New Books Network

An accessible introduction to the concept of the auteur (author) in film theory.

In The Film Auteur: Angles of Vision (Routledge, 2026) Robert Kolker and David Wyatt provide readers with a history of auteur theory, from its initial origins in France in the late 1940s as an outgrowth of the cinematic theories of the French film critics and theorists André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc, to the canonizing work of American film critic Andrew Sarris in the 1960s. After a streamlined account of the various postwar renaissances in film - the shock of “Neorealism”, the “New Wave,” and “New American Cinema” - the book features detailed examinations of the work of forty-eight auteurs, including F.W. Murnau, Jean-Luc Godard, Ida Lupino, Alfred Hitchcock, Yasujirō Ozu, Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee, Pedro Almodóvar, and Jane Campion. In its focus on a limited number of auteurs, this book aims to offer a map of representative figures rather than an exhaustive or comprehensive list, providing an informative entry point to the study of the auteur.

Essential reading for any students of film theory and film studies, particularly those taking classes on the auteur.
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There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on her hands, caught in the act of murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she broods over the countryside, cursing all those who dared speak up against her.

Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim- of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So, was Elizabeth Bathory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both? With the breathlessness of a whodunit, drawing upon new archival evidence and questioning old assumptions, in The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster (Bloomsbury, 2026) Shelley Puhak traces the Countess's downfall, bringing to life an assertive woman leader in a world sliding into anti-scientific, reactionary darkness-a world where nothing is ever as it seems. In this exhilarating narrative, Puhak renders a vivid portrait of history's most dangerous woman and her tumultuous time, revealing just how far we will go to destroy a woman in power.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Agnes Luthi is a police officer in Lausanne, Switzerland who transfers from financial to violent crimes just in time to investigate the death of a young art appraiser in a magnificent mountain chateau. An employee of a London auction house, the young victim is at the chateau to take inventory of a priceless medieval art collection and other historical treasures. She’s stabbed to death on the eve of a blizzard that shuts down all power and the roads heading in and out. Everyone has a story; some are newcomers, others go back generations, and no one is forthcoming. Agnes feels trapped, but she’s determined to solve her first murder case. This is the first novel in Tracee de Hahn’s Agnes Luthi mystery series.

Tracee de Hahn is a writer and educator. She is the author of traditional mysteries set in Switzerland: Swiss Vendetta and A Well-Timed Murder, both published by Minotaur Books, as well as several non-fiction works on historical topics. Prior to writing fiction, she began her career in the practice of architecture and later received an advanced degree in European history. Each of these of these play a role in her writing. Born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, she grew up in Kentucky and currently lives in Virginia. Tracee is the immediate past president of the National Board of Sisters in Crime. When not working on her own manuscripts, she acts as a writing mentor and lectures on topics related to writing and publishing. Otherwise, she fills her time baking, and occasionally painting dog portraits.
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When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his new bleak and barbarous surroundings. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid thought the outer reaches of his world was where civilization ceased to exist. Our fascination with the Greek and Roman world, and the abundance of writing that we have from it, means that we usually explore the ancient world from this perspective too. Was Ovid's exile really as bad as he claimed? What was it truly like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world?

Thanks to archaeological excavations, we now know that the borders of the empires we consider the 'heart' of civilization were in fact thriving, vibrant cultures – just not ones we might expect. This is where the boundaries of 'civilized' and 'barbarians' began to dissipate; where the rules didn't always apply; where normally juxtaposed cultures intermarried; and where nomadic tribes built their own cities.

In this episode, Owen Rees joins me to discuss his book The Far Edges of the Known World (W.W. Norton & Company, 2025) and his research into what ‘everyday’ life looked like beyond the Athenian or Roman heartlands. Covering over 6,000 years of history on three continents, the book encourages readers to interrogate misconceptions about the ancient world and to understand its enormous diversity of lived experiences.
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A superstar in both football and track and field Sol Butler pioneered the parlaying of sports fame into business prosperity. In Sol Butler: An Olympian's Odyssey through Jim Crow America (U Illinois Press, 2026) Brian Hallstoos tells the story of a Black athlete’s canny use of mainstream middle-class values and relationships with white society to transcend the athletic, economic, and social barriers imposed by white supremacy. Butler built on his feats as a high school athlete to become a four-year starter for the football team at Dubuque German College (later the University of Dubuque), a record-setting sprinter and long jumper, and an Olympian at the 1920 Summer Games. Hallstoos follows Butler’s sporting accomplishments while charting how family and interracial communities influenced the ways Butler tested the limits of social and physical mobility and gave him an exceptional ability to discern where he might be most free. From there, Hallstoos turns to Butler’s use of fame to boost his entrepreneurial efforts and his multifaceted success capitalizing on his celebrity in the Black communities of Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. An engaging look at a forgotten trailblazer, Sol Butler illuminates the multifaceted life of a Black sports entrepreneur.

Craig Gill is a writer, researcher and historian based in Vancouver, BC. He is the author of Caddying on the Color Line, a history of African American golf caddies in the U.S. South.
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