Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema Paperback - 2002 - 1st Edition
by Rae Beth Gordon
From the rear cover
Vividly bringing to light the tradition of physical comedy in the French cabaret, cafe-concert, and early French film comedy, this book answers the perplexing question, "Why do the French love Jerry Lewis?" The extraordinary emphasis on nervous pathology in the Parisian cafe-concert, where the genres of the Epileptic Singer and the Idiot Comic took center stage, and where popular comic monologues and songs included "Man with a Tic" and "I'm Neurasthenic," points to a fascinating intersection between medicine and popular culture. The French tradition of comic performance style between 1870 and 1910 nearly exactly duplicates the movements, gestures, tics, grimaces, and speech anomalies found in nineteenth-century hysteria; the characteristics of hysteria became a new aesthetics.
Early French film comedy carried on this tradition of frenetic gesture and gait, as most film performers came from these entertainments and from the circus. Even before Chaplin's films triumphed in France, film comics were instantly recognizable from their pathological gait, just as Jacques Tati would be a half-century later. Comedy, a genre that dominated French cinema until World War I, has often been linked to a mass public for film; the author elucidates this link by proposing a broadly generalized cultural-medical phenomenon as the explanation for the dominance of the comic genre. Comic performance style drew from a group of nervous disorders characterized by the psychological automatism emanating from the "lower faculties" nervous reflex, motor impulses, sensation, and instinct.
Building on her previous work on hysteria, the cabaret, and pathologies of movement in the films of Georges Melies, and drawing on over 400 French films made between 1896 and 1915, the author contributes to a new theory of spectatorship at work in the cabaret, in shows of magnetizers, and in early French film comedy. Jerry Lewis touches a nerve in French cultural memory because, more than any other film comic, he incarnates this tradition of performance style.
From the jacket flap
Vividly bringing to light the tradition of physical comedy in the French cabaret, cafe-concert, and early French film comedy, this book answers the perplexing question, "Why do the French love Jerry Lewis?" The extraordinary emphasis on nervous pathology in the Parisian cafe-concert, where the genres of the Epileptic Singer and the Idiot Comic took center stage, and where popular comic monologues and songs included "Man with a Tic" and "I'm Neurasthenic," points to a fascinating intersection between medicine and popular culture. The French tradition of comic performance style between 1870 and 1910 nearly exactly duplicates the movements, gestures, tics, grimaces, and speech anomalies found in nineteenth-century hysteria; the characteristics of hysteria became a new aesthetics.
Early French film comedy carried on this tradition of frenetic gesture and gait, as most film performers came from these entertainments and from the circus. Even before Chaplin's films triumphed in France, film comics were instantly recognizable from their pathological gait, just as Jacques Tati would be a half-century later. Comedy, a genre that dominated French cinema until World War I, has often been linked to a mass public for film; the author elucidates this link by proposing a broadly generalized cultural-medical phenomenon as the explanation for the dominance of the comic genre. Comic performance style drew from a group of nervous disorders characterized by the psychological automatism emanating from the "lower faculties" nervous reflex, motor impulses, sensation, and instinct.
Building on her previous work on hysteria, the cabaret, and pathologies of movement in the films of Georges Melies, and drawing on over 400 French films made between 1896 and 1915, the author contributes to a new theory of spectatorship at work in the cabaret, in shows of magnetizers, and in early French film comedy. Jerry Lewis touches a nerve in French cultural memory because, more than any other film comic, he incarnates this tradition of performance style.
Details
- Title Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
- Author Rae Beth Gordon
- Binding Paperback
- Edition number 1st
- Edition 1
- Pages 296
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA
- Date 2002-04-01
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Illustrated
- ISBN 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Weight 0.89 lbs (0.40 kg)
- Dimensions 9.02 x 6.06 x 0.65 in (22.91 x 15.39 x 1.65 cm)
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 19th Century
- Chronological Period: 20th Century
- Cultural Region: French
- Cultural Region: Western Europe
- Library of Congress subjects Hysteria, Music-halls (Variety theaters, cabarets,
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 00052649
- Dewey Decimal Code 792.709
Media reviews
Citations
- Choice, 11/01/2001, Page 517
- Reference and Research Bk News, 11/01/2001, Page 215
More Copies for Sale
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- Used
- good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
- Item Price
-
$13.90FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae
- Used
- very good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Pflugerville, Texas, United States
- Item Price
-
$13.95$3.95 shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth.
- Used
- near fine
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Redondo Beach, California, United States
- Item Price
-
$15.00$4.95 shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Used - Very minor bumped corner & slight stain on fore-edge of text, else very good, clean and sound condition with bright cover
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Baldwin City, Kansas, United States
- Item Price
-
$20.00$5.00 shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- Used
- Condition
- UsedVeryGood
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Bensalem, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
$35.96FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- Used
- Condition
- UsedVeryGood
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
$35.96FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- Used
- Condition
- UsedLikeNew
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
$36.33FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- Used
- Condition
- UsedLikeNew
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Bensalem, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
$36.33FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- New
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
$36.70FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema
by Gordon, Rae Beth
- New
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804738941 / 0804738947
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Bensalem, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
$36.70FREE shipping to USA