Peter Wollen
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Peter Wollen (29 June 1938 – 17 December 2019) was a
film theorist Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for unde ...
and
filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' (1969) helped to transform the discipline of film studies by incorporating the methodology of structuralism and
semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
. He taught film at a number of universities and was Professor Emeritus at the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
at the time of his retirement from academe in 2005.


Life

Wollen was born on June 29, 1938, in Woodford, northeast
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, to Douglas and Winifred (Waterman) Wollen. Douglas was a
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
minister and Winifred was a teacher. Peter attended a Methodist boarding school,
Kingswood School (''In The Right Way Quickly'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent , religious_affiliation = Methodist , president = , head_label = Headmaste ...
, in Bath,
Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...
, England. In 1959, Wollen graduated from the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
with a degree in English literature. In 1968, Wollen married noted film theorist and his partner in filmmaking,
Laura Mulvey Laura Mulvey (born 15 August 1941) is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She previously taught at Bulmershe ...
. They divorced in 1993 and soon afterward he wed writer and artist, Leslie Dick. He had a son from his first marriage and a daughter from his second. Wollen died of Alzheimer's disease on December 17, 2019, from which he had suffered for many years.


Academic career

By the mid-1960s, Wollen was writing for journals such as the ''New Left Review'' under the pseudonym of Lee Russell. Through a bit of self-reflexivity, Wollen interviewed himself as Lee Russell in 1997. Wollen joined the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
's education department in the late 1960s, at the behest of its director, Paddy Whannel, who had been impressed by his work. Wollen explained, "One of the basic goals of the education department was to support anyone who wanted to teach film in schools or universities. And one way to support them was by publishing books which they could use in class." Subsequently, the BFI created a series of film books titled, "Cinema One," and ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' was the ninth book released under that banner. ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinemas initial publication in 1969 was followed by a revised edition, with a new appendix, just three years later. It quickly gained traction in the burgeoning film-studies world of the 1970s. In 1976, Robin Wood contended, "Peter Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' is probably the most influential book on film in English of the past decade." Also quoted in ''Theories of Authorship: A Reader''. And the book has continued to wield influence decades later—having been released in a fifth, "silver" edition in 2013. In a ''Sight & Sound'' poll in 2010, ''Signs and Meaning'' repeatedly cropped up—leading critic Nick Roddick to exclaim, "If there is one book to rule them all, it is Peter Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema''. The revised and enlarged edition of 1972 is the most concise, lucid and inspiring introduction to thinking about film ever written."


Filmography

Wollen's first film credit was as cowriter of Michelangelo Antonioni's '' The Passenger'' (''Professione: Reporter'', Italy, 1975), and he made his debut as a director with ''Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons'' (1974), the first of six films cowritten and co-directed with his wife,
Laura Mulvey Laura Mulvey (born 15 August 1941) is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She previously taught at Bulmershe ...
. The low-budget ''Penthesilea'' portrayed women's language and mythology as silenced by patriarchal structures. Acknowledging the influence of Jean-Luc Godard's '' Le Gai savoir'' (France, 1969), Wollen intended the film to fuse avant-garde and radically political elements. The resulting work is innovative in the context of British cinema history, although its relentlessly didactic approach did not make for mass appeal. For ''Riddles of the Sphinx'' (1977), Wollen and Mulvey obtained a
BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
Production Board A traditional production board, stripboard, or production strip is a filmmaking term for a cardboard or wooden chart displaying color-coded strips of paper, each containing information about a scene in the film's shooting script. The strips can the ...
grant, which enabled them to work with greater technical resources, rewriting the Oedipal myth from a female standpoint. The deliberately ahistorical ''AMY!'' (1980), commemorating
Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records du ...
's solo flight from Britain to Australia, synthesises themes previously covered by Wollen and Mulvey. In ''Crystal Gazing'' (1982) formal experimentation is muted and narrative concerns emphasised. ''Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti'' (1982), a short film tied to an international art exhibition curated by Wollen, and ''The Bad Sister'' (1982), a drama based on a novel by
Emma Tennant Emma Christina Tennant FRSL (20 October 1937 – 21 January 2017) was an English novelist and editor of Scottish extraction, known for a post-modern approach to her fiction, often imbued with fantasy or magic. Several of her novels give a femi ...
, were the final projects on which Wollen and Mulvey collaborated. Wollen's only solo feature, ''Friendship's Death'' (1987), starring Bill Paterson and
Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition t ...
, is the story of the relationship between a British war correspondent and a female extraterrestrial robot on a peace mission to Earth, who, missing her intended destination of
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
, inadvertently lands in
Amman, Jordan Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 as of 2021, Amman is ...
during the events of Black September 1970.


