Left of Hollywood : cinema, modernism, and the emergence of U.S. radical film culture / Chris Robe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robé, Chris, 1972-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Motion picture industry--United States--History--20th century.

Motion picture industry.

Socialism and motion pictures--United States.

Socialism and motion pictures.

Film criticism--United States--History--20th century.

Film criticism.

Radicalism--United States--History--20th century.

Radicalism.

Politics in motion pictures.

Working class in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (309 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin, Tex. : University of Texas Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the 1930s as the capitalist system faltered, many in the United States turned to the political Left. Hollywood, so deeply embedded in capitalism, was not immune to this shift. Left of Hollywood offers the first book-length study of Depression-era Left film theory and criticism in the United States. Robé studies the development of this theory and criticism over the course of the 1930s, as artists and intellectuals formed alliances in order to establish an engaged political film movement that aspired toward a popular cinema of social change. Combining extensive archival research with careful close analysis of films, Robé explores the origins of this radical social formation of U.S. Left film culture. Grounding his arguments in the surrounding contexts and aesthetics of a few films in particular—Sergei Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico!, Fritz Lang's Fury, William Dieterle's Juarez, and Jean Renoir's La Marseillaise—Robé focuses on how film theorists and critics sought to foster audiences who might push both film culture and larger social practices in more progressive directions. Turning at one point to anti-lynching films, Robé discusses how these movies united black and white film critics, forging an alliance of writers who championed not only critical spectatorship but also the public support of racial equality. Yet, despite a stated interest in forging more egalitarian social relations, gender bias was endemic in Left criticism of the era, and female-centered films were regularly discounted. Thus Robé provides an in-depth examination of this overlooked shortcoming of U.S. Left film criticism and theory.

Contents:

Introduction : unfinished promises to an orphaned time

Montage, realism, and the male gaze

Eisenstein in America : the !Que viva Mexico! debates and emergent Popular Front U.S. film theory and criticism

Screening race : the antilynching film, the black press, and U.S. Popular Front film criticism

Taking Hollywood back : gendered histories of the Hollywood costume drama, the biopic, and Jean Renoir's La Marseillaise

Conclusion : fragments of the future.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-292-78473-2

OCLC:

682621318