The City in American Cinema: Film and Postindustrial Culture

Description

How has American cinema engaged with the rapid transformation of American cities and urban culture since the 1960s? And what role have films and film industries played in shaping and mediating cultural and economic change in the ‘postindustrial’ city? This interdisciplinary collection argues that cinema and cities have become increasingly intertwined in the era of urban branding, cultural industries, and ‘creative cities’. Spanning four decades of US urban history, from decline and crisis in the 1970s and 1980s to neoliberal restructuring, galloping globalization and accelerated gentrification in the 1990s and beyond, the book considers the complex, evolving relationship between moving image cultures and the urban environment in key cinematic cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit. Across twelve chapters, the contributors address these questions via textual and industrial perspectives, analyzing questions of narrative, aesthetics, and genre as well as contexts of production, exhibition and reception. Drawing together critical concepts from film and urban studies, the chapters view contemporary cinema through the political and social geographies of class, race, gender, and sexuality. From Hollywood blockbusters to independent cinema, romantic comedy to science fiction, key films discussed include Frances Ha, Fruitvale Station, Desperately Seeking Susan, The King of New York, Inception, Doctor Strange, Only Lovers Left Alive and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Contents Contributors Acknowledgments American Cinema and Urban Change: Industry, Genre, and Politics from Nixon to Trump Johan Andersson and Lawrence Webb Part One Film Production and the
Postindustrial Turn 1 Daniel Bell, Post-Industrial Society,and Los Angeles Cinema circa 1967–72 Mark Shiel 2 Made in New York:Film Production, the City Government,and Public Protest in the Koch Era Lawrence Webb 3 You Don’t Have to Call Us Home,but Please Stay Here: The City Film CommissionNathan Koob 4 The Boston Movie Boom Carlo Rotella Part TwoPostindustrial Narratives andAesthetics 5 The New Boston and the Grip of Tradition:The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973),The Brink’s Job (1978),and The Verdict (1982) Stanley Corkin 6 Undead Detroit:Crisis Capitalism and Urban Ruin Camilla Fojas 7 The Flexible Urban Imaginary:Postindustrial Cities in Inception, TheAdjustment Bureau, and Doctor Strange Nick Jones 8 A Networked Life:Representations of Connectivity and StructuralInequalities in Fruitvale Station Amy Corbin Part Three Cinema and GentrificationPart Three 9 For Whom Are the Movies?The Landscape of Movie Exhibitionin the Gentrified City Brendan Kredell 10 Ebbets Field and Other Monuments:Outer Borough Neighborhoods andRevanchism in 1990s Cinema Erica Stein 11 Gentrification by Genre:Desperately Seeking Susan and the1980s Screwball Johan Andersson 12 Frances Doesn’t Live Here Anymore:Gender, Crisis, and the Creative City inFrances Ha and The Giant Mechanical Man Martha Shearer Index