Richard Barrios
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377347
- eISBN:
- 9780199864577
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377347.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This book chronicles the birth and early years of an art form — the musical film. When sound came to film in the 1920s, musicals led the way as the testing ground upon which sound film proved itself ...
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This book chronicles the birth and early years of an art form — the musical film. When sound came to film in the 1920s, musicals led the way as the testing ground upon which sound film proved itself — dauntlessly, intrepidly, sometimes artistically, often ineptly, through works and artists both familiar and forgotten: Al Jolson, the Oscar-winning Broadway Melody, director Ernst Lubitsch, the aberrant Golden Dawn, many more. After immense popularity, the musical market collapsed almost overnight as oversaturated audiences began to feel the effects of the Depression. There was nearly three years of down time, and then the genre returned, phoenix-like, with the triumphant 42nd Street. After seeming to contradict the national mood, musicals came to symbolize the country's recovery from crisis; in 1934, they assumed their final form with the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code. They would continue successfully for decades, but that early pioneer spirit and willingness to experiment and take chances were now mainly gone. Posterity has mainly misunderstood these films and underestimated their importance, yet their echoes and experiments resonate into the twenty-first century, and they form an intensely vital national heritage. Through meticulous research and analysis based in reception theory, this book reclaims the films and their creators, as well as the culture that embraced, rejected, then reconnected with them.Less
This book chronicles the birth and early years of an art form — the musical film. When sound came to film in the 1920s, musicals led the way as the testing ground upon which sound film proved itself — dauntlessly, intrepidly, sometimes artistically, often ineptly, through works and artists both familiar and forgotten: Al Jolson, the Oscar-winning Broadway Melody, director Ernst Lubitsch, the aberrant Golden Dawn, many more. After immense popularity, the musical market collapsed almost overnight as oversaturated audiences began to feel the effects of the Depression. There was nearly three years of down time, and then the genre returned, phoenix-like, with the triumphant 42nd Street. After seeming to contradict the national mood, musicals came to symbolize the country's recovery from crisis; in 1934, they assumed their final form with the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code. They would continue successfully for decades, but that early pioneer spirit and willingness to experiment and take chances were now mainly gone. Posterity has mainly misunderstood these films and underestimated their importance, yet their echoes and experiments resonate into the twenty-first century, and they form an intensely vital national heritage. Through meticulous research and analysis based in reception theory, this book reclaims the films and their creators, as well as the culture that embraced, rejected, then reconnected with them.
Janna Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813041926
- eISBN:
- 9780813043906
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813041926.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The Past Is a Moving Picture is a cultural analysis of how and why people have rescued, protected, and restored old film and how their efforts have created a massive memory bank of life in the ...
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The Past Is a Moving Picture is a cultural analysis of how and why people have rescued, protected, and restored old film and how their efforts have created a massive memory bank of life in the twentieth century. Focusing on the film archives at the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Archives and UCLA Film and Television Archives, The Past Is a Moving Picture interprets the dominant film preservation practices and archiving principles of the nation's renowned film archives and analyzes how old movies and their advocates have shaped the way we see and understand film history and our cultural heritage. It chronicles the film archive while reflecting on cultural memory and complexities of preserving our nation's past by saving cinema.Less
The Past Is a Moving Picture is a cultural analysis of how and why people have rescued, protected, and restored old film and how their efforts have created a massive memory bank of life in the twentieth century. Focusing on the film archives at the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Archives and UCLA Film and Television Archives, The Past Is a Moving Picture interprets the dominant film preservation practices and archiving principles of the nation's renowned film archives and analyzes how old movies and their advocates have shaped the way we see and understand film history and our cultural heritage. It chronicles the film archive while reflecting on cultural memory and complexities of preserving our nation's past by saving cinema.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
A wide-ranging introduction to film history, this book covers the history of film from 1895 to the present day. The book is arranged chronologically, and each chapter contains an introduction by the ...
