Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground

Description

The director of such classic Hollywood films as In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, and Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray nevertheless remained on the margins of the American studio system throughout his career, and despite his cult status among auteurist critics and cinephiles, he has also remained at the margins of film scholarship. Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground offers twenty new essays by international film historians and critics that explore the director's place in the history of the Hollywood industry and in the larger institution of cinema, as well as a 1977 interview with Ray that has never before been published in its entirety in English. In addition to readings of Ray's most celebrated films, the book provides a range of approaches to his life and work, engaging new questions of his cinematic authorship with areas that include history and culture, politics and society, gender and sexuality, style and genre, performance, technology, and popular music. The collection also looks at Ray's lesser-known and underappreciated films, and devotes attention to the highly experimental We Can't Go Home Again, his recently restored final film made in the 1970s with his students at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Rediscovering what Ray means to contemporary film studies, the essays show how his films continue to possess a vital power for film history and criticism, and for film culture.
Figures
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Nicholas Ray and the Potential of Cinema Culture
Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel

1. Looking for Nicholas Ray
Jonathan Rosenbaum

2. Nicholas Ray: The Breadth of Modern Gesture
Joe McElhaney

3. Economies of Desire: Reimagining Noir in They Live by Night
Ria Banerjee

4. Knock on Any Door: Realist Form and Popularized Social Science
Chris Cagle

5. "I've Got the Queerest Feeling” about A Woman’s Secret and Born to Be Bad
Alexander Doty

6. Something More than Noir
Steven Sanders

7. On Dangerous Ground: Of Outsiders
R. Barton Palmer

8. Flying Leatherneacks: Colors and Characterization
Tony Williams

9. The Lusty Men and the Post-Western
Neil Campbell

10. Citizen Nick: Civic Engagement and Folk Culture in the Life and Work of Nicholas Ray
James I. Deutsch and Lauren R. Shaw

11. A Teacup and a Kiss: Staging Action in Johnny Guitar
Murray Pomerance

12. “You Can’t Be a Rebel If You Grin”: Masculinity, Performance, and Anxiety in 1950s Rock-and-Roll and the Films of Nicholas Ray
Paul Anthony Johnson

13. Places and Spaces in Rebel Without a Cause
Robin A. Larsen

14. Nicholas Ray’s Wilderness Films: Word, Law, and Landscape
Susan White

15. Bigger Than Life: Masculinity, Melodrama, and the American Dream
Will Scheibel

16. Ray, Widescreen, and Genre: The True Story of Jesse James
Harper Cossar

17. Disequilibrium, or: Love Interest (On Party Girl)
Adrian Martin

18. King of Kings and the Politics of Masculinity in the Cold War Biblical Epic
Jason McKahan

19. “As Surely as a Criminal Would Die”: Nicholas Ray’s The Doctor and the Devils
Larysa Smirnova and Chris Fujiwara

20. The Pedagogical Aesthetics of We Can’t Go Home Again
Steven Rybin

Postscript: The Class: Interview with Nicholas Ray
Bill Krohn

Nicholas Ray: Chronological Filmography

Works Cited
> Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Película fotográfica
• Visual culture
• Filmmaking
• History of film
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 30 janvier 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438449821
• Langue: English

Extrait

Contributors Index" />

Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground
Also in the series
William Rothman, editor, Cavell on Film
J. David Slocum, editor, Rebel Without a Cause
Joe McElhaney, The Death of Classical Cinema
Kirsten Moana Thompson, Apocalyptic Dread
Frances Gateward, editor, Seoul Searching
Michael Atkinson, editor, Exile Cinema
Paul S. Moore, Now Playing
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, Ecology and Popular Film
William Rothman, editor, Three Documentary Filmmakers
Sean Griffin, editor, Hetero
Jean-Michel Frodon, editor, Cinema and the Shoah
Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Constantine Verevis, editors, Second Takes
Matthew Solomon, editor, Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination
R. Barton Palmer and David Boyd, editors, Hitchcock at the Source
William Rothman, Hitchcock, Second Edition
Joanna Hearne, Native Recognition
Marc Raymond, Hollywood’s New Yorker
Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground
Nicholas Ray in American Cinema

