The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film: Radical Projection Contributor(s): Barker, Jennifer Lynde (Author) |
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ISBN: 1138695793 ISBN-13: 9781138695795 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $52.20 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2016 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Media Studies - Performing Arts | Film - History & Criticism |
Dewey: 791.436 |
Physical Information: 0.64" H x 6" W x 9" (0.90 lbs) 286 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Through a series of detailed film case histories ranging from The Great Dictator to Hiroshima mon amour to The Lives of Others, The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film: Radical Projection explores the genesis and recurrence of antifascist aesthetics as it manifests in the WWII, Cold War and Post-Wall historical periods. Emerging during a critical moment in film history-1930s/1940s Hollywood- cinematic antifascism was representative of the international nature of antifascist alliances, with the amalgam of film styles generated in émigré Hollywood during the WWII period reflecting a dialogue between an urgent political commitment to antifascism and an equally intense commitment to aesthetic complexity. Opposed to a fascist aesthetics based on homogeneity, purity and spectacle, these antifascist films project a radical beauty of distortion, heterogeneity, fragmentation and loss. By juxtaposing documentation and the modernist techniques of surrealism and expressionism, the filmmakers were able to manifest a non-totalizing work of art that still had political impact. Drawing on insights from film and cultural studies, aesthetic and ethical philosophy, and socio-political theory, this book argues that the artistic struggles with political commitment and modernist strategies of representation during the 1930s and 40s resulted in a distinctive, radical aesthetic form that represents an alternate strand of post-modernism. |