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Driven
to Darkness
Price: $26.95
Subtitle: Jewish
Emigre Directors and the Rise of Film Noir
Author:
Vincent Brook
Subject: Film
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-4630-8
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4629-2
Pages:
256 pages
Publication Date: October 2009
Praise for Driven to Darkness
"Driven to Darkness
is an erudite, engaging and ultimately enlightening volume that shines
a spotlight on a neglected corner of American cinema history."—Lester Friedman, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
"I
like this book immensely, and feel that it makes a deeply important
contribution to the study of noir. It persuasively argues for the
inclusion of W. Lee Wilder and Robert Siodmak in the noir canon, among
other influential auteurs, and displays a remarkable degree of
scholarship and detail, and includes several personal interviews by the
author. The detail on the plight of German Jews under the Nazi regime,
particularly, is superbly realized."—Wheeler Winston Dixon, co-author of A Short History of Film
Description:
From its earliest days, the American film industry has
attracted European artists. With the rise of Hitler, filmmakers of
conscience in Germany and other countries, particularly those of Jewish
origin, found it difficult to survive and fled—for their work and their
lives—to the United States. Some had trouble adapting to Hollywood, but
many were celebrated for their cinematic contributions, especially to
the dark shadows of film noir.
Driven to
Darkness explores the influence of Jewish émigré
directors and the development of this genre. While filmmakers such as
Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, and Edward G. Ulmer have been
acknowledged as crucial to the noir canon, the impact of their
Jewishness on their work has remained largely unexamined until now.
Through lively and original analyses of key films, Vincent Brook
penetrates the darkness, shedding new light on this popular film form
and the artists who helped create it.
About the Author:
VINCENT BROOK teaches media studies at the University of
California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. He
is the author of Something Ain’t
Kosher Here: The Rise of the “Jewish” Sitcom and the editor of “You Should See Yourself ”: Jewish
Identity in Postmodern American Culture (both Rutgers University
Press).
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Price: $26.95
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