The great Armenian-American director Rouben Mamoulian (1897-87) remains a favourite among filmmakers, his films combining great technical originality with a uniquely poetic visual style.
Mamoulian's technical innovations are evident from his first film, Applause (1923), in which he incorporated two separate soundtracks into one printing, thus overcoming the difficulty of sound levels that had frustrated the pioneer directors of 'talkies', and in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931), in which he used synthetic sound painted directly onto the soundtrack.
Such inventive solutions to filmmaking challenges were linked to Mamoulian's abiding sense of the magic of the cinema. He used colour as a dramatic ingredient in the first three-strip Technicolour film, Becky Sharp (1935), and his musicals Summer Holiday (1948) and Silk Stockings (1957) were remarkable in their time for the way in which the dance was used to enhance the drama and to illuminate character. And for Garbo, in Queen Christina (1933), he created the framework for her greatest role.
Tom Milne's classic study, first published in 1969, provides a film-by-film analysis of Mamoulian's career and challenges widespread critical assumptions about the director's oeuvre. In his foreword to this most recent edition, the BFI's Geoff Andrew recognises Milne's careful and insightful analysis of Mamoulian's expressive and imaginative style and asks whether this unique director ought to be considered as an auteur. Andrew also pays tribute to Milne's elegant, witty and eclectic critical style and hails him as one the most important and influential British writers on film.
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SKU
9781844573523
Author(s)
Tom Milne
Product contents
Introduction to the 2010 Edition by Geoff Andrew Introduction to the 1969 Edition Applause City Streets Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Love Me Tonight Song of Songs Queen Christina We Live Again Becky Sharp The Gay Desperado High, Wide and Handsome Golden Boy The