Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film

This is the first book-length study for nearly fifty years of the relations between early cinema and nineteenth-century theatre. Incorporating the results of recent reconsiderations of early cinema, Brewster explores what features of nineteenth-century theatre early film-makers borrowed or adapted, and the ways specific characteristics of cinema inflected these borrowings. Theatre to Cinema is a seminal work which will profoundly alter our understanding of early cinema.

Humor & Entertainment

Jacobs, Lea

Brewster, Ben

Movies

Oxford University Press

Brewster, Benjamin Robert

The story of the fallen woman was a staple of film melodrama in the late 20s and early 30s. In traditional versions of the plot a woman commits a sexual transgression, usually adultery. Expelled from the family, she becomes an outcast, often a prostitute, suffering various humiliations that usually culminate in her death. In more modern variants, the heroine is a stereotypical "kept woman", "gold-digger", or wise-cracking shopgirl who uses men to become rich. Recognized and defined rather loosely as a type, the fallen woman film, often called the "sex picture", became a lightning rod for regulation by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), the industry trade association responsible for censorship. "The Wages of Sin" uses the example of the fallen woman film to examine the institutional framework of industry self-regulation and to consider how the representation of sexuality was circumscribed within this context. Mining the extensive MPPDA files, Lea Jacobs reconstructs this process of self-regulation, focusing in particular upon six films that posed distinct problems for the MPPDA because they had encountered difficulties with state censors, or had provoked protest from reform groups. In her historical study, Jacobs combines a knowledge of recent film theory with readings of "The Easiest Way", "Babyface", "Blonde Venus", "Anna Karenina", "Kitty Foyle" and "Stella Dallas" to show the ideological processes of self-regulation at work and the social constraints under which the film industry operated. Industry self-regulation did not proceed by "cutting things out" of completed films, but rather by a process of negotiation between producers and industry censors about material that was thought to be potentially offensive in story treatments and scripts. They engaged in debates about how to promote ideal models of gender roles, marriage and family life within the constraints of the fallen woman genre. Jacobs demonstrates that the codification of censorship and the codification of the genre itself were inextricable.

The wages of sin: Censorship and the fallen woman film, 1928-1942 (Wisconsin studies in film)

University of Wisconsin Press

The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928-1942 (Wisconsin Studies in Film)

Univ of Wisconsin Pr

The story of the fallen woman was a staple of film melodrama in the late 1920s and 1930s. In traditional plots, a woman commits a sexual transgression, usually adultery. She becomes an outcast, often a prostitute, suffering humiliations that culminate in her death. In more modern variants, the heroine is a stereotypical "kept woman," "gold digger," or wisecracking shopgirl who uses men to become rich. In The Wages of Sin, Lea Jacobs uses the fallen woman film, which served as a focal point for public criticism of the film industry, to explore Hollywood's system of self-censorship and the evolution of the rules governing representations of sexuality. Drawing on the extensive case files of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), the industry trade association responsible for censorship, Jacobs focuses on six films. Her close analyses of The Easiest Way, Baby Face, Blonde Venus, Anna Karenina, Kitty Foyle, and Stella Dallas reveal the ideology of self-regulation at work and the social constraints affecting the film industry.

The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928-1942

University of California Press

The Decline of Sentiment seeks to characterize the radical shifts in taste that transformed American film in the jazz age. Based upon extensive reading of trade papers and the popular press of the day, Lea Jacobs documents the films and film genres that were considered old-fashioned, as well as those dubbed innovative and up-to-date, and looks closely at the works of filmmakers such as Erich von Stroheim, Charlie Chaplin, Ernst Lubitsch, and Monta Bell, among many others. Her analysis—focusing on the influence of literary naturalism on the cinema, the emergence of sophisticated comedy, and the progressive alteration of the male adventure story and the seduction plot—is a comprehensive account of the modernization of classical Hollywood film style and narrative form.

The Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s

The Decline of Sentiment seeks to characterize the radical shifts in taste that transformed American film in the jazz age. Based upon extensive reading of trade papers and the popular press of the day, Lea Jacobs documents the films and film genres that were considered old-fashioned, as well as those dubbed innovative and up-to-date, and looks closely at the works of filmmakers such as Erich von Stroheim, Charlie Chaplin, Ernst Lubitsch, and Monta Bell, among many others. Her analysis―focusing on the influence of literary naturalism on the cinema, the emergence of sophisticated comedy, and the progressive alteration of the male adventure story and the seduction plot―is a comprehensive account of the modernization of classical Hollywood film style and narrative form.

Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Film Rhythm after Sound: Technology, Music, and Performance

The seemingly effortless integration of sound, movement, and editing in films of the late 1930s stands in vivid contrast to the awkwardness of the first talkies. Film Rhythm after Sound analyzes this evolution via close examination of important prototypes of early sound filmmaking, as well as contemporary discussions of rhythm, tempo, and pacing. Jacobs looks at the rhythmic dimensions of performance and sound in a diverse set of case studies: the Eisenstein-Prokofiev collaboration Ivan the Terrible, Disney’s Silly Symphonies and early Mickey Mouse cartoons, musicals by Lubitsch and Mamoulian, and the impeccably timed dialogue in Hawks’s films. Jacobs argues that the new range of sound technologies made possible a much tighter synchronization of music, speech, and movement than had been the norm with the live accompaniment of silent films. Filmmakers in the early years of the transition to sound experimented with different technical means of achieving synchronization and employed a variety of formal strategies for creating rhythmically unified scenes and sequences. Music often served as a blueprint for rhythm and pacing, as was the case in mickey mousing, the close integration of music and movement in animation. However, by the mid-1930s, filmmakers had also gained enough control over dialogue recording and editing to utilize dialogue to pace scenes independently of the music track. Jacobs’s highly original study of early sound-film practices provides significant new contributions to the fields of film music and sound studies.

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

The seemingly effortless integration of sound, movement, and editing in films of the late 1930s stands in vivid contrast to the awkwardness of the first talkies. Film Rhythm after Sound analyzes this evolution via close examination of important prototypes of early sound filmmaking, as well as contemporary discussions of rhythm, tempo, and pacing. Jacobs looks at the rhythmic dimensions of performance and sound in a diverse set of case studies: the Eisenstein-Prokofiev collaboration Ivan the Terrible, Disney’s Silly Symphonies and early Mickey Mouse cartoons, musicals by Lubitsch and Mamoulian, and the impeccably timed dialogue in Hawks’s films. Jacobs argues that the new range of sound technologies made possible a much tighter synchronization of music, speech, and movement than had been the norm with the live accompaniment of silent films. Filmmakers in the early years of the transition to sound experimented with different technical means of achieving synchronization and employed a variety of formal strategies for creating rhythmically unified scenes and sequences. Music often served as a blueprint for rhythm and pacing, as was the case in mickey mousing, the close integration of music and movement in animation. However, by the mid-1930s, filmmakers had also gained enough control over dialogue recording and editing to utilize dialogue to pace scenes independently of the music track. Jacobs’s highly original study of early sound-film practices provides significant new contributions to the fields of film music and sound studies.

Exposed in the Marsh

America Star Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jacobs, Lea. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jacobs, Lea

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jacobs, Lea. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film

Theatre to Cinema: Stage Pictorialism and the Early Feature Film

The wages of sin: Censorship and the fallen woman film, 1928-1942 (Wisconsin studies in film)

The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928-1942 (Wisconsin Studies in Film)

The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928-1942

The Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s

Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s

Film Rhythm after Sound: Technology, Music, and Performance

Film Rhythm after Sound: Technology, Music, and Performance

Exposed in the Marsh