Iconoclastic Film Director

A volume in the Conversations with Filmmakers Series, these Arthur Penn interviews—compiled by Michael Chaiken and Paul Cronin—provide insight into the life and work of an iconoclastic film director whose Bonnie and Clyde (1967) revolutionized American cinema. Penn, however, made only thirteen features and is often forgotten in discussions of America's greatest filmmakers. Chaiken and Cronin hope to correct this oversight with a book that will "nourish scholarship and interest in Arthur Penn's work" (xvi).

The twenty-three interviews and Penn's 1968 Dartmouth College address—arranged in chronological fashion—feature transcripts of unpublished or difficult to locate English language reviews along with new translations of French (and one Italian) sources. The volume concludes with a 2007 interview in Penn's New York City apartment. What emerges from these conversations is the prescience of a gifted artist who refused to compromise with Hollywood expectations and whose vision reflects psychological insights along with a commitment to social and political change.

This perspective made Penn in his own words an "outsider." He was traumatized by his parents' divorce as a child and he regrets never really coming to know his father, who was a skilled watchmaker and engraver. Much of Penn's cinema may be interpreted as the search for a father figure. Penn entered the film industry after working in live television following military service in the Second World War. His first feature picture was The Left Handed Gun (1958), with Paul Newman as Billy the Kid. The photodrama was a disappointment to Warner Brothers, but Penn felt vindicated when French critics lauded this psychological Western. Penn left Hollywood for Broadway, where he directed five successful theatrical productions. United Artists tapped Penn to reprise The Miracle Worker (1962) for the silver screen. Although the photodrama earned Penn an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, the filmmaker acknowledges that his work was too influenced by the stage production and failed to fully realize the cinematic possibilities of the Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan story.

The critical acclaim for The Miracle Worker also earned Penn a job directing Burt Lancaster in The Train (1963), but the director evidently antagonized Lancaster by suggesting a more artistic vision that would move the picture beyond an action thriller. After only two days on location in Paris, Penn was removed from the set and replaced by John Frankenheimer. It was an incident that still bothered the filmmaker in 2007.

Penn, nevertheless, was able to obtain a deal with Columbia Pictures, which allowed him the freedom to direct Mickey One (1965) with Warren Beatty. The film, which the director perceived as making a statement about the impact of McCarthyism upon American culture, proved too obscure for domestic audiences, although Penn's reputation among European critics continued to grow. For his next project, Penn attempted a more traditional Hollywood picture, The Chase (1966). But the director again experienced disappointment with the establishment as producer Sam Spiegel assumed the responsibility for the final edit, and Penn believed that the finished product failed to realize his vision for the film.

The disillusioned filmmaker was lured back to work by his friend Warren Beatty who wanted Penn to direct Bonnie and Clyde. A child of the depression era, Penn wanted the gangster film to be more than a documentary of the 1930s. Thus, he vetoed filming in black and white, featuring bright colors and costumes that would resonate with young people during the rebellious 1960s. Speaking of the 1930s, Penn remarked, "There was an economic surfeit going on there that was absurd, and I think Bonnie and Clyde attacked the absurdity of their time. I think they were unknowing revolutionaries" (57).

Penn's empathy for the youth culture of the 1960s was also evident in Alice's Restaurant (1969). Loosely structuring around Arlo Guthrie's song, Penn proclaimed his support for youth seeking to formulate their own morals and values in opposition to a society, which promoted the Vietnam War. Penn concluded, "This has to become a reality, part of the political...