Download or read book Women s Film and Female Experience 1940 1950 written by Andrea Walsh and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1986-09-10 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women's Film and Female Experience takes a fresh look at a wide range of popular women's films in order to discover what American female consciousness in the 1940s was really about. The author traces the evolution and development of the Hollywood women's film, and describes the social history of American women in the 1940s. She then analyzes dominant narrative patterns within popular women's films of the decade: the maternal drama, the career woman comedy, and the films of suspicion and distrust.
Download or read book Hollywood Heroines written by Helen Hanson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2007-10-24 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The endangered and dangerous female figures of "Rebecca", of "Jagged Edge" and "What Lies Beneath" have a deserved and endures fascination. Helen Hanson re-examines these gothic heroines of Hollywood and their meanings, in two of Hollywood's key generic cycles, film noir and the female gothic film. Starting at the beginning, with the origin of these cycles and the ways in which they represented women in the American film industry and culture of the 1940s, she traces their revival in neo-noir and neo-gothic films from the 1980s to the present. She also places the female figures of the femme fatale, female investigator and gothic heroine within the shifting contexts of the film industry and debates in feminist film criticism. Hanson examines a wide range of films from both periods, including 'Suspicion', 'Gaslight' and 'Pacific Heights', and gives particular attention to their presentation of female stories, actions and perspectives. She reveals a diversity of female figures, representations and actions in film noir and the female gothic film, and argues that these women are part of a negotiation of female identities, desires and roles across a long historical period. "Hollywood Heroines" therefore offers us new ways of thinking about classic and contemporary Hollywood heroines, and about the interrelationships of gender and genre.
Download or read book Film Study written by Frank Manchel and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 988 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The four volumes of Film Study include a fresh approach to each of the basic categories in the original edition. Volume one examines the film as film; volume two focuses on the thematic approach to film; volume three draws on the history of film; and volume four contains extensive appendices listing film distributors, sources, and historical information as well as an index of authors, titles, and film personalities.
Download or read book Secrets Beyond the Door written by Maria Tatar and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2006-10-03 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maria Tatar analyses the many forms the tale of Bluebeard's wife has taken over time, showing how artists have taken the Bluebeard theme and revived it with their own signature twists.
Download or read book The Revenge of Hatpin Mary written by Chad Dell and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2006 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book may set down the myth of June Cleaver once and for all. Chad Dell deftly details a 1950s revolution in the making: millions of women of all ages flocked to wrestling arenas across the country, drawn to a parade of glistening bodies, purple satin capes and characters such as Gorgeous George and Killer Kowalski while millions more roared their approval as they watched on television. Dell's analysis of television broadcasts, media artifacts, fan club ephemera and interviews with wrestlers and their fans paints a new portrait of women in the 1950s who embraced the power of their passions.
Download or read book American Film History written by Cynthia Lucia and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Fight series, 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
Download or read book A Woman s View written by Jeanine Basinger and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-09-04 with total page 806 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now, Voyager, Stella Dallas, Leaver Her to Heaven, Imitation of Life, Mildred Pierce, Gilda…these are only a few of the hundreds of “women’s films” that poured out of Hollywood during the thirties, forties, and fifties. The films were widely disparate in subject, sentiment, and technique, they nonetheless shared one dual purpose: to provide the audience (of women, primarily) with temporary liberation into a screen dream—of romance, sexuality, luxury, suffering, or even wickedness—and then send it home reminded of, reassured by, and resigned to the fact that no matter what else she might do, a woman’s most important job was…to be a woman. Now, with boundless knowledge and infectious enthusiasm, Jeanine Basinger illuminates the various surprising and subversive ways in which women’s films delivered their message. Basinger examines dozens of films, exploring the seemingly intractable contradictions at the convoluted heart of the woman’s genre—among them, the dilemma of the strong and glamorous woman who cedes her power when she feels it threatening her personal happiness, and the self-abnegating woman whose selflessness is not always as “noble” as it appears. Basinger looks at the stars who played these women and helps us understand the qualities—the right off-screen personae, the right on-screen attitudes, the right faces—that made them personify the woman’s film and equipped them to make believable drama or comedy out of the crackpot plots, the conflicting ideas, and the exaggerations of real behavior that characterize these movies. In each of the films the author discusses—whether melodrama, screwball comedy, musical, film noir, western, or biopic—a woman occupies the center of her particular universe. Her story—in its endless variations of rags to riches, boy meets girl, battle of the sexes, mother love, doomed romance—inevitably sends a highly potent mixed message: Yes, you women belong in your “proper place” (that is, content with the Big Three of the women’s film world—men, marriage, and motherhood), but meanwhile, and paradoxically, see what fun, glamour, and power you can enjoy along the way. A Woman’s View deepens our understanding of the times and circumstances and attitudes out of which these movies were created.