Popular culture

The Sydney University Film Group and WEA Film Study Group used Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' for the basis of a season of film screenings talks and discussions on the ideas in the book in September and October 1969.Sydney University Film Group Bulletin. September – October 1969 p. 25


Bibliography

* ''Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture'', by Peter Wollen. New Edition, Verso Books, 2008 * ''Electronic Shadows: The Art of Tina Keane'', by Peter Wollen, Jean Fisher, and Richard Dyer. Black Dog Publishing, 2005. * ''Paris / Manhattan: Writings on Art'', by Peter Wollen.
Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of '' New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...
, 2004. * "Edward Hopper", by Peter Wollen, Sheena Wagstaff, David Anfam, Brian O'Doherty & Margaret Iversen. Tate Publishing, 2004. * ''Autopia: Cars and Culture'', Edited by Peter Wollen and Joe Kerr. Reaktion Books, 2003. * ''Paris Hollywood: Writings on Film'', by Peter Wollen.
Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of '' New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...
, 2002. * "Victor Burgin", by Peter Wollen & Francette Pacteau. Fundacio Antoni Tàpies, 2001 * "Subject Plural: Crowds in Contemporary Art" by Peter Wollen, Marti Mayo & Paola Morsiani. Contemporary Arts Museum, 2001 * ''Making Time: Considering Time as a Material in Contemporary Video and Film,'' by Amy Cappellazzo, Peter Wollen, and
Adriano Pedrosa Adriano Pedrosa is a Brazilian curator. He is the artistic director of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and the 2024 Venice Biennale. Among Pedrosa's most well-known curated shows is ''Histórias'', a series of shows at MASP each examining ...
.
Distributed Art Publishers D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. is an American company that distributes and publishes books on art, photography, design, and visual culture.University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...
, 1999. * ''Visual Display: Culture Beyond Appearances'', Edited by
Lynne Cooke Lynne Cooke is an Australian-born art scholar. Since August 2014 she has been the Senior Curator, Special Projects in Modern Art, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Early life and education Born in Geelong, Australia, Cooke recei ...
and Peter Wollen.
The New Press The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André SchiffrinBritish Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
, 1998. * ''Scene of the Crime'', edited by
Ralph Rugoff Ralph Rugoff (born 12 January 1957) is an American-born curator, the director of London's Hayward Gallery since 2006, and the curator of the Venice Biennale in 2019. Rugoff was born in New York City, the son of a film distributor father and a psy ...
, by Anthony Vidler, and Peter Wollen.
MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
1997. * ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'', by Peter Wollen, expanded and revised edition. London:
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
, 1998. * ''Howard Hawks, American Artist'', edited by Peter Wollen & Jim Hillier. British Film Institute, 1996 * ''Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture'', by Peter Wollen. Indiana University Press, 1993 * ''Singin' in the Rain'', by Peter Wollen.
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
1993. * "Black and White: Dress from the 1920s to Today" by Peter Wollen, Claudia Gould, Anne Hollander, Lucy R Sibley, Kathryn A Jakes & Sophie Anargyros. Wexner Center for the Arts, 1992. * "On the Passage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1957–1972", by Peter Wollen. MIT Press, 1989 * "Addressing The Century", by Peter Wollen. Hayward Gallery, 1998. * * "Komar and Melamid", by Peter Wollen & Mark Francis. The Fruitmarket Gallery, 1985. * "Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti", by Peter Wollen & Laura Mulvey. Whitechapel Gallery, 1982 * "Chris Welsby: Films, Photographs, Writings", edited by Peter Wollen. Arts Council of Great Britain, 1981 * ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'', by Peter Wollen. London:
Secker and Warburg Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press. History Secker & Warburg Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...
, 1969–1972. Fifth edition released in 2013. * "Working papers on the cinema: sociology and semiology", edited by Peter Wollen. BFI Education Dept. 1969 * ''Samuel Fuller'', edited by David Will & Peter Wollen, Edinburgh, 1969 * "Orson Welles – Study Unit No. 9", edited by Peter Wollen. BFI Education Dept. 1969


Interviews

* Field, Simon, "Two Weeks on Another Planet", ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' 646, 1987, pp. 324–6 * Friedman, Lester D., "Interview with Peter Wollen and Laura Mulvey on Riddles of the Sphinx", ''Millennium Film Journal'' 4/5, 1979, pp. 14–32 * Mulvey, Laura and Wollen, Peter, "Written Discussion", ''After Image'', July 1976, pp. 31–9


Further reading

* Also published at pp. 467–488 of book Tom McDonough (2004) (Editor) ''Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents''. The
MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
(1 April 2004) 514 pages


References


External links


UCLA Strobe Website

New Left Review Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wollen, Peter 1938 births 2019 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford British experimental filmmakers Film theorists UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television faculty