Overview

The newest volume in the Film Theory in Practice Series, Auteur Theory and My Son John offers a concise introduction to authorship and auteur theory in jargon-free language. The book goes on to show this theory can be deployed to interpret Leo McCarey’s notorious but undervalued film My Son John, which critics deemed a clear-cut failure, and the auteurists declared a masterpiece. James Morrison traces the development of auteur theory through its emergence in the pages of the French film journal Cahiers du cinéma and the complex permutations it undergoes subsequently. This history will help students and scholars who are eager to learn more about this important area of film theory. The analysis of My Son John shows how auteur theory enables modes of interpretation and discovers levels of meaning otherwise unavailable.

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9781501311741

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Reviews

Brilliant … [a] superb history and analysis of auteurist criticism. * Jonathan Rosenbaum, Cineaste * Reading My Son John both as an instance of the Red Scare-era ‘film rouge’ and a fine-grained text that generates meaning in the smallest gesture of stay Helen Hayes, leaves little doubt as to the proper value-even in this empathetic, troubling, mutilated picture-of McCarey’s artistry. * Nick Pinkerton, Film Comment * Morrison's book is the most illuminating discussion of French auteurism and its influence I've ever read. It's also a convincing defense of writing about movie directors as authors, capped by a brilliant analysis of Leo McCarey's seldom-discussed My Son John. I couldn't put it down. * James Naremore, Indiana University, USA * No one currently writing on film has a more beautiful, captivating prose style than James Morrison. Sentence by sentence, his commentary on Leo McCarey and the auteur theory is alive—alive with wit, with continually surprising insights (every paragraph contains a jewel), and with the unfailing precision and grace of his close readings. Morrison blows the dust off the fossilized remains of French and American versions of auteurism—and has startling things to say about the affiliations of auteurists and surrealists, the mysteries of the glimpse or “flash” moment, and the valor of defeat in the work of anointed directors. Morrison’s study builds to its astonishing centerpiece—a stunning, full-scale analysis of McCarey’s much maligned rouge, My Son John. Making ample, sophisticated use of the most intriguing tools in the auteurist kit, Morrison offers an utterly persuasive case for the film as a major work. Too often, facile claims are made for new critical studies as essential reading. Realizing the danger of excess in proclaiming a study’s merits, I will nevertheless declare this one of best books of film scholarship I have ever read. * George Toles, Distinguished Professor of Film and literature, University of Manitoba, Canada *

Brilliant ... [a] superb history and analysis of auteurist criticism. * Jonathan Rosenbaum, Cineaste * Reading My Son John both as an instance of the Red Scare-era `film rouge' and a fine-grained text that generates meaning in the smallest gesture of stay Helen Hayes, leaves little doubt as to the proper value-even in this empathetic, troubling, mutilated picture-of McCarey's artistry. * Nick Pinkerton, Film Comment * Morrison's book is the most illuminating discussion of French auteurism and its influence I've ever read. It's also a convincing defense of writing about movie directors as authors, capped by a brilliant analysis of Leo McCarey's seldom-discussed My Son John. I couldn't put it down. * James Naremore, Indiana University, USA * No one currently writing on film has a more beautiful, captivating prose style than James Morrison. Sentence by sentence, his commentary on Leo McCarey and the auteur theory is alive-alive with wit, with continually surprising insights (every paragraph contains a jewel), and with the unfailing precision and grace of his close readings. Morrison blows the dust off the fossilized remains of French and American versions of auteurism-and has startling things to say about the affiliations of auteurists and surrealists, the mysteries of the glimpse or flash moment, and the valor of defeat in the work of anointed directors. Morrison's study builds to its astonishing centerpiece-a stunning, full-scale analysis of McCarey's much maligned rouge, My Son John. Making ample, sophisticated use of the most intriguing tools in the auteurist kit, Morrison offers an utterly persuasive case for the film as a major work. Too often, facile claims are made for new critical studies as essential reading. Realizing the danger of excess in proclaiming a study's merits, I will nevertheless declare this one of best books of film scholarship I have ever read. * George Toles, Distinguished Professor of Film and literature, University of Manitoba, Canada *

Morrison's book is the most illuminating discussion of French auteurism and its influence I've ever read. It's also a convincing defense of writing about movie directors as authors, capped by a brilliant analysis of Leo McCarey's seldom-discussed My Son John. I couldn't put it down. * James Naremore, Indiana University, USA * No one currently writing on film has a more beautiful, captivating prose style than James Morrison. Sentence by sentence, his commentary on Leo McCarey and the auteur theory is alive-alive with wit, with continually surprising insights (every paragraph contains a jewel), and with the unfailing precision and grace of his close readings. Morrison blows the dust off the fossilized remains of French and American versions of auteurism-and has startling things to say about the affiliations of auteurists and surrealists, the mysteries of the glimpse or flash moment, and the valor of defeat in the work of anointed directors. Morrison's study builds to its astonishing centerpiece-a stunning, full-scale analysis of McCarey's much maligned rouge, My Son John. Making ample, sophisticated use of the most intriguing tools in the auteurist kit, Morrison offers an utterly persuasive case for the film as a major work. Too often, facile claims are made for new critical studies as essential reading. Realizing the danger of excess in proclaiming a study's merits, I will nevertheless declare this one of best books of film scholarship I have ever read. * George Toles, Distinguished Professor of Film and literature, University of Manitoba, Canada *

Brilliant ... [a] superb history and analysis of auteurist criticism. * Jonathan Rosenbaum, Cineaste * Reading My Son John both as an instance of the Red Scare-era 'film rouge' and a fine-grained text that generates meaning in the smallest gesture of stay Helen Hayes, leaves little doubt as to the proper value-even in this empathetic, troubling, mutilated picture-of McCarey's artistry. * Nick Pinkerton, Film Comment * Morrison's book is the most illuminating discussion of French auteurism and its influence I've ever read. It's also a convincing defense of writing about movie directors as authors, capped by a brilliant analysis of Leo McCarey's seldom-discussed My Son John. I couldn't put it down. * James Naremore, Indiana University, USA * No one currently writing on film has a more beautiful, captivating prose style than James Morrison. Sentence by sentence, his commentary on Leo McCarey and the auteur theory is alive-alive with wit, with continually surprising insights (every paragraph contains a jewel), and with the unfailing precision and grace of his close readings. Morrison blows the dust off the fossilized remains of French and American versions of auteurism-and has startling things to say about the affiliations of auteurists and surrealists, the mysteries of the glimpse or flash moment, and the valor of defeat in the work of anointed directors. Morrison's study builds to its astonishing centerpiece-a stunning, full-scale analysis of McCarey's much maligned rouge, My Son John. Making ample, sophisticated use of the most intriguing tools in the auteurist kit, Morrison offers an utterly persuasive case for the film as a major work. Too often, facile claims are made for new critical studies as essential reading. Realizing the danger of excess in proclaiming a study's merits, I will nevertheless declare this one of best books of film scholarship I have ever read. * George Toles, Distinguished Professor of Film and literature, University of Manitoba, Canada *

Author Information

James Morrison is Professor of Literature and Film at Claremont McKenna College, USA. He is the author, co-author or editor of nine books, including Roman Polanski (2007) and Hollywood Reborn (2010).

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