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Silent Film Comedy And American Culture
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Book Synopsis Silent Film Comedy and American Culture by : Alan Bilton
Download or read book Silent Film Comedy and American Culture written by Alan Bilton and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This absorbing study of early 20th Century American Culture interprets the anarchic absurdity of slapstick movies as a form of collective anxiety dream, their fantastical images and illogical gags expressing the unconscious wishes and fears of the modern age, in a way that foreshadows the concerns of our own celebrity-obsessed consumer culture.
Book Synopsis Silent Film Comedy and American Culture by : Alan Bilton
Download or read book Silent Film Comedy and American Culture written by Alan Bilton and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This absorbing study of early 20th Century American Culture interprets the anarchic absurdity of slapstick movies as a form of collective anxiety dream, their fantastical images and illogical gags expressing the unconscious wishes and fears of the modern age, in a way that foreshadows the concerns of our own celebrity-obsessed consumer culture.
Book Synopsis Silent Film & the Triumph of the American Myth by : Paula Marantz Cohen
Download or read book Silent Film & the Triumph of the American Myth written by Paula Marantz Cohen and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2001 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cohen argues that silent film allowed America to sever its literary and linguistic ties to Europe and develop an original form of expression compatible with American strengths and weaknesses. She connects the rise of film and the rise of America as a cultural center and 20th century world power.
Book Synopsis Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes by : Maggie Hennefeld
Download or read book Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes written by Maggie Hennefeld and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women explode out of chimneys and melt when sprayed with soda water. Feminist activists play practical jokes to lobby for voting rights, while overworked kitchen maids dismember their limbs to finish their chores on time. In early slapstick films with titles such as Saucy Sue, Mary Jane’s Mishap, Jane on Strike, and The Consequences of Feminism, comediennes exhibit the tensions between joyful laughter and gendered violence. Slapstick comedy often celebrates the exaggeration of make-believe injury. Unlike male clowns, however, these comic actresses use slapstick antics as forms of feminist protest. They spontaneously combust while doing housework, disappear and reappear when sexually assaulted, or transform into men by eating magic seeds—and their absurd metamorphoses evoke the real-life predicaments of female identity in a changing modern world. Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes reveals the gender politics of comedy and the comedic potentials of feminism through close consideration of hundreds of silent films. As Maggie Hennefeld argues, comedienne catastrophes provide disturbing but suggestive images for comprehending gendered social upheavals in the early twentieth century. At the same time, slapstick comediennes were crucial to the emergence of film language. Women’s flexible physicality offered filmmakers blank slates for experimenting with the visual and social potentials of cinema. Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes poses major challenges to the foundations of our ideas about slapstick comedy and film history, showing how this combustible genre blows open age-old debates about laughter, society, and gender politics.
Book Synopsis Comic Venus by : Kristen Anderson Wagner
Download or read book Comic Venus written by Kristen Anderson Wagner and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the social and historical significance of women’s contributions to American silent film comedy. For many people the term "silent comedy" conjures up images of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, Buster Keaton's Stoneface, or Harold Lloyd hanging precariously from the side of a skyscraper. Even people who have never seen a silent film can recognize these comedians at a glance. But what about the female comedians? Gale Henry, Louise Fazenda, Colleen Moore, Constance Talmadge—these and numerous others were wildly popular during the silent film era, appearing in countless motion pictures and earning top salaries, and yet their names have been almost entirely forgotten. As a consequence, recovering their history is all the more compelling given that they laid the foundation for generations of funny women, from Lucille Ball to Carol Burnett to Tina Fey. These women constitute an essential and neglected sector of film history, reflecting a turning point in women's social and political history. Their talent and brave spirit continues to be felt today, and Comic Venus: Women and Comedy in American Silent Film seeks to provide a better understanding of women's experiences in the early twentieth century and to better understand and appreciate the unruly and boundary-breaking women who have followed. The diversity and breadth of archival materials explored in Comic Venus illuminate the social and historical period of comediennes and silent film. In four sections, Kristen Anderson Wagner enumerates the relationship between women and comedy, beginning with the question of why historically women weren't seen as funny or couldn't possibly be funny in the public and male eye, a question that persists even today. Wagner delves into the idea of women's "delicate sensibilities," which presumably prevented them from being funny, and in chapter two traces ideas about feminine beauty and what a woman should express versus what these comedic women did express, as Wagner notes, "comediennes challenged the assumption that beauty was a fundamental component of ideal femininity." In chapter three, Wagner discusses how comediennes such as Clara Bow, Marie Dressler, and Colleen Moore used humor to gain recognition and power through performances of sexuality and desire. Women comedians presented "sexuality as fun and playful, suggesting that personal relationships could be fluid rather than stable." Chapter four examines silent comediennes' relationships to the modern world and argues that these women exemplified modernity and new womanhood. The final chapter of Comic Venus brings readers to understand comediennes and their impact on silent-era cinema, as well as their lasting influence on later generations of funny women. Comic Venus is the first book to explore the overlooked contributions made by comediennes in American silent film. Those with an interest in film and representations of femininity in comedy will be fascinated by the analytical connections and thoroughly researched histories of these women and their groundbreaking movements in comedy and stage.