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A wide-ranging introduction to film history, this book covers the history of film from 1895 to the present day. The book is arranged chronologically, and each chapter contains an introduction by the editors on the key developments within the period, followed by a classic piece of historical research about that period. Various types of film history are undertaken in the chapters, so that readers can become familiar with different types of film historical research. For example, topics include the history of audiences; exhibition; marketing; censorship; aesthetic history; political history; and historical reception studies. The book is therefore designed to provide a narrative history spine while simultaneously introducing readers to different approaches to the study and research of film history. Concentrating on the plurality of the ‘historical turn’ in film studies, it demonstrates that film history is, and should be, about more than simply key films, directors, and movements.Less
A wide-ranging introduction to film history, this book covers the history of film from 1895 to the present day. The book is arranged chronologically, and each chapter contains an introduction by the editors on the key developments within the period, followed by a classic piece of historical research about that period. Various types of film history are undertaken in the chapters, so that readers can become familiar with different types of film historical research. For example, topics include the history of audiences; exhibition; marketing; censorship; aesthetic history; political history; and historical reception studies. The book is therefore designed to provide a narrative history spine while simultaneously introducing readers to different approaches to the study and research of film history. Concentrating on the plurality of the ‘historical turn’ in film studies, it demonstrates that film history is, and should be, about more than simply key films, directors, and movements.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses films in the 1950s — a decade of contradictions in society as well as cinema, a decade in which ideals such as a middle-class lifestyle, the model home, and marriage and ...
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This chapter discusses films in the 1950s — a decade of contradictions in society as well as cinema, a decade in which ideals such as a middle-class lifestyle, the model home, and marriage and parenthood were complicated and undermined by anxieties over gender roles and cross-generational tensions. The nuclear family ideal was of particular importance in the postwar period as a site of hope and regeneration. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Popular Films and Colonial Audiences: The Movies in Northern Rhodesia’ by Charles Ambler, which focuses on the ‘Copperbelt’ mining district of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia following independence in 1964), in order to assess the circumstances in which American cinema, and by extension Western culture as constructed by the Hollywood dream factory, was consumed by a specific African audience.Less
This chapter discusses films in the 1950s — a decade of contradictions in society as well as cinema, a decade in which ideals such as a middle-class lifestyle, the model home, and marriage and parenthood were complicated and undermined by anxieties over gender roles and cross-generational tensions. The nuclear family ideal was of particular importance in the postwar period as a site of hope and regeneration. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Popular Films and Colonial Audiences: The Movies in Northern Rhodesia’ by Charles Ambler, which focuses on the ‘Copperbelt’ mining district of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia following independence in 1964), in order to assess the circumstances in which American cinema, and by extension Western culture as constructed by the Hollywood dream factory, was consumed by a specific African audience.
J.E. Smyth
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813124063
- eISBN:
- 9780813134765
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813124063.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book departs from the traditional understanding of the relationship between film and history. By looking at production records, scripts, and contemporary reviews, the book argues that certain ...