Edited by
Steven Rybin
and
Will Scheibel
Cover: James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (Warner Bros., 1955), directed by Nicholas Ray. Courtesy of Photofest.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Eileen Nizer Marketing by Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lonely places, dangerous ground : Nicholas Ray in American cinema / edited by Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel. pages cm — (The SUNY series, horizons of cinema)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Examines the director’s place in the history of Hollywood and the institution of cinema”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4981-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Ray, Nicholas, 1911–1979—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Motion picture producers and directors—United States. I. Rybin, Steven, 1979– editor of compilation. II. Scheibel, Will, 1983– editor of compilation.
PN1998.3.R39L66 2014
791.4302'33092—dc23
2013008318
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Jessica Belser and Andrea Scheibel
Contents
Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Nicholas Ray and the Potential of Cinema Culture Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel
1. Looking for Nicholas Ray Jonathan Rosenbaum
2. Nicholas Ray: The Breadth of Modern Gesture Joe McElhaney
3. Economies of Desire: Reimagining Noir in They Live by Night Ria Banerjee
4. Knock on Any Door: Realist Form and Popularized Social Science Chris Cagle
5. “I’ve Got the Queerest Feeling” about A Woman’s Secret and Born to Be Bad Alexander Doty
6. Something More than Noir Steven Sanders
7. On Dangerous Ground : Of Outsiders R. Barton Palmer
8. Flying Leathernecks : Color and Characterization Tony Williams
9. The Lusty Men and the Post-Western Neil Campbell
10. Citizen Nick: Civic Engagement and Folk Culture in the Life and Work of Nicholas Ray James I. Deutsch and Lauren R. Shaw
11. A Teacup and a Kiss: Staging Action in Johnny Guitar Murray Pomerance
12. “You Can’t Be a Rebel If You Grin”: Masculinity, Performance, and Anxiety in 1950s Rock-and-Roll and the Films of Nicholas Ray Paul Anthony Johnson
13. Places and Spaces in Rebel Without a Cause Robin A. Larsen
14. Nicholas Ray’s Wilderness Films: Word, Law, and Landscape Susan White
15. Bigger Than Life: Melodrama, Masculinity, and the American Dream Will Scheibel
16. Ray, Widescreen, and Genre: The True Story of Jesse James Harper Cossar
17. Disequilibrium, or: Love Interest (On Party Girl) Adrian Martin
18. King of Kings and the Politics of Masculinity in the Cold War Biblical Epic Jason McKahan
19. “As Surely as a Criminal Would Die”: Nicholas Ray’s The Doctor and the Devils Larysa Smirnova and Chris Fujiwara
20. The Pedagogical Aesthetics of We Can’t Go Home Again Steven Rybin
Postscript: The Class: Interview with Nicholas Ray Bill Krohn
Nicholas Ray: Chronological Filmography
Works Cited
Contributors
Index
Figures Figure 1.1 A hero to some, a pariah to others, Ray sought and relished the role of outlaw, of maverick (Mark Goldstein Collection). Figure 2.1 On Dangerous Ground (RKO Radio Pictures, 1952): The hand and the act of gesturing are embedded in the very form and structure of the film, and Ray frequently frames in such a manner that the hand becomes dominant (frame enlargement). Figure 3.1 They Live by Night (RKO Radio Pictures, 1948): Keechie and Bowie radically reconceptualize what operating as a couple within the noir world means (frame enlargement). Figure 4.1 Knock on Any Door (RKO Radio Pictures, 1949) exemplifies the social problem film’s tendency to adapt film aesthetics to popularized social science discourses circulating in late 1940s (frame enlargement). Figure 5.1 A Woman’s Secret (RKO Radio Pictures, 1949; pictured) and Born to Be Bad (RKO Radio Pictures, 1950; fig. 5.2) indicate that, from the beginning of his career, the bisexual Ray was interested in queering the American studio film in various ways (frame enlargement). Figure 5.2 Born to Be Bad (RKO Radio Pictures, 1950) (frame enlargement). Figure 6.1 In a Lonely Place (Santana Productions/Columbia Pictures, 1950): Ray uses a high-key light on Dix’s face to emphasize his enthusiastic, perverse pleasure as he graphically describes how he believes the strangulation of Mildred would have taken place (frame enlargement). Figure 7.1 On Dangerous Ground (RKO Radio Pictures, 1952) expresses Ray’s “force of personality” not only textually, but also, if in an indirect fashion, through the shaping of the context of production, which was in every sense “for him” (frame enlargement). Figure 8.1 Flying Leathernecks (RKO Radio Pictures, 1951) contrasts two types of star personae who epitomize different aspects of post–World War II cinematic masculinity: John Wayne and Robert Ryan (frame enlargement). Figure 9.1 The Lusty Men (Wald-Krasna Productions/RKO Radio Pictures, 1952) reveals much about national and regional identity, and how concepts of home appeal in differing ways, through memory and nostalgia, to fixing roots in a particular time and place (frame enlargement). Figure 10.1 In light of his years working almost exclusively with amateurs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Resettlement Administration and the Works Progress Administration productions, Ray became a master of coaxing impressive and often unexpected performances out of Hollywood actors (Nicholas Ray Archive/Nicholas Ray Foundation). Figure 11.1 In Johnny Guitar (Republic Pictures, 1955), scenes ostensibly coherent in themselves turn out to be only preparations for higher-order treatments of the same motifs; expressions on faces rebound and reflect one another; colors express sentiments (frame enlargement). Figure 11.2 Johnny Guitar : The carriage of that teacup, as well as Johnny’s (Sterling Hayden) calculated civilities of language as he addresses the men, show that like Vienna, he may have two sides, combative and civilized, rough and delicate (frame enlargement). Figure 11.3 Johnny Guitar : They will struggle verbally, their faces moving in and out of shadow, and then come together and kiss, kiss as though no time has passed, kiss as though there is no tomorrow (frame enlargement). Figure 12.1 Rebel Without a Cause (Warner Bros., 1955): James Dean’s Jim Stark simply apotheosizes the typical Nicholas Ray protagonist, creating the most lasting and influential pop iteration of Ray’s chronicles of a fractured American masculinity (frame enlargement). Figure 13.1 Rebel Without a Cause (Warner Bros., 1955): After Jim (James Dean) chases Judy (Natalie Wood) as she sprints around the pool edge, they land on a chaise in the gazebo. As Jim puts his head in Judy’s lap, she wipes his face with a handkerchief, and Plato (Sal Mineo) continues to play child, rolling on the floor into a sitting position against their legs that indicates they should be his parents (frame enlargement). Figure 14.1 Joseph Cotten as Henty in “High Green Wall” (Revue Productions/ General Electric Theater series, 1954): Henty has left “the jungle of the civilized world,” the sole survivor of a doomed expedition into the Amazon (General Electric Theater press release/Susan White Collection). Figure 15.1 The marketing and reception of Bigger Than Life (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1956) as an exploitative social problem movie about prescription drug addiction can be read as an attempt to conceal or repress the more unspeakable (or “melodramatic”) social problem the film wants to address: masculinity in crisis. (Frame enlargement) Figure 16.1 In The True Story of Jesse James (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1957), Ray fashions the CinemaScope format toward more laterally oriented set-ups, whereas Johnny Guitar ’s outdoor shots rely on more vertical compositions that emphasize height rather than width (frame enlargement). Figure 16.2 Johnny Guitar (frame enlargement). Figure 16.3 Johnny Guitar (frame enlargement). Figure 16.4 Johnny Guitar (frame enlargement). Figure 16.5 The True Story of Jesse James (frame enlargement). Figure 16.6 The True Story of Jesse James (frame enlargement). Figure 16.7 The True Story of Jesse James (frame enlargement).