Gene D. Phillips

Phillips was raised near Springfield, Ohio. He received his A.B. and M.A. (1957) degrees from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Fordham University in 1970.{{cite web|title=Gene D. Phillips, S.J. |url=http://www.luc.edu/english/faculty/phillips.shtml |publisher=Loyola University of Chicago |access-date=2011-06-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320023950/http://www.luc.edu/english/faculty/phillips.shtml |archive-date=2012-03-20 }} Phillips was a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and was ordained a priest in 1965. His decision to become a Jesuit at age 17 was strongly affected by his viewing of the film The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) as a boy. Since 1970 Phillips had taught at Loyola University of Chicago. He had written or edited more than 20 books on filmmakers and film (see bibliography); several of these have been reviewed by major newspapers.

Phillips had served on juries at the Cannes, Berlin, and Chicago International Film Festivals. He had been a member of the editorial board for the journal Literature/Film Quarterly since its founding in 1973; this journal claims to be "the longest standing international journal devoted to the study of adaptation" (i.e. the adaptation of literature to film).{{cite web |title=Literature/Film Quarterly - about us |url=http://www.salisbury.edu/lfq/aboutus.htm |publisher=Salisbury University |access-date=2011-06-20 |archive-date=2011-01-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110119044733/http://www.salisbury.edu/lfq/aboutus.htm }} Phillips had been a prolific author of biographical books on filmmakers, and had published extended interviews with many filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Fritz Lang,{{cite book |editor1-last=Haller |editor1-first=Robert A. |title=Fritz Lang 2000 |chapter=Interview: Fritz Lang Remembers |last=Phillips |first=Gene D. |publisher=Anthology Film Archives |year=2000 |archive-date=June 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605205258/http://www.roberthaller.com/lang/phillips.html |url-status=dead |url=http://www.roberthaller.com/lang/phillips.html }} and Joseph Losey. He was also a friend, champion and consultant for director Ken Russell, and author of the book Ken Russell (Twayne Publishers, 1979). Phillips was a consultant for The Devils (Russell, 1971) and famously defended the film against charges of blasphemy saying, in the documentary Hell On Earth - The Desecration and Resurrection of The Devils (Mark Kermode, 2002), that the film depicts blasphemy, although it is not itself blasphemous.

