Alias Prolific Man, he is the author of more than a hundred works, from films…to video games. Her name ? Alan Smithee, the famous pseudonym used by American artists who have disavowed their work. A look back at a fascinating creation.
Flashback sequence. In 2015, Hollywood was shaken by a dark affair surrounding the film The Sentinel, directed by Paul Schrader. With Nicolas Cage in front of the camera, the screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Nicolas Winding Refn in production, the film looked promising on paper. But the three men called for a boycott of the film, on the legitimate grounds that Schrader had been completely dispossessed of his work. Lionsgatethe studio which produced the film, had thus landed the director and put together the film behind his back…
Not without a certain irony, Schrader could have called on – a few years earlier – the most famous director of the 7th art. Alias Prolific Man, he is the author of more than a hundred films, TV series, documentaries, music videos, and even video games. Her name ? Alan Smitheethe famous pseudonym used by American artists who have disavowed their work.
A look back at a brilliant 100% virtual Hollywood creation, as strange and fascinating as possible.
A sacred pedigree
He was in turn director, assistant director, screenwriter, actor, producer, artistic director, visual effects manager and director of photography. His name appears on more than 100 films, TV series, music videos, documentaries, and even, more surprisingly, video games. He directed big names in the 7th Art, such as Robert de Niro, Max Von Sydow, Richard Widmark, Burt Reynolds… In fact, he was so famous that he was even entitled, upon his official death at the age of 39 in 1999, to to a first-class funeral.
“He” is of course Alan Smitheeanagram of “The Alias Name”the famous pseudonym created by the Directors Guild of Americabehind which the authors who disavowed the final version of their work took shelter, but who retained the right to claim their salary.
A creation which resonates like a strange paradox in the country of Uncle Sam. Because by making this creation, it is to confirm and recognize the existence of an auteur cinema, while at the same time providing tools to studios and producers to exercise control over their work.
For a long time, the DGA prohibited its members from using a pseudonym. In a country and a Hollywood dream factory where producers reign supreme and have the Final Cut on the works, this measure/creation will appear as a lifeline for those who use it.
Western seeks lost director…
The name ofAlan Smithee appears for the first time (but not under this spelling) in a TV movie made in 1955, The Indiscreet Mrs. Jarvis. Behind this alias, Frank Burt, the director, who refuses to see his work cut down by the scissors of editors and producers in order to fit it into the ultra-codified boxes of American TV.
On the big screen, his birth certificate is later: 1968. That year, the Major Universal entrusts a solid TV craftsman, Robert Totten, with the production of a western, Death of a Gunfighter, whose headliner is none other than the veteran Richard Widmark.
After 25 days of filming which saw the relationship between the director and the main performer inexorably deteriorate, the production of the film stopped abruptly. Widmark demands the replacement of Totten, whom he considers incapable.
With the blessing of the studio, Widmark then solicited Don Siegel, who did not really have the profile of a beginner. He also has the advantage of having recently directed Widmark in City Police. Siegel spent around ten days on set, mainly putting together the beginning and end of the film.
Below is the trailer for Death of a Gunfighter (A handful of lead in French):
The problem is that Siegel refuses to have his name credited in the credits and therefore to take responsibility for the authorship of the film. As for Robert Totten, he is legitimately upset at this sidelining without warning, and therefore refuses to have his name credited. Faced with the impossibility of legally exploiting a film without a director in the credits, Universal then appealed to the DGA for arbitration.
The union proposed the catch-all name “Al Smith”. Problem: by checking its registers, the DGA realizes that it already exists. The name changes to “Smithe”; it’s still too close. Finally, Don Siegel proposed “Allen Smithee”, which was chosen.
Over the years, the pseudonym will transform into “Alan Smithee”, an anagram of “The Alias Men”, which will be very officially approved by the DGA, and used as a last resort in the event of irreconcilable differences between the director and the version. exploited from his work.
Tasty irony, the critical reception of the western Death of a Gunfighter is pretty good: the New York Times rent it “sharp and sharp direction from director Allen Smithee” ; while the influential film critic Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Timessalutes the remarkable work of “Allen Smithee, a director who [lui] is not familiar”.
