Film history, theory or criticism Books

Book SynopsisPlants have played key roles in science fiction novels, graphic novels and film. John Wyndham’s triffids, Algernon Blackwood’s willows and Han Kang’s sprouting woman are just a few examples. Plants surround us, sustain us, pique our imaginations and inhabit our metaphors – but in many ways they remain opaque. The scope of their alienation is as broad as their biodiversity. And yet, literary reflections of plant-life are driven, as are many threads of science fictional inquiry, by the concerns of today. Plants in Science Fiction is the first-ever collected volume on plants in science fiction, and its original essays argue that plant-life in SF is transforming our attitudes toward morality, politics, economics and cultural life at large – questioning and shifting our understandings of institutions, nations, borders and boundaries; erecting and dismantling new visions of utopian and dystopian futures.Trade Review“Science fiction teaches us to ‘be-with others better.’ This is the core argument of Plants in Science Fiction, captured in one of its chapters and suffused throughout. Readers will come away with a profound and challenging understanding of what it means to be human, as well as a deep appreciation for the critical function of science fiction in a threatened world.” -- Eric Otto, Florida Gulf Coast University“Plants in Science Fiction demonstrates that science fiction and ecocriticism have much to say to each other. By considering ‘speculative vegetation,’ of course, we learn much about our own lives in the present moment on Earth.’ -- Scott Slovic, Editor-in-Chief, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and EnvironmentTable of ContentsContributors Introduction - Katherine E. Bishop Abjection Weird Flora: Plant Life in the Classic Weird Tale - Jessica George ‘Bloody unnatural brutes’: Anthropomorphism, Colonialism and the Return of the Repressed in John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids - Jerry Määttä Botanical Tentacles and the Chthulucene- Shelley Saguaro Affinity Between the Living and the Dead: Vegetal Afterlives in Evgenii Iufit's and Vladimir Maslov’s Silver Heads - Brittany Roberts Vegetable Love: Desire, Feeling, and Sexuality in Botanical Fiction - T. S. Miller Alternative Reproduction: Plant-time and Human/Arboreal Assemblages in Holdstock and Han - Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook Accord Sunlight as a Photosynthetic Information Technology: Becoming Plant in Tom Robbins’s Jitterbug Perfume - Yogi Hale Hendlin The Question of the Vegetal, the Animal, the Archive in Kathleen Ann Goonan’s Queen City Jazz - Graham J. Murphy Queer Ingestions: Weird, Vegetative Bodies in Jeff VanderMeer’s Fiction - Alison Sperling The Botanical Ekphrastic and Ecological Relocation - Katherine E. Bishop Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEthan and Joel Coen's The Big Lebowski was released in 1998 to general bafflement. A decade on, it had become a cult classic and remains so over 20 years later, inspiring a thriving circuit of 'Lebowski Fests' during which costumed devotees gather at bowling alleys and guzzle White Russians. Beyond its superabundance of deliciously quotable lines, how has the movie inspired such remarkable affection? And why does its critical stock continue to rise? The film's unlikely anchor is Jeff Bridges' career-best performance as Jeffrey Lebowski, a fully-baked 1960s radical turned Venice Beach drop-out known to his friends as 'the Dude'. Mistaken for an identically-named grandee whose young trophy wife is in trouble, the Dude finds himself embroiled in an impossibly convoluted kidnap plot involving pornographers, nihilists and threats to his 'johnson'. Worst of all, it conflicts with his bowling commitments. In part an irreverent pastiche of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (as filmed by Howard Hawks), The Big Lebowski is also a jukebox of film history, littered with playful references to everything from Hitchcock and Altman to Busby Berkeley. This riot of addled quotations reflects the film's Los Angeles setting, a discombobulated world inhabited by flakes, phonies and poseurs with put-on identities. Like many Coen films, the movie plays havoc with the conventions of the crime genre and the absurdities of classical American 'heroism'. But it's also that rare thing: a comedy that gets richer, funnier and more affecting with each viewing. Beneath its breakneck pacing and foul-mouthed ribaldry, the Dude's story offers disarmingly humane lessons in the value of simple things: friendship, laughter and bowling. In their foreword to this new edition, the authors reflect on Lebowski's cult status and its contemporary resonances as a film about gentle non-conformity and friendship in an increasingly polarized world. The new edition also includes an interview with the Coens, revealing the origins of the name 'Jeffrey Lebowski'.Trade ReviewTerrific stuff, intellectually engaging, visually appealing, and shot through with wit and insight. -- Time Out LondonBeautifully lucid. -- Little White LiesCompact and deliciously readable. -- Offscreen.comIs it an important book? That depends. Do you think The Big Lebowski is an important film? If the answer is an unhesitating 'yes,' run, don't walk. -- January magazineTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword to the 2020 edition Introduction 1. The Mix-tape Movie 2. Out of the Past 3. What Makes a Man? 4. The Religion of Laughter Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis anthology of fundamental statements on the essay film offers a range of crucial historical and philosophical perspectives. It provides early critical articulations of the essay film as it evolved through the 1950s and 1960s, key contemporary scholarly essays, and a selection of writings by essay filmmakers.Trade ReviewCreatively and capaciously, this rich volume gets at the essay film not only by including key critics and practitioners of the form but, importantly, by going beyond the genre itself to broader contributions to essay theorization from philosophy and belles lettres. An exciting, inventive volume with great delights at every turn. -- Dana Polan, New York University Alter and Corrigan's masterful new volume on the essay film is rigorous, comprehensive, and refreshingly surprising. Their invaluable collection probes theoretical reflections on the essay as a mode of expression and a way of thinking in light of the creative and political investments of filmmakers around the globe; it also chronicles the essay film's changing countenances, from its prehistory and early signs of life to novel permutations in the present. Featuring a very distinguished cast of players, this collection is a production of the highest order. -- Eric Rentschler, Harvard University Nora Alter and Tim Corrigan bring their seasoned literary experience to herd but never tame the unruly essay film. Its prestige soaring, this mode is tethered to a long history of experimental writing that will keep it from disappearing into the bog of blogs and YouTube mashups whose best examples it is already inspiring. The proof is in the Table of Contents: a brilliant litany of sensitive, reliable writers, who dare to take on the most daring forms of image-thought the cinema has produced. -- Dudley Andrew, Yale University Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in interest in the history, concept and diverse manifestations of the essay film. In this essential collection, Nora Alter and Timothy Corrigan have brought together a superb selection of foundational texts with a range of key recent writings by leading scholars and essay filmmakers. The result is an enormously rich resource for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of this most vital of audiovisual forms. -- Michael Witt, University of RoehamptonTable of ContentsIntroduction, by Nora M. Alter and Timothy Corrigan Part I. Foundations 1. "On the Nature and Form of the Essay," by Georg Lukacs 2. The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil 3. "On the Essay and Its Prose," by Max Bense 4. "The Essay as Form," by Theodor W. Adorno 5. "Preface to The Collected Essays of Aldous Huxley," by Aldous Huxley Part II. The Essay Film Through History 6. "The Film Essay: A New Type of Documentary Film," by Hans Richter 7. "The Future of Cinema," by Alexandre Astruc 8. "Bazin on Marker," by Andre Bazin Part III. Contemporary Positions 9. "In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film," by Phillip Lopate 10. "The Political Im/Perceptible in the Essay Film: Farocki's Images of the World and the Inscription of War," by Nora M. Alter 11. "Essay Questions," by Paul Arthur 12. "The Electronic Essay," by Michael Renov 13. "The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments," by Laura Rascaroli 14. "Of the History of the Essay Film: Vertov, to Varda," by Timothy Corrigan 15. "The Cinema and the Essay as a Way of Thinking," by Raymond Bellour 16. "The Essay Film: From Film Festival Favorite to Flexible Commodity Form?," by Thomas Elsaesser Part IV. Filmmakers on the Essayistic 17. "Performing Borders: Transnational Video," by Ursula Biemann 18. "Proposal for a Tussle," by Jean-Pierre Gorin 19. "The Essay as Conformism? Some Notes on Global Image Economies," by Hito Steyerl 20. "On Writing the Film Essay," by Lynne Sachs 21. "Tramp Steamer," by Ross McElwee 22. "The ABCs of the Film Essay," by Harun Farocki and Christa Blumlinger 23. "Riddles as Essay Film," by Laura Mulvey 24. "Certain Obliquenesses," by Renee Green 25. "Essay Documentary: The disembodied narrator and an unclaimed image that floats through space and time," by Rea Tajiri 26. "From Ten Thousand Waves to Lina Bo Bardi, via Kapital," by Isaac Julien Bibliography Contributors Permissions Index

