Film scholar delivers lecture

Jim Naremore, a widely-known and respected film scholar and professor emeritus of communication and culture at Indiana University, made a visit to campus last week. He gave a lecture on literary adaptation in film titled “Chandler, Hawks and The Big Sleep,” referring, of course, to Raymond Chandler’s titular 1939 hardboiled crime novel and Howard Hawks’ beloved 1946 film adaptation of the same.

He also paid a visit to Associate Professor of Film and Media Culture Chris Keathley’s class “Film & Literature,” and engaged in discussion with the class, which touches on many of the same subjects and read the novel and watched the film earlier in the week. Finally, the Wonnocott Commons House hosted a small dinner following the lecture, with Naremore, Keathley and a handful of students from “Film & Literature” in attendance, as well as Visiting Assistant Professor of English & Film & Media Culture Ed Smith, Associate Professor of Film and Media Culture Jason Mittell, Ellis Professor of English and Liberal Arts John Bertolini and Professor of American Studies and Wonnocott Commons Head Will Nash.
The lecture touched on Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal of the archetypical private detective Philip Marlowe, as well as issues of gender, sexuality and orientalism that arise from the way the novel’s story was changed in order to fit the censoring restrictions of the Motion Picture Production Code, which remained in action until 1968.

A self-described “bridge burner,” Naremore has written books on a vast array of cinema-related topics because of his tendency to deeply engage with one subject, write about it, and then move onto something new. This has contributed to his prominence in the field, but it is not the only factor. “He was for many years a professor at Indiana University,” said Keathley, “which was one of the midwestern schools that, in the 1970s, led the establishment of film studies as an academic discipline.”

“He is obviously very smart,” added Keathley, who worked to bring Naremore to campus, “but also unpretentious and unintimidating.” He continued, “these qualities of approachability came through clearly when he visted our ‘Film & Literature’ course and talked to students.”

This quality also certainly showed through at the dinner following the lecture.

“He’s a die-hard cinephile,” noted Keathley, “ready to talk with students or whomever about what films he’s seen recently and what he thought of them. In addition to being able to speak about cinema in a very sophisticated way, he is also more than ready to talk to students and other film loves in a way that they can easily relate to.”