John Huston as Adaptor

Description

John Huston as Adaptor makes the case that adaptation is the salient element in Huston's identity as a filmmaker and that his early and deep attraction to the experience of reading informed his approach to film adaptation. Thirty-four of Huston's thirty-seven films were adaptations of literary texts, and they stand as serious interpretations of literary works that could only be made by an astute reader of literature. Indeed, Huston asserted that a film director should be above all else a reader and that reading itself should be the intellectual and emotional basis for filmmaking.

The seventeen essays in this volume not only address Huston as an adaptor, but also offer an approach to adaptation studies that has been largely overlooked. How an adaptor reads, the works to which he is drawn, and how his literary interpretations can be brought to the screen without relegating film to a subservient role are some of the issues addressed by the contributors. An introductory chapter identifies Huston as the quintessential Hollywood adaptor and argues that his skill at adaptation is the mark of his authorial signature. The chapters that follow focus on fifteen of Huston's most important films, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The African Queen (1951), The Night of the Iguana (1964), Under the Volcano (1984), and The Dead (1987), and are divided into three areas: aesthetics and textuality; history and social context; and theory and psychoanalysis. By offering a more comprehensive account of the centrality of adaptation to Huston's films, John Huston as Adaptor offers a greater understanding of Huston as a filmmaker.
Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Editors’ Introduction: Huston as Reader
Douglas McFarland and Wesley King

Introduction: Adapted by John Huston
Thomas Leitch

Part I. Aesthetics and Textuality

1. A Passing Node: The Asphalt Jungle
Murray Pomerance

2. Adapting Addiction: Modernist Aesthetics in Under the Volcano
Douglas McFarland

3. Taking Gabriel at His Word: Narration and Huston’s The Dead
Robert L. Colson

4. On Beams and Birds: John Huston’s Adaptation of The Maltese Falcon
Steven Rybin

5. A Screenplay-centric Analysis of Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King
Jonathan C. Glance

Part II. History and Social Context

6. “Proceed with the Execution”: Casting, Convention, and the Diminishment of Rose in The African Queen
Wesley King and Douglas McFarland

7. John Huston and Postwar Hollywood: The Night of the Iguana in Context
R. Barton Palmer

8. “This Has Got to Be a Masterpiece”: John Huston’s Mangled Adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage
Dale M. Pollock

9. Shadowboxing in the Sun: Fighters, Their Bodies, and Their Spaces in Fat City
Tom Dorey

10. Prizzi’s Honor: Greed and Gender in the Beginning of the Neoliberal Era
Betty Kaklamanidou

11. Hints of Modernism, Shades of Noir: Huston’s Maltese Falcon as Transitional Text
Alan Woolfolk

12. Of Borders and Bandits: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Camilla Fojas

13. “The Thing behind the Mask”: Period, Pacing, and Visual Style in John Huston’s Moby Dick
Nathan Ragain

Part III. Theory and Psychoanalysis

14. Huston’s Freud: Adapting the Life of Psychoanalysis
David Sigler

15. Queer Movements: Color, Performance, and Rhythm in John Huston’s Reflections in a Golden Eye
Kyle Stevens

16. Flannery O’Connor’s Symbolic Motif and the Psychoanalytic Objects of John Huston’s Wise Blood
Wesley King

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Película fotográfica
• Visual culture
• Filmmaking
• History of film
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 28 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438463742
• Langue: English

Extrait

John Huston as Adaptor
Also in the series
William Rothman, editor, Cavell on Film
J. David Slocum, editor, Rebel Without a Cause
Joe McElhaney, The Death of Classical Cinema
Kirsten Moana Thompson, Apocalyptic Dread
Frances Gateward, editor, Seoul Searching
Michael Atkinson, editor, Exile Cinema
Paul S. Moore, Now Playing
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, Ecology and Popular Film
William Rothman, editor, Three Documentary Filmmakers
Sean Griffin, editor, Hetero
Jean-Michel Frodon, editor, Cinema and the Shoah
Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Constantine Verevis, editors, Second Takes
Matthew Solomon, editor, Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination
R. Barton Palmer and David Boyd, editors, Hitchcock at the Source
William Rothman, Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, Second Edition
Joanna Hearne, Native Recognition
Marc Raymond, Hollywood’s New Yorker
Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel, editors, Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground
Claire Perkins and Constantine Verevis, editors, B Is for Bad Cinema
Dominic Lennard, Bad Seeds and Holy Terrors
Rosie Thomas, Bombay before Bollywood
Scott M. MacDonald, Binghamton Babylon
Sudhir Mahadevan, A Very Old Machine
David Greven, Ghost Faces
James S. Williams, Encounters with Godard
William H. Epstein and R. Barton Palmer, editors, Invented Lives, Imagined Communities
Lee Carruthers, Doing Time
Rebecca Meyers, William Rothman and Charles Warren, editors, Looking with Robert Gardner
Belinda Smaill, Regarding Life
R. Barton Palmer, Homer B. Pettey, and Steven M. Sanders, editors, Hitchcock’s Moral Gaze
John Huston as Adaptor

