The life of mise-en-scène : visual style and British film criticism, 1946-78 / John Gibbs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gibbs, John, 1970- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Film criticism--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Film criticism.

Motion pictures--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

History.

Great Britain.

Film criticism / Great Britain / History / 20th century.

Motion pictures / Great Britain / History / 20th century.

Local Subjects:

Film criticism / Great Britain / History / 20th century.

Motion pictures / Great Britain / History / 20th century.

Physical Description:

280 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2013.

Summary:

The life of mise-en-scène offers a critical history of key debates about the analysis of visual style. Concerned especially with British film journals of the postwar period, it reclaims an often ignored or misrepresented history, including: the concept of film poetry in the journal Sequence, changing attitudes in Sight and Sound during the 1950s, and the battle over the significance of film style which raged between a number of small journals and the national press in the early 1960s. The book examines the British school first associated with Movie in the '60s - which, in Adrian Martin's words, is enjoying a 'widespread, international revival' - but also other critical movements, more hazily remembered. It explores the role of mise-en-scène in melodrama criticism, and considers what happened to detailed criticism as major theoretical movements emerged in the 1970s. The book provides a vital context for contemporary style-based criticism, uncovering material which challenges received notions of critical history, and presenting neglected ideas for a new generation. Criticism which recognises the significance of film style has been central to debates about popular forms and cultural value, and in tracing its history the book provides a cross-section of British culture and its attitudes to film. It also investigates a range of important contexts, from conditions of film viewing to the cultural and political shifts of 1956, to the influence of French journals of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Mise-en-scène and related ways of conceiving visual style have been central to so many important debates that the writing considered here has shaped the field in enduring ways. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Sequence 11

2 Transfusion and transformation: Sight and Sound in the 1950s 46

3 'Pistols for three, coffee for one': the battle of form and content, circa 1960 95

4 Movie: aims and contexts 126

5 Movie: approaches and analysis 161

6 Melodrama and mise-en-scène 194

7 Postscript: Bordwell's interventions 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780719088667

0719088666

OCLC:

868084447