When movies were theater : architecture, exhibition, and the evolution of American film / William Paul.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Paul, William, 1944- author.

Series:

Film and culture

Film and Culture Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Space and time in motion pictures.

Motion pictures and architecture.

Motion picture theaters.

Theater architecture.

Physical Description:

xvi, 422 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2016]

Summary:

There was a time when seeing a movie meant more than seeing a film. The theater itself shaped the very perception of events onscreen. This multilayered history tells the story of American film through the evolution of theater architecture and the surprisingly varied ways movies were shown, ranging from Edison's 1896 projections to the 1968 Cinerama premiere of Stanley Kubrick's '2001'. The study matches distinct architectural forms to movie styles, showing how cinema's roots in theater influenced business practices, exhibition strategies, and film technologies.

Contents:

Introduction: an art of the theater

Making movies fit

Store theaters: a radical break

Palatial architecture, democratized audience

Elite taste in a mass medium

Uncanny theater

The architectural screen

Conclusion: Ontological fade-out

Appendix 1: Stage shows and double features in select markets outside New York City

Appendix 2: Feature films based on theatrical sources, 1914-2011

Abbreviations used for citations in notes.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references, filmography and index.

ISBN:

9780231176569

0231176562

9780231176576

0231176570

OCLC:

927446165