The First World War and Popular Cinema
The First World War and Popular Cinema
1914 to the Present
The Great War played an instrumental role in the development of cinema, so necessary was it to the mobilization efforts of the combatant nations. In turn, after the war, as memory began to fade, cinema continued to shape the war's legacy and eventually to determine the ways in which all warfare is imagined.
The First World War and Popular Cinema provides fresh insight into the role of film as an historical and cultural tool. Through a comparative approach, essays by contributors from Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States enrich our understanding of cinematic depictions of the Great War in particular and combat in general. New historical research on both the uses of propaganda and the development of national cinemas make this collection one of the first to show the ways in which film history can contribute to our study of national histories. The contributors to the volume monitor popular perceptions of the war, the reshaping of the war's legacy, and the evolution of cinematic clichés that are perpetuated in filmmaking through the century. Some of the films they discuss are All Quiet on the Western Front, Gallipoli, The Grand Illusion, The Big Parade, Battle of the Somme, J'Accuse, Regeneration, and many more. The First World War and Popular Cinema is a vital addition to film studies and history, two fields only recently united in a productive way.
Even as WWI becomes more distant in popular memory, its representation on film has become a topic of increasing scholarly interest. . . . The present volume is a significant addition to this literature, primarily for its comparative international perspective. . . . Recommended.
This welcome addition to the literature embodies not merely the scholarship but also something of the verve Isenberg hoped to see devoted to the study of World War I and film. Its eleven contributors examine the impact of the war on the evolution of filmmaking in ten belligerent nations as well asùand perhaps more importantlyùthe continuing role of film in shaping the historical vision of the war. . . . There is sufficient originality and depth throughout to please the most seasoned readers. . . . The book is not only well-conceived and well-balanced as a written work, but handsome. Its elegant typeface and layout, together with the large number of appropriate photographs, make it another small victory of scholarship and aesthetics over that bane of our times—mere information.
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction / Michael Paris
Cinema and the Memory of the Great War / Pierre Sorlin
Official British Film Propaganda / Nicholas Reeves
Enduring Heroes: British Feature Films and the First World War, 1919-1997 / Michael Paris
The ANZAC and the Sentimental Bloke: Australian Culture and Screen Representations of World War One / Ina Bertrand
Canadian Film and the First World War / Tim Travers
France: the Silent Memory / Pierre Sorlin
The United States' Film Industry and World War One / Leslie Midkiff DeBauche
The Representation of the Great War in Italian Cinema / Giovanni Nobili Vitelleschi
A War Forgotten: the Great War in Russian and Soviet Cinema / Denise J. Youngblood
Between Parochialism and Universalism: World War One in Polish Cinematography / Ewa Mazierska
The Experience of the First World War and the German Film / Rainer Rother
Where is the War? Some Aspects of the Effects of World War One on Austrian Cinema / Franz Marksteiner
Index
