Gestures of Love

Steven Rybin is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is the author of Michael Mann: Crime Auteur and Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film; the editor of The Cinema of Hal Hartley: Flirting with Formalism; and the coeditor, with Will Scheibel, of Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground: Nicholas Ray in American Cinema, also published by SUNY Press.

"…Gestures of Love builds a cogent and engaging narrative that offers a refreshingly modern and meticulously analyzed reading of some of the most beloved classics of American cinema, while shedding new light on the way audience's love of performance and performers becomes part of a film's very lifeblood." — Film International"Steven Rybin's Gestures of Love presents a compelling series of close readings focused on cinematic performances from the classical Hollywood era—a series of readings that not only function independently but also build and reflect on one another as the text moves forward. Engagingly written and unapologetically driven by the author's own pleasures, the text will appeal to readers interested in cinephilia, actors in performance, and classical Hollywood more generally." — David T. Johnson, author of Richard Linklater"Gestures of Love is the first book to explore issues of stardom and performance through the lens of cinephilia studies. Steven Rybin astutely demonstrates how a star couple's performance of love may be refracted through a viewer's love of performance. Lucid and invigorating, this book reconsiders celebrated duos, from Hepburn and Grant to Bogart and Bacall to Hudson and Malone, as well as the evolution of love in classical Hollywood." — Rashna Wadia Richards, author of Cinematic Flashes: Cinephilia and Classical Hollywood

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPrelude: Little Bursting BubblesIntroduction: The Actor's Heartbeat Part I: Screwball Love 1. Love's Final Irony: John Barrymore and Carole Lombard in Twentieth Century2. Wicked Jaws, Lanky Brunettes: Myrna Loy and William Powell in The Thin Man and Libeled Lady 3. "You Look So Silly": Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in Sylvia Scarlett, Holiday, Bringing Up Baby, andThe Philadelphia Story Part II: Noir Amour 4. Love's Possession: Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney in Laura 5. Wooing Bogie, Courting Bacall: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key LargoPart III: Love and Melodrama 6. Lipstick on a Teacup: Performance in Vincente Minnelli's The Cobweb and Tea and Sympathy 7. Hudson, Bacall, Stack, Malone: Love and Gesture in Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind Coda: Modern LoveWorks CitedIndex