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Book SynopsisWhen it was released, Dead Man puzzled many audiences and critics. Here, the author argues that the film is both a quantum leap and a logical step in the director's career, and it's a film that speaks powerfully of contemporary concerns.

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Book SynopsisUsing Chow's transnational and trans-regional star persona as a case study, Lin Feng investigates stardom as an agent for mediating the sociocultural construction of Hong Kong and Chinese identities.

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Book SynopsisA pivotal work in the history of feminism and a groundbreaking intervention into film theory, Sexuality in the Field of Vision is a brilliantly original exploration of the interface between feminism, psychoanalysis, semiotics and film theoryTrade ReviewFormidably intelligent, eloquent, and knowledgeable. * City Limits *Jacqueline Rose has no peer among critics of her generation. The brilliance of her literary insight, the lucidity of her prose, and the subtlety of her analyses are simply breathtaking. -- Edward Said

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Book SynopsisY Tu Mamá También (2001), an intelligent and sensual road movie directed by Alfonso Cuarón and co-written by him and his brother Carlos, is both an acclaimed feature by a director who would go on to win Oscars and a box office success abroad and in its native Mexico, where it was the biggest grossing local film of all time. Its teenage protagonists Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna went on to be major stars of global cinema. Yet on its release the film was vilified by established Mexican critics as a coarse comedy and ‘Penthouse fantasy’ of youthful lust for an older woman. Paul Julian Smith's lucid study of the film argues that Y Tu Mamá También not only addresses with playful seriousness such major issues as gender, race, class, and space, which are yet more urgent now than they were on its release; but that the film’s apparently casual aesthetic masks a sophisticated audiovisual style, one which brings together popular genre film and auteurist experiment. Smith suggests Y Tu Mamá También remains an example for world cinema of how a very local film can connect with a global audience that is ignorant of such niceties. Combining production and distribution history, based on unexplored material held in Mexico City archives, with close textual analysis, Smith makes an argument for Cuarón’s film as an enduring masterpiece that hides in plain sight as an ephemeral teen movie.Trade Review[An] illuminating study. -- Miranda France * Times Literary Supplement *Smith writes with the fluency of an award-winning journalist and the analytical sharpness of the leading academic that he is. This is an essential and highly readable book for anyone who wants to learn the story of Y tu mamá también and understand how it has become a classic film of Mexican and international cinema. -- Deborah Shaw, University of Portsmouth, UKPaul Julian Smith combines a breadth of knowledge of Mexican film with insights from online fan cultures in this broad ranging, distinctive, and highly readable book. It is a must for those studying both Y tu mama también and Mexican film culture. -- Niamh Thornton, Liverpool University, UKPaul Julian Smith has written the essential book on what I consider to be Mexico’s best film of the century so far. With a deep knowledge of its production and circulation, this book provides readers not only with a comprehensive study of Y tu mamá también, but also with a model on how to write a book that is at the same time rigorous and readable. -- Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, Washington University in St. Louis, USA.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Still Charolastras 1. Pop Kills Poetry? 2. Alternative Routes 3. Sound and Vision 4. Sweat and Stardom 5. Afterlives Notes Credits

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Book SynopsisBernadette Wegenstein is Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Center for Advanced Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University, USA. She has written books on media theory including Getting Under the Skin: Body and Media Theory, The Cosmetic Gaze: Body Modification and The Construction of Beauty. She is also a documentary filmmaker.

