1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910255450803321

Autore

Williams Michael

Titolo

Film Stardom and the Ancient Past : Idols, Artefacts and Epics / / by Michael Williams

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London : , : Palgrave Macmillan UK : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2017

ISBN

1-137-39002-6

Edizione

[1st ed. 2017.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XIV, 311 p. 21 illus., 16 illus. in color.)

Disciplina

791.4301

Soggetti

Motion pictures

Civilization—History

Motion pictures—History

Arts

Sociology

Motion picture acting

Film Theory

Cultural History

Film History

Gender Studies

Screen Performance

History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction: An Archaeology of Stardom -- 2. Section One: Oracles and Olympians - ‘Above Everything?’: Idols and Idolatry in Mata Hari (1931) -- 3. ‘The American Adonis’: The Hollywood Olympian Body -- 4. Section Two: Down to Earth: Rebuilding the Hollywood Pantheon - ‘A Dream of a Theme’: Down to Earth (1947), Rita Hayworth and Marketing the Post-war Goddess -- 5. Idols, Fragments and Reconstructions -- 6. Section Three: Heroes Will Rise: Patinated Pasts and Digital Futures - Patinating the Past: Stars, Artefacts and Alexander (2004) -- 7. ‘Remember Me’: Memory and Landscape in Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004) -- 8. Titans, Immortals and Broken Idols: Classicism in



the Digital Age. .

Sommario/riassunto

This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of how the ancient past has shaped screen stardom in Hollywood since the silent era. It engages with debates on historical reception, gender and sexuality, nostalgia, authenticity and the uses of the past. Michael Williams gives fresh insights into ‘divinized stardom’, a highly influential and yet understudied phenomenon that predates Hollywood and continues into the digital age. Case studies include Greta Garbo and Mata Hari (1931); Buster Crabbe and the 1930s Olympian body; the marketing of Rita Hayworth as Venus in the 1940s; sculpture and star performance in Oliver Stone’s Alexander (2004); landscape and sexuality in Troy (2004); digital afterimages of stars such as Marilyn Monroe; and the classical body in the contemporary ancient genre. The author’s richly layered ‘archaeological’ approach uses detailed textual analysis and archival research to survey the use of the myth and iconogr aphy of ancient Greece and Rome in some of stardom’s most popular and fascinating incarnations. This interdisciplinary study will be significant for anyone interested in star studies, film and cultural history, and classical reception.