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Silent-era film scholarship has all too often focused on a handful of German directors, including Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch, but little attention has been paid to arguably one of the most influential filmmakers of the period: Paul Leni.
This collection - the first comprehensive English-language study of Leni's life and career - offers new insights into his national and international films, his bold forays into scenic design and his transition from German to Hollywood filmmaking.
The contributors give fresh insights into Leni's most influential films, including Waxworks (1924), The Cat and the Canary (1927) and The Man Who Laughs (1928), and explores such lesser-known productions as The Diary of Dr. Hart (1918), Backstairs (1921) and the Rebus film series (1925-7). Engaging with new historical, analytical, and theoretical perspectives on Leni's work, this book is a groundbreaking exploration of a cinematic pioneer.
Erica Tortolani is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in Communication with a concentration on Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. Martin F. Norden teaches film history and screenwriting as Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
List of contents
List of contributors
Chronology
Filmography
Introduction -
Erica Tortolani and Martin F. Norden1. Exploding the Cosmopolitan and Treating the Foreigners' Foreignness: Paul Leni's The Diary of Dr. Hart -
Jaimey Fisher2. The Unnatural in the Natural: Leopold Jessner and Paul Leni's Early Weimar Film Backstairs -
Jason Doerre3. Cinema Panopticum: Wax, Work, Waxworks -
Erik Born4. The Proto-Horror-Comedy: Waxworks -
Joel Westerdale5. Intersectional Avant-Garde: Paul Leni's Rebus-Film Series and the Confluence of Experimental Visual Styles -
Erica Tortolani6. Bravura Beginnings: Leni and the Art of the Prologue -
Martin F. Norden7. Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary: Adaptation into Genre -
Rebecca M. Gordon8. Specters of the Mind: Ghosts, Illusion, and Exposure in Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary -
Simone Natale9. Misfitting in America: Paul Leni, Conrad Veidt, and The Man Who Laughs -
Gábor Gergely10. Masculinity and Facial Disfigurement in The Man Who Laughs -
Bruce Henderson11. Cinematic Space and Set Design in Paul Leni's The Last Warning -
Bastian Heinsohn12. The Last Warning: Uncertainty, Exploitation, and Horror -
Shawn Shimpach
About the author
Erica Tortolani is finalising a PhD in Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts.Professor Martin Norden is Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts