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Book SynopsisIn a comprehensively revised and updated new edition, James Naremore provides an illuminating critical account of the films of Stanley Kubrick, from his earliest feature, Fear and Desire (1953), to the posthumously-produced A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001). Naremore offers provocative analyses of each of Kubrick's films, considering his emphasis on the absurdity of combat, as in Paths of Glory (1957) and Full Metal Jacket (1987), the failure of scientific reasoning, as in 2001 (1968), and the fascistic impulses in masculine sexuality, as in Dr Strangelove (1964) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). He argues that while Kubrick was a voracious intellectual and a life-long autodidact, the fascination of his work has less to do with the ideas it espouses than with the emotions it evokes. Combining close readings with new insights into the production histories and cultural contexts of key films, Naremore provides a concise yet thorough discussion that will be useful to students of Kubrick's filmmaking and cinephiles who seek a deeper insight into the work of this perfectionist genius. Revised throughout, this new edition also includes a fully updated bibliography of critical writings on Kubrick's cinema.Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements for the Revised Edition Acknowledgements for the First Edition Introduction to the New Edition: Kubrick’s Cold Modernism and Major Themes PART I Prologue 1. Portrait of the Late Modernist as a Young Photographer 2. Silence, Exile and Cunning 3. Grotesque Aesthetics PART II Early Kubrick 1. No Other Country but the Mind 2. Dream City PART III Kubrick, Harris, Douglas 1. The Criminal and the Artist 2. Ant Hill 3. Dolores, Lady of Pain PART IV Stanley Kubrick Presents 1. Wargasm 2. Beyond the Stars 3. A Professional Piece of Sinny 4. Duelist 5. Horrorshow PART V Late Kubrick 1. Warriors 2. Lovers PART VI Epilogue 1. Summation 2. Some Unproduced Films 3. Love and Death in A. I. Artificial Intelligence Filmography Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1998, Satya opened to widespread critical acclaim. At a time when Bollywood was still rediscovering romance, Ram Gopal Varma''s film dared to imagine the ordinary life of a Mumbai gangster. It kicked off a new wave of Hindi gangster films that depicted a vital, gritty side of Mumbai, rarely shown in mainstream cinema until then.More than two decades later, it has become an iconic film. When it was released, the regular moviegoer would have been hard-pressed to recognise more than a couple of names in the film''s credits. Today, it reads like an honour roll - Anurag Kashyap, Manoj Bajpayee, Vishal Bhardwaj, Saurabh Shukla.Speaking to the people who made Satya a landmark film, Uday Bhatia tells the incredible story of how it all came together, how it drew from the gangster and street film traditions, and why it went on to become a modern classic.

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Book SynopsisAn Introduction to Film Analysis is designed to introduce students to filmmaking techniques while also providing an invaluable guide to film interpretation. It takes readers step by step through:-the basic technical terms-shot-by-shot analyses of film sequences-set design, composition, editing, camera work, post-production, art direction and more-each chapter provides clear examples and full colour images from classic as well as contemporary filmsRyan and Lenos''s updated edition introduces students to the different kinds of lenses and their effects, the multiple possibilities of lighting, and the way post-production modifies images through such processes as saturation and desaturation. Students will learn to ask why the camera is placed where it is, why an edit occurs where it does, or why the set is designed in a certain way.The second section of the book focuses on critical analysis, introducing students to the various approaches to film, from psychology to history, wiTrade ReviewAn exceptionally clear and thorough account of the explicit and implicit ways that narrative cinema makes meaning for viewers. Filled with lucid writing and a profitably wide variety of examples, An Introduction to Film Analysis empowers students to analyze film technique from a range of diverse perspectives. * Kevin L. Ferguson, Associate Professor, Queens College, CUNY, USA *This step-by-step guide to film analysis by Ryan and Lenos is full of beautiful and instructive photography to make the art of moving images come alive on the page. It will entice students into a passion for film through its sophisticated and thorough discussions of a wide range of films, including historical classics, contemporary movies, independent films, and global cinema. This is a textbook that teaches by doing, modeling different approaches to film analysis through thorough and insightful case studies of a unique set of films, including The Silence of the Lambs, Mildred Pierce, Run, Lola, Run, and others. Worthy of special note, Ryan and Lenos provide accessible and productive tools for teachers, including student assignment instructions for specific clips from different films that invite students to develop and demonstrate their analytical skills. Through their many examples, the authors empower students to articulate not only how they react to a movie but also why, drawing clear lines between the cinematic vocabulary they are building with the work of meaning making. * Karen Petruska, Assistant Professor in Communication Studies, Gonzaga University, USA *Table of ContentsIntroduction Meaning in Movies Shot-by-Shot Analysis Writing About Film: The Art of Active Viewing Part 1: Technique and Meaning 1. Composition 2. Camera Work 3. Editing 4. Set Design 5. Lighting 6. Sound 7. Color 8. Narration 9. Structure, Character, Motif 10. Film Style: Realism and Expressionism Part 2: Critical Analysis 11. Historical Criticism 12. Structuralist Criticism 13. Psychological Criticism 14. Ideological Criticism 15. Gender Criticism 16. Ethnic Criticism 17. Post-Colonial / Transnational Criticism 18. Post-Structuralist Criticism 19. Political Criticism 20. Evolutionary Theory 21. Affect & Emotion Part 3: Sample Analyses 22. The Birds 23. The Shining 24. Vagabond 25. In the Mood for Love 26. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Student Assignments Further Reading Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisShirley Clarke: Thinking Through Movement is the first film-philosophy book on ?radical, pioneer, visionary? (Dargis 2013) filmmaker Shirley Clarke and the films she edited and directed. The book draws on film analysis, archival research, dance and film theory, and creative practice expertise, to think through Clarke?s work as a dancer turned multi-award-winning editor and director of dancefilm, fiction, documentary, and video art. This account of Clarke?s creative oeuvre offers the reader insight into a too long overlooked filmmaker. Its creative practice and distributed cognition framework provides tools for dismantling some of the exclusionary aspects of authorship theories and offers a novel method for analysis of films, filmmaking practices and cultures of film production.

