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University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting Template CINEMASCOPE AESTHETICS: TECHNOLOGY, STYLE, AND MEANING By ANTHONY COMAN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Anthony Coman To Scott and Alan ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation should properly be considered a community effort, as I could not have studied, researched, and written on this topic without the extraordinary support of my committee, my past mentors, the Department of English faculty, my family, and my friends. Every word of this document is a testament to their remarkable efforts on my behalf. Where this dissertation succeeds, the credit rightfully goes to this community. I am especially thankful for the help and support of my chair, Maureen Turim, and for the time and energy my committee members—Robert B. Ray, Barbara Mennel, and Craig Smith—have invested in this project. In addition to my committee, many other teachers and professors have been influential to my thinking about film. Among them, I am especially thankful for having had the opportunity to study with Marc Vanasse, Scott Balcerzack, and Scott Nygren, each of whom have played an essential role in helping me to cultivate my passion for cinema studies. I am thankful, too, for the support of Leah Rosenberg, the Graduate Coordinator in the Department of English, and Melissa Davis and Carla Blount, the department’s Administrative Specialists. I have counted on each of them at different stages of my study at UF, and each has played an essential role in my degree progress. And for the most meaningful individuals in my life, my friends and my family, words alone cannot express my gratitude. I am indebted to these special people, and I am better for knowing them. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: A HISTORY OF CINEMASCOPE TECHNOLOGY AND ITS CRITICAL RECEPTION .......................................................................................... 11 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................... 12 Of Economics and Aesthetics ................................................................................. 14 An Industry in Trouble ...................................................................................... 15 Theater Divestment as Obstacle to Change ..................................................... 17 Fox’s Big Bet .................................................................................................... 20 Pictures that Move ............................................................................................ 23 Fade Out .......................................................................................................... 25 Critical Responses to CinemaScope ...................................................................... 26 The First Phase: Contemporaneous Critical Approaches ................................. 29 The Second Phase: Film Studies’ Rediscovery of Scope in the 1980s ............ 34 The Third Phase: Contemporary Approaches to CinemaScope ....................... 40 A Modified Mise-en-Scène Criticism Approach ....................................................... 45 Outline of Chapters ................................................................................................. 50 Ray and Rebel Without a Cause ...................................................................... 50 Ophuls and Lola Montès................................................................................... 51 Sturges and Bad Day at Black Rock ................................................................ 51 A Model for Researching Technology and Technique ...................................... 52 2 “WHAT’S THE MATTER, TORREADOR?”: EMOTIVE MISE-EN-SCÈNE IN REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE .................................................................................. 53 Expressive Use of the Academy-Ratio Frame in They Live by Night (1948)........... 56 Organic Continuity as Organizing Principle in Ray, Wright, and Perkins ................ 61 Expressive Organic Compositions in Rebel Without a Cause ................................. 64 From the “Average” Teen to the Myth of the American Teenager ........................... 69 Aiming for the Teen Market ..................................................................................... 71 Mythologizing the American Teenager ................................................................... 74 An Aesthetic Sympathetic to the Teen Experience ................................................. 77 “Out of the Inner Moment Comes the Whole” ......................................................... 86 3 “A WONDERFULLY PRODUCTIVE NEW DIRECTION”: THE AVANT-GARDE SPECTACLE OF LOLA MONTÈS (1955) ............................................................... 93 5 “It’s Beautiful, but I’m Afraid it will have a Sad Ending” ........................................... 99 “A More Authentic Truth” ....................................................................................... 105 Bird, Beast, Menagerie ......................................................................................... 108 Lola, Liszt, and Life as Movement ........................................................................ 111 From Marginal to Captivating to Captive ............................................................... 120 “A Wonderfully Productive New Direction” ............................................................ 126 4 “MY MEMORIES AREN’T SO PLEASANT AS IT IS”: ALLEGORIES OF NATIONAL TRAUMA IN BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK ......................................... 137 Black Rock as Postwar Studio Western ................................................................ 138 Popular and Critical Reception ....................................................................... 140 Sturges as metteur-en-scène ......................................................................... 142 Shifting Approaches to the Western Genre .................................................... 144 Competing Myths of the Frontier .................................................................... 148 Black Rock’s Incomplete Critique of the Western ................................................. 150 The Cowboy Villain and the Modern Man ....................................................... 150 Trains and the Desert Terrain ......................................................................... 152 CinemaScope Staging and Character Development ...................................... 157 “Doc Looks Out Window”: Passive Onlooking as Moral Weakness ................ 159 Crossroads and Catharsis .............................................................................. 163 Conclusion: The Intractable American Mythology ................................................. 167 5 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 182 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 189 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 195 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 Jim observes his father and worries he is looking into his own future. Note the vertical lines in the molding. .......................................................................... 89 2-2 Jim’s father, in the reverse shot, wearing his wife’s apron, kneeling to clean up the food he has spilled. .................................................................................. 89 2-3 Expressive lines emphasize Jim’s appearance. ................................................. 90 2-4 The wall of the planetarium slashes through the frame. ..................................... 90 2-5 A mise-en-scène of danger. ............................................................................... 91 2-6 Clothesline blocking expresses the antagonistic nature of Jim’s home life. ........ 91 2-7 The breakfast table as graphic fulcrum. .............................................................. 92 3-1 Paola Debevoise, reclines along the length of the screen in How to Marry a Millionaire (Jean Negulesco, 1953). ................................................................. 132 3-2 Lola Montes, similarly reclining in Lola Montès (Max Ophuls, 1955), but without inviting the viewer to possess her. ....................................................... 132 3-3 Lola at the end of the circus, imprisoned in her dressing room cage. ............... 133 3-4 Young Lola on board the ship, imprisoned by the mise-en-scène. ................... 133 3-5 Lola in Nice, her world unsettled by the arrival of the Ringmaster. ................... 134 3-6 The Ringmaster confronting Lola in Nice. ......................................................... 134 3-7 Edge-framing as Lola sits in the opera box with Lieutenant James. ................. 135 3-8 Lola escapes while Lieutenant James is distracted. ......................................... 135 3-9 Lieutenant James realizes Lola has escaped. .................................................
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