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This book departs from the traditional understanding of the relationship between film and history. By looking at production records, scripts, and contemporary reviews, the book argues that certain classical Hollywood filmmakers were actively engaged in a self-conscious and often critical filmic writing of national history. This volume is a reassessment of American historiography and cinematic historians from the advent of sound to the beginning of wartime film production in 1942. Focusing on key films such as Cimarron (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), Scarface (1932), Ramona (1936), A Star Is Born (1937), Jezebel (1938), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), Stagecoach (1939), and Citizen Kane (1941), this book explores historical cinema's connections to popular and academic historiography, historical fiction, and journalism, providing a rich context for the industry's commitment to American history. Rather than emphasizing the divide between American historical cinema and historical writing, the book explores the continuities between Hollywood films and history written during the first four decades of the twentieth century, from Carl Becker's famous “Everyman His Own Historian” to Howard Hughes's Scarface to Margaret Mitchell and David O. Selznick's Gone with the Wind. Hollywood's popular and often controversial cycle of historical films from 1931 to 1942 confronted issues as diverse as frontier racism and women's experiences in the nineteenth-century South, the decline of American society following the First World War, the rise of Al Capone, and the tragic history of Hollywood's silent era. Looking at rarely discussed archival material, Smyth focuses on classical Hollywood filmmakers' adaptation and scripting of traditional historical discourse and their critical revision of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American history.Less
This book departs from the traditional understanding of the relationship between film and history. By looking at production records, scripts, and contemporary reviews, the book argues that certain classical Hollywood filmmakers were actively engaged in a self-conscious and often critical filmic writing of national history. This volume is a reassessment of American historiography and cinematic historians from the advent of sound to the beginning of wartime film production in 1942. Focusing on key films such as Cimarron (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), Scarface (1932), Ramona (1936), A Star Is Born (1937), Jezebel (1938), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), Stagecoach (1939), and Citizen Kane (1941), this book explores historical cinema's connections to popular and academic historiography, historical fiction, and journalism, providing a rich context for the industry's commitment to American history. Rather than emphasizing the divide between American historical cinema and historical writing, the book explores the continuities between Hollywood films and history written during the first four decades of the twentieth century, from Carl Becker's famous “Everyman His Own Historian” to Howard Hughes's Scarface to Margaret Mitchell and David O. Selznick's Gone with the Wind. Hollywood's popular and often controversial cycle of historical films from 1931 to 1942 confronted issues as diverse as frontier racism and women's experiences in the nineteenth-century South, the decline of American society following the First World War, the rise of Al Capone, and the tragic history of Hollywood's silent era. Looking at rarely discussed archival material, Smyth focuses on classical Hollywood filmmakers' adaptation and scripting of traditional historical discourse and their critical revision of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American history.
Janna Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813041926
- eISBN:
- 9780813043906
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813041926.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter is an investigation of what film restorationists do and how they think and talk about their work. Current restoration discourse and practices literally assemble and help to shape cinema ...
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This chapter is an investigation of what film restorationists do and how they think and talk about their work. Current restoration discourse and practices literally assemble and help to shape cinema history and reveal how the moving image archive influences the ways that a film history is understood. Focusing on several film restoration case studies and in-depth interviews with some of the country's foremost film restorationists, and the analysis of restoration commentary on the DVD version of Lost Horizon, my aim is not to critique the current methods of film restoration, but to interpret the way restorationists and the archival community both conceptualize film restoration and practice the piecing together of history. This knowledge helps us to better understand how restorationists regard the cinematic object as historical artifact and how the contemporary culture of the archive engages its relationship with the past. The work of restorationists and their particular kind of film-remaking show us the trench work of (re) constructing cinematic history. The restored film should be understood as new type of film born from the cinematic and archival sensibilities at the turn of the twenty-first century.Less
This chapter is an investigation of what film restorationists do and how they think and talk about their work. Current restoration discourse and practices literally assemble and help to shape cinema history and reveal how the moving image archive influences the ways that a film history is understood. Focusing on several film restoration case studies and in-depth interviews with some of the country's foremost film restorationists, and the analysis of restoration commentary on the DVD version of Lost Horizon, my aim is not to critique the current methods of film restoration, but to interpret the way restorationists and the archival community both conceptualize film restoration and practice the piecing together of history. This knowledge helps us to better understand how restorationists regard the cinematic object as historical artifact and how the contemporary culture of the archive engages its relationship with the past. The work of restorationists and their particular kind of film-remaking show us the trench work of (re) constructing cinematic history. The restored film should be understood as new type of film born from the cinematic and archival sensibilities at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Peter Alilunas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520291706
- eISBN:
- 9780520965362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520291706.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Chapter one examines the early history of adult video from a variety of technological, cultural, and industrial perspectives beginning with the Panoram, a device invented in the 1940s and completely ...
