An Unsentimental Education: The Cinema of American Director Elaine May (1932-)

FAIN: FT-286378-22

Elizabeth Aimee Alsop
City University of New York (New York, NY 10017-5773)

Writing leading to a book about film director Elaine May (1932- ) and her four feature films, A New Leaf (1971), The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Mikey and Nicky (1976), and Ishtar (1987).

This book provides an overdue examination of the four feature films Elaine May directed between 1971 and 1987, a period during which she was one of the only female filmmakers working in Hollywood. A primary contention is that May is a purveyor of cinematic discomfort, a director whose commitment to unsentimental truth-telling led her to make singular and often unsettling demands upon viewers. Through close analyses of her films—A New Leaf (1971), The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Mikey and Nicky (1976), and Ishtar (1987)—I suggest that May’s unorthodox approach to characterization, narration, and genre is at once a defining feature of her cinema, and one that has been overshadowed by a critical emphasis on her persona. My project addresses this oversight by exploring both the textual expressions and rhetorical implications of May’s unique brand of cinematic non-conformism.