Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1981. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-214). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1981. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-214).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from title screen (viewed on Nov. 23, 2009). "Department of Fine Arts."

This interdisciplinary dissertation examines the relationship between exile and collaborative authorship in the films of blacklisted American director Joseph Losey and British-Jewish playwright/screenwriter Harold Pinter. During the 1960s and early 1970s, they collaborated on the celebrated British art-house films The Servant (1963, based on the novella by Robin Maugham), Accident (1967, based on the novel by Nicholas Mosley), and The Go-Between (1971, based on the novel by L.P. Hartley), which won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 1971 Cannes International Film Festival. Both Losey and Pinter commented frequently on the synergistic nature of their successful collaboration, but Anglo-American film scholarship tends to often incorrectly interpret the collaboration as a disproportionate alliance of talent with Losey serving subordinately to the Nobel laureate Pinter's dramatic genius. Moving beyond the auteur critics' emphasis on solitary film authorship, this dissertation reads the Losey and Pinter collaboration through the lens of exilic cinema. Losey and Pinter's shared exilic vision--the synthesis of the exiled blacklistee Losey and the British-Jewish insider-outsider Pinter--interrogated a British culture that, during the 1960s and early 1970s, possessed a new allure due, in large part, to the international popularity of the Beatles, James Bond, and the fashion of designer Mary Quant. Yet this veneer of sex appeal and economic prosperity veiled ongoing class and racial tension, gender inequality, homosexual oppression, and a dissolving Empire. Losey and Pinter foreground these socio-political issues through a complex modernist film aesthetic, which challenged the classical Hollywood and British narrative film structure by bending genre conventions and archetypes in The Servant, and later fusing elements of modernist literature and Continental European art-house cinema, particularly the films of the French Nouvelle Vague and Rive Gauche filmmakers, in Accident and The Go-Between. This dissertation analyzes The Servant, Accident, and The Go-Between against the socio-political climate of Britain in the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as the creative and economic alliance between the British and Hollywood film industries during this significant filmmaking period. The goal is not only to illustrate that the Losey-Pinter collaboration cannot be placed easily within a single author paradigm, but also that studies of film collaboration need to consider relevant historical, socio-political, and industrial factors.

Le film d’opéra correspond à la rencontre de deux formes d’art ayant chacune ses propres règles de mise en scène. Il nécessite de concilier les exigences de l’opéra et celles du cinéma, mais prétend aussi favoriser leur enrichissement mutuel. Notre réflexion porte sur la pertinence, du point de vue créatif, de cette rencontre. Elle vise à mettre en évidence les risques, les enjeux et les intérêts artistiques du film d’opéra. Le corpus revêt une dimension franco-italienne : il se compose de cinq films produits par Daniel Toscan du Plantier (Don Giovanni de Joseph Losey, Carmen de Francesco Rosi, La Bohème de Luigi Comencini, Madame Butterfly de Frédéric Mitterrand, Tosca de Benoît Jacquot) et de deux autres, non produits par lui : La Traviata et Otello de Franco Zeffirelli, qui appartiennent à cette même « vague » du film d’opéra. L’étude s’intéresse tout d’abord à la politique culturelle du producteur Daniel Toscan du Plantier, grâce à qui ce genre cinématographique s’est développé de façon significative dans les années 1980, afin de définir le contexte de création de ses films, de comprendre son engagement en faveur de ce genre artistique et son intérêt tout particulier pour la culture italienne. Notre analyse tend par la suite à évaluer les difficultés techniques ainsi que les libertés créatives qu’engendre le passage à l’écran. L’écriture cinématographique de l’opéra implique des concessions sur le plan de la réalisation et nécessite un positionnement entre les deux esthétiques, mais elle permet aussi une lecture nouvelle et originale de l’opéra. Nous évaluons à la fois les exigences résultant de l’articulation opéra-cinéma et les solutions apportées par les réalisateurs pour répondre à ces contraintes, bien souvent musicales. La réflexion se concentre dans la seconde partie sur l’aboutissement de cette union, tout d’abord à travers l’analyse de l’interprétation visuelle de la musique fournie par les réalisateurs pour chacun des films du corpus, selon une approche thématique. Elle montre comment l’image mobile transcrit la musique, comment l’écriture cinématographique traduit visuellement la partition et peut accroître la dimension émotive. Enfin, elle s’intéresse à la réception de ces films en France et en Italie, en vue de mesurer l’accueil reçu par chacun auprès de la critique, partagée entre démocratisation de l’opéra et vulgarisation de l’art lyrique. / The "opera film" corresponds to the encounter between two art forms envolving specific staging rules. It combines the requirements of opera and cinema alike whilst endeavouring to promote their mutual enrichment. In this dissertation I analyse the relevance of this encounter from a creative point of view. I intend to highlight the risks, stakes and artistic appropriateness of the opera film. The body of works has a Franco-italian dimension: it includes five films produced by Daniel Toscan du Plantier (Joseph Losey's Don Giovanni, Francesco Rosi's Carmen, Luigi Comencini's La Bohème, Frédéric Mitterrand's Madama Butterfly and Benoît Jacquot's Tosca) as well as two other films which he did not produced: La Traviata and Otello, by Franco Zeffirelli, also belong to this opera film "wave". First of all, I examine Daniel Toscan du Plantier's cultural policy as a producer. Indeed, it was thanks to him that this cinematic genre flourished significantly in the 1980s. I aim to define the creative context of these films and to understand his commitment towards their promotion as well as his genuine interest for Italian culture. I then move on to analysing the technical difficulties as well as the creative licence which results from screen adaptation. On the one hand, the cinematographic writing of opera implies concessions in staging and requires a position be taken in respect of aesthetics, cinematographic and opera. On the other hand, it also triggers a new and original reading of opera. I assess the requirements which result from the opera-cinema articulation and the solutions, often musical, proposed by films directors confronted to these constraints. In Part II I focus on the achievements of this union, first by thematically analysing each director's the visual interpretation of music provided in the films included in the body of works. I argue that the moving image transcribes music, that cinematographic writing translates the music score visually and that it can enhance the emotional dimension. Finally, I examine the response to these films in France and in Italy, especially through the critics divided between the democratisation of opera and the vulgarisation of lyric art.