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Below is an index to the early (2003) posts of the Yahoo! film discussion group I cofounded, a_film_by.

This page was made very early in the group's existence and has been superseded by the complete collection of posts I've put up.

For more information on the group see our Statement of Purpose; if you're interested in joining, see our Information on Joining. The original purpose of this page was to make the posts a bit more accessible by listing some of the topics discussed, but as the group grew (there are now over 10,000 posts) this became too time-consuming a task. But I leave the index below up to give some indication of the group's range. See the message headers, the group's "Search Archive" feature, and the main page for a fuller indication of topics discussed.

Meanwhile in lieu of a full index I am starting to index some of my own posts as I get a chance, starting with the most recent, listed alphabetically by director and topic below. The group's many message indexes as well as the "Search Archive" function will generally reveal many other posts on topics I've posted on. Fred Camper

An Index to Some of Fred Camper's Posts on the Yahoo! Film Discussion Group, a_film_by

This index of some of my posts to this group is very incomplete and will not be updated. You can search for posts by me in the files of posts.

Stan Brakhage: Source of the title The Dark Tower, posts 1 {with a reference to Kubrick and his 2001) and 2.
Claude Chabrol and his Marie-Chantal.
Delmer Daves: 3:10 to Yuma.
Guru Dutt: [Pyaasa (Eternal Thirst, Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers), Aar Paar (Cupid's Arrow), Jaal (The Net) Baazi (A Game of Chance).]
Alfred Hitchcock and his Under Capricorn.
Andrew Jarecki: Capturing the Friedmans and the question of "truth" in documentary film, posts 1, 2, and 3.
Joseph H. Lewis.
Vincente Minnelli and his The Pirate, and films on video and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu, posts 1 and 2.
Robert Mulligan: posts 1 [Same Time Next Year, 2, 3 (The Man in the Moon, Clara's Heart, To Kill a Mockingbird, and cinema and social responsibility), and 4 (film and social responsibility).
Manoel de Oliveira and whether he has consistent themes and style: posts 1 and 2.
Max Ophuls and his Lola Montez and falling into the void.
Yvonne Rainer and her Film About a Woman Who...
Arthur J. Ripley and his The Chase.
Jacques Rivette and his Noroit.
Gus van Sant and his Elephant.
Douglas Sirk and his Imitation of Life: posts 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Hiroshi Shimizu: posts 1, 2, and 3.
Spencer Williams and his The Blood of Jesus.

American avant-garde film and Gnosticism: posts 1 and 2.
Aspect ratio research needed: posts 1, 2, and 3 (and Ingmar Bergman).
The auteur theory and Sidney Lumet's Network: posts 1 and 2, 3, and 4.
The auteur theory, general thoughts: posts of 1 and 2.
Changes in audiences for Hollywood films, and its effect on their aesthetic: posts 1 and 2.
Film criticism.
Film editing: directorial control and the auteur theory.
The Holocaust or Shoah on film: Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, Alain Resnais's Night and Fog, and other related films and topics: Post 1, 2, 3, and 4.


Posts on Cinema, Auteurism, and Individual Directors and Films in the Film Discussion Group, a_film_by

