The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History - Tapa blanda

With Oscar season upon us, David Kipen asks who’s responsible for Hollywood’s best movies?

In an edgy and funny manifesto, critic David Kipen says au contraire to that old film school theory—the auteur theory—that gives all the credit to the director.

Instead, in honor of “the mother tongue of America’s first screenwriters,” Kipen uses the Yiddish word for “writer” to coin "The Schreiber Theory," which decrees that knowing who wrote a movie is often a far better guide to knowing whether the movie will be any good or not.

Kipen’s new heresy topples the old orthodoxy by studying the careers of screenwriters past and present in a witty, two-pronged attack: In part one, he dismantles the auteur theory and presents a convincing argument that screenwriters are the guiding creative geniuses behind the best films. In part two, he offers a compendium of mini-biographies of great screenwriters past and present. Who wrote Casablanca? Who wrote Twelve Monkeys? Who wrote Dead Girls Don’t Tango? What else did they write?

It all makes The Schreiber Theory an engaging read and a one-of-a-kind reference for movie lovers and film students alike.

David Kipen has been one of America’s leading book and movie critics for over fifteen years, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Boxoffice, The Atlantic Monthly and many others. He was the editor of Buzz Magazine and books editor of The San Francisco Chronicle. He is the former Director of the Literature program at the National Endowment for the Arts.