Body Shots: Early Cinema’s Incarnations

Body Shots: Early Cinema’s Incarnations
ISBN-10
0520941195
ISBN-13
9780520941199
Series
Body Shots
Category
Performing Arts
Pages
214
Language
English
Published
2007-10-09
Publisher
Univ of California Press
Author
Jonathan Auerbach

Description

This original and compelling book places the body at the center of cinema's first decade of emergence and challenges the idea that for early audiences, the new medium's fascination rested on visual spectacle for its own sake. Instead, as Jonathan Auerbach argues, it was the human form in motion that most profoundly shaped early cinema. Situating his discussion in a political and historical context, Auerbach begins his analysis with films that reveal striking anxieties and preoccupations about persons on public display—both exceptional figures, such as 1896 presidential candidate William McKinley, and ordinary people caught by the movie camera in their daily routines. The result is a sharp, unique, and groundbreaking way to consider the turn-of-the-twentieth-century American incarnation of cinema itself.

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