Posts 1-30: Paul Wendkos, auteurism, and more.
Posts 31-60: auteurism, King Vidor, Howard Hawks and The Big Sky, Robert Mulligan's Clara's Heart, and more.
Posts 61-90: Edgar G. Ulmer and his Natalka Poltavka and other ethnic films, Jerry Lewis, King Vidor, and more.
Posts 91-120: Fred Walton, Jerry Lewis, Robert Mulligan and his Clara's Heart, and more.
Posts 121-150: Leo McCarey, Gregory LaCava, Erich von Stroheim's review of Citizen Kane, and more.
Posts 151-180: Edgar G. Ulmer, Jean Epstein and his Le Tempestaire, Sergio Leone, Joseph Losey, and more.
Posts 181-210: Otto Preminger and his In Harm's Way and Saint Joan, Howard Hawks and his El Dorado, Peter Bogdanovich, and more.
Posts 211-240: Peter Bogdanovich, Howard Hawks, Joseph Losey, James Ivory, Andrew Sarris, auteurism and the auteur theory, Steven Spielberg, and more.
Posts 241-270: Auteurism, Blake Edwards, Joe Dante, Ang Lee's The Hulk, Charles Marquis Warren, and more.
Posts 271-300: Auteurism, Stephen Spielberg, Henri-Georges Clouzot, The Hulk, Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Joe Dante, William Friedkin, Vincente Minnelli, academia, structuralism, "theory," Cahiers du cinema, and more.
Posts 301-330: Cahiers du cinema, Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, Lev Kuleshov, the opening credits of Kiss Me Deadly, Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie and Under Capricorn, Cinemania directed by Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak, and more.
Posts 331-360: Monte Hellman, Cinemania directed by Angela Christlieb and Stephen Kijak, dissolves and the decline in their use in Hollywood films, Clint Eastwood and Blood Work, Dorothy Arzner, Curtis Harrington and his film Usher.
Posts 361-390: Curtis Harrington and his film Usher; Bill Morrison's Decasia; Andrew Jarecki's Capturing the Friedmans; Brian G. Hutton and his First Deadly Sin; John M. Stahl and his Leave Her to Heaven, When Tomorrow Comes, Back Street; Carl Dreyer / Carl Th. Dreyer and his influence on Douglas Sirk and Jacques Tourneur; Michael Cimino; Leo McCarey and his An Affair to Remember, Samuel Fuller, and more.
Posts 391-420: Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter; Bill Morrison's Decasia; Ang Lee's Hulk; Chantal Akerman and her Jeanne Dielmann; Babette Mangolte; John M. Stahl; Samuel Fuller; dissolves; King Vidor; auteurs on TV; Gerd Oswald's Star Trek, Twilight Zone, and Outer Limits; Joseph H. Lewis's The Rifleman; auteurism; directorial personality and art as an expression of personality, and more.
Posts 421-450: Auteurism and personality; auteurs directing TV shows and TV movies, including Orson Welles, George Cukor, Leo McCarey, Gerd Oswald, and Curtis Harrington; TV directors including William A. Graham, Abby Mann, Jim McBride, Hal Needhamm, and Daniel Petrie; Jud Taylor's Tail Gunner Joe; Alfred Hitchcock's TV shows, and more.
Posts 451-480: TV movies, video preservation issues, High Noon and auteurists' dislike of it, TV directors, TV shows, Stephen Frears and his Bloody Kids, theory, film theory, film academia, David Weddle's article on film theory at the University of California at Santa Barbara in the Los Angeles Times, and more.
Posts 481-510: Andre de Toth and his Dark Waters, Eric Rohmer, film theory and film academia, Cahiers du Cinema and theory and Raymond Bellour, Jean Douchet, Vincente Minnelli, I'Isle de Gilligan as a parody of film theory, Stanley Cavell and Rules of the Game, and more.
Posts 511-540: Film theory, film academia, David Weddle's article on film theory at the University of California at Santa Barbara in the Los Angeles Times, goals for auteurism, Peter Bogdanovich on Northern Exposure and Northern Exposure, Steven Soderbergh and his Solaris, and more.
Posts 541-570: Douglas Sirk's A Scandal in Paris on DVD; Stanley Kramer's Not as a Stranger, Andre de Toth's Play Dirty, Nicholas Ray's Bitter Victory, Leo McCarey and the names Lucy and Lucille, Samuel Fuller and the name Griff, early cinema and Lumiere and travelogues, and more.
Posts 571-600: Stanley Kramer, early travelogues, Lumiere, Leo McCarey and the names Lucy and Lucille, The Hulk, John Huston, Brazilian cinema, David Neves, Rogerio Sganzerla, Julio Bressane, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Jacques Tourneur, Howard Hawks's The Crowd Roars, Billy Wilder, and more.
Posts 601-630: Leo McCarey, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, the Coen brothers, Stanley Kubrick, Raoul Walsh and Objective Burma, Kenji Mizoguchi's Osaka Elegy, F. W. Murnau's Sunrise, Frank Borzage's Street Angel, film criticism and the Internet, and more.
Posts 631-659: Film criticism and the Internet, Billy Wilder, Kenji Mizoguchi's Osaka Elegy and Sansho Dayu (also known as Sansho the Bailiff), Vincente Minnelli, Kenji Mizoguchi and Japanese prostitutes, women and cinephilia, number of women cinephiles, gay cinephiles, auteurism in France, political orientation of auteurists, and more.[Note: the missing post numbers are mostly duplicates of others posts, posted by mistake and hence deleted.]
