Post-Fordist Cinema: Hollywood Auteurs and the Corporate Counterculture

The New Hollywood boom of the late 1960s and 1970s is celebrated as a time when maverick directors bucked the system. Post-Fordist Cinema rewrites the history of this period, arguing that auteur theory served to reconcile directors to Hollywood's corporate project. It traces the surprising affinities between auteur theory and management gurus such as Peter Drucker, who envisioned a more open and flexible corporate style. New Hollywood filmmakers took part in the creation of new corporate models that emphasized entrepreneurial creativity, with striking parallels to how management theory conceived of the role of the individual within the firm.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 26 February 2019
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The late 1960s and early 1970s witnessed a remarkable era in Hollywood known as the New Hollywood boom, celebrated for its maverick directors who defied the traditional system. Against the backdrop of counterculture sensibilities and the rise of auteur theory, filmmakers like Robert Altman and Francis Ford Coppola emerged as icons of creative individualism. In his book, Post-Fordist Cinema, Jeff Menne challenges the conventional narrative of this period, arguing that auteur theory played a crucial role in reconciling directors to Hollywood's corporate project. Menne delves into the surprising connections between auteur theory and management gurus like Peter Drucker, who envisioned a more open and flexible corporate style. New Hollywood filmmakers actively participated in the creation of new production companies that prioritized entrepreneurial creativity. These companies, including Kirk Douglass Bryna Productions, Altmans Lions Gate Films, the Zanuck-Brown Company, and BBS Productions, disrupted the stagnant production process within the studio system, drawing parallels to management theory's understanding of the individual's role within the firm. Menne offers insightful interpretations of how films such as Lonely Are the Brave, Brewster McCloud, Jaws, and The King of Marvin Gardens narrate the conditions in which they were created, shedding light on shifting notions of work and corporate structure. While auteur theory allowed directors to present themselves as independent creators, Menne argues that its most significant impact came as a management doctrine. Post-Fordist Cinema offers an ambitious rethinking of New Hollywood, challenging the cultural myth of the great director and illuminating the birth of the "creative economy."

Weight: 380g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231183710