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America: Boom, Bust, and Baseball Guide: The Screen on Stage, A History of the American Film
JAN 27, 2010
Dramaturg Paul Stacey interviews author of A History of the American Film, Christopher Durang.
Dramaturg Paul Stacey interviews author of A History of the American Film, Christopher Durang:
Paul Stacey: You wrote this play thirty years ago. Has the role of film changed in American culture?
Christopher Durang: It has, and I find it depressing. Today, decisions are made by business school graduates. The old time movies were picked by immigrant men who created the business. These men respected literature and made great films based on books like David Copperfield or A Tale of Two Cities. They were able to negotiate high culture and pop culture. When I go to the movies now I get so depressed by the coming attractions-the films are made for fifteen-year-old boys.
PS: What films influenced A History of the American Film?
CD: The jumping-off point was an obscure film called A Man’s Castle. The characters were penniless and living in a shantytown, so I found it romantic. It also said a lot about American resolve. They were in the Depression but not in despair. Also gangster movies like Public Enemy. And screwball comedies, especially My Man Godfrey. Then Busby Berkeley and the gold diggers movies. Then I threw in Citizen Kane, World War II movies, and end the play with disaster movies.
PS: A History of the American Film shows how America creates its identity through film. What do current movies say about the national zeitgeist?
CD: People no longer go to the movies the way they did in my generation. I don’t feel like the movies are a reflection of the American character anymore. One might find that in television. I don’t keep up with TV, but I teach with Marsha Norman, and she thinks the writing on television is far superior to the writing in films.
PS: I detect a strong note of nostalgia in the play. What are you nostalgic for?
CD: Growing up I watched the movies of the 1930s and 1940s. So the nostalgia was for the film literature I watched as a child. Most of the movies then were really well made. In the 1930s it was exciting to see how they were discovering the medium.