Abstract

This engaging collection of Bruce F. Kawin’s most important film essays (1977–2011) is accompanied by his interviews with Lillian Gish (1978) and Howard Hawks (1976).  The Hawks interview is particularly concerned with his work with William Faulkner and their friendship. The Gish interview emphasizes her role as a producer in the 1920s. The essays focus on such topics as violence and sexual politics in film, the relations between horror and science fiction, the growth of video and digital cinema and their effects on both film and film scholarship, the politics of film theory, narration in film, and the relations between film and literature. Among the most significant articles reprinted here are “Me Tarzan, You Junk,” “The Montage Element in Faulkner's Fiction,” “The Mummy’s Pool,” “The Whole World Is Watching,” and “Late Show on the Telescreen:  Film Studies and the Bottom Line.” The book includes close readings of films from “La Jetée” to “The Wizard of Oz.”

Bruce F. Kawin is Professor of English and Film at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His books include “Telling It Again and Again: Repetition in Literature and Film,” “Mindscreen: Bergman, Godard, and First-Person Film,” “The Mind of the Novel: Reflexive Fiction and the Ineffable,” “Faulkner’s MGM Screenplays,” “How Movies Work” and “Horror and the Horror Film.” He is also the co-author of the last seven editions of “A Short History of the Movies.”

Howie Movshovitz teaches film at the College of Arts and Media at the University of Colorado at Denver. He has been a film critic on Colorado Public Radio since 1976 and has reported on film subjects for National Public Radio since 1987.

“Readers who care sincerely about movies will learn from and be challenged by the work of Bruce Kawin.” —Roger Ebert

“The way in which the volume situates Faulkner and Foote in – even surrounds them with – such groundbreaking film scholarship productively skews more conventional accounts of these writers […] [Scholars] would do well to heed Kawin’s plea to ‘get it right,’ to ‘stand up for accuracy.’ I can think of no better model in this pursuit than his ‘Selected Film Essays and Interviews’.” —Sarah Gleeson-White, “Mississippi Quarterly”

“This book is a splendid introduction to an influential writer you may not have had the opportunity to read previously. Kawin emerges as the quintessential cinema academic, a writer of (mostly) concise opinion imbued with an understanding of the technicalities of the medium and a real adoration for its possibilities; a unique overview of cinema as a multi-faceted artistic expression.” —Jez Owen, “Film International”

This engaging collection of Bruce F. Kawin’s most important film essays (1977–2011) is accompanied by his interviews with Lillian Gish (1978) and Howard Hawks (1976). The Hawks interview is particularly concerned with his work with William Faulkner and their friendship. The Gish interview emphasizes her role as a producer in the 1920s. The essays take up such topics as violence and sexual politics in film, the relations between horror and science fiction, the growth of video and digital cinema and their effects on both film and film scholarship, the politics of film theory, narration in film, and the relations between film and literature.

Kawin’s film essays and reviews have appeared in “Take One,” “Film Quarterly,” “American Book Review” and elsewhere. Until the publication of this volume, most of them were out of print and unavailable online. Among the most significant articles reprinted here are “Me Tarzan, You Junk,” “The Montage Element in Faulkner’s Fiction,” “The Mummy’s Pool,” “The Whole World Is Watching,” and “Late Show on the Telescreen:  Film Studies and the Bottom Line.” The book includes close readings of films from “La Jetée” to “The Wizard of Oz” and reviews of films from “Full Metal Jacket” to “The Fury.”

The essays take up some of the most interesting aspects of film, from the effect of film violence on viewers to the changes brought by digital cinema, while remaining readable and free of jargon. As critic Howie Movshovitz says in the Foreword, “his writing is utterly, utterly clear.” Original and independent, the book is free of attachment to any school of criticism or theory, and is dedicated to the fresh and open-minded appreciation of movies.

“In admirably clear language, Kawin is adept at exploring both the formal and the literary dimensions of filmmaking and directing our attention to out-of-the-way works that detonate fresh general ideas. His probing essay on Faulkner, film, and modernism is a tour de force, bolstered by an illuminating interview with Howard Hawks on working with the writer.” —Morris Dickstein, CUNY Graduate Center

“Bruce F. Kawin’s ‘Selected Film Essays and Interviews,’ a collection of his writings spanning from 1977 to 2011, is a welcome addition to film studies literature. Kawin, Professor of English and Film at the University of Colorado at Boulder, writes in a style refreshingly free of the jargon and verbal clutter that all too often serve to obfuscate and distract in academic film writing. This volume collects a number of his most important essays and reviews as well as two interviews with Lillian Gish and Howard Hawks, respectively. [...] [A]n essential collection [containing] concise and thoughtful examinations on different areas of film studies.” —Matt Barry, roguecinema.com