Edited by
Douglas McFarland
and
Wesley King
Cover image: Gregory Peck and John Huston on the set of Moby Dick (1956). Courtesy of Photofest.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Eileen Nizer
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McFarland, Douglas editor. | King, Wesley, 1977– editor.
Title: John Huston as adaptor / edited by Douglas McFarland and Wesley King.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Series: SUNY series, horizons of cinema | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031473 (print) | LCCN 2016041188 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438463735 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463742 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Huston, John, 1906–1987—Criticism and interpretation. | Film adaptations—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PN1998.3.H87 J654 2017 (print) | LCC PN1998.3.H87 (ebook) | DDC 791.4302/33092—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031473
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Editors’ Introduction: Huston as Reader
Douglas McFarland and Wesley King
Introduction: Adapted by John Huston
Thomas Leitch
Part I. Aesthetics and Textuality
1. A Passing Node: The Asphalt Jungle
Murray Pomerance
2. Adapting Addiction: Modernist Aesthetics in Under the Volcano
Douglas McFarland
3. Taking Gabriel at His Word: Narration and Huston’s The Dead
Robert L. Colson
4. On Beams and Birds: John Huston’s Adaptation of The Maltese Falcon
Steven Rybin
5. A Screenplay-centric Analysis of Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King
Jonathan C. Glance
Part II. History and Social Context
6. “Proceed with the Execution”: Casting, Convention, and the Diminishment of Rose in The African Queen
Wesley King and Douglas McFarland
7. John Huston and Postwar Hollywood: The Night of the Iguana in Context
R. Barton Palmer
8. “This Has Got to Be a Masterpiece”: John Huston’s Mangled Adaptation of The Red Badge of Courage
Dale M. Pollock
9. Shadowboxing in the Sun: Fighters, Their Bodies, and Their Spaces in Fat City
Tom Dorey
10. Prizzi’s Honor : Greed and Gender in the Beginning of the Neoliberal Era
Betty Kaklamanidou
11. Hints of Modernism, Shades of Noir: Huston’s Maltese Falcon as Transitional Text
Alan Woolfolk
12. Of Borders and Bandits: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Camilla Fojas
13. “The Thing behind the Mask”: Period, Pacing, and Visual Style in John Huston’s Moby Dick
Nathan Ragain
Part III. Theory and Psychoanalysis
14. Huston’s Freud : Adapting the Life of Psychoanalysis
David Sigler
15. Queer Movements: Color, Performance, and Rhythm in John Huston’s Reflections in a Golden Eye
Kyle Stevens
16. Flannery O’Connor’s Symbolic Motif and the Psychoanalytic Objects of John Huston’s Wise Blood
Wesley King
Contributors
Index
Illustrations Figure 1.1 Dix crosses through the fallen and baroque landscape of a decaying urban center. Figure 1.2 A faint shadow of uncertainty begins to form on Doc’s otherwise fully lit face as he realizes he has been deceived. Figure 2.1 The ex-consul cavorts in the street like a madcap Shakespearean fool. Figure 2.2 Subject and object collapse as Firmin stares at a candy skull. Figure 3.1 In one of several similar shots, Gabriel stands aloof from the others, here rehearsing his speech. Figure 3.2 Gazing into the middle distance, Gretta separates herself and her story from the marginalized Gabriel. Figure 4.1 Brigid O’Shaughnessy dramatically enters Spade’s office in the first deep-focus shot of the film. Figure 4.2 All five characters appear in a single shot to re-establish Huston’s narrative and visual sequencing. Figure 5.1 The charismatic Dravot is crowned King as Carnehan looks on. Figure 6.1 Rose and Charlie exchange wedding vows with nooses around their necks. Figure 6.2 Rose dutifully maintains decorum, ignoring the potentially disruptive rumblings from Charlie’s stomach. Figure 7.1 Richard Burton, as the erstwhile anguished male, pauses for a shave. Figure 8.1 A terrified Fleming runs headlong in panic to escape the battle. Figure 9.1 Tully has a muscular physique that carries the marks of a career in the ring. Figure 10.1 A blond femme fatale catches the eye of Charley at a famiglia wedding ceremony. Figure 11.1 Spade leaves Gutman’s apartment after cleverly pretending to lose his temper. Figure 11.2 Even Spade falls under the spell of the “black bird.” Figure 12.1 Gold Hat’s persona adds to a negative portrait of Mexican bandits. Figure 13.1 Queequeg’s shrunken head looms in a way that suggests earlier B-film horror movies. Figure 13.2 Ahab tames St. Elmo’s Fire. Figure 14.1 Freud bends over a waking patient as Breuer looks on. Figure 15.1 A weakened Weldon grips the banister railing while hopelessly caught between stillness and the desire to move. Figure 15.2 The nude figure of Lenora is reflected in an extreme close-up of Ellgee’s eye. Figure 16.1 In the restroom scene and elsewhere, Huston’s use of mirrors complicates the relationship between subject and object. Figure 16.2 During Motes’s dream, Huston pairs sexual desire with death.
Acknowledgments
We wish first to thank all the contributors to this volume. We greatly appreciate the time and effort they have spent on the project and the quality of the work they have produced. The idea for a book on John Huston’s adaptations was first suggested to us by Tom Leitch. Tom has quite appropriately, therefore, written the introductory chapter of the book; his essay demonstrates his expertise in the field of adaptation studies and more specifically establishes the importance of adaptation to an understanding of Huston as a filmmaker. Our gratitude goes to Colin McKeown for his invitation to speak at the Huston Film Festival, Dromahair, Ireland. Great thanks are also due to our research assistants whose tireless efforts have been critical in bringing the project to its conclusion. These include James Hastings, Rebecca Short, Laura Henning, Lauren Weber, and Quinn Foerch. And finally we wish to give special thanks to Murray Pomerance, who has been a mentor and friend and without whose advice and aid this volume would not have been possible.
Editors’ Introduction
Huston as Reader
D OUGLAS M C F ARLAND AND W ESLEY K ING
In his seminal study, John Huston’s Filmmaking , Lesley Brill acknowledged the importance of literary adaptation to John Huston’s body of work. As Brill pointed out, “it is difficult to imagine any other director … transforming works so effectively from such a wide variety of writers,” especially considering that much of the literature Huston adapted “is manifestly resistant to such translation” (5–6). But where Brill was setting out to establish Huston as more broadly comparable to the likes of Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Akira Kurosawa, this book focuses on how the director was unique in his engagemen