Hollywood Genres and Postwar America

Hollywood Genres and Postwar America PDF Author: Mike Chopra-Gant
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857713280
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
This is a clear and engrossing account of how popular films in America just after the close of the Second World War played out America's mood at that crucial time. It is also a revisionist challenge to received scholarly understanding of this mood, which has tended to be seen as characterized by an abiding pessimism most clearly manifested in the films noir of the period. Chopra-Gant makes here an important contribution to film genre, which proposes that the 'noir and Zeitgeist' reading is based on the retrospective promotion of selected movies. He turns to the top box office successes of the period, including "Best Years of our Lives", "The Jolson Story" and "Two Years Before the Mast", finding that these films emphasise rather the triumph of American beliefs in democracy, classlessness and individualism. They deploy positive, performative masculinities and the pleasures of male friendships and celebrate the traditional American family, while recognising the problems of 'momism' and absent fathers.

Hollywood Genres and Postwar America

Hollywood Genres and Postwar America PDF Author: Mike Chopra-Gant
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857713280
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is a clear and engrossing account of how popular films in America just after the close of the Second World War played out America's mood at that crucial time. It is also a revisionist challenge to received scholarly understanding of this mood, which has tended to be seen as characterized by an abiding pessimism most clearly manifested in the films noir of the period. Chopra-Gant makes here an important contribution to film genre, which proposes that the 'noir and Zeitgeist' reading is based on the retrospective promotion of selected movies. He turns to the top box office successes of the period, including "Best Years of our Lives", "The Jolson Story" and "Two Years Before the Mast", finding that these films emphasise rather the triumph of American beliefs in democracy, classlessness and individualism. They deploy positive, performative masculinities and the pleasures of male friendships and celebrate the traditional American family, while recognising the problems of 'momism' and absent fathers.

Postwar Hollywood

Postwar Hollywood PDF Author: Drew Casper
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
This is a comprehensive introductory textbook exploring the unique period in the history of the film industry after World War II. Casper examines the cultural history, business practices, new technologies, censorship standards, emerging genres, and styles of post-war cinema.

Hollywood Genres

Hollywood Genres PDF Author: Thomas Schatz
Publisher: Philadelphia : Temple University Press
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Schatz analyzes the studio system and tells what film genres mean in a general and theoretical way. Describing some important movie genres in Hollywood's "Golden Era", -- the Western, the gangster film, detective movies, screwball comedies, the musical and the family melodrama -- he surveys selected films and the work of directors associated with them.

Hollywood's America

Hollywood's America PDF Author: Steven Mintz
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118976495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
Fully revised, updated, and extended, the fifth edition of Hollywood’s America provides an important compilation of interpretive essays and primary documents that allows students to read films as cultural artifacts within the contexts of actual past events. A new edition of this classic textbook, which ties movies into the broader narrative of US and film history This fifth edition contains nine new chapters, with a greater overall emphasis on recent film history, and new primary source documents which are unavailable online Entries range from the first experiments with motion pictures all the way to the present day Well-organized within a chronological framework with thematic treatments to provide a valuable resource for students of the history of American film

Bringing Up Daddy

Bringing Up Daddy PDF Author: Stella Bruzzi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1838714731
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Offering a broad perspective on the Hollywood dad, looking at important Hollywood fathers and discussing films from many genres, this book adopts a multi-faceted theoretical approach, making use of psychoanalysis, sociology and masculinity studies and contextualising the father figure within both Hollywood and American history.

Homemade Men in Postwar Austrian Cinema

Homemade Men in Postwar Austrian Cinema PDF Author: Maria Fritsche
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857459465
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Despite the massive influx of Hollywood movies and films from other European countries after World War II, Austrian film continued to be hugely popular with Austrian and German audiences. By examining the decisive role that popular cinema played in the turbulent post-war era, this book provides unique insights into the reconstruction of a disrupted society. Through detailed analysis of the stylistic patterns, narratives and major themes of four popular genres of the time, costume film, Heimatfilm, tourist film and comedy, the book explains how popular cinema helped to shape national identity, smoothed conflicted gender relations and relieved the Austrians from the burden of the Nazi past through celebrating the harmonious, charming, musical Austrian man.

