In Response to Mr. Wollen

Ok, so I get that Peter Wollen really likes this Curtiz guy... but to be honest, I have no idea whether or not I agree with him about Curtiz as an "auteur." Although Wollen writes well and makes a convincing argument, formulating any sort of real opinion on this essay definitely requires watching some Curtiz films. It's been a while since I've seen Casablanca, but even then, I didn't know that Curtiz made it. I guess that says something about his style of authorship (i.e. that his films really do stand alone, and that most people generally know about his work, but not about him... the "death of the author"? Perhaps. But probably not, since there are still plenty of directors and producers out there whose names and styles are widely recognizable.) I was especially surprised that I'd never heard of Curtiz, since according to Wollen he "made more films than anyone else in Hollywood; 45 in his native Hungary...15 in neighboring Austria...2 in Berlin...and then no less than 102 in Holywood..." (67). It's amazing that he was so prolific and had such a huge presence in early Hollywood, yet I'd never heard his name before, even as a Media Studies major.

Man, I should have taken a film theory class at some point...

Ok, I'm heading out. See you all in class tonight.