Pub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2193041
C. C. Jacobs
This article examines the effects of the 1916 poliomyelitis (polio) epidemic on the film industry and on popular conceptions of the definition and social function of moving pictures. When the major epidemic broke out in New York City, state and local health authorities across the Eastern United States closed motion picture theaters to children. These bans not only had significant financial ramifications on the motion picture business, but they also prompted debates among health authorities, social reformers, the film industry, and the public about the definition and social role of cinema. Relying on print sources from 1916, as well as one no-longer-extant film made about the epidemic, Fighting Infantile Paralysis (Universal, 1916), I argue that the film industry sought to avoid regulation during the epidemic by not only ensuring the safety of theaters, but also promoting the idea that cinema was a critical social utility during a time of crisis.
{"title":"‘A Movie Paralysis’: Defining Cinema during the Polio Epidemic of 1916","authors":"C. C. Jacobs","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2193041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2193041","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the effects of the 1916 poliomyelitis (polio) epidemic on the film industry and on popular conceptions of the definition and social function of moving pictures. When the major epidemic broke out in New York City, state and local health authorities across the Eastern United States closed motion picture theaters to children. These bans not only had significant financial ramifications on the motion picture business, but they also prompted debates among health authorities, social reformers, the film industry, and the public about the definition and social role of cinema. Relying on print sources from 1916, as well as one no-longer-extant film made about the epidemic, Fighting Infantile Paralysis (Universal, 1916), I argue that the film industry sought to avoid regulation during the epidemic by not only ensuring the safety of theaters, but also promoting the idea that cinema was a critical social utility during a time of crisis.","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46597642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2193043
Kevin Brianton
Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, supposedly remarked ‘we’ll have no more Grapes of Wrath’ in response to an investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities into communism in the American film industry in 1947. Many film historians have employed the quotation as evidence that the investigation had created strict controls that led to fewer politically and socially motivated films in the United States in the 1950s. It has also linked Johnston to the highly conservative Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. However, the quotation was based on a suspect source and was possibly derived from material said or written by other people. Johnston may well have made this comment, but if so, the context of the comment has been ignored. A more nuanced interpretation is needed to assess Johnston’s views and actions.
{"title":"‘We’ll Have No More Grapes of Wrath:’ The Origins, Rise and Impact of a Dubious Cinematic Anecdote","authors":"Kevin Brianton","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2193043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2193043","url":null,"abstract":"Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, supposedly remarked ‘we’ll have no more Grapes of Wrath’ in response to an investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities into communism in the American film industry in 1947. Many film historians have employed the quotation as evidence that the investigation had created strict controls that led to fewer politically and socially motivated films in the United States in the 1950s. It has also linked Johnston to the highly conservative Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. However, the quotation was based on a suspect source and was possibly derived from material said or written by other people. Johnston may well have made this comment, but if so, the context of the comment has been ignored. A more nuanced interpretation is needed to assess Johnston’s views and actions.","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":"43 1","pages":"726 - 745"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42762933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-23DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2189655
C. Yamini Krishna
the phone book’ adds interest and makes readers curious about how this exchange might play out (p. 180) Discussions about writing guides usually mention several stalwart titles including On Writing by Stephen King, which includes useful advice on sentence construction such as avoiding the passive tense and adverbs, and the Save the Cat series, which does a deep dive into the beats or plot points needed for a story to function. However, SceneWriting: The Missing Manual for Screenwriters deserves a place at the head of the table thanks to its crystal-clear explanation of the components needed to tell a well-crafted story and the roadmap it lays out to help every writer do just that.
{"title":"Media and the Constitution of the Political: South Asia and Beyond","authors":"C. Yamini Krishna","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2189655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2189655","url":null,"abstract":"the phone book’ adds interest and makes readers curious about how this exchange might play out (p. 180) Discussions about writing guides usually mention several stalwart titles including On Writing by Stephen King, which includes useful advice on sentence construction such as avoiding the passive tense and adverbs, and the Save the Cat series, which does a deep dive into the beats or plot points needed for a story to function. However, SceneWriting: The Missing Manual for Screenwriters deserves a place at the head of the table thanks to its crystal-clear explanation of the components needed to tell a well-crafted story and the roadmap it lays out to help every writer do just that.","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136172605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-23DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2189658
Gabriela Zogall
tragedy with the movies made in its aftermath. Chapter seven, on Aldo Moro’s kidnapping and execution, unfolds in the tightest spaces possible. Cinquegrani’s exposition reads like a thriller, jolting my long-buried memories of this event. Chapter 8’s discourses on the events of 1989, centred on the Berlin Wall, seem like an anti-climax by comparison, although a logical way to wrap up Cinquegrani’s examination of film, memory, and history in the past century. The strengths of Film, Hot War Traces and Cold War Spaces are manifold. Cinquegrani’s concept is as intellectually stimulating as it is original, and his filmography (which includes many lesser-known films from many different traditions) is impressive. He is also fluent in the relevant Englishand Italian-language literature. There are flaws, of course. For example, Cinquegrani’s knowledge of Soviet cinema appears to be quite limited. Esfir Shub’s feature-length compilation documentary Spain (Ispaniia, USSR, 1939) is a seminal Soviet film on the Spanish Civil War whose absence from Chapter 2 is mystifying. As another, particularly egregious example, Iurii Ozerov’s four-part blockbuster Soldiers of Freedom (Soldaty svobody, USSR, 1977) was not made for television (although it was shown on Soviet TV after its theatrical run), and it was certainly not titled in Polish, apart from screenings in Poland. (Cinquegrani refers to the film only as _ Zołnierze wolności, which is a bit embarrassing.) However, given the overall high quality of this book, and my admiration of it, continuing to enumerate small errors would be churlish. In closing, this excellent, provocative book should be on the reading list of everyone interested in film and memory. It realizes the promise of the ‘spatial turn’ in film studies, often brilliantly. Highly recommended.
