Reviews
"Unlike many current scholarly books on film, Master Space is not overwhelmed by theorizing: Bowman scrutinizes several major films by four "master" directors (Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg and William Wyler), not to illustrate preconceived theories, but in a spirit of inquiry. Her questions are penetrating, even though few of them are fully answered. She speculates on the impact of their immigrant experiences on the four directors' works; but she primarily explores distinctive uses of "space," by which she seems to mean what is sometimes called mise-en-scene in the films directed by Capra, Lubitsch, Sternberg, and Wyler during Hollywod's Golden Age. Her analyses of specific works, always based on careful observations of actual films, are frequently stimulating; some readers may even be prompted to re-view particular movies to check Bowman's vision. Includes brief biographies and filmographies of all four directors and a useful bibliography. All levels."-Choice, "Unlike many current scholarly books on film, Master Space is not overwhelmed by theorizing: Bowman scrutinizes several major films by four "master" directors (Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg and William Wyler), not to illustrate preconceived theories, but in a spirit of inquiry. Her questions are penetrating, even though few of them are fully answered. She speculates on the impact of their immigrant experiences on the four directors' works; but she primarily explores distinctive uses of "space," by which she seems to mean what is sometimes called mise-en-scene in the films directed by Capra, Lubitsch, Sternberg, and Wyler during Hollywod's Golden Age. Her analyses of specific works, always based on careful observations of actual films, are frequently stimulating; some readers may even be prompted to re-view particular movies to check Bowman's vision. Includes brief biographies and filmographies of all four directors and a useful bibliography. All levels." Choice, 'Unlike many current scholarly books on film, Master Space is not overwhelmed by theorizing: Bowman scrutinizes several major films by four "master" directors (Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg and William Wyler), not to illustrate preconceived theories, but in a spirit of inquiry. Her questions are penetrating, even though few of them are fully answered. She speculates on the impact of their immigrant experiences on the four directors' works; but she primarily explores distinctive uses of "space," by which she seems to mean what is sometimes called mise-en-scene in the films directed by Capra, Lubitsch, Sternberg, and Wyler during Hollywod's Golden Age. Her analyses of specific works, always based on careful observations of actual films, are frequently stimulating; some readers may even be prompted to re-view particular movies to check Bowman's vision. Includes brief biographies and filmographies of all four directors and a useful bibliography. All levels.'-Choice
