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 ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu