The Essential Raymond Durgnat

Raymond durgnat was a maverick voice during the golden age of film criticism. From the French new Wave and the rise of auteurism, through the late 1960s counter-culture,to the rejuvenated Hollywood of the 1970s, his work appeared in dozens of publications in Britain, France and the USA.

At once evoking the film culture of his own times and anticipating our digital age in which technology allows everyone to create their own 'moving image-text combos', durgnat's writings touch on crucial questions in film criticism that resonate more than ever today.

Bringing together durgnat's essential writing for the very first time, this career-spanning collection includes previously unpublished
and untranslated work and is thoroughly introduced and annotated by Henry K. Miller.

Raymond Durgnat (1932–2002) was a film critic and author of many ground-breaking books on cinema, including Films and Feelings, Sexual Alienation in the Cinema, and The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock.

Henry K. Miller is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound and has taught film at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Preface
Introduction: The Divided Self
PART 1: AUTEUR WARS
Introduction
1. Standing Up For Jesus
2. Who Really Makes the Movies?
3. Cat and Mouse Games
4. Michael Powell
Annotations
PART 2: JET-PROPELLED PHOTOGRAPHS
Introduction
5. Flyweight Flicks
6. Wholly Communion
7. Underground Film Festival Programme Notes
8. Asides on Godard
9. Ker-Plow!
10. Dwoskin's Dream-Films
11. London Film-Makers Co-operative Catalogue Entries
12. Tonite Let's All Make Love in London
13. One Plus One
14. Cutting With a Keen Edge
Annotations
PART 3: IMAGES OF THE MIND
Introduction
15. Fake, Fiddle and the Photographic Arts
16. Images of the Mind I: Throwaway Movies
17. Images of the Mind II: Ebb and Flow
18. Images of the Mind III: The Impossible Takes a Little Longer
19. Images of the Mind IV: Style and the Old Wave
Annotations
PART 4: BRITAIN THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
Introduction
20. Brain Drains: Drifters, Avant-Gardes and Kitchen Sinks
21. TV's Young Turks
22. The Great British Phantasmagoria
23. Sexual Alienation in the Cinema
Annotations
PART 5: CALIFORNIA SPLIT
Introduction
24. Montage Rides Again!
25. Pacific Film Archive Programme Notes
26. From Signs to Meanings in the Cinema
27. Popeye Pops Up
Annotations
PART 6: LOOKING BACK
Introduction
28. About John Ford
29. A Skeleton Key to Stephen Dwoskin?
30. Cooped in a Co-op?
31. Jean-Luc Godard: His Crucifixion and Resurrection
32. Resnais and Co.: Back to the Avant-Garde
33. Aiming at the Archers
34. The Prewar Bs: Rewards and Fairies
35. Remembering Michael Powell
Annotations
Appendix I: Pacific Film Archive Programmes
Appendix II: Top Tens
Bibliography
Index