Suivez-nous
Hollywood Before the Code
Date
27/06/2024 - 29/06/2024
Lieu
Sorbonne Université Université Paris Nanterre,
This international conference aims at re-examining the notion of “Pre-Code Hollywood” and its periodization. Scholars from all over the world will examine the socio-political, ideological, and aesthetic negotiations conducted by the studios before July 1934, to go beyond the approach that consists in reducing “Pre-Code cinema” to the early days of the talkies, generally approached through the prism of scandal, provocation, and the expression of the forbidden. The aim is to take a fresh look at the impact of this rise in censorship from 1921 onwards and on the intensification of the public conversation on the need for censorship. The conference will focus on how films were made prior to 1934, despite or because of these tough negotiations, and on how the studios and the Hays administration were able to use the power of public opinion and respond to its pressures to protect the Hollywood industry.
Organizing committee :
Claire Dutriaux, Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris, Joséphine Grébaut, Joanne Vrignaud, Antoine Simms
Scientific committee :
Claire Dutriaux, Gilles Menegaldo, Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris, Fran Pheasant-Kelly
THURSDAY 27TH JUNE – SORBONNE UNIVERSITÉ, COUVENT DES CORDELIERS
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8.30-9.00 Registration and Coffee |
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9.00-9.15 Opening Remarks (Claire Dutriaux and Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris) |
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9.15-10.30 KEYNOTE |
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Chair: Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris Thomas Doherty (Brandeis University) – The Miscegenation Clause: Before the Code and Under the Code |
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10.30-10.45 Tea and coffee |
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10.45-12.15 PANEL 1 FALLEN/FALLING WOMEN |
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Chair: Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris Emily Carman (Chapman University University) – The Stories of Temple Drake: The Fallen Woman Film, Industry Self-Censorship, and Negotiating Patriarchy and Heterosexual Violence in Pre-Code Hollywood Milo Farragher-Hanks (University of St Andrews) – Maintained in Wealth and Affluence: Codifying the Fallen Woman Spatially Danila Kuznetsov (Université Paris 8) – Red-Headed Woman and Baby Face in Advertisements and Reviews in the Trade Press |
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12.15-13.15 LUNCH |
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13.15-14.45 PANEL 2 PROTECTING, EDUCATING, ELEVATING AUDIENCES |
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Chair: Marguerite Chabrol Patrick Adamson (University of St Andrews) – Hollywood takes the world ‘to school’: International Harmony and the Early Years of the MPPDA Diana Anselmo (California State University) – Maddened by the Movies: Female Audiences, Criminality, and the Emergence of Hollywood Censorship Sarah Gleeson-White (University of Sidney) – Pre-Code Medical Melodrama: Bryan Foy and Wallace Thurman |
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14.45-16.15 PANEL 3 BEFORE THE CODE: AESTHETICS AND STYLE |
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Chair: Gilles Menegaldo Sue Matheson (University College of the North) – Anton Grot at Warner Brothers Tom Brown (King’s College, London) – The “Pre-Codeness” of “Pre-Code” Cinema: the Tensions between History and Criticism Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris (Université Nanterre) – That clear object of Desire: Erich Von Stroheim’s Greed (1924) adapted from Frank Norris’s McTeague (1899) |
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16.15-16.30 Tea and Coffee |
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16.30-18.30 PANEL 4 ACTORS AND ACTRESSES |
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Chair: Anna Chronopoulou Mark Glancy (Queen Mary University, London) – Looking at Cary Grant: Before and After the Implementation of the Production Code Katherine Fusco (University of Nevada) – Anita Loos and Jean Harlow, Pedagogues of Media Literacy Baptiste André (Université of Strasbourg) – Le Code et l’actrice: Mae West ou la dissolution du jeu David Lagain (Université Paris 8) – L’intégration de Mae West à Hollywood: un enjeu narratif autant qu’idéologique ? |
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18.30-20.00 Cocktails, Couvent des Cordeliers |
FRIDAY 28TH JUNE – UNIVERSITÉ PARIS NANTERRE, ADRESSE BÂTIMENT MAX WEBER
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9.00-9.30 Registration and Coffee |
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9.30-11.00 PANEL 5 HORROR BEFORE THE CODE |
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Chair: Sue Matheson Gilles Menegaldo (Université de Poitiers) – Transgression, Sensations, and Censorship in Pre-code Horror Cinema Dorota Babilas (University of Warsaw) – Metamorphoses of the Grotesque in The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Frances Pheasant-Kelly (Wolverhampton University) – Cuts and Controversy in Pre-Code Hollywood Horror: The Case of James Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein |
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11.00-11.15 Tea and coffee |
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11.15-12.30 KEYNOTE |
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Chair: Gilles Menegaldo Marguerite Chabrol (Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis) From “banned plays” to “proof of motion picture progress”: the Hays Office’s “Formula” and Broadway star vehicles (1924-1934) |
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12.30-13.30 LUNCH |
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13.30-15.00 PANEL 6 CINEASTES BEFORE THE CODE |
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Chair: Claire Dutriaux Tatjana Jukić (University of Zagreb) – The Lubitsch Touch: From the Hays Code to Stanley Cavell Trudy Bolter (IEP de Bordeaux) – L’eau et la poussière chez Sjostrom, Murnau et Vidor Jean-Marie Lecomte (Université de Lorraine) – Poésie et érotisme dans les films pré-Code de Frank Borzage |
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15.00-15.15 Tea and coffee |
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15.15-17.15 PANEL 7 LOCAL CENSORSHIP(S) OF HOLLYWOOD |
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Chair: Trudy Bolter Antoine Guegan (Independent researcher) – Le cas de l’adaptation d’Uncle Tom’s Cabin en 1927: entre fidélité à l’esprit du roman et pressions de la censure locale sudiste et de la MPPDA Emmanuel Dreux (Université Paris 8) – Censures d’états et comités locaux contre Chaplin: les exemples de The Pilgrim et de A Woman in Paris en 1923 Kajsa Niehusen (Independent researcher) – “The situation in Chicago is admittedly the worst in the country”: Hollywood’s struggle with Chicago’s Police Censorship Board Claire Dutriaux (Sorbonne Université) – Better Film Committees and Local Censorship Boards in the US: Regulating Cinema Locally before and after the Implementation of the Code (1922-1945) |
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17.15-18.30 KEYNOTE |
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Chair: Claire Dutriaux Charles Wolfe (University of California Santa Barbara) “Pre-Code” Censorship, Circa 1924: the View from Southern California |
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21.00-23.00 Conference dinner at L’Escarmouche, rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève |
SATURDAY 29TH JUNE – UNIVERSITÉ PARIS NANTERRE, BÂTIMENT MAX WEBER
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9.00-9.30 Tea and Coffee |
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9.30-11.00 PANEL 8 WILL HAYS, THE MPPDA AND THE PCA AMIDST RELIGIOUS BATTLES |
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Chair: Thomas Doherty Frédéric Cavé (Independent researcher) Un contrat sans code d’honneur : la nomination de William Hays à la présidence de la MPPDA Paul Monticone (Rowan University) Haysites Take the Stand: Private-Plaintiff Antitrust Suits, the MPPDA, and the Coming of the PCA Erwin F. Erhardt (University of Cincinnati) The Catholic Church and the Emergence of The Code: 1920-1934 |
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11.00-11.30 Tea and Coffee |
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11.30-12.45 PANEL 9 SEX, MORALITY, HOMOSEXUALITY |
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Chair: Joséphine Grébaut Milan Hain (Palacký University) Our Betters (1933): Negotiating Sex, Morality, and Homosexuality in Pre-Code Hollywood Cinema Stylianos Kypraios (Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle) Millie (1931) de John Francis Dillon : La censure à l’épreuve |
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12.45-14.00 LUNCH |
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14.00-15.30 PANEL 10 ADVERTISING, PRESS BOOKS, TRADE PAPERS |
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Chair: Fran Pheasant-Kelly Eric Hoyt (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Hollywood Pressbooks at Scale: Analyzing the Codes and Patterns of Movie Publicity Natasha Farrell (Memorial University) Star-Dust in Hollywood: Interwar Writers Jan and Cora Gordon’s multimedia portraits of America’s Dream Factory Joël Augros (Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle) Looking for Mrs Blondell: Advertising Forms before the Code |
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15.30-15.45 Tea and Coffee |
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15.45-17.15 PANEL 11 HOLLYWOOD BEFORE THE CODE THROUGH THE CONTEMPORARY LENS |
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Chair: Gilles Menegaldo Joséphine Grébaut (Université Paris Nanterre) “Never have I seen such a maelstrom of bad taste and sheer magic”: Contemporary Reading of a Mythified Pre-Code Hollywood in Babylon (2022) Benjamin Campion (Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3) Perpétuation d’un mythe: le Forbidden Hollywood dans la fiction contemporaine |
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17.15 Closing remarks: Claire Dutriaux, Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris, Gilles Menegaldo and Fran Pheasant-Kelly |
