Cinema and History

The Telling of Stories

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by Mike Chopra-Gant

Type: Studies
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Keywords: historical films
Publishing date: 2008
Publisher: Wallflower Press
Collection: Short Cuts
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 144 pages
6 x 8 inches (15 x 20 cm)

ISBN

978-1-905674-59-6

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Book Presentation:
With its unparalleled capacity for realism, cinema seems uniquely positioned to bring history to life for a mass audience. Whether retelling stories about past events or reflecting more contemporary issues, cinema has been arguably the primary source of historical knowledge for many people from its earliest years right up to the present. This volume examines some of the key historical issues raised by popular film, includingÂ what film might tell us about the past, the reliability of movies as sources of historical knowledge, and how film might compare to more "serious" works of history.Â Combining historical methods with insights from linguistics and film studies, Cinema and History discusses the historical resonance of films such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Gangs of New York (2002) and United 93 (2006), andÂ investigates the parameters and limitations of fiction film as a way to access history.

About the Author:
Mike Chopra-Gant is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at London Metropolitan University.

Press Reviews:
This is a very useful book that provides a timely reminder of the complexity of the field of cinema and history... The book has a dual focus on the discipline of film history, and on the representation of the past, and it combines these two in a thought-provoking and trenchant way. It asks all the right questions, and stimulates the reader to provide answers by indicating the most fruitful paths to follow. Sue Harper, University of Portsmouth

A readable, hugely informative volume and a valuable addition to the Short Cuts series... Chopra-Gant has achieved the miraculous feat of scaling down the complex issues without falsifying and reducing the subject matter... [He] has provided a rich critical milieu and methods that brilliantly illuminate the stakes, the character of, and limitations and potential of media's uses of the past. Marcia Landy, University of Pittsburgh

History. It's just one thing after another, right? Not according to this slim tome, which argues filmed history is more about storytelling than facts. Using a selection of movies, lecturer Chopra-Gant asks some big questions about the relationship between the filcks and reality. Does Rear Window tell us anything about '50s America? Do epics like Munich give a skewed view of true events? Smartly written, it's a solid primer which asks whose story is history?' Jamie Russell, Total Film

See the publisher website: Wallflower Press

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