Screening Nostalgia : : Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film / / Christine Sprengler.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Sprengler, Christine,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (210 p.)

"In this fascinating in-depth study of the impact of nostalgia on contemporary American cinema, Christine Sprengler unpicks the history of the concept and explores its significance in theory and practice. She offers a lucid analysis of the development of nostalgia in American society and culture, navigating a path through the key debates and aligning herself with recent attempts to recuperate its critical potential. This journey opens up the myriad permutations of nostalgia across visual and material culture and their interface with cinema, with the 1950s emerging as a privileged moment. Four case studies (Sin City, Far From Heaven, The Aviator and The Good German) analyse the ways in which aspects of visual design such as props, costume and colour contribute to the nostalgic aesthetic, allowing for both critical distance and emotion. Written with verve, style and impressive attention to detail, Screening Nostalgia is an invaluable addition to existing scholarship. It is also essential reading for anyone interested in the ways in which we access the past through cinema." · Pam Cook, Professor Emerita in Film, University of Southampton

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Setting the Stage: The History of Nostalgia -- Chapter 2 The Fifties: Nostalgia’s Privileged Object and the Origins of its Dominant American Strain -- Chapter 3 The Nostalgia Film in Practice and Theory -- Chapter 4 Sin City: Reading the Tails of a Populuxe Prop -- Chapter 5 Far From Heaven: Creative Agency, Social History and the Expressive Potential of Costume -- Chapter 6 The Aviator: Deliberate Archaism, Technicolor Aesthetics and Style as Substance -- Conclusion: The Good German and the Good of Nostalgia -- Filmography -- References -- Index