The City in American Cinema: Film and Postindustrial Culture - Paperback

by Johan Andersson (Editor), Lawrence Webb (Editor)

How has American cinema engaged with the rapid transformation of cities and urban culture since the 1960s? And what role have films and film industries played in shaping and mediating the "postindustrial" city? This collection argues that cinema and cities have become increasingly intertwined in the era of neoliberalism, urban branding, and accelerated gentrification. Examining a wide range of films from Hollywood
blockbusters to indie cinema, it considers the complex, evolving relationship between moving image cultures and the spaces, policies, and politics of US cities from New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to Detroit, Oakland, and Baltimore. The contributors address questions of narrative, genre, and style alongside the urban contexts of production, exhibition, and reception, discussing films including The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973),
Cruising (1980), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), King of New York (1990), Inception (2010), Frances Ha (2012), Fruitvale Station (2013), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Doctor Strange (2016).

Author Biography

Johan Andersson is Senior Lecturer in Urban Geography at King's College London, UK. He is the co-editor, with Lawrence Webb, of Global Cinematic Cities: New Landscapes of Film and Media (2016), the co-author, with Gallent and Marco Bianconi, of Planning on the Edge (2006) and has published articles in journals such as Antipode, IJURR, Society and Space and Urban Studies.

Lawrence Webb is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. He is author of The Cinema of Urban Crisis: Seventies Film and the Reinvention of the City (2014). He is co-editor, with Johan Andersson, of Global Cinematic Cities: New Landscapes of Film and Media (2016), and with Joshua Gleich, Hollywood On Location: An Industry History (2018).