Posts 665-690: History of auteurism in France, Amedee Ayfre, the MacMahonians, places auteurists viewed films in New York in the 1960s and 1970s (college film societies at MIT and Harvard, Roger and Howie's, Roger McNiven and Howard Mandlebaum, Joe's Place, the New York Cultural Center and Marty Rubin, 42nd Street, the First Avenue Screening Room), Frank Borzage's Street Angel, what makes a good film (style, subject, or theme), Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Tim Hunter and his Tex and Sylvester and River's Edge, Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven, Frank Capra, Douglas Sirk, and more.[Note: the missing post numbers are mostly duplicates of others posts, posted by mistake and hence deleted.]
Posts 691-720: Film viewing for auteurists, college film societies at Harvard, the question of whether a director is good or bad because of a lack of expression or because of what they express, epics and auteurs, Frank Borzage (History is Made at Night, That's My Man, Song O My Heart, Stage Door Canteen Maan's Castle, The Mortal Storm Smilin' Through, That's My Man, Moonrise, China Doll), Anthony Mann's westerns, Edgar G. Ulmer's Strange Illusion, Douglas Sirk, pronunciation of Frank Borzage's name, and more.
Posts 720-750: Frank Borzage, Douglas Sirk and Hollywood, Alan Dawn and space, Mai Zetterling's Night Games, Alan Dwan, Edgar G. Ulmer and his Strange Illusion, Tim Burton and Mars Attacks!, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jean-Luc Godard, pronunciation of Fassbinder and Godard's names, Orson Welles's The Dreamers, Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven, Douglas Sirk and Rainer Werner Fassbinder compared, and more.
Posts 751-780: Orson Welles's The Dreamers, aviation films and aerial imagery in films, pronunciation of Jean-Luc Godard, Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven, Edgar G. Ulmer, and more.
Posts 781-810: Gerd Oswald and his Brainwashed and the architecture of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at New York University, Frank Borzage, Orson Welles and his The Dreamers and The Immortal Story, color in film, Edgar G. Ulmer's Babes in Bagdad, Cinefotocolor, choices of color and black and white at various points in a filmmaker's career, Hitchcock's Psycho and The Wrong Man, Stan Brakhage and his Fire of Waters, Anthony Mann's Men in War, Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Max Ophuls's Lola Montes, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Mazursky, and more.
Posts 811-840: David Cronenberg's Spider; Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven; Spike Lee's 25th Day; Otto Preminger's Saint Joan and its correct aspect ratio; Australian film directors including John Duigan, George Miller and his Mad Max, Edward L. Cahn, Lew Landers, and more.
Posts 841-870: Australian avant-garde or experimental film, including Albie Thoms and Arthur and Corinne Cantrill and Cantrills Filmnotes; George Miller's Mad Max; Matteo Garrone's The Embalmer; Céedric Klapisch's L'auberge espagnole; Kenji Mizoguchi's The Life of O'Haru; Edward L. Cahn, Lew Landers; George Miller's Lorenzo's Oil; Australian directors including Gillian Armstrong, Peter Weir, Baz Luhrmann and his La Boheme, and Bruce Beresford and his Breaker Morant; Vincent LoBrutto and Stanley Kubrick; the importance of plot and subject-matter for an auteurist; neglect of film style by most movie critics; Louis Feuillade's Fantômas and its plot; Ridley Scott and his The Duellists; the Bazin-Cahiers aesthetic and pre-Griffith cinema; Timothy Galfas's Sunnyside; and more. Matteo Garrone's The Embalmer; Kenji Mizoguchi's The Life of O'Haru; more.
Posts 871-900: Michael Cimino and The Year of the Dragon; Timothy Galfas and Black Fist; the importance of style, subject matter, and the director; Daniel Petrie and his Lifeguard; Michael Cimino and his Year of the Dragon, The Deer Hunter, and Heaven's Gate; Adrian Martin's book on the "Mad Max" series; Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Aboriginal culture, and white notions of Aboriginality; John Flynn’s Best Seller and Touched and The Outfit and others; Charles Tesson on Martin Scorsese's The Gangs of New York; Louis Feuillade's Fantômas; Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight; form, content, and storytelling; the importance of style, subject matter, and the director; John Flynn; Mike Grost's Tree of Filmmakers; Howard Hawks; Stan Brakhage; Brechtian devices in film; more.
Posts 901-930: Max Ophuls and his Lola Montez and the final tracking shot of Lola Montez; form, style, narrative, and content in film; Billy Wilder; Alan Rudolph; Tag Gallagher on Mizoguchi; Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner; Tag Gallagher's "Reading, Culture, and Auteurs" and film academia; Kenji Mizoguchi and his The Life of O'Haru or The Life of OHaru; Norman René and Prelude to a Kiss; morality in cinema; Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way; more.
