Ripping Open the Set French Film Design, 1930–1939

«This is a superbly researched book that adds a welcome new perspective to scholarship on production design, film history, and the French studios of the 1930s.»
(Sue Harris, French Studies 70, 3 2016)

«McCann's characterisations and descriptions are vivid, clear, and evocative, and carry a pictorial weight. His study is valuable both for its specific considerations of films and designers, and for the broader questions it provokes about the role of production design in the film-making process.»
(Philippa Hawker, Australian Book Review 2/2014)

«Ben McCann has given us a fascinating and highly readable book that excels in its sharp close viewing style, its vibrant description of visual detail, and its focus on the specificity of set design and the contributions of particular designers to classic French cinema. After each chapter, readers will doubtless find themselves, as I did, wanting to return to these well-known films for a closer look.»
(Alison J. Murray Levine, H-France Review 14/2014)

«McCann’s characterisations and descriptions are vivid, clear, and evocative, and carry a pictorial weight. His study is valuable both for its specific considerations of films and designers, and for the broader questions it provokes about the role of production design in the film-making process.» (Philippa Hawker, Australian Book Review 2, 2014)
«Ben McCann has given us a fascinating and highly readable book that excels in its sharp close viewing style, its vibrant description of visual detail, and its focus on the specificity of set design and the contributions of particular designers to classic French cinema. After each chapter, readers will doubtless find themselves, as I did, wanting to return to these well-known films for a closer look.» (Alison J. Murray Levine, H-France Review 14, 2014)