• {{cite book |title=The Movie Makers: Artists in an Industry |publisher=Burnham Inc Pub |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-911012-43-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/moviemakersartis0000phil }}
• {{cite book |title=Graham Greene: Films of His Fiction |url=https://archive.org/details/grahamgreenefilm0000phil |url-access=registration |year=1974 |publisher=Teachers' College Press |isbn=978-0-8077-2376-0}}
• {{cite book |title=Stanley Kubrick: A Film Odyssey |year=1977 |publisher=Popular Library |isbn=978-0-445-04101-1}}
• {{cite book |title=Evelyn Waugh's Officers, Gentlemen, and Rogues: The Fact Behind His Fiction |publisher=Nelson-Hall Publishers |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-88229-495-7}} Reviewed by James F. Carens.{{cite journal |last=Carens |first=James F. |title=Gene D. Phillips, S. J. |journal=Evelyn Waugh Newsletter |volume=X |issue=1 |date=Spring 1976 |url=http://www.abbotshill.freeserve.co.uk/EWN10-1.htm#Phillips2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 12, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012233921/http://www.abbotshill.freeserve.co.uk/EWN10-1.htm#Phillips2 |quote=Gene D. Phillips, S. J., gives us a sympathetic account of Waugh's career and a careful exposition of the novels, as he sees them, in terms of Roman Catholic morality and theology.}}
• {{cite book |title=Ken Russell |publisher=Twayne |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-8057-9266-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/kenrussell0000phil }}
• {{cite book |title=The Films of Tennessee Williams |publisher=Art Alliance Pr |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-87982-025-1}}
• {{cite book |title=Hemingway and Film |url=https://archive.org/details/hemingwayfilm0000phil |url-access=registration |publisher=Ungar Publishing Co. |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-8044-6644-8}}
• {{cite book |title=John Schlesinger |publisher=Twayne Publishers |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-8057-9280-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/johnschlesinger0000phil }}
• {{cite book |title=George Cukor |publisher=Twayne |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-8057-9286-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/georgecukor0000phil }}
• {{cite book |title=Alfred Hitchcock |url=https://archive.org/details/alfredhitchcock0000phil |url-access=registration |publisher=Twayne |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-8057-9301-7}} Reviewed by Karen Jaehne.{{cite journal|last=Jaehne|first=Karen|date=Autumn 1985|title=Seven Director Studies|journal=Film Quarterly|volume=39|issue=1|pages=49–52|doi=10.1525/fq.1985.39.1.04a00160|jstor=1212288|quote=Gene D. Phillips, a.k.a. Father Phillips of Loyola University, brings a fascinating Jesuit perspective to Hitchcock who claimed that three years of studying with the Jesuits terrified him to death so that his subsequent life's work was to terrify others. ... Phillips's attention to Alfred Hitchcock Presents provides a very good guide through the television years, leaving one wishing he had focused the entire book on the subject and used the films only in reference to the TV refinements.}} Subscription required.
• {{cite book |title=Fiction, Film and F. Scott Fitzgerald |publisher=Loyola University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-8294-0500-2}}
• {{cite book |title=Conrad and Cinema: The Art of Adaptation |publisher=Peter Lang |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8204-3915-0}}
• {{cite book |title=Exiles in Hollywood: Major European Film Directors in America |publisher=Lehigh University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-934223-49-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/exilesinhollywoo0000phil|url-access=registration }}
• {{cite book |title=Major Film Directors of the American and British Cinema |publisher=Lehigh University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-934223-59-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVFly8avlXIC}}
• {{cite book |title=Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8131-9042-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/creaturesofdarkn00phil|url-access=registration }} Reviewed by A. Mary Murphy.{{cite journal|last=Murphy |first=A. Mary |title=Gene D. Phillips. Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir |journal=Rocky Mountain Review |date=Spring 2001 |quote=Phillips provides a solid starting place for those who wish to become conversant with detective fiction. His stated purpose is "to examine the relationship of film and fiction as reflected in the screen versions of the work of one novelist" (xxiii), but he very shortly finds himself unable to remain within those self-described parameters -- and, for the most part, thankfully so. |url=http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ereview/55.1/reviews/murphy.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929032149/http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ereview/55.1/reviews/murphy.asp |archive-date=2011-09-29 }}
• {{cite book |title=Fiction, Film, and Faulkner: The Art of Adaptation |publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-57233-166-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wrm3ZWTfrmEC}}
• (editor) {{cite book |title=Stanley Kubrick: Interviews |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-57806-297-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOU9bIlnPHIC }}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} - Wikipedia article on book: Fiction, Film, and Faulkner
• (edited with Rodney Hill) {{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Stanley Kubrick |publisher=Checkmark Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8160-4389-7}} Reviewed by Richard Schickel.
• {{cite book |title=Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8131-2304-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/godfatherintimat00phil|url-access=registration }} Reviewed by Richard Simon Chang.
• (edited with Rodney Hill) {{cite book |title=Francis Ford Coppola: Interviews |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-57806-666-7}}
• {{cite book |title=Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8131-2415-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bKtQTBGaB3wC}} Reviewed by Gregory McNamee.
• {{cite book |title=Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8131-2570-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5uohNoRFkwIC}} Reviewed by Laurence Raw.

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{{cite news |last=Chang |first=Richard Simon |author-link=Richard Simon Chang |title=Books in Brief: Nonfiction |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-552534.html |date=August 15, 2004 |quote=The book is more of a fan companion than a true cinematic study.}} Review of Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola.

{{cite news |last=Schickel |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Schickel |title=Kubrick, in Action |date=December 18, 2005 |quote=The same volume contains an invaluable collection of production photos as well as every significant interview Kubrick granted (more of these, and more intriguing, than you might imagine), although it is burdened by largely plodding essays on each film, many of them by Gene D. Phillips, a fan masquerading as a critic. |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-dec-18-bk-schickel18-story.html}} Brief review of The Encyclopedia of Stanley Kubrick.

{{cite news |title=Beyond the Epic.(Book review) |last=McNamee |first=Gregory |date=December 6, 2006 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |quote=The great crafter of epic films comes in for respectable--and admirably thorough--treatment in this overdue biography.}} Review of Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean.

{{cite journal |last=Raw |first=Laurence |title=Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder by Gene D. Phillips |journal=The Journal of American Culture |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=352–353 |date=December 2010 |doi=10.1111/j.1542-734X.2010.00756_18.x |quote=Nonetheless, the book makes a convincing case for identifying Wilder as one of the most penetrating, if somewhat cynical, commentators on American culture in the mid-twentieth century, focusing in particular on issues such as the relationship between the media and society (Ace in the Hole, The Front Page), the obsession with getting ahead (The Apartment), and the nature of stardom (Sunset Boulevard, Kiss Me, Stupid).}} Subscription required.

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Category:American film historians

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century American Jesuits

Category:21st-century American Jesuits

Category:Loyola University Chicago alumni

Category:Loyola University Chicago faculty

Category:Fordham University alumni

Category:2016 deaths

Category:1935 births