Sheri H. Lewis's Books

Through a Noir Lens

Adapting Film Noir Visual Style

By: Sheri Chinen Biesen

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Through a Noir Lens

Adapting Film Noir Visual Style

By: Sheri Chinen Biesen

Shadows. Smoke. Dark alleys. Rain-slicked city streets. These are iconic elements of film noir visual style. Long after its 1940s heyday, noir hallmarks continue to appear in a variety of new media forms and styles. What has made the noir aesthetic at once enduring and adaptable? Sheri Chinen Biesen explores how the dark cinematic noir style has evolved across eras, from classic Hollywood to present-day streaming services. Examining both aesthetics and material production conditions, she demonstrates how technological and industrial changes have influenced the imagery of film noir. When it emerged in the early 1940s, the visual style’s distinctive shadowy look was in part a product of wartime cinema conditions and technologies, such as blackouts and nitrate film stock. Since the 1950s, technical developments from acetate film stock and new cameras and lenses to lighting, color, and digitization have shaped the changing nature of noir style. Biesen considers the persistence of the noir legacy, discussing how neo-noirs reimagine iconic imagery and why noir style has become a touchstone in the streaming era. Drawing on a wealth of archival research, she provides insightful analyses of a wide range of works, from masterpieces directed by Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock to New Hollywood neo-noirs, the Coen brothers’ revisionist films, and recent HBO and Netflix series. A groundbreaking technological and industrial history of an essential yet slippery visual style, Through a Noir Lens shines a light into the shadows of film noir.

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Page Count

446

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231560893

ISBN 13

9780231560894

Law for Society

Nature, Functions, and Limits

By: Kevin M. Clermont,Robert A. Hillman,Sheri Lynn Johnson,Robert S. Summers

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Law for Society

Nature, Functions, and Limits

By: Kevin M. Clermont,Robert A. Hillman,Sheri Lynn Johnson,Robert S. Summers

Law for Society: Nature, Functions, and Limits offers an illuminating conceptual framework that looks at five basic legal instruments with which the law addresses the problems and goals of society. For any Introduction to Law course or as secondary reading in political science, criminal justice, or general studies, Law for Society breaks down the very concept of “law” to answer the questions: What is law? How does law work? What can law do and not do? The book addresses the nature of law, its problem-solving functions, and the limits on what law can accomplish.

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Page Count

1081

Publisher

Aspen Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1454860294

ISBN 13

9781454860297

Music in the Shadows

Noir Musical Films

By: Sheri Chinen Biesen

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Music in the Shadows

Noir Musical Films

By: Sheri Chinen Biesen

An analysis of Hollywood films that blend elements of musicals and film noir, from the author of Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir. Welcome to the world of “noir musical” films, where tormented antiheroes and hard-boiled musicians battle obsession and struggle with their music and ill-fated love triangles. Sultry divas dance and sing the blues in shrouded nightclubs. Romantic intrigue clashes with backstage careers. In her pioneering study, Music in the Shadows, film noir expert Sheri Chinen Biesen explores musical films that use film noir style and jazz to inhabit a disturbing underworld and reveal the dark side of fame and the American Dream. While noir musical films like A Star Is Born (1954) include musical performances, their bleak tone and expressionistic aesthetic more closely resemble the visual style of film noir. Their narratives unfold behind a stark noir lens: distorted, erratic angles and imbalanced hand-held shots allow the audience to experience a tortured, disillusioned perspective. While many musicals glamorize the quest for the Hollywood spotlight, brooding noir musical films such as Blues in the Night, Gilda, The Red Shoes, West Side Story, and Round Midnight stretch the boundaries of film noir and the musical as film genres collide. Deep shadows, dim lighting, and visual composition evoke moodiness, cynicism, pessimism, and subjective psychological points of view. Biesen draws on extensive primary research in studio archives to situate her examination within a historical, industrial, and cultural context. “Biesen builds a fascinating and quite convincing case for a genre hybrid, the noir musical, that took root in the 1940s but has continued to evolve ever since.” —Thomas Schatz, The University of Texas at Austin

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Page Count

351

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421408392

ISBN 13

9781421408392

Film Censorship

Regulating America's Screen

By: Sheri Chinen Biesen

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Film Censorship

Regulating America's Screen

By: Sheri Chinen Biesen

Film Censorship is a concise overview of Hollywood censorship and efforts to regulate American films. It provides a lean introductory survey of U.S. cinema censorship from the pre-Code years and classic studio system Golden Age—in which film censorship thrived—to contemporary Hollywood. From the earliest days of cinema, movies faced controversy over screen images and threats of censorship. This volume draws extensively on primary research from motion picture archives to unveil the fascinating behind-the-scenes history of cinema censorship and explore how Hollywood responded to censorial constraints on screen content in a changing American cultural and industrial landscape. This primer on American film censorship considers the historical evolution of motion-picture censorship in the United States spanning the Jazz Age Prohibition era, lobbying by religious groups against Hollywood, industry self-censorship for the Hays Office, federal propaganda efforts during wartime, easing of regulation in the 1950s and 1960s, the MPAA ratings system, and the legacy of censorship in later years. Case studies include The Outlaw, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Scarface, Double Indemnity, Psycho, Bonnie and Clyde, Midnight Cowboy, and The Exorcist, among many others.

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Page Count

268

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231851138

ISBN 13

9780231851138

Book's by Sheri H. Lewis

Through a Noir Lens

Through a Noir Lens

Law for Society

Law for Society

Music in the Shadows

Music in the Shadows

Film Censorship

Film Censorship

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