Lighting performs essential functions in Hollywood films, enhancing the glamour, clarifying the action, and intensifying the mood. Examining every facet of this understated art form, from the glowing backlights of the silent period to the shaded alleys of film noir, Patrick Keating affirms the role of Hollywood lighting as a distinct, compositional force. Closely analyzing Girl Shy (1924), Anna Karenina (1935), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and T-Men (1947), along with other brilliant classics, Keating describes the unique problems posed by these films and the innovative ways cinematographers handled the challenge. Once dismissed as crank-turning laborers, these early cinematographers became skillful professional artists by carefully balancing the competing demands of story, studio, and star. Enhanced by more than one hundred illustrations, this volume counters the notion that style took a backseat to storytelling in Hollywood film, proving that the lighting practices of the studio era were anything but neutral, uniform, and invisible. Cinematographers were masters of multifunctionality and negotiation, honing their craft to achieve not only realistic fantasy but also pictorial artistry.

光と影の魔術師がいかに映画へ魂を吹き込んだか。本書は単なる技術論を超え、黄金期の撮影監督たちが抱いた美学を鮮烈に描き出します。サイレント期の輝きからノワールの陰影まで、光は背景ではなく感情を語る主役。スタイルは物語に従属するものではなく、画面を支配する圧倒的な構成力であることを、著者は情熱的に論証しています。 職人が芸術家へ昇華する過程での、スタジオやスターとの繊細な交渉。その創造の軌跡を辿ることは、映画鑑賞を単なる視覚体験から、作り手との深い芸術的対話へと変容させます。文章から立ち上がる光の粒子に触れるとき、かつての表現者が銀幕に託した、真実よりも美しい虚構という名の魔法に、誰もが再び心奪われるはずです。