Description
Book SynopsisMary Ann Doane examines how the scalar operations of cinema, especially those of the close-up, disturb and reconfigure the spectator's sense of place, space, and orientation.
Trade Review“Matching her earlier, masterful treatment of cinematic time, Mary Ann Doane here offers a brilliant probing of cinematic space. She explores cinema’s dynamic use of scale, from the magnification of the face in close-up to new screen technologies ranging from the iPhone to IMAX. Drawing on a range of film styles and practices, including early cinema, avant-garde experiments, and Shanghai cinema of the 1930s, Doane reveals how cinema has shaped a modern abstract and even dematerialized world.” -- Tom Gunning, Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago
“Mary Ann Doane’s highly innovative, theoretically brilliant, and eloquently incisive consideration of the history of the filmic close-up and its relation to scale will undoubtedly make
Bigger Than Life a field-changing work.” -- Maggie Hennefeld, author of * Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes *
"Bigger Than Life opens with a unique and crucial examination of the history and historiography of the close-up, its conclusion offers a look at cinema in its biggest and most impactful forms, even cinema beyond cinema itself – this is where Doane’s work becomes truly colossal."
-- Harrison Whitaker * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *
"Bigger Than Life’s wide-ranging interrogation of its subject makes for a thrilling and rewarding read. [It] is altogether awe-inspiring and overwhelming in ways appropriate to its subject, constituting an important meditation on the dialogue between new and old media."
-- Alicia Byrnes * Film-Philosophy *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: Scale, the Cinematic Image, and the Negotiation of Space 1
Part I. Close-Up/Face
1. The Delirium of a Minimal Unit 29
2. The Cinematic Manufacture of Scale, or Historical Vicissitudes of the Close-Up 53
3. At Face Value 89
Part II. Scale/Screen
4. Screens, Female Faces, and Modernities 135
5. The Location of the Image: Projection, Perspective, and Scale 189
6. The Concept of Immersion: Mediated Space, Media Space, and the Location of the Subject 239
Notes 283
Bibliography 325
Index 343
