Matters of Gravity - Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century

Accessible and wide-ranging essays on cinema, the body, and the experience of modernity.

List of contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

One Remembering Cyberspace

1 There's Always . . . Tomorrowland: Disney and the Hypercinematic Experience 13

2 Gibson's Typewriter 32

3 X-Bodies: The Torment of the Mutant Superhero (1994) 48

Two Kaleidoscopic Perceptions

4 The Artificial Infinite: On Special Effects and the Sublime 81

5 The Ultimate Trip: Special Effects and Kaleidoscopic Perception 111

Three The Grace of Beings

6 Taking Shape: Morphing and the Performance of Self 133

7 Syncopated City: New York in Musical Film (1929-1961) 157

8 The Boys in the Hoods: A Song of the Urban Superhero (2000) 184

Notes 225

Bibliography 257

Index 270

About the author

Scott Bukatman

Summary

Features essays on cinema, the body, and the experience of modernity. Focusing on the experience of technological spectacle in American popular culture, this book reveals how popular culture tames the threats posed by technology and urban modernity, by immersing people in kinetic environments like those traversed by Plastic Man and Superman.

Product details

• Authors: Bukatman, Scott Bukatman, Scott Bukatman
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 21.07.2003
• EAN: 9780822331322
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-3132-2
• No. of pages: 296
• Dimensions: 136 mm x 264 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 603 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Photography, film, video, TV; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Fernsehen, TV