In 1931 Universal Pictures releasedDraculaandFrankenstein,two films that inaugurated the horror genre in Hollywood cinema. These films appeared directly on the heels of Hollywood's transition to ...sound film.Uncanny Bodiesargues that the coming of sound inspired more in these massively influential horror movies than screams, creaking doors, and howling wolves. A close examination of the historical reception of films of the transition period reveals that sound films could seem to their earliest viewers unreal and ghostly. By comparing this audience impression to the first sound horror films, Robert Spadoni makes a case for understanding film viewing as a force that can powerfully shape both the minutest aspects of individual films and the broadest sweep of film production trends, and for seeing aftereffects of the temporary weirdness of sound film deeply etched in the basic character of one of our most enduring film genres.
This open access collection deals with musical moments in film as one of the most pivotal and compelling issues of current film music research. Musical moments as defined by Amy Herzog occur when a ...musical number inverts the normal relationship between the image track and the soundtrack in a film in such a way that what we see is determined by what we hear. As one potential approach, this definition provokes a variety of perspectives to investigate the disruptive potential of these moments and numbers as a creative device in the production of audiovisual narratives.
Dieser Open Access Sammelband behandelt musikalische Momente im Film als zentrales und wegweisendes Thema aktueller Filmmusikforschung. Musikalische Momente wie von Amy Herzog (2009) definiert, treten dann auf, wenn die konventionelle Beziehung im Film zwischen Bild und Ton umgekehrt wird, so dass das was wir sehen von dem was wir hören bestimmt wird. Diese Definition ermöglicht neue Ansätze um besonders das disruptive Potential dieser musikalischen Momente und Nummern als kreatives Mittel der Produktion audiovisueller Erzählungen zu untersuchen.
The rise of cinema as the predominant American entertainment around the turn of the last century coincided with the migration of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to the urban ..."land of hope" in the North. This richly illustrated book, discussing many early films and illuminating black urban life in this period, is the first detailed look at the numerous early relationships between African Americans and cinema. It investigates African American migrations onto the screen, into the audience, and behind the camera, showing that African American urban populations and cinema shaped each other in powerful ways. Focusing on Black film culture in Chicago during the silent era,Migrating to the Moviesbegins with the earliest cinematic representations of African Americans and concludes with the silent films of Oscar Micheaux and other early "race films" made for Black audiences, discussing some of the extraordinary ways in which African Americans staked their claim in cinema's development as an art and a cultural institution.
With case studies from the film industries of Turkey, India and the Philippines, The Hollywood Meme is the first comprehensive study of the transnational adaptations of Hollywood movies that have ...appeared throughout world cinema.
Since the mid-1980s, US audiences have watched the majority of movies they see on a video platform, be it VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, Video On Demand, or streaming media. Annual video revenues have exceeded ...box office returns for over twenty-five years. In short, video has become the structuring discourse of US movie culture. Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens examines how prerecorded video reframes the premises and promises of motion picture spectatorship. But instead of offering a history of video technology or reception, Caetlin Benson-Allott analyzes how the movies themselves understand and represent the symbiosis of platform and spectator. Through case studies and close readings that blend industry history with apparatus theory, psychoanalysis with platform studies, and production history with postmodern philosophy, Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens unearths a genealogy of post-cinematic spectatorship in horror movies, thrillers, and other exploitation genres. From Night of the Living Dead (1968) through Paranormal Activity (2009), these movies pursue their spectator from one platform to another, adapting to suit new exhibition norms and cultural concerns in the evolution of the video subject.
Film archives are fast spreading around the world, and with them issues surrounding archival digitisation, artistic appropriation, and academic reinterpretation of film material that demand scholarly ...attention. Exploring Past Images in a Digital Age: Reinventing the Archive aims to fill this demand with a thought-provoking collection of original articles contributed by renowned scholars, archivists, and artists. It urges the reader to “forget” standard ways of thinking about film archives and come to grips with the challenges of analysing and recontextualising an area in transit from the analogue to the digital. The book not only throws light on unexplored issues related to film archives but also introduces unconventional approaches and alternative sources for scholarly research and a vast range of artistic possibilities.
The first book-length exploration of internationally distributed, multi-director episode films
Omnibus films bring together the contributions of two or more filmmakers. Does this make them inherently ...contradictory texts? How do they challenge critical categories in cinema studies? What are their implications for auteur theory?
As the first book-length exploration of internationally distributed, multi-director episode films, David Scott Diffrient'sOmnibus Films: Theorizing Transauthorial Cinemafills a considerable gap in the history of world cinema and aims to expand contemporary understandings of authorship, genre, narrative, and transnational production and reception. Delving into such unique yet representative case studies asIf I Had a Million(1932),Forever and a Day(1943),Dead of Night(1945),Quartet(1948),Love and the City(1953),Boccaccio '70, (1962),New York Stories(1989),Tickets(2005),Visions of Europe(2005), andParis, je t'aime(2006), this book covers much conceptual ground and crosses narrative as well as national borders in much the same way that omnibus films do.
Omnibus Filmsis a particularly thought-provoking book for those working in the fields of auteur theory, film genre and transnational cinema, and is suitable for advanced students in Cinema Studies.
Departing from those who define postmodernism in film merely as a
visual style or set of narrative conventions, Anne Friedberg
develops the first sustained account of the cinema's role in
postmodern ...culture. She explores the ways in which
nineteenth-century visual experiences-photography, urban strolling,
panorama and diorama entertainments-anticipate contemporary
pleasures provided by cinema, video, shopping malls, and emerging
"virtual reality" technologies. Comparing the visual practices of
shopping, tourism, and film-viewing, Friedberg identifies the
experience of "virtual" mobility through time and space as a key
determinant of postmodern cultural identity. Evaluating the
theories of Jameson, Lyotard, Baudrillard, and others, she adds
critical insights about the role of gender and gender mobility in
the configurations of consumer culture. A strikingly original work,
Window Shopping challenges many of the existing
assumptions about what exactly post modern is. This book
marks the emergence of a compelling new voice in the study of
contemporary culture.
