University of Calgary

Maurice Yacowar

  • Professor Emeritus Eng/Film Studies

Professional Description

You might say I'm an example of what happens to someone who majors in English at the U. of C. For better or worse. I did my BA when Calgary was still UAC, a branch of the University of Alberta. In fact, my first year of university was our last year on the SAIT campus. We moved to the new campus, i.e., McMahon Stadium, the Admin and Science buildings, and no trees or grass – for my second year. That's when I grabbed the distinction of being both the founding editor of The Gauntlet and the first editor to be fired.

After graduating in 1962, I did my MA at Alberta (1965, "The Earl of Rochester's Recastings of Other Writers") and my Ph.D. at The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK (1968: "John Lyly and the Uses of Irony"). I went on to teach at Brock University, where I helped establish Canada's first Film Studies degree program, and to an administrative position at The Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design before returning (at last!) to UC in 1995.

Selected Publications

Books:
Hitchcock's British Films, Second Edition, Wayne State University Press, 2010
Roy and Me: This is Not a Memoir
, Athabasca University Press, 2010
Mondays with Moishe, Lulu.com, 2009
The Great Bratby: A portrait of John Bratby, Middlesex University Press, 2008
The Sopranos: Season Seven, Lulu.com, 2007
The Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing TV's Greatest Series (Continuum, New York, London, June, 2002; expanded edition, 2003)The Bold Testament (Novel), Bayeux Arts, 1999
The Films of Paul Morrissey, Cambridge University Press, Fall, 1993; Spanish edition, 1999
Studies in International Cinema, B.C. Open University telecourse, 1992
Loser Take All: The Comic Art of Woody Allen, Frederick Ungar, 1979; expanded edition, Continuum Press, 1991.
Method in Madness, St. Martin's Press, 1981; expanded edition published in London by W.H.Allen as The Comic Art of Mel Brooks, 1982
I Found It At The Movies, Revisionist Press, 1978
Tennessee Williams and Film, Frederick Ungar, 1977
Hitchcock's British Films, Shoestring Press, 1977
No Use Shutting the Door, Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1971

Laser Disc critical editions:
Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey), Criterion Collection, laser disc 1996; DVD 1998
Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey), Criterion Collection, laser disc 1996; DVD 1998
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel), Criterion Collection, laser disc 1987 