Posts 931-961: Alan Rudolph; morality in cinema; Edgar G. Ulmer's Natalka Poltavka; John Ford's Vietnam, Vietnam; King Vidor; Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way; auteurism and the auteur theory and its history; more.
Posts 961-990: Andrew Sarris and auteurism and the auteur theory and its history; morality in cinema; Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way; Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will; dolly shots and morality; film and music; Howard Hawks; Frank Capra; Leo McCarey; Jean-Pierre Melville; Chris Marker; morality and Howard Hawks's Red River and attitudes toward land and nature; pleasure and cinema; more.
Posts 991-1020: morality and cinema; Karlheinz Stockhausen and the destruction of the Twin Towers as art; pleasure and cinema; the history of auteurism and the auteur theory; Don Siegel and his Dirty Harry; Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums; Andy Warhol and his Blow Job and Sleep and the nature of realism in film; Howard Hawks's Red River and its narrative; more.
Posts 1021-1050: Martin Brest and his Gigli; Mikio Naruse and his Late Chrysanthemums; Howard Hawks's Red River and its narrative; Wes Anderson; disregarding film narrative to concentrate on form; dolly shots and morality and Jean-Luc Godard; Jacques Rivette on a dolly shot in Gillo Pontecorvo's Kapo and its influence on Serge Daney; Alain Resnais's Night and Fog and its influence on the French; Luc Moullet on Samuel Fuller; Brian De Palma and his Home Movies; Bertolt Brecht and "Brechtian" devices and cinema; Brecht's chart on Dramatic Theater versus Epic Theater; more.
Posts 1051-1080: Tag Gallagher on Howard Hawks and John Ford; Brechtian cinema and Travis Wilkerson's An Injury to One; Brian De Palma; Keith Gordon; film genre and the use of the word "genre"; Howard Hawks; morality and cinema and film aesthetics; more.
Posts 1081-1110: Howard Hawks; Anthony Mann and his The Naked Spur; film genre; the ending of John Ford's Fort Apache; the influences of filmmakers and artists; realism in film and its dependence on conventions; John McTiernan and his Nomads and Basic; Brian De Palma and his Mission to Mars and Body Double; Kenji Mizoguchi and his Zangiku Monogatari, also known as The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums; the pronunciation of the name "Andre de Toth"; Santiago Álvarez; more.
Posts 1111-1140: Tolomush Okeev's The Fierce One; King Vidor's Street Scene; Brian De Palma and his Body Double; Cahiers du Cinema and Jean-Michel Frodon and Charles Tesson; High Noon as message movie and love story; Brian De Palma and his Scarface and Femme Fatale; Charles Tesson's book on Bunuel; more.
Posts 1141-1170: Brian De Palma's Scarface; Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums; the year 1958 and the number of great films released then; more.
Posts 1171-1200: Ang Lee's The Hulk; determining the year of a film (and Orson Welles's The Dreamers); Peter Bogdanovich; Akira Kurosawa and his Madadayo; James Ivory; Joris Ivens; Orson Welles; Chris Marker and his film A.K.; films also available in book form, such as Chris Marker's La Jetée and Hollis Frampton's Poetic Justice; more.
Posts 1201-1230: Chris Marker and his A.K. and Level Five and others; essay films; Fred Halsted and his L.A. Plays Itself; Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself; Jonas Mekas; Ed Wood's Glenn or Glenda; Joris Ivens and his The Story of the Wind (also known as The Tale of the Wind), The Spanish Earth, Song of the Rivers, Le Mistral, and others; Orson Welles; Stuart Byron; Stuart Byron on Vincente Minnelli and the theme of freedom; Adrian Martin's Web publication Rouge; Jonas Mekas's Scenes From the Life of Andy Warhol; Chris Marker's Sans Soleil; John Dorr and EZTV and his Christmas Greetings; Budd Boetticher and his My Kingdom For; Vivian Kubrick's Making "The Shining"; more.
Posts 1231-1260: One-Man Band; John Farrow and Robert Fleisher and His Kind of Woman; essay films; Agnes Varda and her The Gleaners and I; documentaries about the making of movies, including A China Odyssey by Les Mayfield; John Farrow; J. G. Ballard; Manoel de Oliveira's Oporto of My Childhood; Paul Mazursky; Mike Grost on "The Use of Mathematics to Describe Film Composition"; Samuel Fuller and his Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street; Street of No Return; Federico Fellini; film genre; realism, and film criticism; Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man; more.
Posts 1261-1290: Film genre and the war film as a genre and Anthony Mann and Robert Siodmak; realism; Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man and realism; Amir Karakulov's Don't Cry; Lee Chang-Dong's Oasis; Samuel Fuller and his The Big Red One and a possible restoration of it; Clarence Brown; Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life; the DVD of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America; film critic John Hughes; issues of genre and realism.


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