Film Stardom and the Ancient Past

The first major study of the use of the ancient past in the construction of Hollywood stardom after the silent era

Offers new perspectives on enduringly popular stars such as Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe, alongside less well-known films and stars, such as Buster Crabbe and the pre-Code comedy, Search for Beauty (1934)
Provides a historically rigorous and timely study on the contemporary ancient epic, including discussion of Alexander, Troy, Immortals, and Clash of the Titans, as well as analysis of 'divinized stardom' in the digital domain online and in social media

Presents exhaustive archival research and uses a variety of materials -- ranging from film texts, theory, fine art, fan-magazines, to studio production files and promotional materials

Brings together a number of fields both within Film Studies (such as cinema history, star and performance studies, set design, memory studies, genre studies), and beyond, including Art History, Classical Reception and Gender and Queer Studies

Autorentext

Michael Williams is Associate Professor in Film at the University of Southampton, UK. He is the author of Film Stardom, Myth and Classicism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Ivor Novello (BFI, 2003), and co-editor of British Silent Cinema and the Great War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

Inhalt

1. Introduction: An Archaeology of Stardom.- 2. Section One: Oracles and Olympians - 'Above Everything?': Idols and Idolatry in Mata Hari (1931).- 3. 'The American Adonis': The Hollywood Olympian Body.- 4. Section Two: Down to Earth: Rebuilding the Hollywood Pantheon - 'A Dream of a Theme': Down to Earth (1947), Rita Hayworth and Marketing the Post-war Goddess.- 5. Idols, Fragments and Reconstructions.- 6. Section Three: Heroes Will Rise: Patinated Pasts and Digital Futures - Patinating the Past: Stars, Artefacts and Alexander (2004).- 7. 'Remember Me': Memory and Landscape in Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004).- 8. Titans, Immortals and Broken Idols: Classicism in the Digital Age.