ReFocus: The American Directors Series

Critically examines the work of American filmmaker and screenwriter, Lawrence Kasdan

• Considers industrial, cultural and political contexts, revealing how Kasdan’s work has influenced – and been influenced by – wider American society
• Reconciles Kasdan’s screenwriting and directing to demonstrate how each role complements the other, raising questions about the director-centered approach that still dominates film studies
• Provides evidence of Kasdan’s significant contribution to the creation of the Star Wars saga and, by extension, modern cinematic storytelling

Lawrence Kasdan has created some of the most influential films in Hollywood history. He is the screenwriter of such beloved blockbusters as The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Bodyguard (1992), and The Force Awakens (2015). Simultaneously, he has gained critical acclaim as the director of pictures that dissect contemporary American society: Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1988), and Grand Canyon (1991).

Frequently experimenting in different genres, Kasdan’s filmography defies easy classification, and this book is the very first global analysis of his career. Taking an inclusive, interdisciplinary approach in order to examine all aspects of his eclectic canon, the investigation reveals Lawrence Kasdan as a filmmaker who has helped shape modern American cinema, both through his screenplays for popular classics, and as writer-director of films synonymous with the largest demographic in US history.

The first scholarly work to focus on the work of American director and producer, Susan Seidelman

• Contains an exclusive chapter-length interview in which Seidelman examines her career and discusses many of her lesser-known films, some for the first time
• Suggests a reframing of authorship theory to be more inclusive of especially women directors who work in both film and television
• Examines Seidelman’s shifts from independents to Hollywood studio movies to television and made-for-TV movies in relationship to changes in the industry
• Provides cultural context for Seidelman’s films, including representations of gender, race and disability
• Includes genre analysis to illustrate how Seidelman twists genres for feminist stories and readings
• Assesses Seidelman’s critical reputation, including instances of mismatch between critical and audience reception

This first collection devoted to Susan Seidelman — director, producer and visionary of feminist American cinema and television – includes never-before-published archival material and an interview with insights into her process and thoughts on #timesup and the future of the industry. Her debut feature, Smithereens, was the first American independent film to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Her knack for casting saw her insist on Madonna for Desperately Seeking Susan before Madonna was famous. Seidelman directed Meryl Streep and John Malkovich in their first comedy features, Roseanne Barr in her first feature film and Laverne Cox in one of her earliest features. Seidelman also directed the Sex and the City pilot, kickstarting a global phenomenon.

Seidelman’s career is one of firsts, yet little is written about her. This collection begins filling that gap while opening the door for additional scholarship, making this a valuable text for years to come.

The first academic study on the work of Wes Craven

• 16 chapters offering a wide discussion of the director’s career
• Essential addition to horror film studies curriculum
• Includes all facets of the filmmaker’s work, including his TV contributions and his melodrama Music of the Heart

This edited collection provides an insightful look at the career and output of American horror director Wes Craven, whose most famous films – such as The Last House on the Left (1972), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Scream (1996) – came to define the form in the later decades of the 20th century. Also paying attention to Craven’s more underrated work, from Deadly Friend (1986) through to his melodrama Music of the Heart (1999), this academic study argues that the filmmaker’s influence can still be felt on cinema today, many years after his passing. Featuring 16 chapters and an extensive introduction, this addition to the ReFocus line will prove to be essential reading for scary movie connoisseurs and brings a valuable contribution to the growing field of horror film studies.

Examines the extensive and diverse oeuvre of American filmmaker William Wyler

• Explores Wyler’s work in connection with current themes and topics in film studies
• Provides cultural and political contexts for Wyler’s films, including representations of class, gender, and race
• Assesses the relationship between classic Hollywood’s studio system and the auteur theory and Wyler’s hybrid influence on the history of cinema

In his forty-five-year career, William Wyler not only traversed the silent and the sound eras, but also connected classic Hollywood to new

The first critical work to emphasize Richard Brook’s literariness"

• Offers a critical assessment by well-known film scholars
• Explores Brooks’s engagement with intellectual and cultural trends
• Discusses Brooks’s engagement with genres

ReFocus: The Literary Films of Richard Brooks highlights the accomplishments of one of postwar America’s most important and successful directors, with an emphasis on the "literary" aspects of his career, including his work as a screenwriter and adaptor of such modern classics as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Lord Jim, and The Brothers Karamazov.

The first book on the renowned and notorious cult filmmaker Roberta Findlay

• Argues Findlay's centrality to modern exploitation, hardcore pornography, and horror cinemas
• Offers careful attention to numerous films that have received no previous scholarly attention
• Contributes to the history of women filmmakers by highlighting a female pioneer generally omitted from accounts of that history

ReFocus: The Films of Roberta Findlay covers a variety of angles, using queer, feminist, historical, and close textual reading methods to grapple with the complicated and contradictory politics and meanings of this pioneering culture-worker. Chapters examine Findlay’s marketing strategies, the gender politics of her exploitation and hardcore films, 1980s horror productions, and several case studies of key individual films, in addition to a new interview with Findlay reflecting on her life and career.

The first edited collection of critical essays on American filmmaker Richard Linklater

• Analyses both Linklater’s celebrated and understudied work in dialogue with ongoing debates in film studies
• Considers the impact of Linklater’s oeuvre in industrial and cultural contexts, with a focus on gender, identity politics, American politics, and animal rights
• Connects Linklater to relevant American political and cultural events and institutions

Richard Linklater is a popular American filmmaker who is widely celebrated for the breadth of his oeuvre. Over the past three decades, Linklater has directed more than twenty features, ranging from non-linear independent films to Hollywood genre entertainment. Despite the popularity of Linklater’s rich and varied body of work—and perhaps also because of this generic diversity—he remains under-represented in critical and scholarly fora.

ReFocus: The Films of Richard Linklater addresses this oversight, bringing together twelve original essays attending to Linklater as a filmmaker whose work engages with contemporary debates in American politics, gender, youth, and activism as well as significant concepts in film studies, including time and duration, rhythm, and movement. Together these essays form a dialogue on Linklater’s ongoing role in contemporary American popular culture, and the impact his work has on discussions within (and beyond) film studies.

Offers the first collection of critical essays on Wallace Fox, one of Hollywood’s first Native American film directors

• Examines the entirety of Fox’s career in film and television
• Provides focus on Fox’s major works in the areas of the horror film, the western, the women’s picture, and the movie serial
• Analyses the importance of Fox's role as one of the first Native American directors working in Hollywood

Born in Oklahoma into the Chickasaw Nation, Wallace Fox directed films over the span of four decades. Known primarily for Westerns and mystery films, his output starred such famed actors as Bela Lugosi, Bob Steele, and Lon Chaney. ReFocus: The Films of Wallace Fox includes analysis of some of his best known films, including Wild Beauty, Gun Town, The Corpse Vanishes, Bowery at Midnight, Career Girl and Brenda Starr, Reporter. It reclaims the history and artistry of this major talent.

Offers the first book length contribution to Doris Wishman

• Covers Wishman’s vast filmography inclusive of her less discussed later films, hardcore films and nudist films
• Situates Wishman within larger contexts and movements in American film history including women’s filmmaking, avant-garde and experimental cinema and genre film
• Considers the cultural, historical, and industrial significance of Wishman with focuses on gender studies, genre studies, film narrative, feminist history, queer history and adult film history

Producer, distributor, and director Doris Wishman (1912–2002) was a pioneering woman in the film industry, leaving a body of work almost 30 films strong. Largely overlooked by critical and cultural analysis, Wishman worked in the normatively neglected film genre of sexploitation and adult film, but works like Hideout in the Sun (1960), Bad Girls Go To Hell (1965), Double Agent 73 (1974) and Each Time I Kill (2007) demonstrate an interest in complicated, ideological and often troubling social performances of the contemporary human condition.

ReFocus: The Films of Doris Wishman positions Wishman as a significant and overlooked force in American independent film, with an impact on how we currently understand the categories of cult, exploitation, horror, experimental and avant-garde cinema.

Offers the first first book-length study of Mary Harron’s career and works

• Argues that Harron’s work has a distinguishing approach to stylistic and aesthetic choices prompted by cultural contexts, controversial subject matter and production limitations
• Explores her depiction of masculinity, patriarchy, feminism, and biopic genre
• Positions Harron’s filmmaking as a diverse, challenging body of work that is contextualized within contemporary industry practices

  Mary Harron’s diverse career includes cult films like I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page, as well as a range of network and cable television episodes. This is the first book to examine an overlooked filmmaker in relation to feminist cinema. It discusses the dialectical dynamics within her wide-ranging body of work, and it argues that Harron’s work has a distinguishing approach to stylistic and aesthetic choices prompted by cultural contexts, controversial subject matter and production limitations.

