Review: Skyscraper Cinema: Architecture and Gender in American Film, by Merrill Schleier

Abstract

Merrill Schleier ; Skyscraper Cinema: Architecture and Gender in American Film ; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009, 392 pp., 101 b/w illus. $28.50 (paper), ISBN 9780816642843 In the early twentieth century the high-rise transformed American cities, and the motion picture transformed American culture. By now each phenomenon——building type and cinematic art——is inextricably interwoven into our experience, our mentality. Yet a century ago skyscrapers and movies were still to be marveled at, as both technological innovations and social change agents. Merrill Schleier's Skyscraper Cinema: Architecture and Gender in American Film is an encompassing study of how the two art forms converged in the young decades of the last century and grew up together in its middle years. To be sure, the convergence is more a matter of temporal coincidence than disciplinary intent, and Schleier does not push the connection too hard. When refer to skyscraper films, am not seeking to invent another category, such as the western or musical, she writes. I consider American skyscraper films those that include tall buildings as one of the main protagonists or necessary components of the narrative rather than mere backdrops or settings (x). With this as her springboard, Schleier dives deep into five decades of screen history, from the 1910s to …