Robin Curtis requests:


> I would greatly appreciate any tips on literature regarding film
which can be considered "autobiographical" - whatever that might mean.

I don't have a lot of specific references in literature as such, but
you might want to start by categorizing the types of films that you are
dealing with.  At least three types immediately come to mind:

1. Auteurist, fictionalized accounts of (part of) a director's life:
FANNY AND ALEXANDER, THE 400 BLOWS, 8 1/2, and (especially) ALL THAT
JAZZ could qualify.  This, however, is probably the smallest of the
categories, and you are likely to find more examples among
non-Hollywood films.  (I am assuming that you are not including other
films based on writers' autobiographies, which would cover a much wider
range.)

2. Documentary or quasi-documentary films: could cover quite a bit of
ground from David Achkar's ALLAH TANTOU to Welles' F FOR FAKE to Ross
McElwee's SHERMAN'S MARCH.

3. Experimental/avant-garde films: Probably covers many examples
(Brakhage, Kuchar, etc., etc.)

From these categories, you should be able to glean a number of
sources.  I hope those thoughts are of some use.

Don Larsson

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Donald Larsson
Minnesota State U, Mankato
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