Fifty years after its release, The Sound of Music (1965) remains the most profitable and recognisable film musical ever made. Quickly consolidating its cultural authority, the Hollywood film soon eclipsed the German film and Broadway musical that preceded it to become one of the most popular cultural reference points of the twenty-first century. In this fresh exploration, Caryl Flinn foregrounds the film's iconic musical numbers, arguing for their central role in the film's longevity and mass appeal. Stressing the unique emotional bond audiences establish with The Sound of Music, Flinn traces the film's prehistories, its place amongst the tumultuous political, social and cultural events of the 1960s, and its spirited afterlife among fans around the world.

Despite a career spanning over forty years, filmmaker Alan Rudolph has flown largely under the radar of independent film scholars and enthusiasts, often remembered as Robert Altman’s protege. Through a reading of his 1985 film Trouble in Mind, Caryl Flinn demonstrates that Rudolph is long overdue for critical re-evaluation.  Exploring Trouble in Mind’s influence on indie filmmaking, Rudolph’s dream-like style, and the external political influences of the Reagan era, Flinn effectively conveys the originality of Rudolph’s work through this multifaceted film. Utilizing archival materials and interviews with Rudolph himself and his collaborators, Flinn argues for this career-defining film’s relevance to American independent cinema and the decade of the 80s. Amply illustrated with frame enlargements and set photographs, this book uncovers new production stories and reception contexts of a film that Flinn argues deserves a place in the limelight.

Music and Cinema brings together leading scholars from musicology, music theory, film studies, and cultural studies to explore the importance of music in the cinematic construction of ideologies. The 15 essays include "Songlines: Alternative Journeys in Contemporary European Cinema" by Wendy Everett; "Strategies of Remembrance: Music and History in the New German Cinema" by Caryl Flinn; "Designing Women: Art Deco, the Musical, and the Female Body" by Lucy Fischer; "Kansas City Dreamin': Robert Altman's Jazz History Lesson" by Krin Gabbard; "Disciplining Josephine Baker: Gender, Race, and the Limits of Disciplinarity" by Kathryn Kalinak; "Finding Release: Storm Clouds and The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Murray Pomerance, and many more.

When New German cinema directors like R. W. Fassbinder, Ulrike Ottinger, and Werner Schroeter explored issues of identityOConational, political, personal, and sexualOComusic and film style played crucial roles. Most studies of the celebrated film movement, however, have sidestepped the role of music, a curious oversight given its importance to German culture and nation formation. Caryl FlinnOCOs study reverses this trend, identifying styles of historical remembrance in which music participates. Flinn concentrates on those styles that urge listeners to interact with differenceOCoincluding that embodied in GermanyOCOs difficult historyOCorather than to master or get past it. Flinn breaks new ground by considering contemporary reception frameworks of the New German Cinema, a generation after its end. She discusses transnational, cultural, and historical contexts as well as the sexual, ethnic, national, and historical diversity of audiences. Through detailed case studies, she shows how music helps filmgoers engage with a range of historical subjects and experiences. Each chapter of "The New German Cinema "examines a particular stylistic strategy, assessing musicOCOs role in each. The study also examines queer strategies like kitsch and camp and explores the movementOCOs charged construction of human bodies on which issues of ruination, survival, memory, and pleasure are played out."

"A thought-provoking and absorbing read, Caryl Flinn's "Brass Diva" brings a fresh perspective to the legend of Ethel Merman. While she was easily dismissed as an exceedingly simple broad, Ms. Flinn's research into the nuances of her life reveal the complicated person that was my grandmother. More than once I was moved to reconsider the reasons for her enduring as a source of inspiration as well as notions about her life and career that I had taken for granted. I highly recommend it."--Barbara Geary
"This book is long overdue. We've been told that Merman's reviews were glowing, but now we can read them for ourselves. Beautifully researched, this book will undoubtedly find its way into every musical theatre library. Merman has been at the center of so many apocryphal tales, it's thrilling to enter an era of serious exploration and analysis. "Brass Diva" starts to pull the myths apart and to put Ethel Merman in her proper historical perspective."--Klea Blackhurst, creator of "Everything The Traffic Will Allow: The Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman"
"It is a pleasure to read Caryl Flinn's scrupulously researched and elegantly constructed biography. "Brass Diva" puts all other Merman books to shame. With her exhaustive knowledge of her subject, Flinn explores the meanings of Merman's life, her shows, her songs, her fans, and most intriguingly, her subtexts."--Krin Gabbard, author of "Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture"
""Brass Diva" is a wonderful and important study of Ethel Merman's life and work, as well as a sophisticated reading of Merman herself. The scholarship is excellent, the writing is lively and engaging, and the research is detailed andabsolutely new. "Brass Diva" will likely become the key primary resource for future Merman scholarship."--Stacy Wolf, author of "A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical"