Before he became an influential cinematic innovator, Georges Melies (1861-1938) was a maker of deluxe French footwear, an illusionist, and a caricaturist. Proceeding from these beginnings, Melies Boots traces how the full trajectory of Georges Melies' career during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, along with the larger cultural and historical contexts in which Melies operated, shaped his cinematic oeuvre. Solomon examines Melies' unpublished drawings and published caricatures, the role of laughter in his magic theater productions, and the constituent elements of what Melies called "the new profession of the cineaste." The book also reveals Melies' connections to the Incoherents, a group of ephemeral artists from the 1880s, demonstrating the group's relevance for Melies, early cinema, and modernity. By positioning Melies in relation to the material culture of his time, Solomon demonstrates that Melies' work was expressive of a distinctly modern, and modernist, sensibility that appeared in France during the 1880s in the wake of the Second Industrial Revolution.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Melies Boots is an extremely compelling and remarkably researched contribution to cinema studies, and it brings fresh insight to the figure of Georges Melies by situating his work deeply within the cultural and media archaeological context of his time." -- Colin Williamson, Rutgers University "What Solomon has adeptly done instead is to take the films - and more so the man - of George Melies as a place to tether a history of French cultural change in the face of the
Second Industrial Revolution. . . The book's main contribution is found in the way it characterizes for readers the array of cultural changes, symbiotically linked to the production and popularity of George Melies' motion pictures, that were a response to the industrial transformation of France around the turn of the last century." -- W. D. Philiips, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television "[T]his well-documented study, which includes many illustrations from private collections, offers a productive fresh look at the life and work of Georges Melies that enriches our understanding of this unique figure's role in early film history." -- Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film "Melies Boots provides an unprecedented take on the work of Georges Melies. Matthew Solomon's dogged pursuit of the bigger picture gives us valuable original insights." * Donald Crafton, Global Nineteenth-Century Studies *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-472-05558-6 (9780472055586)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12196353
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Matthew Solomon is Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Media at the University of Michigan.
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Materializing Melies
Notes to Introduction
Chapter 1: Artisanal Manufacturing
Notes to Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Incoherent Infrastructure, Incoherent Fashion
Notes to Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Stretching the Caricatural Aesthetic
Notes to Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Modern Laughter and the Genre Melies
Notes to Chapter 4
Chapter 5: The New Profession of the Cineaste
Notes to Chapter 5
Conclusion: Toy Stories
Notes to Conclusion
