Promise of Cinema - German Film Theory, 19071933

Rich in implications for our present era of media change, The Promise of Cinema offers an entirely new vision of early film theory. The volume conceives of "theory" not as a fixed body of canonical texts, but as a dynamic set of reflections on the very idea of cinema and the possibilities and hopes once associated with it. Excavating more than 275 primary texts from the vast archive of early-twentieth-century German writings, this ground-breaking book chronicles the rise of a medium that articulated and transformed the modern experience. The wide-ranging assemblage juxtaposes lesser-known essays by Béla Balázs, Walter Benjamin, and Siegfried Kracauer with interventions and polemics from writers in the realms of aesthetics, education, industry, politics, science, and technology, thus generating an expansive understanding of a burgeoning visual culture that is still with us today. The book also features programmatic texts from the Weimar avant-garde and from popular filmmakers such as Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau.

About the author

Anton Kaes, geb. 1945; Professor für Deutsche Literatur an der University of California, Berkeley; Veröffentlichungen zu deutschen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts sowie zum Film.

Summary

Features programmatic writings from the Weimar avant-garde and from directors such as Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau. This title is suitable for students and scholars of film and media, critical theory, and European culture and history.

Additional text

"Even the well-informed film scholar and the resourceful cinephile are likely to discover new material and striking juxtapositions. The texts assembled here reward repeated reading."

Product details

• Authors: Anton Kaes, Anton Baer Kaes, Kaes a
• Assisted by: Nicholas Baer (Editor), Nicholas W. Baer (Editor), Michael Cowan (Editor), Cowan Michael (Editor), Anton Kaes (Editor), Kaes Anton (Editor)
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.04.2016
• EAN: 9780520219083
• ISBN: 978-0-520-21908-3
• No. of pages: 704
• Series: Weimar & Now: German Cultural Criticism; Weimar and Now: German Cultura; Weimar & Now: German Cultural Criticism; Weimar and Now: German Cultura; Weimar and Now, German Cultural Criticism
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Non-fiction book > Music, film, theatre; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Films, cinema, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / General, Dance & Other Performing Arts