[ecrea] Book announcement: "Spectacle in Classical Cinemas: Musicality and Historicity in the 1930s"

This email announces the recent publication by Routledge of Tom Brown,
/Spectacle in ‘Classical’ Cinemas/: /Musicality and Historicity in the
1930s/:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectacle-Classical-Cinemas-Musicality-Historicity/dp/1138852945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457960444&sr=1-1&keywords=spectacle+in+classical+cinemas

(The book’s index is accessible from the above link.)

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.

As well as the broader questions outlined above, the book contains
numerous case studies likely to be of interest: for example, the
consideration of Marx Brothers films as ‘musicals’; the relatively
cynical, sceptical almost “dystopian” uses of musical spectacle in
France; biopics of the 1930s (a comparison of films on Louis Pasteur);
‘critical’ historiography in France and the US (extended discussions of
Jean Renoir in the former and /Young Mr Lincoln/, 1939, in the latter).

Some endorsements of /Spectacle in "Classical" Cinemas/.

Professor Veronica Pravadelli, author of /Classic Hollywood. Life Styles
and Film Styles 1930-1960 /(University of Illinois Press, 2015):

"In /Spectacle in 'Classical' Cinemas,/ Tom Brown brings back to the
center an almost forgotten topic, classical cinema. For decades /the/
most debated topic in film studies, in the last twenty years or so
classical cinema has been relegated to the margins of academic research.
But Brown does more than this: he compares notions and forms of 'the
classical' in American and French cinema of the 1930s. This move forces
us to rethink altogether what the classical is. A surprising, original
and much needed analysis."

Emeritus Professor Stephen Neale, co-author of /Epics, Spectacles, and
Blockbusters: A Hollywood History /(Wayne State University Press, 2010):

"/Spectacle in 'Classical' Cinemas/ is of particular value for its
comparative studies of musicals and historical films in the US and
France in the 1930s. In undertaking these studies, Tom Brown opens up
the stylistic and generic variety of these films in ways which lead us
to re-think our approach to other genres too."

Please ask your library to order a copy!

Many thanks.

--
Dr. Tom Brown,
Senior Lecturer in Film
Film Studies Department
King's College London
Norfolk Building
Strand Campus
London
WC2R 2LS
Room number N565


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