Lady in the dark : Iris Barry and the art of film
(Book)
Author
Published
New York : Columbia University Press, [2014].
Physical Desc
xvii, 475 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Status
Description
Loading Description...
Also in this Series
Checking series information...
Copies
Location | Call Number | Note | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Coquille Public Library - Adult/General - Nonfiction | 791.43092 SIT Lady 2014 | Oregon Book Awards Finalist 2015 | Available |
Langlois Public Library - Adult/General - Nonfiction | 921 BAR sit | Available |
Subjects
LC Subjects
Archivists -- United States -- Biography.
Barry, Iris, -- 1895-1969.
Biographies
Film critics -- England -- Biography.
Motion picture film -- Preservation -- United States -- History.
Motion picture film collections -- United States -- Archival resources.
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). -- Film Library -- Biography.
Barry, Iris, -- 1895-1969.
Biographies
Film critics -- England -- Biography.
Motion picture film -- Preservation -- United States -- History.
Motion picture film collections -- United States -- Archival resources.
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). -- Film Library -- Biography.
More Details
Published
New York : Columbia University Press, [2014].
Format
Book
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-457) and index.
Description
Iris Barry (1895-1969) was a pivotal modern figure and one of the first intellectuals to treat film as an art form, appreciating its far-reaching, transformative power. Although she had the bearing of an aristocrat, she was the self-educated daughter of a brass founder and a palm-reader from the Isle of Man. An aspiring poet, Barry attracted the attention of Ezra Pound and joined a demimonde of Bloomsbury figures, including Ford Maddox Ford, T.S. Eliot, Arthur Waley, Edith Sitwell, and William Butler Yeats. She fell in love with Pound's eccentric fellow Vorticist, Wyndham Lewis, and had two children by him. In London, Barry pursued a career as a novelist, biographer, and critic of motion pictures. In America, she joined the modernist Askew Salon, where she met Alfred Barr, director of the new Museum of Modern Art. There she founded the museum's film department and became its first curator, assuring film's critical legitimacy. She convinced powerful Hollywood figures to submit their work for exhibition, creating a new respect for film and prompting the founding of the International Federation of Film Archives. Barry continued to augment MoMA's film library until World War II, when she joined the Office of Strategic Services to develop pro-American films with Orson Welles, Walt Disney, John Huston, and Frank Capra. Yet despite her patriotic efforts, Barry's "foreignness" and association with such filmmakers as Luis Buñuel made her the target of an anticommunist witch hunt. She eventually left for France and died in obscurity. Drawing on letters, memorabilia, and other documentary sources, Robert Sitton reconstructs Barry's phenomenal life and work while recasting the political involvement of artistic institutions in the twentieth century.
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Sitton, R. (2014). Lady in the dark: Iris Barry and the art of film . Columbia University Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Sitton, Robert. 2014. Lady in the Dark: Iris Barry and the Art of Film. Columbia University Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Sitton, Robert. Lady in the Dark: Iris Barry and the Art of Film Columbia University Press, 2014.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Sitton, Robert. Lady in the Dark: Iris Barry and the Art of Film Columbia University Press, 2014.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.