Table Of Content

ANXIOUS CINEPHILIA Film and Culture FILM AND CULTURE A series of Columbia University Press Edited by John Belton For a complete list of titles, see page 303 Anxious Cinephilia Pleasure and Peril at the Movies Sarah Keller Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup . columbia . edu Copyright © 2020 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Keller, Sarah (Sarah K.), author. Title: Anxious cinephilia : pleasure and peril at the movies / Sarah Keller. Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2020] | Series: Film and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019043044 (print) | LCCN 2019043045 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231180863 (hardback) | ISBN 9780231180870 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780231543309 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures—Appreciation. | Motion pictures—Psychological aspects. | Motion pictures—History. Classification: LCC PN1995 .K397 2020 (print) | LCC PN1995 (ebook) | DDC 791.4301/5—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043044 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019043045 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-f ree paper. Printed in the United States of America Cover image: The Lady from Shanghai. © 1948, renewed 1975 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Cover design: Lisa Hamm Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 The Power and Perils of Cinema 1 What Is Cinephilia, and Why Is It so Anxious? 14 Cinephilia: A “Declaration of Love” 27 The Chapters: Fixing a Wave 34 CHAPTER ONE Ardor and Anxiety: The History of Cinephilia 37 Cinephilia and Early Cinema 39 Life and Death, Delight and Dread in the Transition to Feature- Length Narrative Cinema 44 Prewar Cinephilia in the 1920s and 1930s 49 Epicenter: French Postwar Cinephilia 61 Expanding, Celebrating, and Marketing Cinephilia: Film Festivals 68 Cinephilia’s Spread 76 Into an Uncertain Future: Cinephilia Now and Later 81 CHAPTER TWO Enchanting Images 88 Adventures Through the Looking Glass: Negotiating Self and Other 97 Documentary Self- Presentations and Reflections 108 The Ubiquitous Camera: Self and Surveillance 115 Experimental Selves 121 The Nature of Cinematic Selves 126 Nature, Color, Texture, and the Cinephilic Encounter 129 CHAPTER THREE Cinephilia and Technology: Anxieties and Obsolescence 135 Anxiety and Optimism Amid Technological Changes 135 Anticipation and Anxiety in the Age of Cinema’s Transition to Sound 145 Film Colorization 154 From Films on Film to Digital Exhibition 168 CHAPTER FOUR The Exquisite Apocalypse 181 Apocalyptic Concerns 181 Reflectionist Cinema: Processing Our Beautiful Apocalypse 187 Apocalyptic Spaces, Places, and the Sublime 196 Technology, Cinema, and the Organic Body 200 Doubt and Dread: Apocalyptic Feelings 209 Art and Obliteration at the End of the World 214 The Last Word Is Tomorrow (and Tomorrow and Tomorrow): The Future Foretold 218 CONCLUSION Anxious Times, Anxious Cinema 225 Notes 231 Selected Bibliography 269 Index 279 vi Contents Acknowledgments I have profited from many conversations with all the smart, engaged, anxious cinelovers I know over the years I have worked on this project. I am deeply grateful to be part of that community. The conferences, pan- els, seminars, and individual invitations to present my work allowed me to air parts of this project. Thanks in particular to the organizers and audiences who offered thoughts at presentations for Domitor, Michigan State University, the Modernist Studies Association, New York Univer- sity, Northwestern University, the Society for Cinema and Media Stud- ies, the Screen conference, and the University of Minnesota. Thanks as well to the staff at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Califor- nia, who assisted me in finding and copying materials in their collection about colorization and the impact of movies on youth. I owe a special thanks to colleagues at New York University’s graduate program in cinema studies during the time I spent visiting in 2013, especially Dan Streible, who set me up for success while there. That year, I taught a graduate seminar, “Cinephilia/Cinephobia,” where the spark of ideas related to this book began to catch fire. The students in that seminar influenced my thinking about cinephilia in highly productive ways, and I thank them for a great semester. Colleagues from the University of Massachusetts at Boston— especially in the College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Office, the Art Depart- ment, the Cinema Studies Program, and Healey Library— also provided a great deal of support as this project came into being. None did so more than Katharina Loew, who is the very best of interlocutors, writing part- ners, co- conspirators, and friends. A special thanks, too, to Ariel Rogers, who at more than one point while I was writing this manuscript lent her calm, brilliant, incisive skills as a reader and editor. I would have been lost without her generous will- ingness to help. I deeply appreciate her kind encouragement and keen eye. Others who also offered an ear, advice, suggestions for interesting things to look into further, a forum for presenting work, or general encouragement at crucial moments include Dudley Andrew, Nico Baum- bach, Francesco Casetti, Don Crafton, Noam Elcott, Jennifer Fay, Ally Field, David Gerstner, Tom Gunning, Barbara Hammer, Maggie Hen- nefeld, Brian Jacobson, Daria Khitrova, Antonia Lant, Adrian Martin, Dan Morgan, Justus Nieland, Tasha Oren, Kate Rennebohm, Theresa Scandiffio, Girish Shambu, Tess Takahashi, Yuri Tsivian, Julie Turnock, Malcolm Turvey, Christophe Wall- Romana, Haidee Wasson, Patricia White, Jennifer Wild, and Josh Yumibe. The Film and Culture series editor John Belton as well as Jennifer Crewe and Philip Leventhal at Columbia University Press provided guid- ance and thoughtful insights at key moments: I am grateful for their steadfast support. They expertly shepherded this project to its resolution, in part by also finding excellent, anonymous outside reviewers, whose comments sharpened this manuscript in important ways. Thanks to cinema— it has been a long-s tanding love that has sus- tained me for my whole life. And first and last, thanks to my extended family and especially to my fellow cinephiles J, G, and H— for simply everything. You made the time during which I worked on this book not only worthwhile but won- derful. I wouldn’t have done it without you. viii Acknowledgments ANXIOUS CINEPHILIA