Crossover Stardom

Crossover Stardom PDF Author: Julie Lobalzo Wright
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1628925795
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Crossover Stardom: Popular Male Stars in American Cinema focuses on male music stars who have attempted to achieve film stardom. Crossover stardom can describe stars who cross from one medium to another. Although 'crossover' has become a popular term to describe many modern stars who appear in various mediums, crossover stardom has a long history, going back to the beginning of the cinema. Lobalzo Wright begins with Bing Crosby, a significant Hollywood star in the studio era; moving to Elvis Presley in the 1950s and 1960s, as the studio system collapsed; to Kris Kristofferson in the New Hollywood period of the 1970s; and ending with Will Smith and Justin Timberlake, in the contemporary era, when corporate conglomerates dominate Hollywood. Thus, the study not only explores music stardom (and music genres) in various eras, and masculinity within these periods, it also surveys the history of American cinema from industrial and cultural perspectives, from the 1930s to today.

British Children's Cinema

British Children's Cinema PDF Author: Noel Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1786721015
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
British children's films have played a part in the childhoods of generations of young people around the world for over a century. Until now, however, their cherished status has remained largely unexplored. In this book, Noel Brown relates the history of children's cinema in Britain from the early years of commercial cinema to the present day, to reveal the reasons behind its acclaim in international popular culture.Drawing on multiple sources, Brown provides in-depth analysis of a range of iconic films, including The Railway Children, The Thief of Bagdad, Bugsy Malone, the Harry Potter films,Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee, Paddington, Oliver!, and Aardman's Wallace and Gromit series. Futhermore, he investigates industrial and commercial contexts, such as the role of the Children's Film Foundation; and includes revealing insights on changing social and cultural norms, such as the once-sacred tradition of Saturday morning cinema. Brown challenges common prejudices that children's films are inherently shallow or simplistic, revealing the often complex strategies that underpin their enduring appeal to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.In addition, he shows how the films allow a privileged access to historic cultures and the nation's political past. In doing so, Brown firmly establishes children's cinema as an important genre not only for students and scholars of film studies but also for those interested in socio-cultural history, the production and reception of popular entertainment and anyone looking for entertainment, escapism and nostalgia.

Driven to Darkness

Driven to Darkness PDF Author: Vincent Brook
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813548330
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
From its earliest days, the American film industry has attracted European artists. With the rise of Hitler, filmmakers of conscience in Germany and other countries, particularly those of Jewish origin, found it difficult to survive and fledùfor their work and their livesùto the United States. Some had trouble adapting to Hollywood, but many were celebrated for their cinematic contributions, especially to the dark shadows of film noir. Driven to Darkness explores the influence of Jewish TmigrT directors and the development of this genre. While filmmakers such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, and Edward G. Ulmer have been acknowledged as crucial to the noir canon, the impact of their Jewishness on their work has remained largely unexamined until now. Through lively and original analyses of key films, Vincent Brook penetrates the darkness, shedding new light on this popular film form and the artists who helped create it.

The Film Reader's Guide to James Cameron's Avatar

The Film Reader's Guide to James Cameron's Avatar PDF Author: Bryn V. Young-Roberts
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 147170548X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
Director of The Terminator, Aliens and Titanic, James Cameron's latest movie, Avatar, is the most viewed cinema release of all time, yet to date receives little academic attention. Filling the gap, editor of www.DeepFocusFilm.com, Bryn V. Young-Roberts, researches Avatar's historical and cultural relevance with its first in-depth examination while simultaneously discussing the Cameron oeuvre. From the perspective of historical contextualisation and cultural analysis we decipher its socially significant subtext, encouraging a view that Avatar is not exclusively a generic entertainment spectacle. Providing foundations for future studies, we examine the film as metaphor for the Iraq War, advocator of the Internet as liberation tool, and political stance to the Bush administration. Fear of the industrial-military complex, and romantic ideals of Class are also analysed. Ultimately, the volume summarizes Avatar in relation to Cameron's other work and how it fits into our larger, contemporary society.