the melodrama genre?
  2. Willemen concludes that the "distanciation effect" can be "used to parody the stylistic procedures which traditionally convey an extremely smug, self-righteous and petit bourgeois world view paramount in the American melodrama."
    • Petit bourgeois (pronounced "petty boor-jwah") is a French word meaning, literally, the "small middle-class", but more generally referring to a conservative wocial class of shop keepers and professionals. Thus, a petit bourgeois world view is one that is politically and morally conservative.
    • Group 1: How might Imitation of Life be seen to be an attack on conservative values of the 1950s? Doe you think it succeeds at that?

Thinking further about remakes

  1. All Groups: There are many differences between the two versions of Imitation of Life. One subtle change is the endings. How does each film end? (Refer to frame grabs here.) How do the endings signify different resolutions of the black daughter plotline and the white mother-boyfriend-daughter plotline?
Final scene, 1934 version.
Final shot, 1934 version.


Final scene, 1959 version.
Final shot, 1959 version.


Bibliography

  1. Lucy Fischer, "Three-Way Mirror: Imitation of Life," Imitation of Life: Douglas Sirk, Director ed. Lucy Fischer (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press) 3-28.
  2. Paul Willemen, "Distanciation and Douglas Sirk," Imitation of Life: Douglas Sirk, Director, 268-272.
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