Refocus: the Films of Paul Leni

Description

Silent-era film scholarship has all too often focused on a handful of German directors, including Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch, but little attention has been paid to arguably one of the most influential filmmakers of the period: Paul Leni. This collection - the first comprehensive English-language study of Leni's life and career - offers new insights into his national and international films, his bold forays into scenic design and his transition from German to Hollywood filmmaking.The contributors give fresh insights into Leni's most influential films, including Waxworks (1924), The Cat and the Canary (1927) and The Man Who Laughs (1928), and explores such lesser-known productions as The Diary of Dr. Hart (1918), Backstairs (1921) and the Rebus film series (1925-7). Engaging with new historical, analytical, and theoretical perspectives on Leni's work, this book is a groundbreaking exploration of a cinematic pioneer. List of Figures Notes on Contributors Chronology 1 Introduction 2 Exploding the Cosmopolitan and Treating the Foreigners’ Foreignness: Paul Leni’s The Diary of Dr. Hart 3 The Unnatural in the Natural: Leopold Jessner and Paul Leni’s Early Weimar Film Backstairs 4 Cinema Panopticum: Wax, Work, Waxworks 5 The Proto-Horror-Comedy: Waxworks 6 Intersectional Avant-Garde: Paul Leni’s Rebus-Film Series and the Confluence of Experimental Visual Styles 7 Bravura Beginnings: Paul Leni and the Art of the Prologue 8 Paul Leni’s The Cat and the Canary: Adaptation into Genre 9 Specters of the Mind: Ghosts, Illusion, and Exposure in Paul Leni’s The Cat and the Canary 10 Misfitting in America: Paul Leni, Conrad Veidt, and The Man Who Laughs 11 Masculinity and Facial Disfigurement in The Man Who Laughs 12 Cinematic Space and Set Design in Paul Leni’s The Last Warning 13 The Last Warning: Uncertainty, Exploitation, and Horror Filmography Index