Synopses & Reviews
andlt;Pandgt;In the 1920s, the European avant-garde embraced the cinema, experimenting with the medium in radical ways. Painters including Hans Richter and Fernand Léger as well as filmmakers belonging to such avant-garde movements as Dada and surrealism made some of the most enduring and fascinating films in the history of cinema. In The Filming of Modern Life, Malcolm Turvey examines five films from the avant-garde canon and the complex, sometimes contradictory, attitudes toward modernity they express: Rhythm 21 (Hans Richter, 1921), Ballet mécanique (Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger, 1924), Entr'acte (Francis Picabia and René Clair, 1924), Un chien andalou (Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, 1929), and Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929). All exemplify major trends within European avant-garde cinema of the time, from abstract animation to andquot;cinema pur.andquot;Turvey argues that these films share a concern with modernization and the rapid, dislocating changes it was bringing about. He critically addresses major theories of the avant-garde and its relation to modern life, including the claim that film is andquot;distractingandquot; in the same way as a modern environment, and he challenges the standard view of the avant-garde as implacably opposed to bourgeois modernity. In fact, he writes, not only was there considerable disagreement among avant-garde movements about what aspects of modern life needed transformation, but the positions of individual avant-garde artists toward modernization were complex, even contradictory. All five films that Turvey analyzes embrace and resist, in their own ways, different aspects of modernity.Although much has been written about each of these films, The Filming of Modern Life is the first book to examine them together, illuminating their shared concern with modernization and its consequences.andlt;/Pandgt;
Review
"The Filming of Modern Life incisively challenges conventional accounts of avant-garde film theory and practice in the 1920s. In readings both subtle and historically astute, Malcolm Turvey unpacks conceptual ambivalences that animate five canonical films in individual essays, each a model of lucid critical writing and perfectly gauged for seminar discussions. He raises provocative questions that will reignite consequential debates even as they reaffirm the complex ethos informing classical modernist cinema." Stuart Liebman , Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center The MIT Press
Review
"Combining lucid readings of five central avant-garde films from the 1920s, Malcolm Turvey's The Filming of Modern Life cogently challenges the clichés of academic film history. The readings support his insight that these films respond to a subtle range of ideas about mechanization. Turvey sees the avant-garde cinema as a coherent nexus of reactions to the evolution of film syntax and genres rather than a repudiation of bourgeois modernity or the competing assimilations of cinema to Dada, surrealism, or constructivism." P. Adams Sitney , Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, and author, Visionary Film The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"Combining lucid readings of five central avant-garde films from the 1920s, Malcolm Turvey's andlt;Iandgt;The Filming of Modern Lifeandlt;/Iandgt; cogently challenges the clichés of academic film history. The readings support his insight that these films respond to a subtle range of ideas about mechanization. Turvey sees the avant-garde cinema as a coherent nexus of reactions to the evolution of film syntax and genres rather than a repudiation of bourgeois modernity or the competing assimilations of cinema to Dada, surrealism, or constructivism." andlt;Bandgt;P. Adams Sitney andlt;/Bandgt;, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, and author, andlt;Iandgt;Visionary Filmandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press The MIT Press The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt; andlt;Iandgt;"The Filming of Modern Lifeandlt;/Iandgt; incisively challenges conventional accounts of avant-garde film theory and practice in the 1920s. In readings both subtle and historically astute, Malcolm Turvey unpacks conceptual ambivalences that animate five canonical films in individual essays, each a model of lucid critical writing and perfectly gauged for seminar discussions. He raises provocative questions that will reignite consequential debates even as they reaffirm the complex ethos informing classical modernist cinema." andlt;Bandgt;Stuart Liebman andlt;/Bandgt;, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Centerandlt;/Pandgt;
Synopsis
In the 1920s, the European avant-garde embraced the cinema, experimenting with the medium in radical ways. Painters including Hans Richter and Fernand Léger as well as filmmakers belonging to such avant-garde movements as Dada and surrealism made some of the most enduring and fascinating films in the history of cinema. In The Filming of Modern Life, Malcolm Turvey examines five films from the avant-garde canon and the complex, sometimes contradictory, attitudes toward modernity they express: Rhythm 21 (Hans Richter, 1921), Ballet mécanique (Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger, 1924), Entr'acte (Francis Picabia and René Clair, 1924), Un chien Andalou (Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, 1929), and Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929). All exemplify major trends within European avant-garde cinema of the time, from abstract animation to "cinéma pur." All five films embrace and resist, in their own ways, different aspects of modernity.
Synopsis
The complex stance toward modernity taken by 1920s avant-garde cinema, as exemplified by five major films.
Synopsis
In the 1920s, the European avant-garde embraced the cinema, experimenting with the medium in radical ways. Painters including Hans Richter and Fernand Leger as well as filmmakers belonging to such avant-garde movements as Dada and surrealism made some of the most enduring and fascinating films in the history of cinema. In
Synopsis
andlt;Pandgt;The complex stance toward modernity taken by 1920s avant-garde cinema, as exemplified by five major films. andlt;/Pandgt;
About the Author
Malcolm Turvey is Professor of Film History at Sarah Lawrence College and an editor of October. He is the author of Doubting Vision: Film and the Revelationist Tradition.