An Invention without a Future
BY JAMES NAREMORE
The World without a Self: Virginia Woolf and the Novel
Filmguide to Psycho
The Magic World of Orson Welles
Acting in the Cinema
The Films of Vincente Minnelli
More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts
On Kubrick
Sweet Smell of Success
An Invention without a Future
Essays on Cinema
JAMES NAREMORE
University of California Press
BERKELEYLOS ANGELESLONDON
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University of California Press
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University of California Press, Ltd.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Naremore, James.
An invention without a future : essays on cinema / James Naremore.
pagescm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-27973-5 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-520-27974-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-520-95794-7 (ebook)
1. Motion pictures.I. Title.
PN1995.N33952014
791.43—dc23
2013032932
Manufactured in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
For Darlene, as always
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: An Invention without a Future
PART I.ISSUES
Authorship, Auteurism, and Cultural Politics
The Reign of Adaptation
Notes on Acting in Cinema
Imitation, Eccentricity, and Impersonation in Movie Acting
The Death and Rebirth of Rhetoric
PART II.AUTHORS, ACTORS, ADAPTATIONS
Hawks, Chandler, Bogart, Bacall: The Big Sleep
Uptown Folk: Blackness and Entertainment in Cabin in the Sky
Hitchcock and Humor
Hitchcock at the Margins of Noir
Spies and Lovers: North by Northwest
Welles, Hollywood, and Heart of Darkness
Orson Welles and Movie Acting
Welles and Kubrick: Two Forms of Exile
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Return of The Dead
PART III.IN DEFENSE OF CRITICISM
James Agee
Manny Farber
Andrew Sarris
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Four Years as a Critic: 2007–2010
Works Cited
Index
Acknowledgments
Different versions of several essays in this book were published elsewhere or were commissioned as public lectures. I am grateful to the following publishers and institutions:
“Authorship, Auteurism, and Cultural Politics” derives from “Authorship and the Cultural Politics of Film Criticism,” in Film Quarterly (Fall 1990) and “Authorship,” in A Companion to Film Theory, ed. Toby Miller and Robert Stam (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999).
“The Reign of Adaptation,” in a different form, appeared in Distinguished Lecturer Series (Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study, no. 10) and as the Introduction to Film Adaptation, ed. James Naremore (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, 2000).
“Notes on Acting in Cinema” was originally published as “Acting in the Cinema,” in The Cinema Book, ed. Pam Cook (London: BFI, 2005).
“Imitation, Eccentricity, and Impersonation in Movie Acting” is a revised and expanded version of a lecture entitled “Film Acting and the Arts of Imitation,” presented to the conference of the Group for the Study of the Actor in Cinema at the Cinémathèque de Nice, France; the lecture was later published in the proceedings of the conference and in Film Quarterly (Summer 2012).
“The Death and Rebirth of Rhetoric,” in a shorter version, was a conference paper in a panel organized at the Society of Cinema Studies in 2000 and later published in the online journal Senses of Cinema (April 2000).
“Hawks, Chandler, Bogart, Bacall: The Big Sleep” originated as the keynote address for the Noir Festival at the New School in New York, 2011. It was also delivered at the Key Figures in Film Studies lectures sponsored by King’s College London and the British Film Institute; at Middlebury College; and at the University of Iowa Annual Film Studies Lecture in 2011.
“Uptown Folk: Blackness and Entertainment in Cabin in the Sky,” in a slightly different form, was published in Arizona Quarterly (Winter 1992).
“Hitchcock and Humor” originally appeared in Strategies (May 2001).
“Hitchcock at the Margins of Noir” was published in Alfred Hitchcock Centenary Essays, ed. Richard Allen and S. Ishii Gonzales (London: BFI 1999).
“Spies and Lovers: North by Northwest” was the Introduction to North by Northwest, ed. James Naremore (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993).
“Welles, Hollywood, and Heart of Darkness,” under a different title, was a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007 and later published in True to the Spirit: Film Adaptation and the Question of Fidelity, ed. Colin McCabe, Kathleen Murray, and Rick Warner (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
“Orson Welles and Movie Acting” is derived from “Orson Welles and the Direction of Actors,” in Action!, ed. Paolo Bertetto (Rome: Fondazione Cinema per Roma, 2007) and “The Actor as Director,” in Perspectives on Orson Welles, ed. Morris Beja (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1995).
“Welles and Kubrick: Two Forms of Exile” was a lecture in the Symposium on Orson Welles and International Cinema at Yale University in 2007.
“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” is a revised version of my introduction to John Huston’s screenplay of the film (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979).
“The Return of The Dead” was published in Perspectives