From Kevin Brownlow; cinema historian and discoverer of lost films; here is the first full-scale exploration of a vital and now almost forgotten chapter of American moviemaking: the response of early producers of the decades before World War I. All the issues that torment America today were rampant in the silent-film era: crime; poverty; alcohol; drugs; racial and ethnic prejudice; epidemics; and the controversies over birth control; abortion; and the death penalty. And there were others that persist today but were then even more explosive: sexual mores; government and police corruption; prison conditions; immigration; and strife between capital and labor. Although many early moviemakers ignored harsh realities; choosing to depict a society shielded by a ldquo;mask of innocence;rdquo; others went behind that faccedil;ade; fighting the ever-present censors and producing films that made even the most sheltered moviegoer aware of deep rents in the countryrsquo;s social fabric. Some films were exploitative; some serious; but together they add up to a revelation of the dark side of American lifemdash;a revelation startling to us today because it was later; in the era of the Hays Office; so thoroughly ignored; indeed denied; by Hollywood. Broken Blossoms; The Crowd; Humoresque; Regeneration: these films that have survived and become classics are; in these pages; studied in their historical context. And although a tragic number of other films have vanished; nearly all are reclaimed from oblivion by Mr. Brownlowrsquo;s brilliant feat of restoration and descriptive ldquo;reconstruction.rdquo; Here; never again to be forgotten; are The Fall of the Romanoffs; The Racket; Those Who Dance; and dozens of others. With this remarkable book; Kevin Brownlow completes the panoramic trilogy that began with The Paradersquo;s Gone Byhellip; and continued with The War; the West; and the Wilderness. Like its predecessors; Behind the Mask of Innocence is an essential work of silent-film history; certain to become a standard reference; but it is moremdash;at once a surprising portrait of a time not unlike our own and a powerful demonstration of the way in which a popular art form can reveal a society to itself.
#1127612 in eBooks 2013-03-08 2013-03-08File Name: B00BROFSOG
Review
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy CustomerFast shipping and careful packaging. Everything I asked for and more! Thank you!