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Chapter one examines the early history of adult video from a variety of technological, cultural, and industrial perspectives beginning with the Panoram, a device invented in the 1940s and completely unintended for pornography. Following is an analysis of the adult motel landscape of Southern California, an early site of adult video distribution. The chapter concludes with a history of the early pioneers of adult video, including George Atkinson, who created the first video rental store in the United States.Less
Chapter one examines the early history of adult video from a variety of technological, cultural, and industrial perspectives beginning with the Panoram, a device invented in the 1940s and completely unintended for pornography. Following is an analysis of the adult motel landscape of Southern California, an early site of adult video distribution. The chapter concludes with a history of the early pioneers of adult video, including George Atkinson, who created the first video rental store in the United States.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the international scope and status of early cinema, and the particular significance of European production companies. While Europe dominated world film markets in the first ...
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This chapter discusses the international scope and status of early cinema, and the particular significance of European production companies. While Europe dominated world film markets in the first decade of the twentieth century, the situation began to change as the business organisation of the American film industry was streamlined, and the Hollywood studio system developed. In the emerging history of Hollywood, the established powers of the Motion Picture Patents Company positioned themselves against a growing lobby of independent producers, distributors, and exhibitors in a fight for market control. It was from this struggle that the industrial and aesthetic dominance of the American studio system would emerge and come to assert itself in national and international terms. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The Perils of Pathé, or the Americanization of Early American Cinema’ by Richard Abel, which examines the means by which cinema became a contested site of Americanization.Less
This chapter discusses the international scope and status of early cinema, and the particular significance of European production companies. While Europe dominated world film markets in the first decade of the twentieth century, the situation began to change as the business organisation of the American film industry was streamlined, and the Hollywood studio system developed. In the emerging history of Hollywood, the established powers of the Motion Picture Patents Company positioned themselves against a growing lobby of independent producers, distributors, and exhibitors in a fight for market control. It was from this struggle that the industrial and aesthetic dominance of the American studio system would emerge and come to assert itself in national and international terms. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The Perils of Pathé, or the Americanization of Early American Cinema’ by Richard Abel, which examines the means by which cinema became a contested site of Americanization.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter shows that classical norms were not fixed rules or structures, but set particular boundaries within which innovation could take place. In essence, classical film style rejected formal ...
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This chapter shows that classical norms were not fixed rules or structures, but set particular boundaries within which innovation could take place. In essence, classical film style rejected formal techniques that were purposely disruptive or jarring to the audience. While it is sometimes implied that classical norms emerged simultaneously with the studio system, it is important to note that the aesthetic principles of classical Hollywood cinema preceded the studio system. The development of film style in this sense (classical norms) did not emerge in the very same historical instant as the mode of production that gave it institutional shape (the studio system). Instead, the relation between the two would develop a gradual symbiosis, such that classical norms would become synonymous with the studio system as it emerged more fully after the First World War. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Mass-produced Photoplays: Economic and Signifying Practices in the First Years of Hollywood’ by Janet Staiger, which examines how production practices in the early 1910s influenced the way that films were developed and made.Less
This chapter shows that classical norms were not fixed rules or structures, but set particular boundaries within which innovation could take place. In essence, classical film style rejected formal techniques that were purposely disruptive or jarring to the audience. While it is sometimes implied that classical norms emerged simultaneously with the studio system, it is important to note that the aesthetic principles of classical Hollywood cinema preceded the studio system. The development of film style in this sense (classical norms) did not emerge in the very same historical instant as the mode of production that gave it institutional shape (the studio system). Instead, the relation between the two would develop a gradual symbiosis, such that classical norms would become synonymous with the studio system as it emerged more fully after the First World War. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Mass-produced Photoplays: Economic and Signifying Practices in the First Years of Hollywood’ by Janet Staiger, which examines how production practices in the early 1910s influenced the way that films were developed and made.
James Wicks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208500
- eISBN:
- 9789888313204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208500.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The first chapter of this book, “Framing Taiwan Cinema: Perspectives on History in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Three Times”, which is intended to be read alongside a screening of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 2005 film ...
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The first chapter of this book, “Framing Taiwan Cinema: Perspectives on History in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Three Times”, which is intended to be read alongside a screening of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 2005 film Three Times, provides an accessible introduction to Taiwan cinema by synthesizing in one location key moments in Taiwan’s film history. While the locus of this chapter is Taiwan’s Mandarin state films, the chapter includes intersections with other national film traditions and describes how Mandarin film gradually replaced the vibrant Taiwanese-dialect film (taiyu pian) tradition in the 1970s. In order to do so, it traces the era’s prominent figures, movements, and dates. This includes a summary of Taiwan film in the early 1960s, the influence of Hong Kong film, especially in 1963, with director Li Hanxiang’s The Love Eterne (Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai), a brief account of Taiwan’s so-called “golden age” film in the early 1970s, patriotic war films of the mid-1970s, and adaptations of nativist literature by the state in late 1970s films. Overall, this chapter provides an overview of Taiwan cinema and places in position a scaffolding of historical details and information essential for the analyses presented in the following chapters.Less
The first chapter of this book, “Framing Taiwan Cinema: Perspectives on History in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Three Times”, which is intended to be read alongside a screening of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 2005 film Three Times, provides an accessible introduction to Taiwan cinema by synthesizing in one location key moments in Taiwan’s film history. While the locus of this chapter is Taiwan’s Mandarin state films, the chapter includes intersections with other national film traditions and describes how Mandarin film gradually replaced the vibrant Taiwanese-dialect film (taiyu pian) tradition in the 1970s. In order to do so, it traces the era’s prominent figures, movements, and dates. This includes a summary of Taiwan film in the early 1960s, the influence of Hong Kong film, especially in 1963, with director Li Hanxiang’s The Love Eterne (Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai), a brief account of Taiwan’s so-called “golden age” film in the early 1970s, patriotic war films of the mid-1970s, and adaptations of nativist literature by the state in late 1970s films. Overall, this chapter provides an overview of Taiwan cinema and places in position a scaffolding of historical details and information essential for the analyses presented in the following chapters.
Marco Deseriis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816694860
- eISBN:
- 9781452952413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816694860.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter focuses on Alan Smithee, a pseudonym introduced by the Directors Guild of America to allow film directors to work outside of their reputation. The chapter shows how the accumulation of ...
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This chapter focuses on Alan Smithee, a pseudonym introduced by the Directors Guild of America to allow film directors to work outside of their reputation. The chapter shows how the accumulation of negative reputation in the name of Smithee ultimately undermined the DGA’s ability to preserve its original function within the regulated field of Hollywood labor relations.Less
This chapter focuses on Alan Smithee, a pseudonym introduced by the Directors Guild of America to allow film directors to work outside of their reputation. The chapter shows how the accumulation of negative reputation in the name of Smithee ultimately undermined the DGA’s ability to preserve its original function within the regulated field of Hollywood labor relations.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the competitors of the American film industry. The German film industry competed most successfully with America in that its domestic productions outweighed foreign imports in ...