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Book SynopsisGlobal Cinema takes a new approach to world cinema through critical theory. Instead of taking a world tour of national cinemas or displaying their transnational exchanges, Seung-hoon Jeong here sheds light on contemporary films' reflections of global phenomena related to conflicting biopolitical and ethical facets of globalization.Trade ReviewFinally, a 'Global Cinema' book that has a point of view and a point to make— a powerful point that is driven home through ingenious analyses of films that have been harbingers of our recent dark past. This most intelligent, unblinking exploration of popular as well as art films radiates confidence in the cinema that walks with us, and, better, a belief in the world. * Dudley Andrew, Yale University *This is a most fascinating study of what world cinema reveals about our globalized world. This exceptionally comprehensive book provides insightful analysis of a wide variety of the most high-profile films from both Global Hollywood and Global Auteurs. From Skyfall to Jia Zhangke there is something here for anybody curious about how cinema illuminates the global nature of contemporary everyday life. Most crucially, Jeong expertly uncovers how an "abject agency" is revealed on screen which may yet gesture towards a hopeful and inclusive politics even for catastrophic times. * David Martin-Jones, University of Glasgow *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction: World Cinema in a Global Frame Part I. Abjection and Agency Chapter 1. Multicultural Conflicts in Post-Political Double Ethics Chapter 2. The Narrative of Double Death with Abject Agency Chapter 3. Sovereign Agents' Biopolitical Abjection in the Spy Film Part II. Catastrophe and Revelation Chapter 4. Law, Divine Violence, and the Sanctity of Life Chapter 5. From the Disaster Genre to the Cinema of Catastrophe Chapter 6. Human History in (Post-)Apocalyptic Cinema Chapter 7. The Time Loop of Catastrophe in the Mind-Game Film Part III. Community and Network Chapter 8. Narrative Formations of Community and Network Chapter 9. Nation, Transnationality, and Global Community as Totalized Network Part IV. Gift and Atopia Chapter 10. Alternative Ethics through the Paradox of the Gift Chapter 11. The Abject as Neighbor beyond Cultural Mediation Chapter 12. Atopian Networking and Positive Nihilism References Index

