Conflicts of Authorship and the Autonomization of Cinema in Pre-60s United States and France

Abstract

This article analyses forms of interdependence between the autonomization of cinema and the struggles concerning the definition of the author of a film between the 1910s and the 1950s. These conflicts involved French and US producers, screenwriters, writers, and directors. The article presents the motives, actors and arenas of film authorship conflicts. It shows that professionals who claimed film authorship contributed to cinema’s autonomization process by defining films as artworks, by defending a variety of conceptions of the relations between cinema and other arts, and by distinguishing the aesthetic value, popularity and profitability of films. These conflicting views of cinema are linked to its relations with other cultural fields. Informed by encounters between works and professionals from different fields, authorship battles contributed to the autonomization of cinema from other economic and artistic activities. This paper stresses that the autonomization of a field, the hierarchization of its workforce, and the attribution of works are distinct and independent processes.

La relation de domination Han sur le peuple tibétain : l’exemple du biopic sportif chinois 40 000 Kilometers de Keke (2017)

“…Ainsi convient-il de poser cette question : lequel a plus de poids pour l'adaptation du film, le réalisateur tibétain ou le scénariste Han ? Toujours est-il que l'appartenance du droit d'auteur au cinéma fait depuis longtemps l'objet de débats (Pacouret, 2019). Cet entraîneur paternel ne reflète-t-il pas une sorte d'imaginaire collectif des Han, ici représenté par Alan Zhao, concernant leur statut vis-à-vis des ethnies minoritaires ?…”