Kinds of American Film Comedy

Kinds of American Film Comedy PDF Author: Wes D. Gehring
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476688990
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
This groundbreaking film study begins with a survey of American print humorists from eras leading up to and overlapping the advent of film--including some who worked both on the page and on the screen, like Robert Benchley, Will Rogers, Groucho Marx and W. C. Fields. Six comic film genres are identified as outgrowths of a national tradition of Cracker Barrel philosophers, personality comedy, parody, screwball comedy, romantic comedy and dark comedy. Whether it is Mark Twain or a parody film involving Steve Martin, comedy is most often about blowing "raspberries" at the world, and a reminder you are not alone.

Kinds of American Film Comedy

Kinds of American Film Comedy PDF Author: Wes D. Gehring
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476688990
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book

Book Description
This groundbreaking film study begins with a survey of American print humorists from eras leading up to and overlapping the advent of film--including some who worked both on the page and on the screen, like Robert Benchley, Will Rogers, Groucho Marx and W. C. Fields. Six comic film genres are identified as outgrowths of a national tradition of Cracker Barrel philosophers, personality comedy, parody, screwball comedy, romantic comedy and dark comedy. Whether it is Mark Twain or a parody film involving Steve Martin, comedy is most often about blowing "raspberries" at the world, and a reminder you are not alone.

Class, Language, and American Film Comedy

Class, Language, and American Film Comedy PDF Author: Christopher Beach
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521002097
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Examines the use of class in the American film comedy, from the 1930s to present.

Film Comedy

Film Comedy PDF Author: Geoff King
Publisher: Wallflower Press
ISBN: 9781903364352
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Comedy is one of the most popular forms in film. But what exactly is film comedy and what might be the basis of its widespread appeal? This book takes a multi-perspective approach to answering these questions.

Redefining Black Film

Redefining Black Film PDF Author: Mark A. Reid
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520912847
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Can films about black characters, produced by white filmmakers, be considered "black films"? In answering this question, Mark Reid reassesses black film history, carefully distinguishing between films controlled by blacks and films that utilize black talent, but are controlled by whites. Previous black film criticism has "buried" the true black film industry, Reid says, by concentrating on films that are about, but not by, blacks. Reid's discussion of black independent films—defined as films that focus on the black community and that are written, directed, produced, and distributed by blacks—ranges from the earliest black involvement at the turn of the century up through the civil rights movement of the Sixties and the recent resurgence of feminism in black cultural production. His critical assessment of work by some black filmmakers such as Spike Lee notes how these films avoid dramatizations of sexism, homophobia, and classism within the black community. In the area of black commercial film controlled by whites, Reid considers three genres: African-American comedy, black family film, and black action film. He points out that even when these films use black writers and directors, a black perspective rarely surfaces. Reid's innovative critical approach, which transcends the "black-image" language of earlier studies—and at the same time redefines black film—makes an important contribution to film history. Certain to attract film scholars, this work will also appeal to anyone interested in African-American and Women's Studies.

Classical Hollywood Comedy

Classical Hollywood Comedy PDF Author: Kristine Brunovska Karnick
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415906407
Category : Comedy films
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
Applies the recent `return to history' in film studies to the genre of classical Hollywood comedy as well as broadening the definition of those works considered central in this field.

American Film Musical Themes and Forms

American Film Musical Themes and Forms PDF Author: Michael Dunne
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 078641877X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The musical has been called "the most popular form of entertainment in the world." This work examines the subjects, themes, and contemporary relevance of Hollywood musicals through their long popularity, placing each show in historical and political context and analyzing it in detail. A chapter is devoted to how Golddiggers of 1933 (1933) and Stand Up and Cheer (1934) deal with the economic crises of the Depressions. Another addresses race issues by examining the prevalence of blackface minstrelsy in the 1930s and 1940s, looking at productions like Swing Time (1936) and Dixie (1943). Rock and roll culture, which started in the 1950s and threatened America with teenage sex and rebellion, is addressed through such hits as Girl Crazy (1943), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), and Grease (1978). The work also explores dance as a signifier of character, the geography of musicals (such as New York or "the South"), fantasy settings, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, and the musical biopic (mentioning biographies of such figures as Ziegfeld, Cohan, Rogers and Hart, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern). A later chapter discusses intertextuality in such shows as Singin' in the Rain (1952), which refers to many earlier musicals; Kiss Me Kate (1953) which refers to Taming of the Shrew; and All That Jazz (1970) which refers to the life and work of Bob Fosse. The work concludes with an examination of the continuing popularity of the musical with such hits as Moulin Rouge (2001) and Chicago (2002). Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Comedy and Cultural Critique in American Film

Comedy and Cultural Critique in American Film PDF Author: Ryan Bishop
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748677828
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This book uses large scale social and cultural trends and major world events to analyse the American comedy film.

Cinema Arthuriana

Cinema Arthuriana PDF Author: Kevin J. Harty
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786446838
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
The legends of King Arthur have not only endured for centuries, but also flourished in constant retellings and new stories built around the central themes. With the coming of motion pictures, Arthur was destined to hit the screen. This edition of Cinema Arthuriana, revised in 2002, presents 20 essays on the topic of the recurring presence of the legend in film and television from 1904 to 2001. They cover such films as Excalibur (1981) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), television productions such as The Mists of Avalon (2001), and French and German films about the quest for the Holy Grail and the other adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Cinema's Conversion to Sound

Cinema's Conversion to Sound PDF Author: Charles O’Brien
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253217202
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
A groundbreaking look at the transition to sound in the French Cinema.

Mock Classicism

Mock Classicism PDF Author: Nilo Couret
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520296842
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Cantinflismo and Relajo's peripheral vision -- The call of the screen: Niní Marshall and the radiophonic stardom of Argentine cinema -- Timing is everything : Sandrini's stutter and the representability of time -- Fictions of the real : the currency of the Brazilian Chanchada -- Comedy circulates circuitously : toward an odographic film history of Latin America