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Book SynopsisWhen a work of art shows an interest in its own status as a work of arteither by reference to itself or to other workswe have become accustomed to calling this move meta. While scholars and critics have, for decades, acknowledged reflexivity in films, it is only in Metacinema, for the first time, that a group of leading and emerging film theorists join to enthusiastically debate the meanings and implications of the meta for cinema. In new essays on generative films, including Rear Window, 8 1/2, Holy Motors, Funny Games, Fight Club, and Clouds of Sils Maria, contributors chart, explore, and advance the ways in which metacinema is at once a mode of filmmaking and a heuristic for studying cinematic attributes. What results is not just an engagement with certain practices and concepts in widespread use in the movies (from Hollywood to global cinema, from documentary to the experimental and avant-garde), but also the development of a veritable and vital new genre of film studies. With more and more films expressing reflexivity, recursion, reference to other films, mise-en-abîme, seriality, and exhibiting related intertextual and intermedial traits, the time is overdue for the kind of capacious yet nuanced critical study found in Metacinema.Trade ReviewTheoretically sophisticated and deeply invested in close textual analysis, this book will appeal most to those with an interest in philosophical approaches to cinema. * D Herbert, CHOICE *We all know meta when we see it, but up until now few have attempted to define it. This terrific book, comprising essays from both established and emerging scholars, is a welcome corrective to that oversight, and a vital addition to contemporary film and media theory. * Catherine Wheatley, Reader in Film and Visual Culture, King's College London *Table of ContentsList of Contributors Foreword The Cinematic Question: "What Do You Want From Me?" Robert B. Pippin Introduction An Invitation to the Varieties and Virtues of "Meta-ness" in the Art and Culture of Film David LaRocca Part I. Conceptual and Theoretical Reorientation to Metacinema 1. Cinematic Self-Consciousness in Hitchcock's Rear Window Robert B. Pippin 2. Adaptations, Refractions, and Obstructions: The Prophecies of André Bazin Timothy Corrigan 3. A Metacinematic Spectrum: Technique Through Text to Context Garrett Stewart 4. Recursive Reflections: Types, Modes, and Forms of Cinematic Reflexivity Daniel Yacavone 5. Méliès, Astruc, and Scorsese: Authorship, Historiography, and Videographic Styles Eleni Palis Part II. Illumination from the Duplications and Repetitions of Reflexive Cinema 6. 8 ½: Self-Reflexive Fiction and Mental Training Joshua Landy 7. Clouds of Sils Maria: True Characters and Fictional Selves in the Construction of Filmic Identities Laura T. Di Summa 8. Holy Motors: Metameditation on Digital Cinema's Present and Future Ohad Landesman Part III. Affectivity and Embodiment in Metanarratives 9. Fight Club: Enlivenment, Love, and the Aesthetics of Violence in the Age of Trump J. M. Bernstein 10. Funny Games: Film, Imagination, and Moral Complicity Paul Schofield 11. Shoah: Art as Visualizing What Cannot Be Grasped Shoshana Felman Part IV. Metadocumentary, Experimental Film, and Animation 12. The Act of Killing: Empathy, Morality, and Reenactment Thomas E. Wartenberg 13. Waltz with Bashir's Animated Traces: Troubled Indexicality in Contemporary Documentary Rhetorics Yotam Shibolet 14. Alone., Again: On Martin Arnold's Metaformal Invention by Intervention David LaRocca Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Antonio Candido Prize for Best Book in the Humanities from the Brazil section of the Latin American Studies Association. This book examines the vibrant field of documentary filmmaking in Brazil from the transition to democracy in 1985 to the present. Marked by significant efforts toward the democratization of Brazil''s highly unequal society, this period also witnessed the documentary''s rise to unprecedented vitality in quantity, quality, and diversity of production-which includes polished auteur films as well as rough-hewn collaborative works, films made in major metropolitan regions as well as in indigenous villages and in remote parts of the Amazon, intimate first-person documentaries as well as films that dive headfirst into struggles for social justice. The transformations of Brazilian society and of filmmaking coalesce and become entangled in this cinema''s preoccupation with archives. Historically linked to the exercise and maintenance of power, the concept of the archive is critical for the documentary as a cultural practice that preserves images from the present for the future, unearths and repurposes visual materials from the past, and is historically invested in filmic images as records of the real. Contemporary films incorporate, reflect on, and rework a variety of archives, such as documents produced by official institutions, ethnographic images, home movies, and photo albums-and engage not only with what is preserved but also with lacunas in the record and with alternate forms of remembering, retrieving, and transmitting the past. Through its interaction with archives, this book argues, the contemporary documentary reflects on and intervenes in the distribution of visibilities and invisibilities, centers and margins, silences and speech, living memory and its preservation in the record-thus locating the documentary on archival borders that concern Brazilian society and filmmaking alike.Trade ReviewHighly recommended. * D. West, CHOICE *An exhilarating work, Gustavo Furtado's wide-ranging Documentary Filmmaking in Brazil, heralds a bright future for Brazilian film criticism. Furtado gives us fresh insights even about films whose meaning had presumably been exhaustively covered. Especially impressive is his sensitivity to the issues raised by indigenous media and 'first contact' films. The mobilization of theory for purposes of close analysis is simply brilliant. * Robert Stam, New York University *Addressing both contemporary documentary production in Brazil and documentary cinema in general, Furtado uses the concept of the archive to explore the intersections of memory, representation and power. Skillfully weaving sophisticated theoretical arguments with contextual and detailed film analyses, the book is a pleasure to read. It makes a crucially significant intervention in Brazilian film studies and will also become an essential companion to any discussion of contemporary documentary cinema. * Ana Lopez, Tulane University *This book is eminently political. It tackles documentary filmmaking as a way of interfering in and changing society. Furtado has devised a tremendously original and effective method of understanding documentary making in Brazil as the construction of a huge archive where memory, history and culture combine in order to provide a reliable programme for a better future. For the first time, in this book, indigenous production is given pride of place alongside consecrated masterpieces, such as Eduardo Coutinho's 20 Years Later, João Moreira Salles's Santiago, and Adirley Queirós' recent documentary sci-fi Black Out, White In. With breathtaking erudition, attentive to both the detail and the broader picture, Furtado has given us a riveting and compelling vision of Brazil today. Brazilian politicians would have a lot to learn from it! * Lúcia Nagib, Professor of Film, University of Reading *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction PART I - ETHNOGRAPHIES OF THE INDIGENOUS 1. Feverish Archives, Feverish Films: Ethnographic Documentary and Crisis at Amazonian Contact Zones 2. Reparative Mediations:Indigeneity, Videomaking, and the Future of the Ethnographic Archive PART II - LAW, EVIDENCE, CAPTURE 3. Scenes of Capture in the City: Documentary on the Margins of Social and Archival Visibilities 4. Tactics of the Invisible, Shadow Archives:Resistance and Filmmaking on the Outskirts of Brasilia PART III - PRIVATE LIFE (GOING PUBLIC) 5. Homes, Archives, and Archons: Reworking the "Home Mode" in the Contemporary Documentary 6. The Melancholy Subject of History: Intimate Films and the Inheritance of Postdictatorship Memory Epilogue Filmography Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSilent Film and the Formations of U.S. Literary Culture: Literature in Motion argues that the emergence of motion pictures constituted a defining moment in U.S. literary history. Author Sarah Gleeson-White discovers what happened to literary culture-both popular and higher-browwhen inserted into the spectacular world of motion pictures during the early decades of the twentieth century. How did literary culture respond to, and how was it altered by, the development of motion pictures, literature''s exemplar and rival in narrative realism and enthrallment? Gleeson-White draws on extensive archival film and literary materials, and unearths a range of collaborative, cross-media expressive and industrial practices to reveal the manifold ways in which early-twentieth-century literary culture sought both to harness and temper the reach of motion pictures.