  Each chapter provides an in-depth study on Harron’s creative approaches to film and television production, with chapters offering close readings of each of her 5 narrative features, and her work in television and promotional film. With scholarly approaches from the fields of cinema, television, gender, fashion, death and celebrity studies, this is a long-awaited introduction to a groundbreaking figure in contemporary cinema.

Provides the first scholarly study of the films of William Friedkin

• Contextualizes the entire trajectory of Friedkin’s work both historically and theoretically, from his first production in 1962, The People vs. Paul Crump, to Killer Joe
• Offers a comprehensive understanding to his creative oeuvre, closely analyzing the director’s films and television productions
• Explores key theoretical issues around melodrama, the ideological boundaries between good and evil, the formations of modern institutions, problems of sovereignty, transgression, and the phenomenology of his obsessive imagery

William Friedkin is the director of genre-defining works such as The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), controversial productions like Cruising (1980) and Killer Joe (2011), as well as understudied films including The Birthday Party (1968), Sorcerer (1977) and The Hunted (2003). This book, the first scholarly study of Friedkin’s films, reveals how they confront the ambiguities of law and morality, issues of subjectivity and problems of faith, while raising key questions around emotion and narrative in the cinema.

Placing his work in the historical contexts of the Vietnam War and Nixon’s presidency, ReFocus: The Films of William Friedkin also examines the director’s representations of sex and violence after the dismantling of the Production Code and in light of the rise and fall of New Hollywood cinema.

Offers the first book-length investigation Albert Brooks’ more than six-decade comedy career

• Situates Albert Brooks’ films in their cultural contexts, including representations of class, gender, religion, and race
• Assesses Albert Brooks’ critical reputation and relative popularity, including his influence on contemporary filmmakers and comedians
• Analyses every film written and directed by Albert Brooks, as well as a number of his acting and voice-over roles, his stand-up comedy albums, his talk show appearances, and his writing, both short-form and novelistic

This is the first sustained critical collection on Albert Brooks, one of the key but under-examined figures in American stand-up, television comedy and Hollywood film comedy. Analysing every film written and directed by Albert Brooks, including Real Life (1979), Modern Romance (1981) and Lost in America (1985), as well as a number of his acting and voice-over roles, his stand-up comedy albums, talk show appearances and writing, the book argues that Albert Brooks not only merits a wider viewership, both critical and popular, but also that his career offers a useful lens through which to understand American film and culture since the late 1960s.

Examines an under-analysed period of Robert Altman’s career

• Provides new critical perspectives on the Altman oeuvre
• Features original interviews with key Altman collaborators
• Offers case studies of Popeye, Tanner ‘88, Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Cookie’s Fortune and A Prairie Home Companion, among others

Illuminating the industrial, cultural and aesthetic significance of the later years of one of American cinema’s most influential auteurs, this anthology combines scholarly essays, original interviews with Robert Altman’s collaborators and previously unseen photographs from the Robert Altman Papers held at the Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan Library. The book considers post-1970s Altman as a way to rethink and reconceive his authorship, expanding our understanding of the development of Altman’s personal aesthetic and production practices; his adaptation of existing source material; the representation of sex, gender and identity in his films; his relation to the changing landscape of American independent cinema; and his unfinished projects. Interviews with key Altman collaborators like Alan Rudolph, Ira Deutchman and Anne Rapp highlight their contributions to Altman’s career. Rather than place aside the extensive work on Robert Altman to date, this comprehensive book offers texture and depth to previous ways of thinking about Altman’s creativity and contribution to American cinema.

A collection of critical essays about the noted filmmaker John Hughes

• Offers an examination of films from diverse academic perspectives
• Explores topics such as his depictions of youth and his assessment of gender, class, and race issues
• Provides an evaluation of the filmmaker with attention to cultural and industrial concerns

The films of John Hughes (1950–2009) have enjoyed popular and critical success alike, from his first scripts in the early 1980s through to his celebrated work later in the decade and into the 1990s. While Hughes is best remembered for his stories about teenagers, such as Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), almost all of his films deal with comical conflicts within everyday American families. He directed eight films and wrote over thirty in a career spanning a quarter of a century, and is fondly remembered for influencing American perceptions of – and appreciation for – the daily lives of (primarily) common citizens.

This wide-ranging collection examines the films of John Hughes from diverse angles, considering how he depicted young characters, how he revealed the humour of family life, and how his films subtly critiqued social issues such as class, race, gender, education and domestic relationships.

