The silents of Jesus in the cinema, (1897-1927) / edited by David J. Shepherd.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Shepherd, David, 1972- editor.

Edwin B. Cole Memorial Fund.

Series:

Routledge studies in religion and film ; 5.

Routledge studies in religion and film ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jesus Christ--In motion pictures.

Jesus Christ.

Silent films--History and criticism.

Silent films.

Motion pictures.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xii, 292 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : Routledge, 2016.

Summary:

"While Jesus has attracted the sporadic interest of film-makers since the epics of the sixties, it is often forgotten that between the advent of motion pictures in the 1890s and the close of the "silent" era at the end of the 1920s, some of the longest, most expensive and most watched films on both sides of the Atlantic were focused on the life and passion of the Christ. Drawing upon rarely seen archival footage and the work of both the era's most important directors (e.g. Alice Guy, Ferdinand Zecca, Sidney Olcott, D.W. Griffith, Carl Dreyer, and C.B. DeMille) and others who have been all but forgotten, this collection of essays offers a representative survey of thesilents of Jesus, illustrating the ways in which the earliest films and those which followed were influenced by a multiplicity of factors. Written by leading scholars in biblical and early film studies this collection explores the ways in which the silents of Jesus were shaped not only by the performing and visual arts of the nineteenth century and the technological challenges and opportunities of a new medium and industry, but also by the artistic, theological and ideological predilections of studios and directors, and the expectations of audiences as the genre evolved. Taken together, the essays collected here offer a seminal treatment of the genesis and early evolution of the cinematic Jesus"--Publisher's website.

Contents:

Introduction: the silence/silents of Jesus / David J. Shepard

The passion of Christ: a form, a genre, a discourse / Andre Gaudreault

La vie et passion de notre seigneur Jesus-Christ (Pathe-Freres, 1902-1905): tableau variation in the early cinema / Alain Boillat and Valentine Robert

La naissance, la vie et passion du Christ (Gaumont, 1906): the Gospel according to Alice Guy / David J. Shepherd

La vie et passion de notre seigneur Jesus-Christ (Pathe-Freres, 1907): the preservation and transformation of Zecca's passion / Dwight H. Friesen

Sidney Olcott's From the manger to the cross (Kalem, 1912): out of Egypt and Palestine / W. Barnes Tatum

The star of Bethlehem (Thanhouser, 1912): the sacred story from King Herod to the crib / Terry Lindvall

The shadow of Nazareth (Venus Features/Warner Features, 1913): the hermeneutics of an unauthorized adaptation / Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch

La vie et passion de notre seigneur Jesus-Christ (Pathe-Freres, 1913/14): Pathe's inclination to tell and maitre's instinct to show / Jo-Ann Brant

The birth of a nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915) and, Intolerance (Triangle/Wark, 1916): Griffith's talismanic Jesus / Richard Walsh

Christus (Cines, 1916): Italy's first religious "kolossal" by Antamoro and Salvatori / Giuseppe Pucci

Der Galiläer (Express-film, 1921) and I.N.R.I (Neumann-film, 1923): the silence of Jesus in the early German cinema / Reinhold Zwick

Leaves from satan's book (Nordisk, 1921) and Dreyer's script Jesus of Nazareth (1950): the Jewishness of Jesus / Caroline Vander Stichele

The king of kings (DeMille Pictures, 1927): the body and the word on film / Vivienne Westbrook

Final reflections: silence and spectacle: the cinematic Jesus from Kirchner to Duvivier / David J. Shepherd.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edwin B. Cole Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780415741699

0415741696

OCLC:

927104216

Publisher Number:

40026013177