{"title":"Kill the Documentary: A Letter to Filmmakers, Students, and Scholars","authors":"Gabriela Zogall","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2189658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2189658","url":null,"abstract":"tragedy with the movies made in its aftermath. Chapter seven, on Aldo Moro’s kidnapping and execution, unfolds in the tightest spaces possible. Cinquegrani’s exposition reads like a thriller, jolting my long-buried memories of this event. Chapter 8’s discourses on the events of 1989, centred on the Berlin Wall, seem like an anti-climax by comparison, although a logical way to wrap up Cinquegrani’s examination of film, memory, and history in the past century. The strengths of Film, Hot War Traces and Cold War Spaces are manifold. Cinquegrani’s concept is as intellectually stimulating as it is original, and his filmography (which includes many lesser-known films from many different traditions) is impressive. He is also fluent in the relevant Englishand Italian-language literature. There are flaws, of course. For example, Cinquegrani’s knowledge of Soviet cinema appears to be quite limited. Esfir Shub’s feature-length compilation documentary Spain (Ispaniia, USSR, 1939) is a seminal Soviet film on the Spanish Civil War whose absence from Chapter 2 is mystifying. As another, particularly egregious example, Iurii Ozerov’s four-part blockbuster Soldiers of Freedom (Soldaty svobody, USSR, 1977) was not made for television (although it was shown on Soviet TV after its theatrical run), and it was certainly not titled in Polish, apart from screenings in Poland. (Cinquegrani refers to the film only as _ Zołnierze wolności, which is a bit embarrassing.) However, given the overall high quality of this book, and my admiration of it, continuing to enumerate small errors would be churlish. In closing, this excellent, provocative book should be on the reading list of everyone interested in film and memory. It realizes the promise of the ‘spatial turn’ in film studies, often brilliantly. Highly recommended.","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":"43 1","pages":"971 - 972"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47031945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-21DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2189665
Peter Domankiewicz
{"title":"Picturegoing: A Critical Anthology of Eyewitness Experiences","authors":"Peter Domankiewicz","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2189665","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2189665","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48719088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2189660
K. Flanagan
{"title":"The Americans (TV Milestones)","authors":"K. Flanagan","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2189660","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2189660","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":"43 1","pages":"973 - 974"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46130560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-17DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2189661
Ilaria Biano
{"title":"Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television","authors":"Ilaria Biano","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2189661","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2189661","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":"43 1","pages":"975 - 976"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43683526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Russia with Love","authors":"John Littlejohn","doi":"10.5040/9781839024566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5040/9781839024566","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":"43 1","pages":"977 - 978"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44988519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-16DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2189663
Livia Lozoya
{"title":"Making the Best Years of Our Lives: The Hollywood Classic that Inspired a Nation","authors":"Livia Lozoya","doi":"10.1080/01439685.2023.2189663","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2023.2189663","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44618,"journal":{"name":"HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF FILM RADIO AND TELEVISION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44036936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-16DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2023.2189657
D. Youngblood
reality television series and blogging open up ‘new spaces of identity construction’, while at the same time ‘echo[ing] the criticisms [... ] on the moral question of excess, vanity and self-centeredness’ (p. 177). In the absence of political relevance, Marie Antoinette began to cultivate her image as a queen of fashion, carving her space in a world outside Versailles where she could be worshipped (p. 182). In Pesce’s words, the story of Marie Antoinette – embodying an ‘early influencer’ – can be seen as successfully resounding that of the contemporary Hollywood star (pp. 184-86). Marie Antoinette exposes the false democracy of celebrity culture – perpetually failing to deliver what it promises – preserving the elite’s status and ‘encourage[ing] women to consume ever more fashionable goods and lead[ing] them to excessive self-exposure’ (p. 193). In the last book chapter, Yvonne Tasker explores the question: ‘Can women be superheroes?’ The twenty-first century features prominent superhero films within American cinema, wherein female characters – let alone women of color – mostly occupied a marginal position: film culture has tended to regard a female hero as a risky commercial option. Tasker discusses the gendered dimensions of superhero cinema in relation to fantasy genres – making a useful distinction between superheroes as such, and action heroines – and explores superhero gender scripts through a comparative analysis of Marvel’s Thor and DC’s Wonder Woman. It is no surprise to learn that throughout filmmaking ‘female characters in adventure narratives are more often found awaiting rescue than initiating action’ (p. 276). The innovation of the Wonder Woman characterization lies in her determination to intervene rather than watch (p. 291). Thus, the female heroic character, slowly but surely, is defiant of the long-standing male superiority in superhero movies. The message of this essay collection is loud and clear and concurs with a quotation by Vivienne Dick from her introductory interview: ‘A world defined and controlled by the White Western Male is over’ (p. 33). Eat that, Hollywood!
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