An Invention without a Future. James Naremore

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      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

      University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

      University of California Press

      Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

      University of California Press, Ltd.

      London, England

      © 2014 by The Regents of the University of California

      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