Distributing Silent Film Serials: Local Practices, Changing Forms, Cultural Transformation

Rudmer Canjels

ISBN 10: 0415877148 / ISBN 13: 9780415877145

Published by New York & London: Routledge, 2011

About this Item

Condition Notes: Ex-Public Library: Numerals to the spine; Lending card to the pastedown; Library stamp to the first blank; The contents complete, clean and tight otherwise; Hardback. Blue boards with white titles to the spine & upper board; Measures 9¼" x 6¼" (0.9 kg); pp (xxii) 261; Index; Bibliography; In the Routledge Advances in Film Studies series; Includes: Black & white photographs; Number 7 in the series. || The book is on the shelf, ready to be appropriately packed, and posted from the pastoral paradise of Peasedown St. John, Bath, by a real bookseller in a real book shop - with my personal guarantee and beady eye on the Consumer Contracts Regulations. REMEMBER! Buying my copy means the book shop Jack Russells get their supper! My Book #191630 ||.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Distributing Silent Film Serials: Local Practices, Changing Forms, Cultural Transformation
• Publisher: New York & London: Routledge
• Publication Date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0415877148
• ISBN 13: 9780415877145
• Binding: Hardback (No Dust Wrapper.)
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Movies

About this title

Synopsis

Tracing the international consumption, distribution, and cultural importance of silent film serials in the 1910s and 1920s, Canjels provides an exciting new understanding of the cultural dimension and the cultural transformation and circulation of media forms. Specifically, he demonstrates that the serial film form goes far beyond the well-known American two-reel serial―the cliffhanger.

Throughout the book, Canjels focuses on the biggest producers of serials, America, France, and Germany, while imported serials, such as those in the Netherlands, are also examined. This research offers new views on the serial work of well known directors as D.W. Griffith, Abel Gance, Erich von Stroheim, and Fritz Lang, while foregrounding the importance of lesser known directors such as Louis Feuillade or Joe May.

In the early twentieth-century, serial productions were constantly undergoing change and were not merely distributed in their original form upon import. As adjusted serials were present in large quantities or confronted different social spaces, nationalistic feelings and views stimulated by the unrest of World War I and the expanding American film industry could be incorporated and attached to the serial form. Serial productions were not only adaptable to local discourses, they could actively stimulate and interact as well, influencing reception and further film production. By examining the distribution, reception, and cultural contexts of American and European serials in various countries, this cross-cultural research makes both local and global observations. Canjels thus offers a highly relevant case study of transnational, transcultural and transmedia relations.

About the Author

Rudmer Canjels has published on the international distribution and cultural transformations of silent film serials (Distributing Silent Serials, Routledge, 2011) and industry sponsored films (A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Oxford UP, 2007; Films that Work, Amsterdam UP, 2009). At VU University Amsterdam he has given variouscourses on documentary films, filmic paratexts, fan culture, andtransmedia storytelling. Currently he is researching the construction of a collective imaginary of science and technology within the industrialfilms of the 1950s-1960s.