New book from an Honorary Member of SIGNIS Argentina.

Illuminations. Author's cinema: directors, films, controversies is the new work of Agustín Neifert, Honorary Member of SIGNIS Argentina

The publication of the prolific film critic Neifert, launched by the Editorial of the National University of the South, constitutes a journey through some of the most emblematic films in the history of cinema, from 1939 to 2009, classified by decades, taking as the axis of selection and analysis of the concept of "auteur cinema". In this way, they parade through the pages of Iluminaciones ... directors from various latitudes who achieved a stylistic stamp in the seventh art, among them Vittorio De Sica, Francois Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Glauber Rocha, Liliana Cavani, Andrzej Wajda, Héctor Babenco, John Huston, Isabel Coixet and Quentin Tarantino, and many others.

“The reader will find in the introduction to this book an answer to the question about what is auteur cinema . I have tried to explain the origin of the concept and review the controversies that it aroused ", Neifert himself comments by way of presentation at the beginning of his book, to continue later " I violated the canons of traditional criticism, since I was more interested in providing information than academic scholarship. Some films analyzed, from their very origin, contradict one of the basic principles of authors' policy , because I vindicate the figures of the screenwriter and the novelist. However, they are all expressions of auteur cinema, as they bear the unmistakable stylistic stamp of their directors. "

The different views (controversial) about the theory of the author of great intellectuals of the cinema of the stature of the French André Bazin, the own Truffautt, the American Pauline Kael, or the Uruguayan Homero Alsina Thevenet are part of the body of this work.

With the investigative journalistic criteria that stand out, Agustín Neifert examines classics such as "The Rule of the Game", by Jean Renoir, "The Third Man", by Carol Reed, "The Battle of Algeria", by Gillo Pontecorvo, "Mouchette", by Robert Bresson, or "The Sacrifice" by Andrei Tarkovski.

The historical context, the original idea, the struggle to produce them, the doubts before the realization, the response of the critics and the public towards each film, complement the study of each one of the 30 films chosen.

The great quality of Agustín Neifert in this book is to make a true narrative montage with quotes from books and newspaper articles by various authors and nationalities, which add, as with other previous works of his, a quota of diversity of criteria that he grants at all times the possibility of reflection for the reader of Illuminations. Author's cinema: directors, films, controversies.

About Agustín Neifert.

He is a graduate of the Film School of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Film critic for the newspaper "La Nueva Provincia" between 1980 and 2013. Honorary Member of SIGNIS Argentina and founding partner of the Bahía Blanca Film Studies Center.

He is the author of several books, including:

"Movie theater. From the shadows to the light ”(1998);

“From paper to celluloid. Argentine writers in the cinema ”(2003);

"Graham Greene and the cinema. Enigmas and confessions ”(2005);

"Intolerance and social discrimination in contemporary cinema" (2011);

“From paper to celluloid. Argentine writers in the cinema. Volume II (2014) ”;

"Signs and spiritual values in the cinema" (2017)

The book Illuminations. Author's cinema: directors, films, controversies

It can be purchased through Mercado Libre.

To contact the Editorial of the National University of the South