Whether tall office buildings, high-rise apartments, or lofty
hotels, skyscrapers have been stars in American cinema since the
silent era. Cinema's tall buildings have been variously represented
as unbridled aspiration, dens of iniquity and eroticism, beacons of
democracy, and well-oiled corporate machines. Considering their
intriguing diversity, Merrill Schleier establishes and explains the
impact of actual skyscrapers on America's ideologies about work,
leisure, romance, sexual identity, and politics as seen in
Hollywood movies. Schleier analyzes cinematic works in which
skyscrapers are an integral component, interpreting the iconography
and spatial practices in these often fictional modern buildings,
especially on concepts of gender. Organized chronologically and
thematically, she offers close readings of films including Safety
Last, Skyscraper Souls, Wife vs. Secretary, Baby Face, The
Fountainhead, and Desk Set. Opening with the humorous antics of
Harold Lloyd, the premier skyscraper actor of the silent era, the
book moves through the disillusionment of the Depression era, in
which skyscrapers are employed as players in moralistic,
class-conscious stories, to post-World War II and its reimagining
of American political and economic values and ends with the
complicated prosperity of the 1950s and the lives of white-collar
workers and their spouses. Taking inspiration from Walter
Benjamin's Arcades Project, among works of other critical
theorists, Schleier creates in this book a model for understanding
architecture as a purveyor of desire and class values and,
ultimately, contributes broadly to thinking on the rich
intersection of the built environment, cinema, and gender.
General
| Imprint: |
University of Minnesota Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
February 2009 |
| First published: |
March 2009 |
| Authors: |
Merrill Schleier
|
| Dimensions: |
254 x 178 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback
|
| Pages: |
368 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-8166-4282-3 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Arts & Architecture >
Performing arts >
Films, cinema >
General
|
| LSN: |
0-8166-4282-6 |
| Barcode: |
9780816642823 |
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