The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle by J. Hoberman (Softcover)

Published by Temple University Press, 2003
Perfect-bound softcover
272 pages
10x7 inches

Very Good condition.

The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle anthologizes J. Hoberman's movie reviews, cultural criticism, and political essays, published in The Village Voice, Artforum, and elsewhere during the period bracketed by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the World Trade Towers. Demonstrating Hoberman's range as a critic, this collection reflects on the influence of Fritz Lang, as well as Quentin Tarantino, on the end of the Western and representation of the Gulf War, the Hong Kong neo-wave and the "boomerography" manifest in the cycle of movies inspired by the reign of Bill Clinton. As in his previous anthology, Vulgar Modernism: Writings on Movies and Other Media, Hoberman's overriding interest is the intersection of popular culture and political power at the point where the history of film merges with what Jean-Luc Godard called “the film of history.”