Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
Designs on the Past
How Hollywood Created the Ancient World
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
The epic glitter and glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age
In the period 1916-1966, during its so-called Golden Age, Hollywood developed a passion for the ancient world and produced many epic movie blockbusters. The studios used every device they could find to wow audiences with the spectacle of antiquity.
In this unique study, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones shows how Hollywood carefully and skilfully created the popular modern perception of the ancient world. He analyses how producers, art directors, costumiers, publicity agents, movie stars, and inevitably, ‘a cast of thousands’ literally designed and crafted the ancient world from scratch.
This lively book offers a technical as well as a theoretical guide to a much-neglected area of film studies and reception studies that will appeal to anyone working in these disciplines.
Key Features
• Lavishly illustrated with film stills and examples of rare and fascinating marketing material
• Broad coverage of films including The King of Kings, The Sign of the Cross, Samson and Delilah, Land of the Pharoahs, The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Spartacus and Cleopatra
• Considers different aspects of film production: the Hollywood set, costume design, the role of the movie star, dialogue, narration and music
• Sets a new agenda for exploring the relationship between history and film and between history and visual culture
• Explores the archaeology of stardom examining the onscreen/offscreen images of Elizabeth Taylor, Charlton Heston and Rita Hayworth
• Includes a filmography, chronological outline and study aids
About the Author:
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones is Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University and a specialist in the histories and cultures of ancient Iran and Greece. He also works on dress and gender in antiquity and on the ancient world in popular culture, especially Hollywood cinema. He is the author of Designs on the Past: How Hollywood Created the Ancient World, Aphrodite’s Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece, King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE and Ctesias’ History of Persia. He is editor of Women’s Dress in the Ancient Greek World, Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras, Creating a Hellenistic World and The Hellenistic Court as well as numerous articles on Greek and Persian culture. He is the series editor of Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia and co-series editor of Screening Antiquity.
Press Reviews:
Llewellyn-Jones brings a new perspective to the field, one concerned with the process of filmmaking and how it shapes what happens onscreen.– Jessica McCoy, Texas Tech University, Mediterranean Studies, Volume 27, Number 2, 2019
Lloyd is a seriously committed scholar and fan of the Costume Epics, and here brings these films alive with detail and brio.– Oliver Stone
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
> On a related topic:
Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen (2023)
Myth versus Reality
by Gregory S. Aldrete and Graham Sumner
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Old Stories and Contemporary Issues in Films about Antiquity and the Middle Ages (2022)
Idealistic Thinking, Sex, Lies, and Video Political Agendas
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Representations of Antiquity in Film (2022)
From Griffith to Grindhouse
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Ancient Rome at the Cinema (2010)
Story and Spectacle in Hollywood and Rome
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema (2001)
Dir. Martin M. Winkler
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Playing Out the Empire (1994)
Ben-Hur and Other Toga Plays and Films, 1883-1908. A Critical Anthology
Dir. David Mayer
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Back
