James Naremore

The Films of Vincente Minnelli, first published in 1993, examines the career of MGM's leading director of musicals, melodramas and comedies in the 1940s and 1950s. Widely admired for his flamboyant sense of colour and camera movement, Minnelli played a crucial role in maintaining the studio's reputation as the 'home of the stars'. Describing the director's contributions to some of the most celebrated works of Hollywood's golden era, this volume also includes a close analysis of five important films that represent the full range of Minnelli's career: Cabin in the Sky, Meet Me in St Louis, Father of the Bride, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life. These lively readings provide commentary on problems of genre, directorial style, cultural politics, and the connection between aestheticism and mass culture during the first half of the twentieth century.

In this richly detailed study, James Naremore focuses on the work of film acting, showing what players contribute to movies. Ranging from the earliest short subjects of Charles Chaplin to the contemporary features of Robert DeNiro, he develops a useful means of analyzing performance in the age of mechanical reproduction; at the same time, he reveals the ideological implications behind various approaches to acting, and suggests ways that behavior on the screen can be linked to the presentation of self in society. Naremore's discussion of such figures as Lillian Gish, Marlene Dietrich, James Cagney, and Cary Grant will interest the specialist and the general reader alike, helping to establish standards and methods for future writing about performers and their craft.