Conflicts of Authorship and the Autonomization of Cinema in Pre-60s United States and France
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: This article analyses forms of interdependence between the autonomization of cinema and the struggles concerning the definition of the author of a film between the 1910s and the 1950s. These conflicts involved French and US producers, screenwriters, writers, and directors. The article presents the motives, actors and arenas of film authorship conflicts. It shows that professionals who claimed film authorship contributed to cinema’s autonomization process by defining films as artworks, by defending a variety of conceptions of the relations between cinema and other arts, and by distinguishing the aesthetic value, popularity and profitability of films. These conflicting views of cinema are linked to its relations with other cultural fields. Informed by encounters between works and professionals from different fields, authorship battles contributed to the autonomization of cinema from other economic and artistic activities. This paper stresses that the autonomization of a field, the hierarchization of its workforce, and the attribution of works are distinct and independent processes.
DOI: 10.4000/bssg.342
Author: Jérôme Pacouret
Language: English
Topic: Cinema History and Criticism
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2953473441