Book Synopsis American Silent Film by : William K. Everson
Download or read book American Silent Film written by William K. Everson and published by Da Capo. This book was released on 1998 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised as the "best modern survey of the silent period" (New Republic), this indispensable history tells you everything you need to know about American silent film, from the nickelodeons in the early 1900s to the birth of the first "talkies" in the late 1920s. The author provides vivid descriptions of classic pictures such as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Sunrise, The Covered Wagon, and Greed, and lucidly discusses their technical and artistic merits and weaknesses. He pays tribute to acknowledged masters like D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Lillian and Dorothy Gish, but he also gives ample attention to previously neglected yet equally gifted actors and directors. In addition, the book covers individual genres, such as the comedy, western gangster, and spectacle, and explores such essential but little-understood subjects as art direction, production design, lighting and camera techniques, and the art of the subtitle. Intended for all scholars, students, and lovers of film, this fascinating book, which features over 150 film stills, provides a rich and comprehensive overview of this unforgettable era in film history.
Book Synopsis The Last Silent Picture Show by : William M. Drew
Download or read book The Last Silent Picture Show written by William M. Drew and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2010-08-27 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book details the fate of an entire art form—the silent cinema—in the United States during the 1930s and how it managed to survive the onslaught of sound.
Download or read book Slapstick Comedy written by Tom Paulus and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-09 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Chaplin's tramp to the Bathing Beauties slapstick comedy supplied many of the most enduring icons of American cinema in the silent era. This collection of fourteen essays by film scholars challenges longstanding critical dogma and offers new conceptual frameworks for thinking about silent comedy's place in film history and American culture.
Book Synopsis A Companion to Film Comedy by : Andrew Horton
Download or read book A Companion to Film Comedy written by Andrew Horton and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide-ranging survey of the subject that celebrates the variety and complexity of film comedy from the ‘silent’ days to the present, this authoritative guide offers an international perspective on the popular genre that explores all facets of its formative social, cultural and political context A wide-ranging collection of 24 essays exploring film comedy from the silent era to the present International in scope, the collection embraces not just American cinema, including Native American and African American, but also comic films from Europe, the Middle East, and Korea Essays explore sub-genres, performers, and cultural perspectives such as gender, politics, and history in addition to individual works Engages with different strands of comedy including slapstick, romantic, satirical and ironic Features original entries from a diverse group of multidisciplinary international contributors
Book Synopsis The Silent Movies of W. C. Fields by : Arthur Frank Wertheim
Download or read book The Silent Movies of W. C. Fields written by Arthur Frank Wertheim and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arthur Frank Wertheim's groundbreaking book is the first to examine W.C. Fields' twelve silent movies and how they influenced his later career in sound films. The author concludes that Fields might never have become one of the prem-ier comedians during the Golden Age of Sound Films without first embarking on a career in silent movies. In this explo-ration, readers will discover new insights and surprises concerning Fields' experiences in this medium. The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields details Fields' early failed screen attempts, which resulted in his decision not to abandon his successful Ziegfeld Follies career, a choice that would prevent him from joining the pantheon of great silent film stars: Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd---each of whom, by 1925, had achieved worldwide recog-nition and success. Wertheim relates how Fields would have to struggle against all types of roadblocks to reach the second pantheon tier - and how legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith came to his rescue by directing two of his silent pictures. The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields is a comprehensive depiction of Fields' early years in New York and Holly-wood, his personal and professional trials and accomplishments, his triumphs and disillusionments, each of which would lead to his ultimate screen legacy. Generously illustrated with many new and rare photos, The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields will prove invaluable to fans of both the comic genius of W.C. Fields and his pristine time of moviemaking. Arthur Frank Wertheim has written numerous books on Twentieth Century American Culture including The New York Little Renaissance and Radio Comedy. He has also co-edited with Barbara Bair three volumes on the The Papers of Will Rogers and edited Will Rogers at the Ziegfeld Follies and American Popular Culture. An American history professor at several universities, his awards include a Fulbright grant to teach at the Univer-sity of Indonesia. He has recently published a three-volume biography on W. C. Fields.