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Book SynopsisWhite Screens, Black Dance analyzes the film and television dances of male screen stars in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Unpacking the complex physical and visual codes performed by four case studies--the Nicholas Brothers, Gene Kelly, Elvis Presley, and Sammy Davis, Jr.--it argues that each employs Black (Africanist) dance and movement vocabularies in distinct ways, all using them to construct shifting models of masculinity over the course of their careers. In so doing, this book theorizes a practice of appropriation called blackbodying, whereby non-Black performers use Black dance and movement styles without using blackface makeup. Applying methodologies from both film and media studies and dance studies, it offers an interdisciplinary reading of these men''s star texts and their screen-dances throughout the midcentury period. To best understand the nuances of their performances, White Screens, Black Dance considers not only the ever-changing, often ambiguous and contradictory signifiers of racial and gender identity from the 1940s-1960s, but also the ways that class, and the differing industrial and visual environments of Hollywood film vs. broadcast television, further shape how all five men danced their masculinities for the camera(s). It ultimately reveals how these resultant midcentury masculinities have continued to influence danced masculinity ever since.

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford History of World Cinema is the most authoritative, up-to-date history of the Cinema ever undertaken. It traces the history of the twentieth-century''s most enduringly popular entertainment form, covering all aspects of its development, stars, studios, and cultural impact. The book celebrates and chronicles over one hundred years of diverse achievement from westerns to the New Wave, from animation to the Avant-Garde, and from Hollywood to Hong Kong, with an international team of distinguished film historians telling the story of the major inventions and developments in the cinema business, its institutions, genres, and personnel. Other chapters outline the evolution of national cinemas round the world - the varied and distinctive filmic traditions that have developed alongside Hollywood. Also included are over 140 special inset features on the film-makers and personalities - Garbo and Godard, Keaton and Kurosawa, Bugs Bunny and Bergman - who have had an enduring impact in popTrade Reviewa richly rewarding, impressively wide-ranging trawl through the medium's first 100 years * Time Out *an essential guide for all serious cinema enthusiasts * Flicks *If any new book deserves the gloss of informed and sacred text, it is The Oxford History of World Cinema ... a sound and thorough job in creating something that at least tries to be genuinely definitive. * Independent *a model of clear editorial organization in which the essays of more than 80 contributors are marshalled into an illuminating mosaic. * The Economist *

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Book SynopsisThis book brings together carefully selected essays on feminism and film with a view to tracing major developments in theory, criticism, and practices of women and cinema from 1973 to the present day. It illuminates the powerful, if controversial, role feminist research has played in the emergence of Film Studies as a discipline during these years; reprinting influential 1970s pioneering essays tracing the ensuing debates and challenges to key theories that shaped this field in the next two decades. Kaplan details the Euro-American contexts within which feminist film theories and practices emerged and traces the changing influences of French, German, and American intellectual movements on feminist film research. As well as a wide-ranging introduction which sets the selection of essays in context, readers will find examples of social-role, psychoanalytic, structuralist, post-structuralist, gay and lesbian, postmodern and postcolonial feminist film criticism, prefaced by introductory notTable of ContentsPHASE ONE: PIONEERS AND CLASSICS: THE MODERNIST MODE ; PHASE TWO: CRITIQUES OF PHASE ONE THEORIES: NEW METHODS ; PHASE THREE: RACE, SEXUALITY, AND POSTMODERNISM IN FEMINIST THEORY ; PHASE FOUR: SPECTATORSHIP, ETHNICITY, AND MELODRAMA