Offers the first comprehensive academic text to explore Paul Schrader’s film career through analysis of his directing, screenwriting, and film criticism

• Contains a chapter-length interview, in which Schrader examines the arc of his career for the first time and revises previous statements about filmmaking and film criticism
• Provides a valuable update to previous texts on Schrader
• Considers Schrader’s overlooked films and provides new insight into their connections with Schrader’s better known films
• Contains chapters on Schrader’s work since 2008, the publication date of the last book on his filmmaking

Paul Schrader’s unique relationship to the role of the author (as screenwriter, director and critic) has long informed his cinema, and raises complicated questions about the definition of the auteur. This volume of essays – one of the first collections to assess Schrader’s contributions to directing, screenwriting and criticism – includes the first original appraisals of his much-lauded masterpiece First Reformed (2017), as well as a chapter-length interview with Schrader himself, conducted by the editors.

Providing a comprehensive exploration of his groundbreaking achievements in cinema, the book considers Schrader’s more overlooked films and provides new insights to their connection with his celebrated work in direction and screenwriting such as Taxi Driver (1976), Cat People (1982) and The Comfort of Strangers (1990).

Examines how the work of American filmmaker Spike Jonze crosses boundaries between genre entertainment and experimentalism

• Read the blog post An interview with Wyatt Moss-Wellington, author of ‘Narrative Humanism’ and co-editor of ‘ReFocus: The Films of Spike Jonze’
  
  
• Surveys the breadth of Jonze’s work as a director and screenwriter of features, shorts and music videos
• Considers Jonze’s oeuvre in both its industrial and philosophical contexts, with a focus on film production, psychology and identity, posthumanism and gender studies
• Connects Jonze to other relevant filmmakers, American political and cultural events and institutions

ReFocus: The Films of Spike Jonze is the first collection of essays on this important and original contemporary filmmaker. It looks at his ground-breaking work in both features and short forms, exploring the impact of his filmmaking across a range of philosophical and cultural discussions.

Each of Jonze’s feature films, from Being John Malkovich (1999) to Her (2013), is discussed at length, focusing on issues of authorship, narration, genre and adaptation. As well as the textual aspects of Jonze’s feature films, the contributors consider his work in music videos and shorts – investigating his position as a filmmaker on the blurred boundaries between studio and independent modes of production.

Explores the diverse career of director, screenwriter, comic and actor, Elaine May

Spanning from obscurity to notoriety, the films of director, screenwriter, actor and comic Elaine May have recently experienced a long-overdue renaissance. Although she made only four films — A New Leaf (1971), The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Mikey and Nicky (1976) and Ishtar (1987) — and never reached the level of acclaim of her frequent collaborator Mike Nichols, May’s work is as enigmatic, sophisticated and unceasingly fascinating as her own complicated, reluctant star persona. This collection focuses both on the films she has directed, and also emphasises her work with other high profile collaborators such as John Cassavetes, Warren Beatty and Otto Preminger.

Case studies

• A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)
• The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1972)
• Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976)
• Ishtar (Elaine May, 1987)
• American Masters: Mike Nichols (Elaine May, 2016)
• Such Good Friends (Otto Preminger, 1971)
• The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, 1996)
• Primary Colors (Mike Nichols, 1998)

Contributors

• Clem Bastow, University of Melbourne
• Dean Brandum, independent researcher
• Jeremy Carr, Arizona State University
• Samm Deighan, Associate Editor of Diabolique Magazine
• Mark Freeman, Swinburne University
• Allie Hagan, screenwriter
• Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, film critic
• Paul Jeffery, independent researcher
Tim O'Farrell, Victorian College of the Arts
• Maya Montañez Smukler, New School, Otis College of Art and Design, the New York Film Academy and UCLA
• Jake Wilson, freelance writer and film reviewer

A collection of critical essays on Barbara Kopple: director, documentarian and female filmmaking pioneer

As the first woman to win two Best Documentary Oscars and the recipient of numerous lifetime achievement awards, Barbara Kopple deserves scholarly attention. Two of her early documentaries, Harlan County USA and American Dream, not only won Academy Awards but are foundational within the study of documentary as a whole.

In ReFocus: The Films of Barbara Kopple, a range of international scholars trace Kopple’s career to date, analysing her contributions in the contexts of funding, style, production and reception, and examining her films’ interrogations of social class using the lenses of gender, sexuality and race. In a shifting digital media landscape, Kopple’s critical reputation is also assessed, alongside her enduring influence on contemporary filmmakers.

