American cinema's transitional era : audiences, institutions, practices / edited by Charlie Keil and Shelley Stamp.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Keil, Charlie.

Stamp, Shelley, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--United States.

Motion pictures.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 371 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2004]

Summary:

The years between 1908 and 1917 witnessed what may have been the most significant transformation in American film history. During this "transitional era," widespread changes affected film form and genres, filmmaking practices, industry structure, exhibition sites, and audience demographics. By the end of the period, cinema had moved toward the shape it would assume for decades under the studio system. This collection of new essays by prominent film scholars traces these myriad changes, presenting the most detailed and comprehensive portrait yet of this pivotal stage in cinema's development. Topics discussed include debates about cinema's place in American culture; the influence of an evolving feature format; the role of state censorship; emerging genres and audiences; onscreen depictions of gender, race, and nationality; changing exhibition practices and theater locales; and the emergence of Hollywood as the nation's film capital.

Contents:

Pt. I. Defining transitions: revision and debate ; 1. Systematizing the electric message / Tom Gunning ; 2. "To here from modernity" / Charlie Keil ; 3. The periodization of the early cinema / Ben Brewster ; 4. Feature films, variety programs, and the crisis of the small exhibitor / Ben Singer

pt. II. The transitional screen: new genres, cultural shifts ; 5. What happened in the transition? / Jacqueline Stewart ; 6. The "imagined community" of the western, 1910/1913 / Richard Abel ; 7. The Coney Island comedies / Lauren Rabinovitz ; 8. Travelogues and early nonfiction film / Jennifer Lynn Peterson

pt. III. Industry in transition: changing institutions and audiences ; 9. Where development has just begun / J.A. Lindstrom ; 10. A house divided / Scott Curtis ; 11. Not harmless entertainment / Lee Grieveson ; 12. Cinema under the sign of money / Constance Balides ; 13. The menace of the movies / Roberta E. Pearson ; "It's a long way to filmland" / Shelley Stamp.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0520240251

0520240278

OCLC:

52806132

Online:

Publisher description