Download or read book Women s Roles in Twentieth Century America written by Martha May and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twentieth century was a time of great transformation in the roles of American women. Women have always worked and raised families, but, theoretically, the world opened up to them with new opportunities to participate fully in society, from voting, to controlling their reproductive cycle, to running a Fortune 500 company. This content-rich overview of women's roles in the modern age is a must-have for every library to fill the gap in resources about women's lives. Students and general readers will trace the development of American women of different classes and ethnicities in education, the home, the law, politics, religion, work, and the arts from the Progressive Era to the new millennium. The twentieth century was a time of great transformation in the roles of American women. Women have always worked and raised families, but, theoretically, the world opened up to them with new opportunities to participate fully in society, from voting, to controlling their reproductive cycle, to running a Fortune 500 company. This content-rich overview of women's roles in the modern age is a must-have for every library to fill the gap in resources about women's lives. Students and general readers will trace the development of American women of different classes and ethnicities in education, the home, the law, politics, religion, work, and the arts from the Progressive Era to the new millennium. Each narrative chapter covers a crucial topic in women's lives and encapsulates the twentieth-century growth and changes. Women's participation in the workforce with its challenges, opportunities, and gains is the focus of Chapter 1. The developing role of women and the family, taking into consideration consumerism and feminism, is the subject of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 explores women and pop culture and the arts-their roles as creators and subjects. Chapter 4 covers education from the early century's access to higher education until today's female hyperachiever. Chapter 5 discusses women and government, from winning the vote through the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment, to Women's Lib, and public office holding. Chapter 6 addresses women and the law, their rights, their use of the law, their practice of it, and court cases affecting them. The final chapter overviews women and religious participation and roles in various denominations. An historical introduction, timeline, photos, and selected bibliography round out the coverage.
Download or read book Reframing Vivien Leigh written by Lisa Stead and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reframing Vivien Leigh takes a new look at the laboring life one of the twentieth century's most iconic stars. Author Lisa Stead reframes the dominant narratives that have surrounded Leigh's life and career, offering a new perspective on Vivien Leigh as a distinctly archival subject. The book examines the collections and curatorial practices that have built up around her, exploring material documents collated by her own hand and by those who worked with her. The book also examines the collection practices of those who have developed deep, long-standing fandoms of her life and work. To do so, the book draws upon new oral history work with curators, archivists and fan collectives and examines a variety of archived correspondence, items of dress and costume, script annotations, photography, press clippings, props and memorabilia. It argues that such material has the potential to produce a new interpretation of Leigh as a creative laborer. As such, the book casts new light on the labor of archiving itself and the significance of archival processes and practices to contemporary feminist film historiography.
Download or read book Talkies Road Movies and Chick Flicks written by Heidi Wilkins and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-19 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The representation of gender in film remains an intensely debated topic, particularly in academic considerations of US mainstream cinema where it is often perceived as perpetuating rigid, binary views of gender, and reinforcing patriarchal, dominant notions of masculinity and femininity. While previous scholarly discussion has focused on visual or narrative portrayals of gender, this book considers the ways that film sound "e; music, voice, sound effects and silence "e; is used to represent gender. Taking a socio-historical approach, Heidi Wilkins investigates a range of popular US genres including screwball comedy, the road movie and chick flicks to explore the ways that film sound can reinforce traditional assumptions about masculinity and femininity, impart ambivalent meanings to them, or even challenge and subvert the notion of gender itself. Case studies include His Girl Friday, Easy Rider and Bridesmaids.
Download or read book Lives Together Worlds Apart written by Suzanna Danuta Walters and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1940s film Now, Voyager, Bette Davis plays a daughter struggling against her mother's stifling repression. Nearly fifty years later, in the Hollywood saga Postcards from the Edge, Shirley MacLaine, as a neglectful and bossy mother, inflicts untold psychological pain on her daughter, played by Meryl Streep. These dramas of conflict and the ambivalent struggle for separation have been central to popular images of mothers and daughters in the last half-century in the U.S. Walters boldly challenges these dichotomies and proposes an innovative and multilayered understanding of the cultural construction of the mother/daughter relationship. In a discussion of popular media ranging from themes of maternal martyrdom to maternal malevolence, Walters shows that since World War II, mainstream culture has generally represented the mother/daughter relationship as one of never-ending conflict and thus promoted an "ideology of separation" as necessary to the daughter's emancipation and maturity. This ideological move is placed in a social context of the anti-woman backlash of the early post-war period and the renewed anti-feminism of the Reagan and Bush years. Walters uses exceptions to mainstream imagery-films such as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, television shows like "Maude," novels like The Joy Luck Club-to offer evidence of alternative traditions and paradigms. Timely and vividly argued, Lives Together/Worlds Apart makes a brilliant contribution to discussions of popular culture and feminism.
Download or read book Gene Tierney written by Will Scheibel and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-12 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood’s Gene Tierney, the lasting impact of her wartime and postwar films, and her continuing legacy.
