... Waste Landboth of them "experimental" montages, mixing the artifacts of ur... more ... Waste Landboth of them "experimental" montages, mixing the artifacts of urban mass culture with fragments ... of the American media, and it was echoed by a number of modernist American intellectuals ... early rock 'n' roll, comic strips, and certain kinds of down-market theater or ...
Page 1. Page 2. TH JAMES NAREMORE In this richly detailed study, James Naremore focuses on the wo... more Page 1. Page 2. TH JAMES NAREMORE In this richly detailed study, James Naremore focuses on the work of film acting, showing what players contribute to movies. From the earliest short subjects of Charles Chaplin to the contemporary ...
This chapter discusses Burnett’s childhood and education. He and his family moved from Mississipp... more This chapter discusses Burnett’s childhood and education. He and his family moved from Mississippi to the Watts area of Los Angeles at the end of the 1940s, and in the 1960s he was admitted to the film school at UCLA, where he became a leading figure in the “L.A. Rebellion” of young black filmmakers. The chapter discusses the aims of that group and describes two of Burnett’s early films, Several Friends and The Horse.
The opposite of Grant’s farcical comedies were the films in which his character had unsympathetic... more The opposite of Grant’s farcical comedies were the films in which his character had unsympathetic or sinister traits. Most of these were his pictures with Alfred Hitchcock, who, even in a somewhat comic thriller such as North by Northwest, gave Grant unappealing qualities. The most important examples of Grant’s dark characterizations, however, are Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946), to which this chapter gives special attention. Grant was an especially important actor for Hitchcock not only because of his glamour and athleticism but also because he could execute the simplest movements with precision. He could play tough, intense characters, and because of his training in pantomime, he could look off-screen in subtly expressive ways that facilitated Hitchcock’s editing schemes.
Some Versions of Cary Grant analyses Cary Grant’s performances in a gallery of his best films, ar... more Some Versions of Cary Grant analyses Cary Grant’s performances in a gallery of his best films, arguing that he not only had exceptional skills but also greater range than is usually recognized. Organized in terms of five versions of Grant, it emphasizes his work as a farceur in The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), and His Girl Friday (1940); as a dark figure in Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946); as a romantic leading man in An Affair to Remember (1957) and Indiscreet (1958); as a domestic male in Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and Room for One More (1952); and as a Cockney character in Sylvia Scarlett (1935) and None but the Lonely Heart (1944). A close study of an actor who worked with important but very different directors, among them Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and Leo McCarey, it provides a model for the appreciation of screen acting in general.
Grant’s early training was in the farce-related comedy of the Bob Pender troupe, a group of boy p... more Grant’s early training was in the farce-related comedy of the Bob Pender troupe, a group of boy performers in Bristol, England, who did acrobatic stunts and skits. Nearly all his work is imbued with the spirit of that comic training, but nowhere more clearly than in the cycle of screwball comedies that helped make him a star and established him as an actor who could be sophisticated and at the same time as funny as Chaplin, Keaton, or Lloyd. This chapter examines three examples: The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), and His Girl Friday (1940), showing how Grant created three very different characters for these equally farcical films: a charming but wayward husband, an absent-minded professor, and an unscrupulous newspaper editor.
‘The modernist crime novel and Hollywood noir’ considers how an atmosphere of ‘modernism’ in 1940... more ‘The modernist crime novel and Hollywood noir’ considers how an atmosphere of ‘modernism’ in 1940s American film noir is largely due to the ‘thriller genre’ in literature. Many aspects of modernity—the interest in subjectivity and multiple points of view, the unorthodox handling of time, the stripping away of genteel rhetoric, the critique of modernity, explicit sex, and fears of women—came together in film noir, but were a potential threat to the entertainment industry. The tension was evident in Hollywood adaptations of four influential crime writers and major contributors to film noir—Samuel Dashiell Hammett, Graham Greene, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler—whose work needed to be lightened or ameliorated.
Burnett is a complete filmmaker who has not only directed but also photographed, edited, and writ... more Burnett is a complete filmmaker who has not only directed but also photographed, edited, and written many films. This chapter puts emphasis on his talent as a screenwriter, using two very different projects as examples. Bless Their Little Hearts was written for director Billy Woodbury and is similar in many ways to Burnett’s Killer of Sheep. It tells the story of an unemployed black man in Watts who suffers a crisis of masculinity while he tries to find a job and keep his family together. Man in a Basket is an adaptation of Crazy Kill by noir novelist Chester Himes. Set in 1950s Harlem, Burnett describes it as Himes’s only love story. Burnett has long wanted to direct this film and is still trying to find backers.
