Skyscraper Cinema: Architecture and Gender in American Film

From the silent era until the advent of the Cinemascopea the skyscraper as movie star. Whether tall office buildings, high-rise apartments, or lofty hotels, skyscrapers have been stars in American cinema since the silent era. Cinemaa s tall buildings have been variously represented as unbridled aspiration, dens of iniquity and eroticism, beacons of democracy, and well-oiled corporate machines. Considering their intriguing diversity, Merrill Schleier establishes and explains the impact of actual skyscrapers on Americaa s ideologies about work, leisure, romance, sexual identity, and politics as seen in Hollywood movies.

Author(s): Merrill Schleier
Published: 2009
Pages: 367
Categories: Architecture