Download or read book Gothic Cinema written by Xavier Aldana Reyes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguing for the need to understand Gothic cinema as an aesthetic mode, this book explores its long history, from its transitional origins in phantasmagoria shows and the first ‘trick’ films to its postmodern fragmentation in the Gothic pastiches of Tim Burton. But what is Gothic cinema? Is the iconography of the Gothic film equivalent to that of the horror genre? Are the literary origins of the Gothic what solidified its aesthetics? And exactly what cultural roles does the Gothic continue to perform for us today? Gothic Cinema covers topics such as the chiaroscuro experiments of early German cinema, the monster cinema of the 1930s, the explained supernatural of the old dark house mystery films of the 1920s and the Female Gothics of the 1940s, the use of vibrant colours in the period Gothics of the late 1950s, the European exploitation booms of the 1960s and 1970s, and the animated films and Gothic superheroes that dominate present times. Throughout, Aldana Reyes makes a strong case for a medium-specific and more intuitive approach to the Gothic on screen that acknowledges its position within wider film industries with their own sets of financial pressures and priorities. This groundbreaking book is the first thorough chronological, transhistorical and transnational study of Gothic cinema, ideal for both new and seasoned scholars, as well as those with a wider interest in the Gothic.
Download or read book Sexuality the Female Gaze and the Arts written by Ronald L. Dotterer and published by Susquehanna University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Female sexuality as expressed both in the art of women and in images of women in art is the focus of this collection of thirteen essays -- the second in a three-volume series on women, the arts, and society. The idea that art created by a woman has a particular relationship to the female body is explored by most of these essays.
Download or read book Chick Flicks written by Suzanne Ferriss and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-03-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With 11 original essays, this edited volume examines 'chick flicks' within the larger context of 'chick culture' as well as women's cinema. The essays consider chick flicks from a variety of angles, touching on issues of film history, female sexuality, femininity, age, race, ethnicity, and consumerism.
Download or read book Visions of Belonging written by Judith E. Smith and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visions of Belonging explores how beloved and still-remembered family stories—A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I Remember Mama, Gentleman's Agreement, Death of a Salesman, Marty, and A Raisin in the Sun—entered the popular imagination and shaped collective dreams in the postwar years and into the 1950s. These stories helped define widely shared conceptions of who counted as representative Americans and who could be recognized as belonging. The book listens in as white and black authors and directors, readers and viewers reveal divergent, emotionally textured, and politically charged social visions. Their diverse perspectives provide a point of entry into an extraordinary time when the possibilities for social transformation seemed boundless. But changes were also fiercely contested, especially as the war's culture of unity receded in the resurgence of cold war anticommunism, and demands for racial equality were met with intensifying white resistance. Judith E. Smith traces the cultural trajectory of these family stories, as they circulated widely in bestselling paperbacks, hit movies, and popular drama on stage, radio, and television. Visions of Belonging provides unusually close access to a vibrant conversation among white and black Americans about the boundaries between public life and family matters and the meanings of race and ethnicity. Would the new appearance of white working class ethnic characters expand Americans'understanding of democracy? Would these stories challenge the color line? How could these stories simultaneously show that black families belonged to the larger "family" of the nation while also representing the forms of danger and discriminations that excluded them from full citizenship? In the 1940s, war-driven challenges to racial and ethnic borderlines encouraged hesitant trespass against older notions of "normal." But by the end of the 1950s, the cold war cultural atmosphere discouraged probing of racial and social inequality and ultimately turned family stories into a comforting retreat from politics. The book crosses disciplinary boundaries, suggesting a novel method for cultural history by probing the social history of literary, dramatic, and cinematic texts. Smith's innovative use of archival research sets authorial intent next to audience reception to show how both contribute to shaping the contested meanings of American belonging.
Download or read book Issues in Feminist Film Criticism written by Patricia Erens and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This anthology makes it abundantly clear that feminist film criticism is flourishing and has developed dramatically since its inception in the early 1970s." —Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Erens brings together a wide variety of writings and methodologies by U.S. and British feminist film scholars. The twenty-seven essays represent some of the most influential work on Hollywood film, women's cinema, and documentary filmmaking to appear during the past decade and beyond. Contributors include Lucie Arbuthnot, Linda Artel, Pam Cook, Teresa de Lauretis, Mary Ann Doane, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Lucy Fischer, Jane Gaines, Mary C. Gentile, Bette Gordon, Florence Jacobowitz, Claire Johnston, E. Ann Kaplan, Annette Kuhn, Julia Lesage, Judith Mayne, Sonya Michel, Tania Modleski, Laura Mulvey, B. Ruby Rich, Gail Seneca, Kaja Silverman, Lori Spring, Jackie Stacey, Maureen Turim, Diane Waldman, Susan Wengraf, Linda Williams, and Robin Wood.