Strict award conditions
For the DGA, however, there is no question of giving the green light with all its might for possible requests to borrow the pseudonym. The specifications are quite drastic. The applicant must build a solid file, and plead his case before a special commission which studies the merits of the request.
There is no question of authorizing a director to use the alias simply because he is ashamed of his work. If he actually obtains the green light to use the pseudonym, the applicant is also strictly prohibited from advertising it; in other words, communicate to the media the reasons for borrowing the nickname.
At the heart of tensions…
From 1969, the year the western was released Death of a Gunfighterin 1999, the year of his official burial by the DGA in the wake of the film Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, very symbolic examples abound.
Where the pseudonym is most used is on television, when films are edited, excised of scenes that are too violent or sexually explicit, down to the amputated dialogues; all of course without the agreement of their creator. This is how David Lynch demanded the removal of his name from his cult and cursed film Dune, in its television version. William Friedkin did the same for the TV version of The Nurse in 1990.
Universal Pictures The film “Dune” signed by Alan Smithee, in reality David Lynch.
Michael Mann will request the pseudonym for the modified versions of Heat and Révélations intended for TV. Martin Brest also used it in 1998 for the modified version of Meeting Joe Black, both for broadcasting the film on board planes and on cable channels.
In a less publicized way, the pseudonym has also been used in TV series, such as MacGyver in the pilot of the first season, as well as that of the “Broken”, in 1985; in Femme Nikita too, in episode 16 of season 4.
The “Twilight Zone” affair
In 1983 the Twilight Zone affair broke out, sketch films based on the famous TV series. In the one directed by John Landis, a helicopter crash kills one of the main performers, as well as two children. Landis, other executives of the technical team as well as Warner as a legal entity must answer to the charges of involuntary manslaughter.
The prosecutor offers a deal to Anderson House, the second assistant director: total immunity in exchange for testimony, inevitably damning, on John Landis. On June 24, 1983, the indictment was made public.
The date was obviously not chosen at random: it was the very day of the film’s premiere, which was de facto torpedoed… If the trial ended in a general acquittal, Anderson House will ask the DGA to use the pseudonymAlan Smithee replacing his real name in the Twilight Zone credits. We understand it…
In 1990, Dennis Hopper used the pseudonym Alan Smithee to sign his (failed) thriller Too Good a Target: he accused the company producing the film, Vestron Pictures, for putting the work together behind his back. He took legal action, which failed, the company going bankrupt.
American History X and the beginning of the end
In the vast majority, the use of pseudonyms Alan Smithee often serves as a cover for works that frankly lean towards the narcissistic (randomly: Hellraiser: Bloodlines; The Birds 2…). Sometimes, it happens that the pseudonym comes back into the limelight to hit the headlines.
This is the case in 1998 with the very solid American History Variety the studio New Line Cinema (a Warner subsidiary) and Edward Norton for scuttling the last quarter of an hour of his film. The DGA refuses the director’s request. The reason is clear: the latter violated the rule which consists of not making public the reason(s) for disputes…
The coup de grace, quite brilliant and very ironic, came the following year, with the release of An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, directed by Arthur Hiller. A delirious mise-en-abyme by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, the film evokes the story of an English director, Alan Smithee. Totally dissatisfied with his work, he is determined to renounce it.
Problem: the DGA only has one pseudonym in stock…and that’s its name! Impossible to be removed from the poster! In desperation, he decides to completely sequester the reels of his film to destroy them…
Hollywood Pictures
In addition to a crazy pitch, the fate of the film is completely crazy. Its director, Arthur Hilleraccused Joe Eszterhas And Cinergi Picturesthe producers of the film, to have redacted the editing of the film, to the point of requesting – and obtaining – that the work be produced by…Alan Smithee.
Voted the worst film of 1999 by Hollywood critics, it was the subject of murderous mockery which first embarrassed and then angered the DGA. To the point that the union bangs its fist on the table.
In 1999-2000, he permanently removed the pseudonym from his shelves. Woman Wanted, released in 2000 and actually directed by Kiefer Sutherland, will very officially be the last film to be released with the mention “Alan Smithee” to realization.
If Alan Smithee was euthanized in cinema, it remains however used in other areas such as music videos, comics / comics, video games… In all cases, areas which do not fall within the scope of competence and attribution of the almighty Directors Guild of America.
So long the artist…
