Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté. Image fixe : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Sitton, Robert. Auteur du texte
Titre(s) : Lady in the dark [Texte imprimé] : Iris Barry and the art of film / Robert Sitton
Publication : New York : Columbia University Press, 2014
Description matérielle : xvii, 475 pages ; 25 cm
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references and index
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
Sujet(s) : Barry, Iris (1895-1969)
Critiques de cinéma -- Grande-Bretagne -- 1900-1945
Museum of modern art (New York, N.Y.) -- 1900-1945
Genre ou forme : Biographie
Indice(s) Dewey : 791.430 92 (23e éd.) = Cinéma - Biographie
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780231165785 (cloth) (alk. paper). - ISBN 0231165781 (cloth) (alk. paper). - ISBN 9780231537148 (erroné) (ebook)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb43799374h
Notice n° :
FRBNF43799374
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)