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This chapter discusses the competitors of the American film industry. The German film industry competed most successfully with America in that its domestic productions outweighed foreign imports in the 1920s, and Britain put up a very good fight at the box office, with 1927 its annus mirabilis. However, protectionist measures would characterise a decade in which national cinemas sought to hold their own against Hollywood's incursions into other national cinemas. The American challenge to European and other cinemas was also underwritten by the federal support that the American film industry received from the US Government's Commerce Department, designed to support a developing industry. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Social Mobility and the Fantastic: German Silent Cinema’ by Thomas Elsaesser, a revisionist study that pays tribute to two classic film studies of the era — Siegfried Kracauer's sociological From Caligari to Hitler (1947) and Lotte Eisner's aesthetic study The Haunted Screen (1969). Elsaesser critiques what had become their ‘consensus’ view of the cinema of the period.Less
This chapter discusses the competitors of the American film industry. The German film industry competed most successfully with America in that its domestic productions outweighed foreign imports in the 1920s, and Britain put up a very good fight at the box office, with 1927 its annus mirabilis. However, protectionist measures would characterise a decade in which national cinemas sought to hold their own against Hollywood's incursions into other national cinemas. The American challenge to European and other cinemas was also underwritten by the federal support that the American film industry received from the US Government's Commerce Department, designed to support a developing industry. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Social Mobility and the Fantastic: German Silent Cinema’ by Thomas Elsaesser, a revisionist study that pays tribute to two classic film studies of the era — Siegfried Kracauer's sociological From Caligari to Hitler (1947) and Lotte Eisner's aesthetic study The Haunted Screen (1969). Elsaesser critiques what had become their ‘consensus’ view of the cinema of the period.
L. Andrew Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037092
- eISBN:
- 9780252094385
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037092.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book explores the extreme violence that pervades Dario Argento's films, and particularly the ways in which they push the limits of visual and auditory experience by offending, confusing, ...
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This book explores the extreme violence that pervades Dario Argento's films, and particularly the ways in which they push the limits of visual and auditory experience by offending, confusing, sickening, and baffling the viewers. It looks at Argento's approach to his work over more than four decades of filmmaking, and his commitment to innovation that is evident in two closely related genres whose disturbing violence reaches previously unrecorded levels of pain, suffering, and mental anguish: crime thriller and supernatural horror. From his directorial debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), to Giallo (2009), Argento's films challenge a viewer's accepted ideas about film spectatorship, meaning, storytelling, and genre. This book also looks at the centrality of collaboration, particularly with family, in Argento's work by analyzing sixteen films that feature him as writer and director. Finally, it discusses how Argento's films function as rhetorical interventions against dominant views on film criticism, interpretation, narrative, and conventions through an examination of interpretive possibilities that connect the films to broader tendencies in film history.Less
This book explores the extreme violence that pervades Dario Argento's films, and particularly the ways in which they push the limits of visual and auditory experience by offending, confusing, sickening, and baffling the viewers. It looks at Argento's approach to his work over more than four decades of filmmaking, and his commitment to innovation that is evident in two closely related genres whose disturbing violence reaches previously unrecorded levels of pain, suffering, and mental anguish: crime thriller and supernatural horror. From his directorial debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), to Giallo (2009), Argento's films challenge a viewer's accepted ideas about film spectatorship, meaning, storytelling, and genre. This book also looks at the centrality of collaboration, particularly with family, in Argento's work by analyzing sixteen films that feature him as writer and director. Finally, it discusses how Argento's films function as rhetorical interventions against dominant views on film criticism, interpretation, narrative, and conventions through an examination of interpretive possibilities that connect the films to broader tendencies in film history.
Peter Alilunas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520291706
- eISBN:
- 9780520965362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520291706.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This introduction offers an overview of relevant literature, a brief trajectory of the history of pornography before the video era, and an analysis of why the topic has not received much attention. ...
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This introduction offers an overview of relevant literature, a brief trajectory of the history of pornography before the video era, and an analysis of why the topic has not received much attention. Additionally, it offers one of the central arguments in the book, that the industry’s quest for respectability by foregrounding quality (both aesthetically and narratively) had critical ramifications in terms of gender and sexuality—particularly for women—that have been previously overlooked.Less
This introduction offers an overview of relevant literature, a brief trajectory of the history of pornography before the video era, and an analysis of why the topic has not received much attention. Additionally, it offers one of the central arguments in the book, that the industry’s quest for respectability by foregrounding quality (both aesthetically and narratively) had critical ramifications in terms of gender and sexuality—particularly for women—that have been previously overlooked.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter argues that the emergence of cinema must be understood in relation to a pre-history of visual experimentation, and to practices of visual representation ranging from magic lantern shows ...
