THE PRODUCER VS. THE <i> AUTEUR </i>
The ill-tempered Henry G. Saperstein is lost at sea when he attempts to defend the role of his kind of producer versus the real auteur in creating a great motion picture (Calendar Letters, June 7).
He would not have stood a chance in the era of producers like Selznick, whose “Rebecca†is a classic for several reasons, not least of which is that Hitchcock had the good judgment to shoot it in black-and-white, working in creative tandem with the producer.
Selznick understood these things; Saperstein does not. Would he claim that Hitchcock was not the auteur of “Psycho,†nor James Whale of “The Invisible Man,†Michael Curtiz of “Casablanca,†John Ford of “Stagecoach†or “The Informer�
Not every subject finds its best rendering in color, witness Universal’s distressingly lurid remake of “The Phantom of the Opera,†whose horror cries for black-and-white. Monument Valley becomes a picture post card in color; only in black-and-white does the full impact of its sinister landscape emerge.
I suppose it wouldn’t make any noticeable difference if you colorized a Saperstein production, nor could you possibly ruin a Woody Allen movie in black-and-white by coloring it.
But until Mr. S. learns to distinguish between subjects that demand color and those that just as peremptorily require the gradations of black-and-white for their best artistic rendering, he will remain a small talent in terms of film art.
JAMES L. WILKINSON
North Hollywood
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