Silent-era film scholarship has all too often focused on a handful of German directors, including Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch, but little attention has been paid to arguably one of the most influential filmmakers of the period: Paul Leni. This collection - the first
comprehensive English-language study of Leni's life and career - offers new insights into his national and international films, his bold forays into scenic design and his transition from German to Hollywood filmmaking.The contributors give fresh insights into Leni's most influential films, including
Waxworks (1924), The Cat and the Canary (1927) and The Man Who Laughs (1928), and explores such lesser-known productions as The Diary of Dr. Hart (1918), Backstairs (1921) and the Rebus film series (1925-7). Engaging with new historical, analytical, and theoretical perspectives on Leni's work, this
book is a groundbreaking exploration of a cinematic pioneer.
Author(s): Erica Tortolani (editor), Martin F. Norden (editor)
Series: (ReFocus: The International Directors Series)
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 240
Tags: Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Cinema, German Films, Expressionism, Expressionism in Cinema
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Chronology
1 Introduction
2 Exploding the Cosmopolitan and Treating the Foreigners’ Foreignness: Paul Leni’s The Diary of Dr. Hart
3 The Unnatural in the Natural: Leopold Jessner and Paul Leni’s Early Weimar Film Backstairs
4 Cinema Panopticum: Wax, Work, Waxworks
5 The Proto-Horror-Comedy: Waxworks
6 Intersectional Avant-Garde: Paul Leni’s Rebus-Film Series and the Confluence of Experimental Visual Styles
7 Bravura Beginnings: Paul Leni and the Art of the Prologue
8 Paul Leni’s The Cat and the Canary: Adaptation into Genre
9 Specters of the Mind: Ghosts, Illusion, and Exposure in Paul Leni’s The Cat and the Canary
10 Misfitting in America: Paul Leni, Conrad Veidt, and The Man Who Laughs
11 Masculinity and Facial Disfigurement in The Man Who Laughs
12 Cinematic Space and Set Design in Paul Leni’s The Last Warning
13 The Last Warning: Uncertainty, Exploitation, and Horror
Filmography
Index
