Essential Raymond Durgnat

Raymond Durgnat (1932–2002) was a film critic and author of many groundbreaking books on cinema, including Films and Feelings (1967), A Mirror for England (1970; 2011), and The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock (1974). Henry K. Miller is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound and has taught film at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Cutting to the chase, this is the most welcome film book of the year - and one of the most fascinating... If anything can bring back long, hard looks at movies, this will.' - Sight and Sound 'Now, 12 years after this great critic's death at the age of 69, we finally have this superbly edited volume, encompassing previously uncollected pieces from 1963 to 1992. It furnishes a richer sense of his wide-ranging career and what made his writing about movies so generative and freewheeling, mixing realist and surrealist critical inclinations, plainspoken yet restlessly insightful.' - Film Comment 'The essential film book of this or almost any year' - Film Krant 'Miller's selection provides both an instructive primer for those new to Durgnat and a satisfying harvest of largely inaccessible or long out-of-print pieces for the already initiated... a colourful tour of the many styles of address and cultural context that Durgnat enthusiastically immersed himself in and explored to the hilt.' - New Review of Film and Television Studies 'Much-needed' - Cineaste

• 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.