V. F. Perkins on Movies SAMPLE
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V. F. SAMPLE (c) PERKINS Wayne - ONNOT MOVIESState FOR UniversityDISTRIBUTION Press SAMPLE (c) WayneContemporary Film and - NOTMedia Series Series Editor StateBarry FOR Keith Grant Brock University A complete listing of the advisory editors and the books in this series can be foundUniversity online at wsupressDISTRIBUTION .wayne .edu. Press V. F. SAMPLE (c) PERKINS Wayne - ONNOT MOVIESState FOR UniversityDISTRIBUTION COLLECTED SHORTER FILM CRITICISM EDITED BY Press DOUGLAS PYE Assistant Editor: Edward Lamberti EDITORIAL ADVISORY GROUP Edward Gallafent John Gibbs Andrew Klevan James MacDowell Polly Perkins SAMPLE (c) Wayne - NOT State FOR UniversityDISTRIBUTION © 2020 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. ISBN 978- 0- 8143- 4643- 3 (paperback) ISBN 978- 0- 8143- 4642- 6 (hardback) Press ISBN 978- 0- 8143- 4644- 0 (ebook) Library of Congress Control Number:{~?~TK} Wayne State University Press Leonard N. Simons Building 4809 Woodward Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48201- 1309 Visit us online at wsupress .wayne .edu SAMPLE (c) CONTENTS Wayne Foreword- by George M. Wilson ix AcknowledgmentsNOT xi Introduction by Douglas Pye 1 1: 1960– 1972—State Oxford OpinionFOR and Movie: The Battle for a New Criticism The British Cinema and BritishUniversity FilmDISTRIBUTION Criticism Fifty Famous Films 1915– 45 (1960) 000 The British Cinema (On Behalf of the Editorial Board) (1962) 000 Clive Donner and Some People (1962) 000 Censorship (1963) 000 Forced to Be Free or Doing Business in a Press Great Art (1968) 000 Supporting the British Cinema (1969) 000 Developing a Detailed Criticism Nicholas Ray (1960) 000 Charm and Blood (1960) 000 Words and Music: Two Recent Cukor Films (1960) 000 King of Kings (1962) 000 Why Preminger? (1962) 000 The Man with the Golden Arm (1962) 000 River of No Return (1962) 000 SAMPLE Merrill’s Marauders (1962) 000 An Important Re- Release: George Stevens’ Giant (1962) 000 (c) Un- American Activities (1962) 000 Hawks Comedies (1962) 000 WayneHatari! (1962) 000 - Rope (1963) NOT 000 The Cinema of Nicholas Ray (1963) 000 55 Days at Peking (1963) 000 Cheyenne AutumnState (1965) FOR 000 Vivre sa vie (1967) 000 America, America (1972)University DISTRIBUTION 000 2: 1981– 2016 Film Criticism: Principles and Practice Moments of Choice (1981) 000 Film Authorship: The Premature Burial (1990) 000 Must We Say What They Mean?: Film CriticismPress and Interpretation (1990) 000 The Atlantic Divide (1992) 000 Where Is the World? The Horizon of Events in Movie Fiction (2005) 000 Acting on Objects (2013) 000 vi • Contents Directors and Movies Letter from an Unknown Woman (On the Linz Sequence) (1982) 000 In a Lonely Place (1992) 000 SAMPLE Johnny Guitar (1996) 000 I Confess: Photographs of People Speaking (2000) 000 Ophuls contra Wagner and Others (2000) 000 (c) “Same Tune Again!”: Repetition and Framing in WayneLetter from an Unknown Woman (2000) 000 Le Plaisir- : “The Mask” and “The Model” (2009) 000 Le Plaisir: NOT“La Maison Tellier” (2009) 000 Scarlet, No Empress (2011) 000 You OnlyState Live Once (2012) 000 Omission and OversightFOR in Close Reading: The Final Moments of Frederick Wiseman’s High School (2017) 000 Index UniversityDISTRIBUTION 000 Press Contents • vii SAMPLE (c) Wayne - NOT State FOR UniversityDISTRIBUTION Press SAMPLE (c) FOREWORD Wayne - George M. Wilson NOT No one writing on film since I became interested in the area has had the impact on me andState on my work thatFOR Victor Perkins has had. No one has been even close in the extent of their influence and inspiration. When I first read Victor’s Film as Film, its effect on me was enormous. I was fascinated by what he had to say in the various chapters of the book but I was also captivated by theUniversity fact that theDISTRIBUTION author of this terrific book wrote with perfect clarity, grace, and rhetorical force. I was much struck that someone could write in an utterly intelligible way on questions of the most probing and systematic aesthetic interest. I had read a number of the notable French critics of the period, and I was quite taken by much of their work. However, none of them— and no one else at that time or later— wrote with the exemplary depth and lucidity that I found in Victor’s Presswriting. I went on from Film as Film to read a range of Victor’s film criticism, and I was also led to read a lot of the essays by the best contributors to Movie. These authors, and Victor especially, constituted the models I adopted as I began to write and teach in film. Several years later, I published my first film book, Narration in Light (1986). The book did not sell a lot of copies, and, during the period in ques- tion, I think I never even saw it in a bookstore. Then I received a letter from Victor, and it