ABSTRACT
Jonsonian cinema is something of an oxymoron. Although Eisenstein’s published writings do not elsewhere directly examine a relationship between his own montage theory and the influence of Jonson, the montage-like structure of Bartholomew Fair clearly sowed some fertile seeds. The film-makers whose work author consider in this essay – Preston Sturges, Spike Lee and David Mamet – are all writer-directors who have enjoyed considerable authorial control over their own output. In The Lady Eve a pair of confidence tricksters, Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), who later disguises herself as The Lady Eve, and her father, ‘Colonel’ Harrington (Charles Coburn), are travelling on a luxurious ocean liner ‘working’ the affluent passengers with the evident complicity of the crew. Much of the comedy in both Jonson and Sturges arises out of the difference between characters’ self-perception and audiences’ perceptions of their anxieties and aspirations.
