MENU   

Middlebrow Cinema

Edited by

Type
Essays
Subject
Keywords
sociology
Publishing date
Publisher
Routledge
Collection
Remapping World Cinema
Language
English
Size of a pocketbookRelative size of this bookSize of a large book
Relative size
Physical desc.
Paperback238 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ½ inches (16 x 24 cm)
ISBN
978-1-138-77713-2
User Ratings
no rating (0 vote)

Average rating: no rating

0 rating 1 star = We can do without
0 rating 2 stars = Good book
0 rating 3 stars = Excellent book
0 rating 4 stars = Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Book Presentation:

Middlebrow Cinema challenges an often uninterrogated hostility to middlebrow culture that frequently dismisses it as conservative, which it often is not, and feminized or middle-class, which it often is. The volume defines the term relationally against shifting concepts of ‘high’ and ‘low’, and considers its deployment in connection with text, audience and institution.

In exploring the concept of the middlebrow, this book recovers films that were widely meaningful to contemporary audiences, yet sometimes overlooked by critics interested in popular and arthouse extremes. It also addresses the question of socially-mobile audiences, who might express their aspirations through film-watching; and traces the cultural consequences of the movement of films across borders and between institutions.

The first study of its kind, the volume comprises 11 original essays that test the purchase of the term ‘middlebrow’ across cultures, including those of Europe, Asia and the Americas, from the 1930s to the present day. Middlebrow Cinema brings into view a popular and aspirational - and thus especially relevant and dynamic - area of film and film culture. Ideal for students and researchers in this area, this book:

Remaps ‘Popular’ and ‘arthouse’ approaches Explores British, Chinese, French, Indian, Mexican, Spanish ‘national’ cinemas alongside Continental, Hollywood, Queer, Transnational cinemas Analyses Biopic, Heritage, Historical Film, Melodrama, Musical, Sex Comedy genres.

About the Author:
Sally Faulkner is Professor of Hispanic Studies and Film Studies at the University of Exeter, and author of Literary Adaptations in Spanish Cinema (2004), A Cinema of Contradiction: Spanish Film in the 1960s (2006) and A History of Spanish Film: Cinema and Society 1910-2010 (2013).

Press Reviews:
A volume to be praised for the "scope of its ambition", arguing for "the need to continue historicising the middlebrow label even as we may find it increasingly useful in both film scholarship and media studies more broadly. The variegated but uniformly high-quality chapters in this collection manage on the whole to navigate this delicate line with admirable balance"

New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 17, 1, 2020, 122-25.

See the

> From the same author:

> On a related topic:

The Dressing Room:Backstage Lives and American Film

(2025)

Backstage Lives and American Film

by

Subject:

Doing Sociology Through Film and Literature:Imaginings of the Social World

(2025)

Imaginings of the Social World

by and

Subject:

The Sex Slave in Cinema:An Inegalitarian Spectacle

(2025)

An Inegalitarian Spectacle

by

Subject:

Girls' Hairstories:Resilience and Sparkle in Contemporary Screen Cultures

(2025)

Resilience and Sparkle in Contemporary Screen Cultures

by

Subject:

Free with Every Kids' Meal:The Cultural Impact of Fast Food Toys

(2025)

The Cultural Impact of Fast Food Toys

by

Subject:

Shifting Gender Identities in Popular Culture:Essays on Representation Since 2010

(2025)

Essays on Representation Since 2010

Dir. and

Subject:

Sexualised Masculinity:Men's Bodies in 21st Century Media Culture

(2025)

Men's Bodies in 21st Century Media Culture

by and

Subject:

The Drive-In:Outdoor Cinema in 1950s America and the Popular Imagination

(2025)

Outdoor Cinema in 1950s America and the Popular Imagination

by

Subject:

15753 books listed   •   (c)2024-2026 cinemabooks.info   •  
Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info