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This chapter argues that the emergence of cinema must be understood in relation to a pre-history of visual experimentation, and to practices of visual representation ranging from magic lantern shows to dioramas and panoramas. The development of specific technologies in the late nineteenth century created the basis for the rapid development of cinema as an artistic and industrial form. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, its Spectator and the Avant-Garde’ by Tom Gunning, which explores the period before the film industry achieved relative stability. Specifically, he examines the pleasures afforded by early cinema, focusing on the modes of film display and exhibition that made cinema a distinctive and curiously modern visual attraction.Less
This chapter argues that the emergence of cinema must be understood in relation to a pre-history of visual experimentation, and to practices of visual representation ranging from magic lantern shows to dioramas and panoramas. The development of specific technologies in the late nineteenth century created the basis for the rapid development of cinema as an artistic and industrial form. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, its Spectator and the Avant-Garde’ by Tom Gunning, which explores the period before the film industry achieved relative stability. Specifically, he examines the pleasures afforded by early cinema, focusing on the modes of film display and exhibition that made cinema a distinctive and curiously modern visual attraction.
Sian Barber
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719090301
- eISBN:
- 9781781708958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719090301.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores the history of film analysis and considers the different ways in which film has been approached, psceifically, film as art, as social history, as a cultural object and as ...
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This chapter explores the history of film analysis and considers the different ways in which film has been approached, psceifically, film as art, as social history, as a cultural object and as economics. It examines key interventions within the discipline and locates the development of film studies within broader historiographical trends. It includes a case study on a specific film which indicates the different ways in which film can be explored.Less
This chapter explores the history of film analysis and considers the different ways in which film has been approached, psceifically, film as art, as social history, as a cultural object and as economics. It examines key interventions within the discipline and locates the development of film studies within broader historiographical trends. It includes a case study on a specific film which indicates the different ways in which film can be explored.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0016
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses changes in the film industry at the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s. As cinema's role as classic family entertainment was lost to television, films diversified to attract ...
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This chapter discusses changes in the film industry at the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s. As cinema's role as classic family entertainment was lost to television, films diversified to attract different audiences, including young Americans for whom sci-fi, horror and titillation at the drive-in would guarantee a great evening out, and more specialist ‘art house’ screenings for American audiences for whom European imports held the intellectual high ground. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The End of Classical Exploitation’ by Eric Schaefer, which explores the movie trends and the historical changes that evolved into the exploitation industry. It also sets the scene for the rise of ‘sexploitation’ films in the 1960s and ‘blaxploitation’ in the 1970s.Less
This chapter discusses changes in the film industry at the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s. As cinema's role as classic family entertainment was lost to television, films diversified to attract different audiences, including young Americans for whom sci-fi, horror and titillation at the drive-in would guarantee a great evening out, and more specialist ‘art house’ screenings for American audiences for whom European imports held the intellectual high ground. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The End of Classical Exploitation’ by Eric Schaefer, which explores the movie trends and the historical changes that evolved into the exploitation industry. It also sets the scene for the rise of ‘sexploitation’ films in the 1960s and ‘blaxploitation’ in the 1970s.
Peter Alilunas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520291706
- eISBN:
- 9780520965362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520291706.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Chapter three contrasts a pair of case studies involving the challenges faced by the women whose performances helped build the adult video industry, and particularly the significance of the means of ...
