The Cinema and Two Types of Readers. About Michael Grandage’s Genius Cover Image

Kino, czytelnik i czytający. O Geniuszu Michaela Grandage’a
The Cinema and Two Types of Readers. About Michael Grandage’s Genius

Author(s): Piotr Zwierzchowski
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Present Times (2010 - today), Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: Genius; film; book; reader; Max Perkins; Thomas Wolfe; Alberto Manguel;

Summary/Abstract: In Genius (2016) by Michael Grandage books are present in many ways. The main characters are William ‘Max’ Perkins, an editor of the Charles Scribner’s Sons publishing house and Thomas Wolfe, a writer starting out at the time. The film is concerned with their relationship and the creation of the novel. The book functions as both a work and an artefact (also as typescript). Literature is a conversation topic and a way of living. One of the most important spaces is the publishing house building. Piotr Zwierzchowski, however, analyses Genius primarily as a contribution to reflections on the act of reading and its film visualization, referring to the distinction introduced by Alberto Manguel(modelled on Barthes’ écrivain and écrivant) between the reader as someone who reads “with no ulterior motive” and one “for whom the text is a vehicle towards another function”.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 32
  • Page Range: 371-381
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish