L. W. Currey, Inc.

Telotte, J. P. A DISTANT TECHNOLOGY: SCIENCE FICTION FILM AND THE MACHINE AGE. Hanover & London: Wesleyan University Press / Published by University Press of New England, [1999]. Octavo, pp. [i-vii] viii [ix-xii] [1] 2-218 [219: blank] [220: colophon], illustrations, pictorial wrappers. First edition. "A rigorous film history of a crucial but generally overlooked period in the development of science fiction film which transcends genre concerns to argue the importance of Machine Age cinema in the Soviet Union, Germany, France, England and the United States in the cultural construction of technology during the 1920s and 1930s, A DISTANT TECHNOLOGY argues powerfully for centrality of film in general -- and the science fiction film in particular -- to the cultural construction of technology in the Western World." - Brooks Landon. The subject of this "historical study" is "international films between the wars and their 'dreams' of distance (space flight, trans-Atlantic tunnels) and the detachment (in emotional and Marxist senses). There are chapters on the Soviet Aelita, Fritz Lang's German films, French and British SF, and American features and serials, and a concluding chapter on the 1939 New York World's Fair. Telotte finds differing attitudes toward technological advancement in each national cinema, and foregrounds the apparatus of cinema itself in creating sensations of distance and closeness." - Anatomy of Wonder (2004) 11-59. Trade paperback format. A fine copy. (#163899).

Price: $35.00