The Films of Vincente MinnelliThe Films of Vincente Minnelli 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 color 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. |
Contents
The Aesthete in the Factory | 7 |
From Shops to Palaces | 8 |
Dandyism Modernism and Entertainment | 13 |
On Broadway | 18 |
Inside the Factory | 24 |
Minnellis Genres | 29 |
Notes on Style | 33 |
The Critic as Producer | 42 |
Comedy Patriarchy Consumerism Father of the Bride 1950 | 90 |
Citizen Shields The Bad and the Beautiful 1952 | 112 |
Vincente Meets Vincent Lust for Life 1956 | 135 |
Notes | 154 |
Chronology | 166 |
Filmography | 168 |
| 187 | |
| 193 | |
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actors Adrienne Fazan Agee Altman American in Paris Art direction Arthur Freed artistic audience Bartlow Beautiful become Bride Broadway Brokauff Cabin Cedric Gibbons characters Choreography Cinema Cinemascope Color stock comedy comic Costumes critical culture dance decorator described designed Directed by Vincente director Douglas Shearer Douglas Shearer Makeup dressed Editor Ethel Waters fashion Father Figure film's folkloric Gauguin genre George Georgia Lorrison Gogh Gogh's Hollywood Ibid Jack jazz John Houseman Jonathan Shields Judy Garland Keogh Gleason Keogh Gleason Music Kirk Douglas Lana Turner Lena Horne look Louis Lust melodrama MGM's Minnelli's films modern movie narrative never painting performers Photography picture play Preston Ames Producer Quoted revues Robert scene screen Screenplay seems sequence shot show business Smith song stage Stanley star stock and format story studio style theater theatrical Tootie Tracy Turner Entertainment Vincente Minnelli wedding William Tuttle William Tuttle Cast York
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Page 1 - Because of the inferiority of Russian film stock, lenses, and other equipment, the camera must assert itself by what it selects, and by the manner of selection. The Hollywood camera has a merchant's eye and spends its time lovingly evaluating texture, the screen being filled as a window is dressed in a swank department store.