Friday, 18 April 2008

Today's obscure question

Can anyone recommend any books or articles dealing with the ways in which Hollywood's back catologue from 1940-45, or thereabouts, was presented and received in Italy and/or France in the immediate post-war years?

I'm especially interested in anything about the extent to which films were subjected to the usual processes of dubbing, or were subtitled or even screened without subtitles, and of the extent to which, for example, the emergence of the whole kind of 1950s Cahiers du Cinema style emphasis on the visual over the verbal can be traced back to seeing films in a context which encouraged readings in terms of mise-en-scene (or the director) rather than the screenwriter.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know that was when Film Noir was big...the only texts I know of that talk about 'American films' in Post-war Europe, are usually the books about 'films in Post-war Europe' and the American material gets a mention. :)

I have some online resources, if you're interested:

http://www.film-philosophy.com/announcements/files/b07ee8dbcaf86af2cd14dac9942170bd-40.php

http://www.scribd.com/doc/202922/German-postwar-film-industry

And some Bibs:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/summary/117886298/SUMMARY?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1873612
[might require registration, but the ref book info is there.]

http://www.cas.umn.edu/pdf/wp924.pdf

And try Googling or Yahooing
"American films in post-war europe"