Contributors

• Patricia Aufderheide, American University in Washington, D.C.
• Jaimie Baron, University of Alberta and director of the Festival of (In)appropriation
• Gregory Brown, Valdosta State University
• John Corner, Leeds University
• Leger Grindon, Middlebury College in Vermont
• Kate Hearst, historian, scholar and filmmaker
• Jeff Jaeckle, Portland Community College
• E. Ann Kaplan, Stony Brook University
• Heather McIntosh, Minnesota State University at Mankato
• Betsy A. McLane, independent scholar, author and Director Emerita of the International Documentary Association
• Bill Nichols, San Francisco State University
• Augusta Palmer, filmmaker and St. Francis College
• Paula Rabinowitz, University of Minnesota
• Susan Ryan, The College of New Jersey
• Thomas Zaniello, Northern Kentucky University

The first book-length study of Reichardt’s career and works

Over her multi-film career, including works like Old Joy, Meek’s Cutoff and Certain Women, the independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt has established a highly individual perspective on questions of gender, feminism, socioeconomics and sexual orientation, set within an aesthetic framework that is guided by the low-budget techniques of ‘slow cinema’, minimalism and neorealism. In this close reading of her films and production methods, E. Dawn Hall defines Reichardt’s auteur characteristics, arguing that she offers a contemporary and sustainable model for independent filmmakers in America.

Key Features

• Synthesizing the contemporary feminist debate surrounding auteur theory, this book explores Reichardt’s cinematic characteristics as an auteur
• Elucidates the environmental and ecofeminist concerns in Reichardt’s films
• Discusses Reichardt’s three experimental short films in detail
• Includes an original interview with Reichardt

The first collection of essays devoted to Hollywood director William Castle

Often described as ‘the Master of Gimmicks’, William Castle is best known for the outrageous publicity stunts that characterised his genre films in the 1950s and ‘60s, including offers for an insurance policy against death by fright, vibrating seats, a skeleton that flew over the audience, and a ‘punishment poll’ to determine a film’s conclusion. But far from being ‘the world’s craziest filmmaker’, Castle was also a dependable studio director who made more than 50 films between 1944 and 1974, and who produced films for Orson Welles and Roman Polanski. ReFocus: The Films of William Castle assembles fourteen essays on the full sweep of Castle’s career, including his horror films, westerns, film noirs and more. With an influence felt on directors like Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis and John Waters, this volume reappraises Castle’s legacy as an innovator as much as a showman.

Contributors

• Hugh S. Manon (Clark University)
• Zachary Rearick (Georgia State University)
• Anthony Thomas McKenna (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
• Murray Leeder (University of Calgary)
• Beth Kattelman (Ohio State University)
• Eliot Bessette (University of California, Berkeley)
• Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (University of Melbourne)
• Steffen Hantke (Sogang University)
• Michael Brodski (University of Mainz)
• Caroline Langhorst (University of Mainz)
• Michael Petitti (University of Southern California)
• Peter Marra (Wayne State University)
• Kate J. Russell (University of Toronto)

A vital collection of essays on Budd Boetticher’s long directing career

One of the most important yet overlooked of Hollywood auteurs, Budd Boetticher was responsible for a number of classic films, including his famous ‘Ranown’ series of westerns starring Randolph Scott. With influential figures like Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood acknowledging Boetticher’s influence, and with growing academic interest in his work, Gary D. Rhodes and Robert Singer present a vital collection of essays on the director’s long career, from a range of international scholars. Looking at celebrated films like Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) and Comanche Station (1960), as well as at lesser-known works like Escape in the Fog (1945) and Behind Locked Doors (1948), this book also addresses Boetticher’s influential television work on the James Garner series Maverick, and Boetticher’s continuing aesthetic influence on contemporary TV classics like Breaking Bad.

