Reclaiming the Archive


Book Description

Scholars of film history and feminist studies will appreciate the breadth of work in this volume.




Movie-struck Girls


Book Description

This volume examines women's films and filmgoing in the 1910s, a period when female patronage was energetically courted by the industry for the first time. It demonstrates that women significantly complicated cinema going throughout this formative, transitional era.




The Silent Cinema Reader


Book Description

The Silent Cinema Reader brings together key writings on cinema from the beginnings of film in 1894 to the advent of sound in 1927, addressing the development of film production and exhibition technologies, methods of distribution, film form, and film culture during this critical period on film history. Thematic sections address: film projection and variety shows; storytelling and the Nickelodeon; cinema and reform; feature films and cinema programs; classical Hollywood cinema and European national cinemas. Each section is introduced by the editors, and contains suggestions for further readings and film viewings.




American Film History


Book Description

This authoritative collection of introductory and specialized readings explores the rich and innovative history of this period in American cinema. Spanning an essential range of subjects from the early 1900s Nickelodeon to the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, it combines a broad historical context with careful readings of individual films. Charts the rise of film in early twentieth-century America from its origins to 1960, exploring mainstream trends and developments, along with topics often relegated to the margins of standard film histories Covers diverse issues ranging from silent film and its iconic figures such as Charlie Chaplin, to the coming of sound and the rise of film genres, studio moguls, and, later, the Production Code and Cold War Blacklist Designed with both students and scholars in mind: each section opens with an historical overview and includes chapters that provide close, careful readings of individual films clustered around specific topics Accessibly structured by historical period, offering valuable cultural, social, and political contexts Contains careful, close analysis of key filmmakers and films from the era including D.W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Erich von Stroheim, Cecil B. DeMille, Don Juan, The Jazz Singer, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Scarface, Red Dust, Glorifying the American Girl, Meet Me in St. Louis, Citizen Kane, Bambi, Frank Capra's Why We Fightseries, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Rebel Without a Cause, Force of Evil, and selected American avant-garde and underground films, among many others. Additional online resources such as sample syllabi, which include suggested readings and filmographies for both general specialized courses, will be available online. May be used alongside American Film History: Selected Readings, 1960 to the Present, to provide an authoritative study of American cinema through the new millennium




Exhibition, the Film Reader


Book Description

From the kinetoscope, used by one viewer at a time, to the lavish movie palaces of Hollywood's golden era, the experience of watching films has varied enormously across film. Exhibition, The Film Reader traces the emergence of a culture of moviegoing, exploring the range of venues in which films have been shown and following the fluctuating status of film and the continuning struggle over audiences.




J.P. McGowan


Book Description

J.P. McGowan (1880ndash;1952) was one of Hollywood's most prolific pioneers: actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and industrial advocate for the motion picture industry. Known as the "Railroad Man" for his specialization in action movies involving railroads, he made common the image of the terrified beauty tied to a track-his first wife was Helen Holmes of his iconic silent series The Hazards of Helen. This work, the first biography of the Australian-born adventurer, covers a screen career spanning 30 years and over 600 productions from the dawn of the Silent Era. It chronicles his entire life and places him within the context of the times in which he lived and worked. Previously unknown details are unearthed on his family background and early life as well as his participation in the Boer War and his move to the United States. The work concludes with a comprehensive filmography of McGowan's work.




The King of the Movies


Book Description

That immigrant Jews had a profound impact on the growth of American cinema is well known and has been the subject of much scholarship. But America's first Jewish movie mogul, Siegmund Lubin of Philadelphia, has never been closely studied. Drawing upon contemporary accounts and interviews with Lubin's surviving family, friends, and employees, this work details the life and career of the once-famous "Pop" Lubin. It also seeks to explore the complex personality of this early film pioneer and the impact he had on the initial development of the movies. Torn between his loyalty to Edison and his desire to help the young Jewish independents trying to break into the business, Lubin adopted a complex strategy for working both sides of the fence. Sam Goldwyn, Jesse Lasky, Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, and Adam Kessel all benefited from his discreet assistance. Lubin also became the first American film pioneer to utilize the motion picture to combat anti-Semitism.




American Cinema’s Transitional Era


Book Description

This 'transitional era' covered the years 1908-1917 & witnessed profound changes in the structure of the motion picture industry in the US, involving film genre, film form, filmmaking practices & the emergence of the studio system. The pattern which emerged dominated the industry for decades to come.




Exporting Entertainment


Book Description




Classical Reception


Book Description

In a time of acute crisis when our societies face a complex series of challenges (race, gender, inclusivity, changing pedagogical needs and a global pandemic) we urgently need to re-access the nature of our engagement with the Classical World. This edited collection argues that we need to discover new ways to draw on our discipline and the material it studies to engage in meaningful ways with these new academic and societal challenges. The chapters included in the collection interrogate the very processes of reception and continue the work of destabilising the concept of a pure source text or point of origin. Our aim is to break through the boundaries that still divide our ancient texts and material culture from their reception, and interpretive communities. Our contributors engage with these questions theoretically and/or through the close examination of cultural artefacts. They problematise the concept of a Western, elitist canon and actively push the geographical boundaries of reception as both a local and a global phenomenon. Individually and cumulatively, they actively engage with the question of how to marshal the classical past in our efforts to respond to the challenges of our mutable contemporary world.