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Chapter three contrasts a pair of case studies involving the challenges faced by the women whose performances helped build the adult video industry, and particularly the significance of the means of production and control. First, Ginger Lynn and Vivid Video, the first company to recognize the potential of the shot-on-video format. Lynn was the centerpiece in a new, aggressive marketing strategy that sought widespread public acceptance but did not hold an ownership stake in the company, and thus represents the limitations of performance success. Second is Candida Royalle, a performer in the 1970s who founded Femme Productions in 1984 with the goal of creating adult films for women, which she did as writer, director, producer, and owner. While similar to Vivid in terms of the desire for economic success with particular demographics, Royalle’s overt politics, feminist strategies, marketing discourses, and narrative and visual content set Femme in radically different territory.Less
Chapter three contrasts a pair of case studies involving the challenges faced by the women whose performances helped build the adult video industry, and particularly the significance of the means of production and control. First, Ginger Lynn and Vivid Video, the first company to recognize the potential of the shot-on-video format. Lynn was the centerpiece in a new, aggressive marketing strategy that sought widespread public acceptance but did not hold an ownership stake in the company, and thus represents the limitations of performance success. Second is Candida Royalle, a performer in the 1970s who founded Femme Productions in 1984 with the goal of creating adult films for women, which she did as writer, director, producer, and owner. While similar to Vivid in terms of the desire for economic success with particular demographics, Royalle’s overt politics, feminist strategies, marketing discourses, and narrative and visual content set Femme in radically different territory.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0018
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses films inspired by internal conflicts in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, as divisions between young and old, black and white, and left and right became ...
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This chapter discusses films inspired by internal conflicts in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, as divisions between young and old, black and white, and left and right became increasingly polarised. This can be seen as the period of Hollywood modernism, in which a series of films and filmmakers displayed the influence of the international art cinema. It can also been seen as one in which Hollywood cinema incorporated other cinemas, containing their threat by absorbing that which was threatening. In political terms, this can also be seen as both an era of political radicalism in which a whole series of aspects of American culture and society were criticised and as one of conservatism in which there was an attack on the claims and gains made by the left. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Inner-City Exhibition and the Genre Film: Distributing Night of the Living Dead’ (1968) by Kevin Heffernan, which uses the film to open up a series of issues about distribution in the late 1960s.Less
This chapter discusses films inspired by internal conflicts in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, as divisions between young and old, black and white, and left and right became increasingly polarised. This can be seen as the period of Hollywood modernism, in which a series of films and filmmakers displayed the influence of the international art cinema. It can also been seen as one in which Hollywood cinema incorporated other cinemas, containing their threat by absorbing that which was threatening. In political terms, this can also be seen as both an era of political radicalism in which a whole series of aspects of American culture and society were criticised and as one of conservatism in which there was an attack on the claims and gains made by the left. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Inner-City Exhibition and the Genre Film: Distributing Night of the Living Dead’ (1968) by Kevin Heffernan, which uses the film to open up a series of issues about distribution in the late 1960s.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0019
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter focuses on the new generation of largely college-educated ‘movie brats’ who were central to the shift from the modernist art cinema to blockbuster fantasies in the late 1970s. The period ...
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This chapter focuses on the new generation of largely college-educated ‘movie brats’ who were central to the shift from the modernist art cinema to blockbuster fantasies in the late 1970s. The period from 1975 to 1980 is also distinguished by considerable power acquired by successful directors. One figure who is often seen as especially representative of these processes was Stephen Spielberg. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Tales of the Silent Blast: Star Wars and Sound’ by Gianluca Sergi, which analyzes the sound design of Star Wars, a film that was pivotal within the industry through its exploration of the ‘dynamic potential’ of new sound technologies.Less
This chapter focuses on the new generation of largely college-educated ‘movie brats’ who were central to the shift from the modernist art cinema to blockbuster fantasies in the late 1970s. The period from 1975 to 1980 is also distinguished by considerable power acquired by successful directors. One figure who is often seen as especially representative of these processes was Stephen Spielberg. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Tales of the Silent Blast: Star Wars and Sound’ by Gianluca Sergi, which analyzes the sound design of Star Wars, a film that was pivotal within the industry through its exploration of the ‘dynamic potential’ of new sound technologies.
