Synopsis
The original edition of
Amos Vogel's seminal book
Film as a Subversive Art was first published in 1974. According to Vogel the book details the "accelerating worldwide trend toward a more liberated cinema, in which subjects and forms hitherto considered unthinkable or forbidden are boldly explored." So ahead of his time was Vogel that the ideas he penned some forty years ago are still relevant today, and now readily accessible in this facsimile reprint edition, alongside a new preface by Vogel and foreword by historian
Scott MacDonald. Accompanied by over 300 rare film stills,
Film as a Subversive Art analyses how aesthetic, sexual, and ideological subversives use one of the most powerful art forms of our day to exchange or manipulate our conscious and unconscious, demystify visual taboos, destroy dated cinematic forms, and undermine existing value systems and institutions. This subversion of form, as well as of content, is placed within the context of the contemporary world view of science, philosophy, and modern art, and is illuminated by a detailed examination of over 500 films, including many banned, rarely seen, or never released works.
