Film stardom and the ancient past : idols, artefacts and epics / Michael Williams.

Περιλαμβάνει βιβλιογραφία (σ. 283-294) και ευρετήριο.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction: An Archaeology of Stardom -- 1. Idols -- 2. Ruins -- 3. About This Book -- pt. I Oracles and Olympians -- 2. Idols and Idolatry: Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro in Mata Hari (1931) -- 1. Hollywood Oracles: The Sphinx Speaks -- 2. The `Stockholm Venus' and the `Adonis from Durango' -- 3. `Above Everything?': Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro and the Madonna -- 3. `The American Adonis': Search for Beauty (1934) and the Hollywood Olympian Body -- 1. Olympian Aesthetics in the 1930s -- 2. `The Screen's Most Perfect Physique': Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller -- 3. Search for Beauty and the `Symphony of Health' -- pt. II Rebuilding the Hollywood Pantheon -- 4. Marketing the Post-War Goddess: Rita Hayworth and Down to Earth (1947) --

1. (De)Constructing the Love Goddess in the Late 1940s -- 2. War Goddess: Sirens and Femmes Fatales -- 3. `Rita de Milo': Marketing Venus -- 4. Industrial Venus -- 5. Idols, Fragments and Afterlives: From Gloria Swanson to Beyonce -- 1. Sunset Boulevard: The Mausoleum of Venus -- 2. The Star as Grand Tourist: Ingrid Bergman, Dirk Bogarde and Beyonce -- 3. (Re)Constructing Icons: The Palaeolithic Marilyn Monroe -- pt. III Heroes Will Rise: Patinated Pasts and Digital Futures -- 6. Nostalgic Impulses, Falling Idols and the Adoration of Achilles in Troy (2004) -- 1. Troy's Haunted Landscape -- 2. Portents of a Future Past -- 3. Troy Boys: `Greek Gods' from Apollo to Brad Pitt -- 4. The Temple of Apollo: Apollo, Achilles and Pitt -- 5. Homer-Eroticism: Achilles and Patroclus -- 6. Queer Icons -- 7. Conclusion -- 7. Patinating the Past: Artefacts, Auratic Performance and Alexander (2004) --

1. Epic Beginnings: Alexander's Opening Titles -- 2. Patina: Performing Antiquity -- 3. A Heroising Patination -- 4. Sculpture, Auratic Performance and Colin Farrell -- 5. Sculptural Echoes -- 6. Ptolemy's Balcony -- 7. Conclusion -- 8. Titans and Immortals: Classicism in the Digital Age -- 1. `The Stars Will Never Fade': Heroes, Gods and Thespians in Clash of the Titans -- 2. `The Immortals': Stars and Heroes -- 3. `Why Is Everything so Neglected?': The Look of the Past -- 4. Fallen Idols and Rising Heroes: Pompeii, Immortals and Hercules -- 5. Doubting the Gods -- 9. The Contemporary Mythic Firmament -- 1. `Megan Fox is Not an Ancient Aztec' -- 2. The Legend Becomes Her: Caitlyn Jenner -- 3. Modern Olympians -- 4. Belvedere Beckham -- 5. Old Gods and New.

This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of how the ancient past has shaped screen stardom in Hollywood since the silent era. It engages with debates on historical reception, gender and sexuality, nostalgia, authenticity and the uses of the past. Michael Williams gives fresh insights into 'divinized stardom', a highly influential and yet understudied phenomenon that predates Hollywood and continues into the digital age. Case studies include Greta Garbo and Mata Hari (1931); Buster Crabbe and the 1930s Olympian body; the marketing of Rita Hayworth as Venus in the 1940s; sculpture and star performance in Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004); landscape and sexuality in Troy (2004); digital afterimages of stars such as Marilyn Monroe; and the classical body in the contemporary ancient genre.