Moralizing Cinema

Film, Catholicism, and Power

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Edited by Daniel Biltereyst and Daniela Treveri Gennari

Type: Studies
Subject: Sociology
Keywords: religion, morality
Publishing date: 2018
Publisher: Routledge
Collection: Routledge Advances in Film Studies
1st publishing: 2014
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 328 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ½ inches (16 x 24 cm)

ISBN

978-1-138-54846-6

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Book Presentation:
This volume is part of the recent interest in the study of religion and popular media culture (cinema in particular), but it strongly differs from most of this work in this maturing discipline. Contrary to most other edited volumes and monographs on film and religion, Moralizing Cinema will not focus upon films (cf. the representation of biblical figures, religious themes in films, the fidelity question in movies), but rather look beyond the film text, content or aesthetics, by concentrating on the cinema-related actions, strategies and policies developed by the Catholic Church and Catholic organizations in order to influence cinema. Whereas the key role of Catholics in cinema has been well studied in the USA (cf. literature on the Legion of Decency and on the Catholic influenced Production Code Administration), the issue remains unexplored for other parts of the world. The book includes case studies on Argentina, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and the USA.

About the authors:
Daniel Biltereyst is Full Professor in Film and Cultural Media Studies at Ghent University, Belgium, where he is Head of the Center for Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS). He was the editor of Explorations in New Cinema History (2011) and Cinema, Audiences and Modernity (Routledge, 2012, both with R. Maltby and Ph. Meers), as well as Silencing Cinema (2013, with R. Van de Winkel).
Daniela Treveri Gennari is Reader in Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her work on Catholicism and cinema has been published in her monograph Post-War Italian Cinema: American Intervention, Vatican Interests (Routledge 2008) as well as in articles and book chapters. Her current work on audiences - funded by the AHRC - investigates memories of cinema-going and patterns of exhibition in 1950s Italy.

Press Reviews:
"Finally, an investigation that demonstrates the close negotiation between film policies and filmmakers, power and art, ethics and aesthetics, as influenced by a variety of Catholic- inspired initiatives. This is a much-needed intervention into the study of film and culture alike, particularly essential in a day and age when the scrutiny of the power yielded by Catholic institutions is ever more pressing." — Ernest Mathijs, University of British Columbia, Canada

"This is a timely book providing well-researched case studies about the historical influence of religious organizations (in this case the Catholic Church) in the production, distribution, exhibition and consumption of films, from policies and leaders to censorship and audiences. A required text for cinema and media students and scholars interested in a comprehensive analysis of a relevant but under-researched topic. -- Jose-Carlos Lozano, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

"The strength of Moralizing Cinema lies in the forays into new areas and, not least, in the rich detail of its empirical case studies." --Maaret Koskinen, Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 40(4)

"Taken together, this anthology adds considerable depth and complexitiy to the historiography of cinema as a cultural form and inspires contintued study into the networks and linkages between different religious authorities and film institutions." --Ira Wagman, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

See the publisher website: Routledge

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