Spectacle in Classical Cinemas Musicality and Historicity in the 1930s [Hardcover]

Spectacle is not often considered to be a significant part of the style of classical cinema. Indeed, some of the most influential accounts of cinematic classicism define it virtually by the supposed absence of spectacle. Spectacle in Classical Cinemas: Musicality and Historicity in the 1930s brings a fresh perspective on the role of the spectacular in classical sound cinema by focusing on one decade of cinema (the 1930s), in two modes of filmmaking (musical and historical films), and in two national cinemas (the US and France). This not only brings to light the special rhetorical and affective possibilities offered by spectacular images but refines our understanding of what classical cinema is and was.

Introduction and Critical Contexts  Part 1: Musicality  1. Performance Space  2. Emotional Topos  3. Entertainment and Dystopia?  Part 2: Historicity  4. Monumental History  5. Spectacular Vistas and the D?cor of History  6. Critical History?  Conclusion

Tom Brown is Lecturer in the Film Studies Department at Kings College London, UK