Before moving to Yale University, Andrew taught for thirty years at the University of Iowa. Andrew's works have been widely translated, including into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, and Polish.
Andrew is known for his theory that there are three modes of adaptation in film. These are borrowing, meaning re-creating the feeling of the original, which is used just for inspiration; the use of unaltered fragments; and "fidelity and transformation", adapting the whole text and its meaning.
Selected publications
Written
The Major Film Theories. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
André Bazin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN0-19-502165-7
Kenji Mizoguchi: A Guide to References and Resources with Paul Andrew. G.K. Hall & Co., 1981.
Concepts in Film Theory. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Film in the Aura of Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986
Breathless: Jean-Luc Godard, Director. (Rutgers Films in Print series). Rutgers University Press, 1988.