Contributors

• Karina Aveyard, University of Sydney
• Lucy Fife Donaldson, University of St. Andrews
• Robert Guffey, California State University – Long Beach
• Fredrik Gustafsson, Swedish Film Institute and Örebro University
• Brooks E. Hefner, James Madison University
• David J. Hogan, Film Historian and Journalist
• Hugh S. Manon, Clark University
• Christopher Minz, Georgia State University
• Steve Neale, University of Exeter
• Gary D. Rhodes, The Queen’s University in Belfast
• Marlisa Santos, Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale
• Robert Singer, CUNY Graduate Center
• John White, Anglia Ruskin University
• Tony Williams, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

New essays on the life and work of veteran Hollywood filmmaker Delmer Daves

From Destination Tokyo (1943) to The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965), Delmer Daves was responsible for a unique body of work, but few filmmakers have been as critically overlooked in existing scholarly literature. Often regarded as an embodiment of the self-effacing craftsmanship of classical and post-War Hollywood, films such as Broken Arrow (1950) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957) reveal a filmmaker concerned with style as much as sociocultural significance. As the first comprehensive study of Daves’s career, this collection of essays seeks to deepen our understanding of his work, and also to problematize existing conceptions of him as a competent, conventional and even naïve studio man.

Key Features

• The first and only detailed study of this important American screenwriter, producer and director
• An international collection of original essays examining Daves’s films, including Broken Arrow, 3:10 to Yuma, Task Force and Spencer’s Mountain

Contributors

• Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)
• Matthew Carter, Manchester Metropolitan University
• Adrian Danks, RMIT University
• Andrew Howe, La Sierra University
• Józef Jaskulski, University of Warsaw
• Sue Matheson, University College of the North in Manitoba
• Andrew Patrick Nelson, Montana State University
• Fran Pheasant-Kelly, University of Wolverhampton
• Joseph Pomp, Harvard University
• John White, Anglia Ruskin University

A collection of interdisciplinary essays, collected for the first time, on the work of filmmaker and screenwriter Amy Heckerling

Clueless and Fast Times at Ridgemont High are affectionately regarded as key foundations of the modern Hollywood teen movie. However, the director and screenwriter for these films, Amy Heckerling, is far from a household name, despite the major influence she has had on contemporary US cinema.

The first book-length study of her films, ReFocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling brings together a collection of original essays from a wide range of critical perspectives, aiming to recuperate Heckerling’s place as a distinctive female voice in the contemporary Hollywood landscape. Divided into four sections, each examining a distinctive aspect of Heckerling’s work, the volume draws on research from applied linguistics and audience studies, as well as from aspects of gender and film studies. Questions of gender, genre and identity, as well as the role of women in Hollywood and the implications of Heckerling’s recent turn to television, are all considered in a volume that aims to refocus on the films and influence of this distinctive American director.

The first collection of critical essays on Hollywood director and screenwriter Preston Sturges

Read and download the introduction for free here (pdf)

Director, screenwriter and comic genius, Preston Sturges has been an influence on filmmakers ranging from Orson Welles to the Coen brothers. The first person to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, he wrote and directed some of the most bizarre, controversial and downright hilarious comedies of the 1940s, including Sullivan’s Travels and Hail the Conquering Hero. He may be the most talented Hollywood filmmaker yet to receive the critical recognition he deserves.

The Films of Preston Sturges is a pioneering collection of essays by world-famous scholars that chart Sturges’ contributions to Hollywood cinema, revealing his pivotal status as an early writer-director, exploring his inimitable style and making a bold case for his ongoing influence today. Reawakening interest in this filmmaker’s life and works, this book will remind readers why Sturges’ movies remain not only immensely enjoyable, but of great cultural significance as well.

Key features

• Traces Sturges’ early career and writing process, including the shift from playwright to writer-director as well as screenwriting techniques
• Provides cultural contexts for Sturges’ films, including representations of class, gender and race
• Assesses the rises and falls of Sturges’ critical reputation and popularity, including his influence on contemporary filmmakers

Contributors

• Christopher Beach teaches film in the English Department of Williams College.
• Matthew H. Bernstein, Professor of Film and Media Studies at Emory University.
• Diane Carson, Professor Emerita at St Louis Community College and former UFVA president (2008–10.
• Krin Gabbard is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Stony Brook University.
• Leger Grindon is the Walter J. Cerf Distinguished Professor of Film Studies at Middlebury College in Vermont.
• Jeff Jaeckle is the editor of Film Dialogue (2013).
• Kristine Brunovska Karnick is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
• Sarah Kozloff is Professor of Film on the William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair at Vassar College.
• Martin Marks, Senior Lecturer in Music and Theater Arts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Joe McElhaney is Professor of Film Studies at Hunter College/City University of New York.
• G. Tom Poe, Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
• Christian Viviani is Professor at Université de Caen-Basse Normandie and coordinator and co-editor of Positif.
• Virginia Wright Wexman is Professor Emerita of English and Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.