Screening Nostalgia

The dramatic twists and turns in nostalgia's history, from its origins as a Swiss medical condition to the forces that gave rise to its current American incarnation as a visual cultural phenomenon, are the focus of this book. It argues for a re-evaluation of that much maligned genre, the "nostalgia film", in light of the increasingly sophisticated uses of film's visual components, including its props, costume, cinematographic filters and settings, to evoke, investigate and even critique the objects and experience of nostalgia. Through a series of detailed visual analyses of popular films such as Pleasantville (1998), Far From Heaven (2002) and The Aviator (2004) the author demonstrates that the visual creation of "pastness" does not necessarily sever our connection to history as is commonly claimed, but can yield new insights into the relationship between the present and the past, the impact and effects of mass-mediated memory, and the role of historical periods and mythological constructs in contemporary American culture.

Christine Sprengler is an Assistant Professor in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Western Ontario. She received her Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of London in 2004 and has published on British and American cinema.