1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910786499203321

Autore

Nemerov Alexander

Titolo

Wartime kiss [[electronic resource] ] : visions of the moment in the 1940s / / Alexander Nemerov

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, N.J., : Princeton University Press, 2013

ISBN

1-283-80431-X

1-4008-4488-6

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (184 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Essays in the arts

Classificazione

ART015020PHO010000HIS037070ART015000

Disciplina

940.53/73

Soggetti

World War, 1939-1945 - Photography

Historiography and photography

World War, 1939-1945 - Motion pictures and the war

Art and history

Collective memory

Nineteen forties

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- One. Kissing in August 1945 / Jepson-Turner, Belita -- Two. Sleeping Beauty / Havilland, Olivia de -- Three. When the World Smiled / Bourke-White, Margaret -- Four. Sentimental Mysticism / Archbury, Stovall at -- Five. Hold Back the Dawn / Havilland, Olivia de -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliographic Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

"Wartime Kiss is a personal meditation on the haunting power of American photographs and films from World War II and the later 1940s. Starting with a powerful reinterpretation of one of the most famous photos of all time, Alfred Eisenstaedt's image of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on V-J Day, Alexander Nemerov goes on to examine an idiosyncratic collection of mostly obscure or unknown images and movie episodes--from a photo of Jimmy Stewart and Olivia de Havilland lying on a picnic blanket in the Santa Barbara hills to scenes from such films as Twelve O'Clock High and Hold Back the Dawn. Erotically charged and bearing traces of trauma even when they seem far removed from the war, these photos and scenes seem to hold out the



promise of a palpable and emotional connection to those years. Through a series of fascinating stories, Nemerov reveals the surprising background of these bits of film and discovers unexpected connections between the war and Hollywood, from an obsession with aviation to Anne Frank's love of the movies. Beautifully written and illustrated, Wartime Kiss vividly evokes a world in which Margaret Bourke-White could follow a heroic assignment photographing a B-17 bombing mission over Tunis with a job in Hollywood documenting the filming of a war movie. Ultimately this is a book about history as a sensuous experience, a work as mysterious, indescribable, and affecting as a novel by W. G. Sebald"--