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Book SynopsisMurray Smith presents an original approach to understanding film. He brings the arts, humanities, and sciences together to illuminate artistic creation and aesthetic experience. His 'third culture' approach roots itself in an appreciation of scientific innovation and how this has shaped the moving media.Trade Review[A] fascinating insider's tour of a third research culture at a crossroads of the humanities and natural sciences...No matter where its seeds fall and germinate, the book is a landmark development in the growing relation between aesthetic philosophy, moving image studies, and cognitive-scientific theories of cinema and other arts. * Trevor Ponech, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *What Smith is calling for...[is] a truer form interdisciplinarity - not the humanities-only kind that might bring together, say, philosophy and film theory, but the much broader sort interdisciplinarity that bridges the gap between the two cultures by bringing together neuroscience and film theory, or evolutionary science and film history, or ecological ideas of niche construction and ideas of cinematic empathy... [a work of] magisterial authority. * David Andrews, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture *Murray Smith's Film, Art, and the Third Culture: A Naturalized Aesthetics of Film is a powerful intellectual force whose impact will be difficult to reckon due to the depth of its analysis and breadth of its scope...[one of] the most influential publication[s] of the new century so far...a work which is truly revolutionary in insight, method, and scope. * Rafe McGregor, Four by Three *[Smith's] book offers a thorough and nuanced theoretical account of emotions in relation to film art, and then develops this into an eloquent, convincing and deeply satisfying critical and metacritical exploration, which one feels could not have been got to without the help of the science...[Smith] pulls off the rare feat of demonstrating that a naturalistically informed approach can indeed make us not only better theorists, but better appreciators and interpreters. * James Zborowski, Screen *Murray Smith's latest book just might be the shiniest example of what C.P. Snow hoped for when he first urged scientists and humanists to work together...Smith's ability to provide a naturalistic explanation of [a wide range of cognitive and emotional] capacities, all the while keeping his discussion in line with philosophically interesting issues, is outstanding, but what marks this book as a breakthrough is its author's success in unveiling the relevance of these capacities in one's experience of art...[Smith] exemplifies how scientific approaches to art can go hand in hand with art criticism...[he] is to be congratulated for the massive amount of information he has put together, and for the clear, engaging way of presenting them and explaining them. All things considered, [Smith]'s book is an enjoyable read, intellectually stimulating, (meta)philosophically intriguing, aesthetically rewarding, and scientifically exemplary. * Iris Vidmar, Philosophy in Review *...every now and again our community produces excellent research which brings some of the most recent experimental information directly to bear on the questions that we care most about: how we experience art, what sets aesthetic experience apart from other kinds of experience, why art matters to us. Smith's [Film, Art, and the Third Culture is a highly valuable contribution] not just to these concerns, but also to the metaphilosophy of aesthetics, that is to say, to how we as philosophers should think about the relations between...different approaches, and exactly which elements of our psychology can be fruitful to specific debates in philosophical aesthetics. * Elisabeth Schellekens, Estetika *Smith [has] given us arich and interesting [work] about the relationships between aesthetics and the sciences of mind. [Smith] addresses the relations among experiential, psychological, and neuroscientific understandings of a wide range of aesthetically relevant phenomena, particularly as they occur in film...[making a] valuable contribution to a project that remains fledgling: that of taking seriously the relevance of the sciences to our conceptions and explanations of experiential phenomena in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. * Sherri Irvin, Estetika *Smith's writing demonstrates considerable skill in its integration of informed scientific explanation, philosophical review, and application of a wide range of film examples — from classical and contemorary Hollywood as well as from European and Asian art cinema — with surprisingly productive comparisons such as between Ozu Yasujiro's The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice (1952) and the works of Stan Brakhage. I cannot tell film theorists what to read, and even if could, why would they listen to a philosopher? But I want film theorists to pick up this book because it offers them new and rich resources for reflecting on their practices and has just the right tone to solicit the reader's collaboration. Film, Art, and the Third Culture initiates a dialogue between natural scientists, philosophers, and film theorists, one that I very much hope will continue. * Katherine Thomson-Jones, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I - Building the Third Culture 1: Aesthetics Naturalized 2: Triangulating Aesthetic Experience 3: The Engine of Reason and the Pit of Naturalism 4: Papaya, Pomegranates, and Green Tea Part II - Science and Sentiment 5: Who's Afraid of Charles Darwin? 6: What Difference Does it Make? 7: Empathy, Expansionism, and the Extended Mind 8: Feeling Prufish Conclusion: The Art and Science of Emotion

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Book SynopsisThis book asks How can legal doctrine be turned into filmic art? By legal doctrine Stanley Fish does not mean the sonorous abstractions that usually accompany the self-presentation of law--Justice, Equity, Equality, Liberty, Autonomy, and the like. Rather he has in mind the specific rules and procedures invoked and analyzed by courts on the way to declaring a decision--lawyer/client confidentiality, the distinction between interdicted violence and the violence performed by the legal system, the interplay of positive law and laws rooted in morality, the difference between civilian law and military law, the death penalty, the admissibility of different forms of evidence. In the movies he discusses, these and other points of doctrine and procedure do not serve as a background, occasionally visited, to the substantive issues that drive the plot and provide the characters with choices; they declare the plot, and character is formed and tested in relationship to their demands. Apparently tec

