Dear List Members,



Apologies for the cross-posting and self-promotion…



This email announces the recent publication by Routledge of Tom Brown, 

/Spectacle in ‘Classical’ Cinemas/: /Musicality and Historicity in the 

1930s/:



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectacle-Classical-Cinemas-Musicality-Historicity/dp/1138852945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457960444&sr=1-1&keywords=spectacle+in+classical+cinemas



(The book’s index is accessible from the above link.)



Spectacle is not often considered to be a significant part of the style 

of ‘classical’ cinema. Indeed, some of the most influential accounts of 

cinematic classicism define it virtually by the supposed absence of 

spectacle./Spectacle in ‘Classical’ Cinemas: Musicality and Historicity 

in the 1930s/brings a fresh perspective on the role of the spectacular 

in classical sound cinema by focusing on one decade of cinema (the 

1930s), in two ‘modes’ of filmmaking (musical and historical films), and 

in two national cinemas (the US and France). This not only brings to 

light the special rhetorical and affective possibilities offered by 

spectacular images but refines our understanding of what ‘classical’ 

cinema is and was.



As well as the broader questions outlined above, the book contains 

numerous case studies likely to be of interest: for example, the 

consideration of Marx Brothers films as ‘musicals’; the relatively 

cynical, sceptical almost “dystopian” uses of musical spectacle in 

France; biopics of the 1930s (a comparison of films on Louis Pasteur); 

‘critical’ historiography in France and the US (extended discussions of 

Jean Renoir in the former and /Young Mr Lincoln/, 1939, in the latter).



Some endorsements of /Spectacle in "Classical" Cinemas/.



Professor Veronica Pravadelli, author of /Classic Hollywood. Life Styles 

and Film Styles 1930-1960 /(University of Illinois Press, 2015):



"In /Spectacle in 'Classical' Cinemas,/ Tom Brown brings back to the 

center an almost forgotten topic, classical cinema. For decades /the/ 

most debated topic in film studies, in the last twenty years or so 

classical cinema has been relegated to the margins of academic research. 

But Brown does more than this: he compares notions and forms of 'the 

classical' in American and French cinema of the 1930s. This move forces 

us to rethink altogether what the classical is. A surprising, original 

and much needed analysis."



Emeritus Professor Stephen Neale, co-author of /Epics, Spectacles, and 

Blockbusters: A Hollywood History /(Wayne State University Press, 2010):



"/Spectacle in 'Classical' Cinemas/ is of particular value for its 

comparative studies of musicals and historical films in the US and 

France in the 1930s. In undertaking these studies, Tom Brown opens up 

the stylistic and generic variety of these films in ways which lead us 

to re-think our approach to other genres too."



Please ask your library to order a copy!



Many thanks.



-- 

Dr. Tom Brown,

Senior Lecturer in Film

Tel +44 (0) 207 848 2018

Film Studies Department

King's College London

Norfolk Building

Strand Campus

London

WC2R 2LS

Room number N565









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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the

University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu