Screenwriters and Multiple Authorship: Preliminary Reflections Across Political Sociology and Film Criticism

Abstract

According to Crozier and Friedberg, organizations are not rational structures but arenas in which every actor is engaged in a struggle of power with other actors. The article adopts their approach in order to understand one of the most important features of film production, the relationship among directors and screenwriters. Most film critics and viewers tend to discuss films as if they are products of a single author (usually the director). The article challenges this view. It adopts a “multiple authorship” perspective and uses examples from the history of cinema to show how screenwriters have left their personal sign on films. In order to build a convincing theory of “multiple authorship”, it is necessary to understand the relations of collaboration and conflict among the numerous actors involved in making a film. Therefore, the article focuses on the relationship between directors and screenwriters and outlines a typology that identifies five different ideal types of relationship between these two crucial roles. The article aims to provide a first conceptualization for a sociological study about the activity of screenwriters and about their contribution to the making of a film.

Keywords

• authorship
• screenplay
• politics
• power
• organization