Eric Smoodin

Eric Smoodin is Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of California, Davis. His primary areas of research are American and French cinemas from 1895 to 1960, with an emphasis on film industries and audiences. He is the author of several books, including Paris in the Dark: Going to the Movies in the City of Light (Duke, 2020) and Regarding Frank Capra: Audience, Celebrity, and American Film Studies, 1930-1960 (Duke, 2004).

“Adrienne Górska and the Architecture of French Cinema”. Adrienne Górska was the most important cinema architect in Europe in the 1930s. She built the spectacular Normandie cinema on the Champs-Elysées, the Cinéac newsreel cinemas in Paris, as well as cinemas in Belgium, Poland, Tunisia, and elsewhere. Eric's book-length project examines the life and work of an architect who has been all but forgotten, but who introduced Europe to a modern, streamlined movie theatre experience, and who was considered a vital member of the French artistic community.