ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

One of the most rewarding things about writing on film is that the author must invariably depend upon others. This book, in particular, would not have gotten very far without the generosity of the Rossellini family, who assisted me in countless ways. First thanks must therefore go to Renzo, Ingrid, and especially Isabella Rossellini, the director's children, and to Marcella Rossellini Mariani, his sister. Both Rossellini's legendary charm and his intelligence live on in this talented family. Daniel Toscan du Plantier, formerly head of Gaumont and a close friend of the director in the last years of his life, was also helpful.

Innumerable archivists and librarians aided me in locating prints of films. Signor Alfredo Baldi and his staff at the Centro sperimentale di cinematografica in Rome, Charles Silver at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Patrick Sheehan and Barbara Humphries at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., cheerfully arranged screenings. Thanks also to Intercinematografica and Stemax in Rome for allowing me to see the long-lost film Un pilota ritorna . Michael Calder, here in Virginia, provided timely assistance with word processing.

Financial support for this project came at crucial moments in the form of travel grants from George Mason University's Office of International Programs and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for 1981–82, which allowed me to begin a first draft of the manuscript. That task was immeasurably advanced by an associate fellowship awarded for the same period by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Henry Millon, its dean, and Shreve Simpson, its associate dean, along with their friendly and helpful staff, tirelessly fostered a fertile and humane environment for serious work. Daily conversations over lunch and at col-

loquia throughout the year with other fellows at the center—especially Donald Preziosi, Irene Bierman, and Barbara Stafford—provided a warm and intellectually challenging atmosphere for refining my ideas about important theoretical questions.

Thanks also are due to Dudley Andrew and to my colleagues Terry Comito and Cóilín Owens for reading and commenting upon individual chapters of the book, and especially to Robert Kolker, who read the entire manuscript and whose astute remarks proved essential in rethinking many complicated areas. This is perhaps also the place to acknowledge, with gratitude, the support and encouragement for this project and others given me over the years by J. Hillis Miller and Leo Braudy. To all many thanks.

As always, my most profound debt, in myriad ways I could not begin to specify here, is to Lynne Johnson, my wife.

P.B.
ARLINGTON, Va.
SEPTEMBER 1986