... Waste Landboth of them "experimental" montages, mixing the artifacts of ur... more ... Waste Landboth of them "experimental" montages, mixing the artifacts of urban mass culture with fragments ... of the American media, and it was echoed by a number of modernist American intellectuals ... early rock 'n' roll, comic strips, and certain kinds of down-market theater or ...
Page 1. Page 2. TH JAMES NAREMORE In this richly detailed study, James Naremore focuses on the wo... more Page 1. Page 2. TH JAMES NAREMORE In this richly detailed study, James Naremore focuses on the work of film acting, showing what players contribute to movies. From the earliest short subjects of Charles Chaplin to the contemporary ...
This chapter discusses Burnett’s childhood and education. He and his family moved from Mississipp... more This chapter discusses Burnett’s childhood and education. He and his family moved from Mississippi to the Watts area of Los Angeles at the end of the 1940s, and in the 1960s he was admitted to the film school at UCLA, where he became a leading figure in the “L.A. Rebellion” of young black filmmakers. The chapter discusses the aims of that group and describes two of Burnett’s early films, Several Friends and The Horse.
The opposite of Grant’s farcical comedies were the films in which his character had unsympathetic... more The opposite of Grant’s farcical comedies were the films in which his character had unsympathetic or sinister traits. Most of these were his pictures with Alfred Hitchcock, who, even in a somewhat comic thriller such as North by Northwest, gave Grant unappealing qualities. The most important examples of Grant’s dark characterizations, however, are Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946), to which this chapter gives special attention. Grant was an especially important actor for Hitchcock not only because of his glamour and athleticism but also because he could execute the simplest movements with precision. He could play tough, intense characters, and because of his training in pantomime, he could look off-screen in subtly expressive ways that facilitated Hitchcock’s editing schemes.
Some Versions of Cary Grant analyses Cary Grant’s performances in a gallery of his best films, ar... more Some Versions of Cary Grant analyses Cary Grant’s performances in a gallery of his best films, arguing that he not only had exceptional skills but also greater range than is usually recognized. Organized in terms of five versions of Grant, it emphasizes his work as a farceur in The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), and His Girl Friday (1940); as a dark figure in Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946); as a romantic leading man in An Affair to Remember (1957) and Indiscreet (1958); as a domestic male in Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and Room for One More (1952); and as a Cockney character in Sylvia Scarlett (1935) and None but the Lonely Heart (1944). A close study of an actor who worked with important but very different directors, among them Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and Leo McCarey, it provides a model for the appreciation of screen acting in general.
Grant’s early training was in the farce-related comedy of the Bob Pender troupe, a group of boy p... more Grant’s early training was in the farce-related comedy of the Bob Pender troupe, a group of boy performers in Bristol, England, who did acrobatic stunts and skits. Nearly all his work is imbued with the spirit of that comic training, but nowhere more clearly than in the cycle of screwball comedies that helped make him a star and established him as an actor who could be sophisticated and at the same time as funny as Chaplin, Keaton, or Lloyd. This chapter examines three examples: The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), and His Girl Friday (1940), showing how Grant created three very different characters for these equally farcical films: a charming but wayward husband, an absent-minded professor, and an unscrupulous newspaper editor.
‘The modernist crime novel and Hollywood noir’ considers how an atmosphere of ‘modernism’ in 1940... more ‘The modernist crime novel and Hollywood noir’ considers how an atmosphere of ‘modernism’ in 1940s American film noir is largely due to the ‘thriller genre’ in literature. Many aspects of modernity—the interest in subjectivity and multiple points of view, the unorthodox handling of time, the stripping away of genteel rhetoric, the critique of modernity, explicit sex, and fears of women—came together in film noir, but were a potential threat to the entertainment industry. The tension was evident in Hollywood adaptations of four influential crime writers and major contributors to film noir—Samuel Dashiell Hammett, Graham Greene, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler—whose work needed to be lightened or ameliorated.
Burnett is a complete filmmaker who has not only directed but also photographed, edited, and writ... more Burnett is a complete filmmaker who has not only directed but also photographed, edited, and written many films. This chapter puts emphasis on his talent as a screenwriter, using two very different projects as examples. Bless Their Little Hearts was written for director Billy Woodbury and is similar in many ways to Burnett’s Killer of Sheep. It tells the story of an unemployed black man in Watts who suffers a crisis of masculinity while he tries to find a job and keep his family together. Man in a Basket is an adaptation of Crazy Kill by noir novelist Chester Himes. Set in 1950s Harlem, Burnett describes it as Himes’s only love story. Burnett has long wanted to direct this film and is still trying to find backers.
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