Paul Monaco

This book begins with a dubious thesis and expands upon it with indefensible generalizations. The thinking goes that because large portions of the population in selected countries attended the cinema in the 1920s, then those cinemas should be regarded as national cinemas that "reflected" inherent social attitudes, fears, and aspirations. It combines a vulgar sort of Jungian psychology as its mechanism to arrive at its conclusions. This book was not convincing when first published and is even less so today.… (mere)