Velvet Curtains and Gilded Frames: The Art of Early European Cinema

— —

Vito Adriaensens (Assistant Professor of Experimental Film and Media, New York University)

Velvet Curtains and Gilded Frames

Name: Velvet Curtains and Gilded Frames
Price: 44.99 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781399554176

The Art of Early European Cinema

Vito Adriaensens (Assistant Professor of Experimental Film and Media, New York University)

$44.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We will update you on expected arrival time to us. If this delay is too long, please let us know within 2 business days and we can give you options regarding cancelling or adjusting your order. More details on cancelling your order can be found in our Terms of Trade.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Edinburgh University Press
01 January 2026

Film theory & criticism

Series: Edinburgh Studies in Film and Intermediality

Velvet Curtains and Gilded Frames explores the intermedial context of early cinema. It tackles the first European feature films' intricate relationship with its sister arts to reveal that the period referred to by historians as the 'long nineteenth century' was one in which Bourgeois Realism reigned supreme.

The nineteenth-century rise of the middle class coincided with realism becoming the dominant artistic mode in both form and content, leading to a revival of genre painting in the art academies; the supremacy of the social melodrama on the stage; and the advent of Pictorialism in photography. In its quest for artistic legitimacy, European filmmakers sought to win over middle-class audiences with films based on popular works of art

the first 'art films'

by employing similar visual and narrative strategies as its artistic counterparts.

By: Vito Adriaensens (Assistant Professor of Experimental Film and Media New York University)
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781399554176
ISBN 10: 1399554174
Series: Edinburgh Studies in Film and Intermediality
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 01 January 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Vito Adriaensens is a scholar and filmmaker. He is currently Assistant Professor of Experimental Film and Media at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Reviews for Velvet Curtains and Gilded Frames: The Art of Early European Cinema

Historiographically informed and buttressed by archival sources, Vito Adriaensens' intermedial investigation of silent European cinema from the 1910s sheds new light on underexplored producers of the era, primarily Gaumont and Nordisk. The cultural poetics approach anchoring Velvet Curtains and Gilded Frames reminds us that we still have much to learn about this key period.--Charlie Keil, University of Toronto