Book Synopsis American Cinema/American Culture by : John Belton
Download or read book American Cinema/American Culture written by John Belton and published by . This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Cinema/American Culture looks at the interplay between American cinema and mass culture from the 1890s to 2011. It begins with an examination of the basic narrative and stylistic features of classical Hollywood cinema. It then studies the genres of silent melodrama, the musical, American comedy, the war/combat film, film noir, the western, and the horror and science fiction film, investigating the way in which movies shape and are shaped by the larger cultural concerns of the nation as a whole. The book concludes with a discussion of post World War II Hollywood, giving separate chapter coverage to the effects of the Cold War, 3D, television, the counterculture of the 1960s, directors from the film school generation, and the cultural concerns of Hollywood from the 1970s through 2011. Ideal for Introduction to American Cinema courses, American Film History courses, and Introductory Film Appreciation courses, this text provides a cultural overview of the phenomenon of the American movie-going experience. An updated study guide is also available for American Cinema/American Culture. Written by Ed Sikov, this guide introduces each topic with an explanatory overview written in more informal language, suggests screenings and readings, and offers self-tests.
Book Synopsis The Silent Movies of W. C. Fields by : Arthur Frank Wertheim
Download or read book The Silent Movies of W. C. Fields written by Arthur Frank Wertheim and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Silent Movies written by Peter Kobel and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2009-02-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the extraordinary collection of The Library of Congress, one of the greatest repositories for silent film and memorabilia, Peter Kobel has created the definitive visual history of silent film. From its birth in the 1890s, with the earliest narrative shorts, through the brilliant full-length features of the 1920s, Silent Movies captures the greatest directors and actors and their immortal films. Silent Movies also looks at the technology of early film, the use of color photography, and the restoration work being spearheaded by some of Hollywood's most important directors, such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Richly illustrated from the Library of Congress's extensive collection of posters, paper prints, film stills, and memorabilia -- most of which have never been in print -- Silent Movies is an important work of history that will also be a sought-after gift book for all lovers of film.
Book Synopsis American Silent Film Comedies by : Blair Miller
Download or read book American Silent Film Comedies written by Blair Miller and published by McFarland. This book was released on 1995 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated compilation identifies people, studios, technical companies, and terms associated with silent film comedy from about 1890-1930. More than 300 entries are biographical, including actors, studio and other corporate executives, directors and other technical personnel, inventors, etc. These sketches usually include birth and death dates and a summary of the contributions of the person to the genre; some entries include a photograph, selected filmography, and movie-magazine excerpts. For the more than 100 entries on studios and companies there is a brief history, emphasizing the firm's contribution to the development of silent film comedy. The third category of entries is quite a miscellany, including Blacks in Silent Film Comedies, Edison Kinetogram (a bulletin announcing new Edison films), Keystone Kops, Nickelodeons.
Book Synopsis American Cinema/American Culture by : John Belton
Download or read book American Cinema/American Culture written by John Belton and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. This book was released on 2009 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ideal for Introduction to American Cinema courses, American Film History courses, and Introductory Film Appreciation courses focused on American Film, this text offers a cultural examination of the American movie-making industry, with particular attention paid to the economic and aesthetic institution of Hollywood.
Download or read book The Silent Clowns written by Walter Kerr and published by Alfred A. Knopf. This book was released on 1975 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A lavishly illustrated, affectionate treatment by one of the finest critics of our time...Kerr is more than a brilliant master of verbal description; he is a penetrating, lucid theorist. This book is as much about comedy as about movies, about eyes and ears and how and why we laugh.'-Thomas Wills, Chicago Tribune Book World
Book Synopsis Too Funny for Words by : David Kalat
Download or read book Too Funny for Words written by David Kalat and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-04-12 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American silent film comedies were dominated by sight gags, stunts and comic violence. With the advent of sound, comedies in the 1930s were a riot of runaway heiresses and fast-talking screwballs. It was more than a technological pivot--the first feature-length sound film, The Jazz Singer (1927), changed Hollywood. Lost in the discussion of that transition is the overlap between the two genres. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd kept slapstick alive well into the sound era. Screwball directors like Leo McCarey, Frank Capra and Ernst Lubitsch got their starts in silent comedy. From Chaplin's tramp to the witty repartee of His Girl Friday (1940), this book chronicles the rise of silent comedy and its evolution into screwball--two flavors of the same genre--through the works of Mack Sennett, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harry Langdon and others.