explained at gracious length why he liked my book a lot. I had never received a commentary on any of my work that pleased me so much and that I valued as highly as this unexpected letter, and in all the time since it arrived, I have never been more pleased than I was by his generous remarks. I believe that it is pretty rare to get a strongly supportive letter from someone you have never met, but who has from long distance crucially shaped your SAMPLEown thinking about the fundamental area of research in question. I was simply thrilled, and it was his support at this juncture, more than anything else, that encouraged me to continue writing on film. (c) A few years later, we finally did meet in person, and our friendship was deepened by the personal contact. Meeting him several times in Britain and theWayne United States, I came to learn that he was one of the kindest and most generous people I -had ever met. He was also one of the wittiest and funniest. Over the years, we searchedNOT for lost film sites in San Francisco, following in the footsteps of Alfred Hitchcock, spotted swans in Stratford, admired Warwick Castle by moonlight, explored the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and, most recently, wanderedState the FORshores of Lake Windermere, all the time with Victor attired in his usual coat, tie, and V-neck sweater. We miss him. I warmly welcome this collection of Victor’s shorter writing. The volume is in itself a fitting tribute and a rich addition to the literature of film. Taking its place alongside his monographs,University its publicationDISTRIBUTION also enables readers to access the whole of Victor’s film criticism in book form for the first time and more readily to appreciate his remarkable achievements. It is an indispens- able body of work for anyone with a serious interest in film. Press x • Foreword SAMPLE (c) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Wayne When Polly Perkins,- Victor’s daughter and literary executor, convened a group of friends andNOT colleagues to consider his legacy, a volume of his uncol- lected film criticism became a major objective, and Wayne State University Press, publishers of Britton on Film and new editions of Robin Wood’s work, was the logicalState publisher toFOR approach. Barry K. Grant, editor of their series Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television, was immediately enthusiastic and has been the source of invaluable support and guidance throughout the book’s evolution. Annie Martin, acquisitions editor at the press when the project began, Universityand her successor,DISTRIBUTION Marie Sweetman, have been unfailingly encouraging and helpful. I am also grateful for the advice of their colleague Ceylan Akturk. It has been a pleasure to work closely with Ed Lamberti, who crucially kept track of the various stages of the book’s development and assembled the contents, as well as sharing many of the detailed editorial tasks; his meticulous work has been indispensible. The editorial advisory group guided the decisions about the shapePress of the volume and have been the guardian angels of the project as it developed, contribut- ing advice and help whenever it was needed. Polly’s total commitment, on behalf of Victor’s estate, has been an inspiration throughout. The book would not have been possible without the generous permission of the publishers of journals and books in which the articles and chapters first appeared. We owe special thanks to Cameron and Hollis, publishers of Movie and the Movie books for which Victor wrote most of his work. CineAction “Film Authorship: The Premature Burial,” CineAction!, nos. 20– 21 (Summer/Fall 1990): 57– 64. “I Confess: Photographs of People Speaking,” CineAction, no. 52 (June 2000): 28– 39. “‘Same Tune Again!’: Repetition and Framing in Letter from an Unknown SAMPLEWoman,” CineAction , no. 52 (June 2000): 40– 48. The Cine- Files (c) “Acting on Objects,” Cine- Files: A Scholarly Journal of Cinema Studies, no. 4 (Spring 2013): http:// www .thecine -files .com/ current -issue -2/ guest -scholars/ Waynev -f -perkins/ (accessed October 24, 2019). - NOT Film Quarterly “Le Plaisir: ‘The Mask’ and ‘The Model,’” Film Quarterly 63, no. 1 (2009): 15– 22: © 2009 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of CaliforniaState Press. FOR “Le Plaisir: ‘La Maison Tellier,’” Film Quarterly 63, no. 2 (2009): 66– 71. © 2009 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of California Press. “Scarlet, No Empress,” Film QuarterlyUniversity 65, no. 2 (2011): 28– 31. © 2011 by the Regents of the University of California. PublishedDISTRIBUTION by the University of California Press. Manchester University Press “Where Is the World? The Horizon of Events in Movie Fiction,” in Style and Meaning: Studies in the Detailed Analysis of Film, edited by John Gibbs and Douglas Pye, 16– 41.