The Cinema of Norman Mailer: Film is Like Death

Description

The Cinema of Norman Mailer: Film is Like Death not only examines the enfant terrible writer's thoughts on cinema, but also features interviews with Norman Mailer himself. The Cinema of Norman Mailer also explores Mailer's cinema through previously published and newly commissioned essays written by an array of film and literary scholars, enthusiasts, and those with a personal, philosophical connection to Mailer. This volume discusses the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and filmmaker's six films created during the years of 1947 and 1987, and contends to show how Mailer's films can be best read as cinematic delineations that visually represent many of the writer's metaphysical and ontological concerns and ideas that appear in his texts from the 1950s until his passing in 2007. By re-examining Mailer's cinema through these new perspectives, one may be awarded not just a deeper understanding of Mailer's desire to make films, but also find a new, alternative vision of Mailer himself. Norman Mailer was not just a writer, but more: he was one of the most influential Postmodern artists of the twentieth century with deep roots in the cinema. He allowed the cinema to not only influence his aesthetic approach, but sanctioned it as his easiest-crafted analogy for exploring sociological imagination in his writing. Mailer once suggested, "Film is legitimately more interesting than books..." and with that in mind, readers of Norman Mailer might begin to rethink his oeuvre through the viewfinder of the film medium, as he was equally as passionate about working within cinema as he was about literature itself. Reviews: “You can bet there will never be another book on the films of Norman Mailer. This always intelligent look back at the despised movie career of this famously talented writer is made all the more astonishing by the collected essays' honesty, respect and attempt at historical context. Reading about these movies is way more fun than actually seeing them and even Norman might agree.” – John Waters, Director and Screenwriter, USA “Bozung's collection represents a major advance in our understanding of Mailer's films-their origins, creation, reception, relationship to his literary work, and enduring influence. His assiduous archival work, communication with almost everyone alive involved with Mailer's filmmaking, the collection of previously published essays (including Mailer's), and the commissioning of new ones, plus an extraordinary collection of photographs, makes The Cinema of Norman Mailer the definitive volume on Mailer's film career.” – J. Michael Lennon, author of Norman Mailer: A Double Life (2013) and Emeritus Professor of English, Wilkes University, USA “Because of this thorough, eclectic, and nuanced text, I now feel as if I could do a better job teaching Mailer as a filmmaker and communicate a more critical and contextualized understanding of Mailer's process and product. Now, after reading this comprehensive collection of memoirs, essays, and interviews-one that, I might add, will appeal to the enthusiast as well as undergraduate and graduate students-I feel as if I actually might be able to do Mailer justice as a filmmaker in the classroom. Now, instead of thinking about Mailer as a writer who pushed the boundaries of all the genres he worked in, thanks to Bozung's collection, I have a broader understanding of Norman Mailer and his cultural legacy.” – Norman Mailer Review Cover page......Page 1 Halftitle page ......Page 2 Author letter......Page 3 Title page ......Page 4 Copyright page ......Page 5 CONTENTS......Page 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 8 Dedication......Page 9 Epigraph......Page 10 FOREWORD BY MICHAEL CHAIKEN......Page 12 1 INTRODUCTION: MAILER’S FILM AESTHETICS......Page 20 Reinstating Being: Wild 90 and Beyond the Law......Page 25 Capturing subjective reality: Maidstone......Page 30 Tough Guys Don’t Dance: cubist noir......Page 38 Notes......Page 46 2 SOME DIRT IN THE TALK......Page 50 3 VISUALIZING BEING AND NOTHINGNESS: MAILER MEETS GODOT......Page 70 Part I: Visualizing Nothingness......Page 72 Part II: Visualizing Being......Page 78 Notes......Page 82 4 MAILER INTERROGATES MACHISMO: SELF-REFLEXIVEC OMMENTARY IN WILD 90 AND WHY ARE WE IN VIETNAM?......Page 84 Notes......Page 95 5 TRANSCENDING THE FORMULA: BEYOND THE LAW AND THE OLD-FASHIONED COP MOVIE......Page 98 Notes......Page 126 6 “ALL OF US ARE POLICEMEN, ALL OF US ARE CRIMINALS”: DISCOVERING DOSTOEVSKY IN A RE-EVALUATION OF BEYOND THE LAW......Page 128 Beyond the Law: Crime......Page 129 Beyond the Law: Motive......Page 131 Notes......Page 135 1. On the theory......Page 138 2.......Page 140 3.......Page 142 4.......Page 144 5.......Page 147 1. In the practice......Page 149 2.......Page 151 3.......Page 155 4.......Page 157 8 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE CELEBRITY AUTHOR IN MAIDSTONE......Page 164 Black Brando as existential hero: “The White Negro” and the method actor......Page 165 Reality testing: the violence of the cinematic apparatus and the resistance of the fi lm actor......Page 168 Mailer’s Maidstone : “a commando raid on the nature of reality”......Page 171 Conclusion: authorizing the real......Page 175 Notes......Page 177 9 MAIDSTONE: THE UNILINEAR ABSTRACT......Page 180 Notes......Page 185 10 COMMANDO RAIDS ON THE NATURE OF REALITY......Page 186 Operation Leviathan......Page 187 Deep in my dungeon......Page 190 Mining for the ineluctable ore......Page 193 Notes......Page 195 A review I was writing for a local newspaper......Page 198 Excuses......Page 199 The clothed and the live......Page 200 Beyond the Law goes to college......Page 207 And next:......Page 208 Paradise island......Page 211 Blue movie......Page 212 After the fall......Page 214 Armies......Page 216 12 OVEREXPOSED: MY FIRST TASTE OF FILM-MAKING......Page 220 13 NORMAN MAILER: INTERVIEW (1970)......Page 224 14 MAILER, GODARD, AND COMPANY......Page 242 Notes......Page 250 15 DANCE OF A TOUGH GUY......Page 254 16 PULP FICTION IN PROVINCETOWN......Page 264 Notes......Page 277 17 PARADISE LOST: NORMAN MAILER AND AMERICAN PURGATORY......Page 278 Note......Page 290 18 TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE AND THE CINEMA OF REAGANISM......Page 292 Notes......Page 303 19 NORMAN MAILER’S “WINDOWS”......Page 306 CONTRIBUTORS......Page 316 ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 320 Index......Page 324