Selected papers:
"Choice Films About the Holocaust," Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 2002, pp. 431-40
"Oscars Unbound: Woody Meets his Maker,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 2002, pp. 232-45
"Film Springs Eternal,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Spring, 2002, pp. 61-71
"Up to Speed on the Screen,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 2001, pp. 396-405
"Telling Tales in the Dark,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 2001, pp. 285-95
"Film and the French,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Winter, 2000, pp. 573-81.
"The Casino as Civilization,
 Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 2000, pp. 453-56.
"The City in Cinema,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 2000, pp. 273-85
"Canadian Epics of Passion: The Red Violin and Sunshine,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Spring 2000, pp. 86-100.
"Run Lola Run: Renn for Your Life,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Winter, 1999, pp. 557-65.
"Besieged: Not a Love Story," 
Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 1999, pp. 405-15
"Prints of Denial: Life is Beautiful and Prince of Egypt, 
Queen's Quarterly, Spring, 1999, pp. 77-91
"Negotiating the Loner," 
Queen's Quarterly, Winter, 1998, pp. 543-55.
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at The Truman Show,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 1998, pp. 422- 33.
"Primary Colors: Beyond Willy,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 1998, pp. 229-239.
"Reconstructing Woody,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Spring, 1998, pp. 94-104.
"An Expatriate's Film: Facing Face/Off,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 1997, pp. 469-77.
"Against the Hollywood Grain: Trainspotting and Brassed Off!,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 1997, pp. 232-42.
"Love vs. Honour: Donnie Brasco and Sling Blade,"
 Queen's Quarterly, Spring, 1997, pp. 57-69.
"The Postman Rings Last", 
Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 1995, pp. 465-75.
"Forrest Gump: Rejecting Ideology," 
Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 1994, pp. 669-683.
"A Memoir: The Movie," 
Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 1994, pp. 378-90.
"Schindler's Film," 
Queen's Quarterly, Spring, 1994, pp. 35-47.
"Electing Identity: Canadian Film '93," 
Queen's Quarterly, Winter, 1993-94, pp. 895-904.
"Packaging the Random," 
Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 1993, pp. 675-88.
"Neil Jordan's Viewing Game," 
Queen's Quarterly, Summer, 1993, pp. 457-64
"Re-Membering the Western: Unforgiven," 
Queen's Quarterly, Spring, 1993, pp. 247-57
"The Film Constitutional: Canadian Films of 1992," 
Queen's Quarterly, Winter, 1992, pp.991-98
"Negotiating Culture: Greenaway's Tempest," 
Queen's Quarterly, Fall, 1992, pp. 689-98
"The Paintings of Mary (vs. Christopher) Pratt," 
Dalhousie Review, Winter, 1988-89, pp. 385-99
"The White Man's Mythic Invincibility: Die Hard," 
Jump Cut No. 34, pp. 2-5
"The Bedevilled Flesh: Belloccio's Radiguet," 
Literature/Film Quarterly, XVII, iii (1989), pp.188-92
"September," 
Film Quarterly, Fall, 1988, pp. 46-49
"The Religion of Radio Days," 
Journal of Popular Film and Television, XVI, ii (Summer, 1988), pp. 80-86
"Delivering Us From Evil," (on the banning of Pasolini's Salo), 
Canadian Forum, February-March, 1988, pp. 44-48
"Beyond Parody: Woody Allen in the '80's," Post Script, Winter, 1987, pp. 29-42
"The Canadian as Ethnic Minority," 
Film Quarterly, Winter, 1986-87, pp. 13-28
"Hitchcock's Imagery and Art," in 
A Hitchcock Reader, ed. Marshall Deutelbaum and Leland Poague, Iowa State University Press, 1986
"The Dark Side of Disney," Trivium, XX (May, 1985), 
Essays in Honour of Peter Davison, Lampeter, pp. 203-10
"Ronnie Hawkins and Friends: Implicit and Explicit Structures in a Canadian Documentary Film," in 
Words and Moving Images, ed. W.C. Wees and M. Dorland, Mediatexte, Montreal, 1984, pp.181-90
"The Film Version of The Glass Menagerie (1950)," in 
Twentieth Century Interpretations:The Glass Menagerie, ed. R.B. Parker, Prentice-Hall, 1983
"The Comedy of Cronenberg," in 
The Shape of Rage, ed. Piers Handling, Academy of Canadian Cinema, Toronto, 1983; French edition, 1990
"Deaning by Shakespeare," 
University Education News, June, 1982, pp. 9-10
"Ken Russell's Rabelais," 
LFQ, VIII (1980), i, 41-51
"Actors as Conventions in the Films of Robert Altman," 
Cinema Journal, Fall, 1980,pp. 14-28
"An Aesthetic Defense of Typecasting in Film," 
Quarterly Review of Film Studies, Winter, 1979, pp. 39-52
"Norman McLaren: The Narrative and Contemplative Modes," 
Dalhousie Review, Summer, 1977, pp. 277-86
"Dick and Jane and Rocky and Eliot," 
JPF, VI, i, pp. 2-12
"The Bug in the Rug: Notes on the Disaster Genre," in 
The Genre Film, ed., B.K. Grant, Scarecrow Press, 1977, pp. 90-107
"Another Punctuation in Hawks," 
LFQ, IV, iii, pp. 286-88
"Minority Group Stereotypy in the Popular Film," 
LFQ, Spring, 1974, pp. 129-40
"Cyrano de HUAC," 
JPF, V, i, pp. 68-75
"Awash and Aware: Recent Popular Genre Films," 
JPF, IV, iv, pp. 297-305
"Hitchcock's I Confess," 
Film Heritage, Winter, 1972‑73, pp. 19-25
"Billy Jack and Zabriskie Point: Public and Private Visions," 
JPF, Summer, 1972, pp. 197-209. Reprinted in Movies as Artifacts: Cultural Criticism of Popular Film, ed. M.T. Marsden, J.G. Nachbar and S.L. Grogg, Jr., Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1982

Photograph of Maurice Yacowar

Degrees

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