18 Facts About Ray Carney

Raymond Carney was born on February 28,1947 and is an American scholar and critic, primarily known for his work as a film theorist, although he writes extensively on American art and literature as well.

Ray Carney is known for his study of the works of actor and director John Cassavetes.

Ray Carney teaches in the Film and Television department of the Boston University College of Communication at Boston University and has published several books on American art and film.

Professor Ray Carney taught literature at Middlebury College and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Ray Carney was a William Rice Kimball Fellow at Stanford University, working on a study of performance art, particularly the stand-up comedy of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce.

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Ray Carney is highly critical of Hollywood filmmaking, and the way it is approached from an academic standpoint.

Ray Carney is well known for the controversial stridency with which he attacks directors such as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, the Coen brothers, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino, whom he describes as tricksters using empty style and pseudo-intellectualism to score points with an “in” crowd.

Ray Carney often refers to Spielberg's output after Schindler's List as “Steven 'Please take me seriously' Spielberg movies.

Ray Carney argues that an emphasis on interpreting symbolism shows a “high school” understanding of art, and that this kind of “decoder ring” approach is in place because it is easier to grasp and makes scholars feel more important and esoteric.

Ray Carney believes that the meaning of a creative work lies at its surface, and imagines a world where art is appreciated for what it objectively contains rather than what is read into it, an aesthetic he refers to as pragmatic.

Ray Carney argues that audiences can, for example, simply appreciate the acting in a film and gain meaning from this, what the characters actually say and do, and the tonal shifts that accompany these actions.

Ray Carney feuded with Gena Rowlands over his discovery of the first cut of the 1958 film Shadows claiming to be his own and not of Faces International.

In May 2012, Mark Rappaport filed a lawsuit against Ray Carney for refusing to give back more than two dozen film reels, 16 videotapes, 14 scripts, and papers including rough drafts of Rappaport's movies which the filmmaker had previously entrusted to Ray Carney to transport to Paris.

Ray Carney has maintained that Rappaport actually gave him the items as gifts and is engaging in cyberbullying against him.

Ray Carney met Cassavetes during the last years of the director's life, and was the first American scholar to write books on the director.

In 2003, Ray Carney's research led to the discovery of the first version of Cassavetes's seminal work Shadows.

Besides his work on John Cassavetes, Ray Carney has written on Carl Theodor Dreyer, Frank Capra, and Mike Leigh.

Ray Carney has written extensively on American literature and art.