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The aim of this thesis is to explore the overlooked technical role of cinematography, by discussing its artistic effects. I intend to examine the career of a single cinematographer, in order to demonstrate whether a dinstinctive cinematographic style may be defined. The task of this thesis is therefore to define that cinematographer’s style and trace its development across the course of a career. The subject that I shall employ in order to achieve this is the émigré cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan, who is perhaps most famous for his invention ‘The Schüfftan Process’ in the 1920s, but who subsequently had a 40 year career acting as a cinematographer. During this time Schüfftan worked throughout Europe and America, shooting films that included Menschen am Sonntag (Robert Siodmak et al, 1929), Le Quai des brumes (Marcel Carné, 1938), Hitler’s Madman (Douglas Sirk, 1942), Les Yeux sans visage (Georges Franju, 1959) and The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961). During the course of this thesis I shall examine the evolution of Schüfftan’s style, and demonstrate how Schüfftan has come to be misunderstood as a cinematographer of German Expressionism. The truth, as I will show, is far more complex. Schüfftan also struggled throughout his career to cope with the consequences of exile. In this thesis I will also therefore examine the conditions of exile for an émigré cinematographer, and in particular Schüfftan’s prevention from joining the American Society of Cinematographers. I intend to demonstrate how an understanding of cinematographic style can shed new light on a film, and to give renewed attention to an important cinematographer who has been largely ignored by film history.

This thesis tests the hypothesis that between 1905 and 1940 Russian religious philosophy changed, and that this can be gauged by looking at how the meanings of four ideas (all-unity, sobornost', Sophia and Godmanhood) changed in that time. By looking at religious philosophy through these ideas we can better understand the intellectual climate of the period. The proposal that Russian religious philosophy should be considered a coherent school of thought and the hypothesis that it would be useful to look at its four central ideas are raised and challenged. The theory that a 'discourse' of religious philosophy united texts in this period is examined, and it is concluded that discourse theory can act as an aid in analysis of religious philosophy. Religious philosophy before the Revolution, the history of the Revolution and its influence on philosophy are examined and its productivity is explored. Post-revolutionary Russian religious thought focusing on the experience of exile is also examined, concluding that the political and social upheaval that Russians were subjected to in the first half of the twentieth century added to and complicated the meaning of the Revolution. Themes of isolation and exclusion become more prevalent in emigration, and religious philosophy also becomes more theological. The findings of this research are (1) that changes within religious philosophy took place and can be detected through the careful study of the ideas that make up this philosophy; (2) that these changes can only partially be attributed to external circumstances because internal constraints also affected the capacity of these ideas to change; (3) that these changes were part of a decline in production, popularity or relevance of religious philosophy; and (4) that it is possible to explain why certain areas of their use remained relevant while others became obsolete.

This thesis explores the work of two German Jewish émigré scholars, Karl Loewenstein and John H. Herz, and how they confronted the conflict between fascism and democracy throughout the 1930s and during World War II. Loewenstein, in academic publications and later through a campaign of public advocacy, urged the adoption of his theory of militant democracy for the protection of democratic institutions. Originally conceived as temporary legislation to deprive fascists of the fundamental rights they abused in order to seize power, this theory evolved into the understanding by Loewenstein that fascist and democratic states could not coexist, and that fundamental changes must be implemented within the legislative and executive branches of democratic governments to create a more responsive, flexible system. Defined by his pessimistic worldview, Loewenstein was acutely anxious about fascism, especially after the start of World War II. In contrast to Loewenstein, and despite his own pessimism, Herz conceived of an international system that combined both realism and idealism in order to obviate man’s violent and suspicious anthropology and create a peaceful international order in which nations, regardless of their particular political ideology, could coexist.

Entre Beauce et Sologne, le Vendômois est en 1789, une région pauvre, souffrant de la disette, situation à laquelle l’administration révolutionnaire n’a pas su remédier. La vente des biens nationaux en augmentant la propriété foncière des notables qui ont déjà la mainmise sur les trois quarts du sol de la région et contrôlent désormais les institutions politiques et administratives, va asseoir leur influence sur les populations.Si sur le plan de l’agriculture, le système paternaliste disparaît, il n’en laisse pas pour autant place à une économie capitaliste florissante. Le retard dans ce domaine et dans ceux de l’industrie et du commerce, restera important au XIXème siècle. Le bilan des ventes nationales montre la disparition presque totale de la propriété ecclésiastique et la division par trois de la propriété noble. Le transfert de propriété aux paysans, qui peut paraître réel lors des premières ventes, est fortement atténué par le phénomène des reventes qui s’étalent sur les cinquante années suivantes. Le point remarquable, qui apparaît également dans cette étude, est la relative modération de la population vendômoise et des hommes politiques, quand elle a pu les désigner pour l’administrer localement. Attachée aux traditions, la population bien qu’elle ait participé aux acquisitions des biens dits nationaux, a su montrer de la résistance face aux comportements extrêmes des hommes politiques parisiens et blésois. Contrairement à beaucoup d’autres régions françaises plus urbaines, les persécutions et les destructions, qui ont marqué la période des ventes nationales, n’ont pas été systématiques en Vendômois, et c’est tout à son honneur. / In 1789, the traditional area of the Vendômois, bordered by the Beauce and Sologne regions, is poor and the revolutionary authorities have not succeeded in addressing the prevailing food shortage. By growing the landed property of the upper classes,who already had a stronghold on three quarters of the region’s real estate and who would now control the political and administrative system, the sale of “biensnationaux” would reinforce their influence over the population. Although the paternalistic system in the field of agriculture came to an end, it not made way for a flourishing capitalistic system. The lack of development in industry and agriculture will remain important throughout the XIXth century. The outcome of the sale has been an almost complete disappearance of church property whileownership by the nobility was divided by three. The transfer of ownership to the peasantry which might have seemed real at the times of the first sales was greatly diminished by the subsequent resales over the next fifty years. Another noteworthy point which emerges from this study is the sense of moderation of “vendômoise”population, and of those political leaders, when it was able to appoint to administer locally. Although the local population, which had a strong attachment to tradition, did take part in the acquisition of national lands, it resisted to extreme behaviour of the political leaders from Paris and Blois. Unlike what happened in many other more urban french regions, persecutions and destructions which characterized the period of the national sales were not systematic in the Vendômois, much to its credit.

From 1922-1942, the Austrian-American architect and designer Frederick Jacob Kiesler (1890-1965) designed architecture based on the idea that it must complement the physiological and psychological processes of the human body. In order to reconcile the technological changes wrought by industrialized production with the need for structures that promoted human health, he developed an inspired model for interactive design. His formative experiences in Europe working with De Stijl and the G-Group, along with his exposure to Central European examples of architecture, art, and science set the agenda for his later works. Yet he never stopped experimenting with new concepts that would bolster his essential philosophy of body-generated space. After he immigrated to the United States in 1926, Kiesler’s pursued his ideas about physiological and psychological architecture within a new cultural milieu and a network of encouraging personal connections. He forged relationships with a sympathetic community of émigré industrial designers and architects who promoted his efforts to integrate modern technology with new design idioms. During his first fifteen years in New York City, Kiesler looked to contemporary science as a way to advance a model of flexible architectural design. He also worked at the cutting edge of industrial design research and was an early protagonist of human factors engineering methods. His body-centered methodology stood in opposition to aesthetic and reductive approaches toward modernism and functionalism. Instead of designing according to a priori determinations of what was functional and what was not, Kiesler’s functionalism was based on an iterative design practice that would reveal progressively more useful and universally applicable forms. / text