Discovering Short Films: The History and Style of Live-Action Fiction Shorts

200 Pages·2015·1.329 MB·English

by  Cynthia Felando (auth.)

Discovering Short Films
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Discovering Short Films
The History and Style of
Live-Action Fiction Shorts
Cynthia Felando
Palgrave
macmillan
DISCOVERING SHORT FILMS
Copyright © Cynthia Felando, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-48847-3
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—
a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the
United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-69589-8 ISBN 978-1-137-48436-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137484369
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Felando, Cynthia.
Discovering short films : the history and style of live-action fiction shorts /
Cynthia Felando
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index
1. Short films—History and criticism. I. Title
PN1995.F395 2015
791.43’75—dc23 2015001266
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by SPi Global.
First edition: July 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Douglas
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Contents
List of Figures ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Shorts and Film History: The Rise, Fall, and
Rise of the Short Film 19
3 Short Film Specificity: Narrative Compression,
Unity, Character, and Endings 45
4 Storytelling and Style: The Classical Short 65
5 Storytelling and Style: The Art Short 95
Appendix 135
Notes 167
Bibliography 179
Index 187
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List of Figures
2.1 The Hard Guy (1930) 26
3.1 About a Girl (2001) 62
4.1 Rendezvous (1976) 69
4.2 They Caught the Ferry (1948) 75
4.3 Six Shooter (2004) 81
5.1 The Red Balloon (1956) 102
5.2 Two Cars, One Night (2003) 120
5.3 Bullet in the Brain (2000) 126
5.4 World of Glory (1991) 130
5.5 The Lunch Date (1989) 132