Cinema is a medium of light. And during Weimar Germany's advance to technological modernity, light - particularly the representational possibilities of electrical light - became the link between the cinema screen and the rapid changes that were transforming German life.In Frances Guerin's compelling history of German silent cinema of the 1920s, the innovative use of light is the pivot around which a new conception of a national cinema, and a national culture emerges. Guerin depicts a nocturnal Germany suffused with light - electric billboards, storefronts, police searchlights - and shows how this element of the mise-en-scene came to reflect both the opportunities and the anxieties surrounding modernity and democracy. Guerin's interpretations center on use of light in films such as Schatten (1923), Variete (1925), Metropolis (1926), and Der Golem (1920). In these films we see how light is the substance of image composition, the structuring device of the narrative, and the central thematic concern. This history relieves German films of the responsibility to explain the political and ideological instability of the period, an instability said to be the uncertain foundation of Nazism. In unlocking this dubious link, A Culture of Light redefines the field of German film scholarship.
- 350 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
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Subtopic
Film & VideoTable of contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. The Electrification of Life, Cinema, and Art
- 2. Bringing Cinema to Life through Light: German Film to World War I
- 3. Legends of Light and Shadow: The Mythical Past in Algol and Schatten
- 4. The Spell of Light: Cinema as Modern Magic in Faust, Der Golem, Siegfried, and Metropolis
- 5. Reformulations of Space through Light in Die StraBe, Jenseits der StraBe, and Am Rande der Welt
- 6. Dazzled by the Profusion of Lights: Technological Entertainment in Varieté and Sylvester
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Index
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Yes, you can access A Culture of Light by Frances Guerin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Film & Video. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.