The Loud Silents: Origins of the Social Problem Film

1989 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 963
Author(s):  
Patrick G. Gerster ◽  
Kay Sloan
Keyword(s):  
Social Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Problem Film

The Loud Silents: Origins of the Social Problem Film.

1990 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 604
Author(s):  
Michael T. Isenberg ◽  
Kay Sloan
Keyword(s):  
Social Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Problem Film

From the Cabaret Number to the Melodrama of Dance Reform

Dancing Women ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 139-178
Author(s):  
Usha Iyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Problem ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Folk Dance ◽  
Economic Independence ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Problem Film ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Film Producing

Chapter 4 focuses on two Bharatanatyam-trained stars in the 1950s and 1960s, Vyjayanthimala and Waheeda Rehman, analyzing changes in film dance alongside the canonization of specific classical and folk dance forms by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. By studying how dance training influences acting repertoires, this chapter calls attention to movement, gesture, and bodily comportment to enhance our understanding of virtuosity and technique, proposing a movement-based analysis of film acting grounded in kinesthetic performance and spectatorship. Rehman and Vyjayanthimala’s most ambitious production numbers speak to their own performative desires as trained dancers. Films featuring these A-list actresses as dancing protagonists evince a generic tendency, described here as the “melodrama of dance reform,” which combines the dance spectacular with the “social problem” film, producing in the process cinematic figurations riven with anxieties and aspirations around female sexuality, bodily movement, and economic independence.

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