Bringing an art historical perspective to the realm of American and European film,
Art in the Cinematic Imagination
examines the ways in which films have used works of art and artists themselves as cinematic and narrative motifs. From the use of portraits in
Vertigo
to the cinematic depiction of women artists in
Artemisia
and
Camille Claudel
, Susan Felleman incorporates feminist and psychoanalytic criticism to reveal individual and collective perspectives on sex, gender, identity, commerce, and class.
Probing more than twenty films from the postwar era through contemporary times,
considers a range of structurally significant art objects, artist characters, and art-world settings to explore how the medium of film can amplify, reinvent, or recontextualize the other visual arts. Fluently speaking across disciplines, Felleman's study brings a broad array of methodologies to bear on questions such as the evolution of the "Hollywood Love Goddess" and the pairing of the feminine with death on screen.
A persuasive approach to an engaging body of films,
illuminates a compelling and significant facet of the cinematic experience.