Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Producer-director Cecil B. DeMille was a cofounder of Hollywood and a progenitor of Paramount studio who became a movie legend and master of the American biblical epic via deft aesthetic skillfulness. Although frequently dismissed, denied or derided by critics throughout his career, he was so successful in profit-obsessed Hollywood that rivals attempted to emulate his box-office receipts by appropriating him, but they usually failed. Deploying humanist film criticism as the guiding analytical lens, the critical literature was selectively scanned and five subtle categories of industry homage to DeMille were identified, namely: (a) the film clip as homage, (b) the man as homage, (c) imitation as homage, (d) association as homage, and (e) remodeling as homage. Each interdisciplinary heuristic category was briefly explicated and illustrated employing copious inter-genre exemplars to demonstrate their diversity. Further researches into DeMille studies, homage typologies and their histories are warranted, recommended and are already long overdue.
DOI: 10.3176/tr.2009.1.04
Author: Anton Karl Kozlovic
Institution: Flinders University
Language: English
Topic: Cinema History and Criticism
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2099746835