Awards

• Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2016
• Winner of Richard Wall Memorial Award 2017
• Winner of Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association 2016
• Winner of Richard Wall Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association 2017

Overview

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9780231176569

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Reviews

Just as the very concept of 'going to the movies' in a theatrical space seems under threat and antiquated, William Paul's informed and rigorous look back at what going to the moves once meant-culturally, aesthetically, and architecturally-seems particularly urgent and apt. When Movies Were Theater offers digital -age moviegoers-screen watchers?-a fascinating and provocative study of the spaces in which we see movies. -- Thomas Doherty, author of Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 When Movies Were Theater is a brilliantly argued, superbly researched study of the spaces and physical contexts that determine our experience of movies. Paul shows that the history of stage and screen has involved many architectural changes, and that the framing environment-whether indoors or out, whether at home or in a multiplex-decisively affects both the form of films and our understanding of them. His book is of groundbreaking importance and should be read by everyone with a serious interest in the ever-evolving medium of moving images. -- James Naremore, author of An Invention Without a Future: Essays on Cinema When Movies Were Theater is an impressive achievement. William Paul demonstrates that the history of film should not - and cannot - be separated from the history of theatre, including the history of theatre buildings. A major accomplishment in research and analysis, Paul's book offers essential scholarship for both film scholars and theatre historians. -- Thomas Postlewait, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Historiography In this fascinating study, Paul investigates the complex and ever-changing theatrical space of motion picture exhibition. He also offers his insights into the unexpected ways that these spaces influenced film production-and vice versa. -- Charles Musser, author The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 If you are interested in how the architecture within American movie houses shaped the cinema and vice-versa, William Paul's often brilliant tome is an instant classic. -- Gerald Peary The Arts Fuse This is a book that will change our thinking of cinema... It is a broadening of our views on the history of cinema as a cultural practice at the crossroads of many different fields: theater, architecture, technology, economy, and art... [When Movies Were Theater] deserves a place on the very top of all compulsory reading on the history of cinema. -- Jan Baetens Leonardo Reviews

William Paul's illuminating new book arrives at a resonant moment, a pivot point in the history of motion picture spectatorship. Just as the very concept of going to the movies in a theatrical space seems under threat and antiquated, his informed and rigorous look back at what going to the moves once meant - culturally, aesthetically, and architecturally - seems particularly urgent and apt. When Movies Were Theater offers digital age moviegoers - screen watchers? - a fascinating and provocative study of the spaces in which we see movies. -- Thomas Doherty, Brandeis University

Author Information

William Paul is professor of film and media studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also the author of Ernst Lubitsch's American Comedy (1983) and Laughing Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy (1994).

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