Queer sexualities in early film : cinema and male-male intimacy / Shane Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Shane (Shane Lee), author.

Series:

Library of gender and popular culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Male homosexuality in motion pictures.

Motion pictures--United States--History.

Motion pictures.

United States.

History.

Motion pictures--Europe--History.

Europe.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 203 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : I.B. Tauris, 2016.

Summary:

Since the publication of Vito Russo's seminal study The Celluloid Closet in 1981, much has been written about the representation of queer characters on screen. Until now, however, relatively little attention has been paid to how queer sexualities were portrayed in films from the silent and early sound period. By looking in detail at a succession of recently-found films and revisiting others, Shane Brown examines images of male-male intimacy, buddy relationships, and romantic friendships in European and American films made prior to 1934, including Different from the Others and All Quiet on the Western Front. He places these films within their socio-political and scientific context to shed new light on how they were intended to be viewed and how they were actually perceived. In doing so, Brown offers his readers a unique insight into a little known area of early cinema, queer studies, and social history. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Seen But Not Heard: Representations of Gay Men in European Cinema, 1916-28 17

2 'Laughing at him will do as much to cure him as compulsory football': American Film, the Sissy and the Fop 49

3 Romantic Friendships and the College Film 81

4 'Wonderful, Terrible Days': The War Film and Depictions of the Buddy Relationship 113

5 Madmen, Murderers and Monsters: Queerness in the Early Horror Film 143.

ISBN:

9781784536657

1784536652

OCLC:

956969098