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Book SynopsisWhat does it mean for a cinematic work to be Chinese? Does it refer specifically to a work''s subject, or does it also reflect considerations of language, ethnicity, nationality, ideology, or political orientation? Such questions make any single approach to a vast field like Chinese cinema difficult at best. Accordingly, The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas situates the term more broadly among various different phases, genres, and distinct national configurations, while taking care to address the consequences of grouping together so many disparate histories under a single banner. Offering both a platform for cross-disciplinary dialogue and a mapping of Chinese cinema as an expanded field, this Handbook presents thirty-three essays by leading researchers and scholars intent on yielding new insights and new analyses using three different methodologies. Chapters in Part I investigate the historical periodizations of the field through changing notions of national and political identity -Trade ReviewThe publication of this book represents an important mile marker in the academic study of Chinese cinema ... it is erudite, sophisticated, and self-reflective ... an outstanding work. * P. Lorge, Choice *Table of ContentsHISTORY ; 1) Jianhua Chen, ; "D. W. Griffith and the Rise of Chinese Cinema in Early 1920s Shanghai" ; 2) Kristine Harris, ; "Ombres Chinoises: Split-Screens and Parallel Lives in Love and Duty" ; 3) David Der-wei Wang, ; "Fei Mu, Mei Lanfang, and the Polemics of Screening China" ; 4) Jie Li, ; "A National Cinema for a Puppet State: The Manchurian Motion Picture Association" ; 5) Yomi Braester ; "A Genealogy of Cinephilia in the Maoist Period" ; 6) Poshek Fu ; "Cold War Hong Kong and Mid-twentieth Century Mandarin Cinema" ; 7) Tsungyi Michelle Huang ; "Conceiving Cross-Border Communities: Mobile Women in Recent Hong Kong Cinema" ; 8) Song Hwee Lim ; "Taiwan New Cinema: Small Nation with Soft Power" ; 9) Michael Berry ; "Chinese Cinema with Hollywood Characteristics, or How The Karate Kid became a Chinese Film" ; 10) Pheng Cheah, ; "World as Picture and Ruination: On Jia Zhangke's Still Life as World Cinema" ; FORM ; 1) Stephen Teo, ; "The Opera Film in Chinese Cinema: Cultural Nationalism and Cinematic Form" ; 2) Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh, ; "A Small History of Wenyi" ; 3) Ban Wang, ; "Art, Politics, and Internationalism: Korean War Films in Chinese Cinema" ; 4) Gary Gang Xu, ; "Edification through Affection: The Cultural Revolution Films, 1974-76" ; 5) Michael Eng, ; "Reforming Vengeance: Kung Fu and the Racial Melancholia of Chinese Masculinity" ; 6) Sean Metzger ; "Desire and Distribution: Queer/Chinese/Cinema" ; 7) Yingjin Zhang, ; "Thirdspace Between Flows and Places: Chinese Independent Documentary and Social Theories of Space and Locality" ; 8) Ying Zhu, ; "From Anticorruption to Officialdom: The Transformation of Chinese Dynasty TV Drama" ; 9) Audrey Yue, ; "New Media: Large Screens in China" ; 10) Paola Voci, ; "Online Small Screen Cinema: The Cinema of Attractions and the Emancipated Spectator" ; STRUCTURE ; 1) Jason McGrath ; "Acting Real: Cinema, Stage, and the Modernity of Performance in Chinese Silent Film" ; 2) James Tweedie, ; "Edward Yang and Taiwan's Age of Auteurs" ; 3) Darrell William Davis, ; "A Marriage of Convenience: Musical Moments in Chinese Films" ; 4) Zhiwei Xiao ; "Policing Film in Early 20th Century China, 1905-1923" ; 5) Laikwan Pang, ; "Between Will and Negotiation: Film Policy in the First Three Years of People's Republic of China" ; 6) Rey Chow, ; "Fetish Power Unbound: A Small History of 'Woman' in Chinese Cinema" ; 7) Louisa Schein, ; "Ethnographic Representation Across Genres: The Culture Trope in Contemporary Mainland Media" ; 6) Andy Rodhekohr, ; "Conjuring the Masses: The Spectral / Spectacular Crowd in Chinese Film" ; 9) Kwai-Cheung Lo, ; "The Idea of Asia(nism) and Trans-Asian Productions" ; 10) Eugene Wang, ; "Film and Contemporary Chinese Art: Mediums and Remediation" ; 11) Ying Qian, ; "Crossing the Same River Twice: Documentary Re-enactment and the Founding of PRC Documentary Cinema" ; 12) Yiman Wang, ; "Remade in China: Chinese Cinema in the Age of Blockbuster" ; 13) Carlos Rojas, ; "Cinematic Encounters in Tsai Ming-liang's The River"

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Book SynopsisFilmmaker Alexander Medvedkin (1900 89), a contemporary of Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Dovzhenko, is celebrated today for his unique form of total documentary cinema, which aimed to bridge the distance between film and life, and for his use of satire during a period when the Soviet authorities preferred that laughter be confined to narrowly prescribed channels. This collection of selected writings by Medvedkin is the first of its kind and reveals how his work is a crucial link in the history of documentary film. Although he was a dedicated communist, Medvedkin's satirical approach and social critiques ultimately led to his suppression by the Soviet regime. State institutions held back or marginalized his work, and for many years, his films were assumed to have been lost or destroyed. These texts, many assembled for this volume by Medvedkin himself, document for the first time his considerable achievements, experiments in film and theater, and attempts to develop satire as a major S

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Book SynopsisThe dark shadows and offscreen space that force us to imagine violence we cannot see. The real slaughter of animals spliced with the fictional killing of men. The missing countershot from the murder victim's point of view. This book argues that such images, or absent images, distill how the murder scene challenges and changes film.Trade Review"Karla Oeler exhibits a lively, searching, and penetrating intelligence. In A Grammar of Murder she takes a fresh and illuminating look at various representations of violence - their form as well as their content - in films ranging from the Soviet montage school to Jean Renoir, from classical Hollywood to the work of such mavericks as Stanley Kubrick and Jim Jarmusch." - Gilberto Perez, Sarah Lawrence College"

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Book SynopsisWith The Modern Myths, brilliant science communicator Philip Ball spins a new yarn. From novels and comic books to B-movies, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley to The War of the Worlds, it is an epic exploration of literature, new media and technology, the nature of storytelling, and the making and meaning of our most important tales.Trade Review"The Modern Myths is a very impressive piece of writing. It is sharp. It is witty. It is deeply insightful in too many places to list. Ball's erudition on these topics is extraordinary, really. How did he read all of this? And how did he see all of these movies? Does he sleep? A very fine study of seven really important stories in modern literature, fantasy, and film."--Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Let's celebrate the many dimensions of Agnès Varda as one of the greatest artists working today. Conway succeeds in capturing her curiosity, ingenuity, wit, and new storytelling to confirm her status as the indefatigable pioneer of European cinema."--Hans Ulrich Obrist"Kelley Conway builds upon a vast array of archival research to forge this insightful study of Agnès Varda's distinct approach to filmmaking. Conway concentrates on Varda's experimental production strategies and Varda's engagement with her audience across a truly amazing career."--Richard Neupert, author of A History of the French New Wave Cinema, second edition"Drawing on privileged access to the filmmaker's archives, Kelley Conway expands our understanding of Agnès Varda in several new and eye-opening ways. Offering welcome insight into Varda’s working methods, revisiting the production, distribution and reception of the filmmaker's classics from La Pointe Courte and Cléo de 5 à 7 to Les Plages d'Agnès and her recent multi-media installations, Conway illuminates the astonishingly varied, yet coherent, life-long creative output of one of the key figures in world cinema."--Ginette Vincendeau, coeditor of The French New Wave: Critical Landmarks"A breakthrough text on Varda's trajectory from photography and film to video, digital media, and installation projects. Conway's pages on the reception of Cleo from 5 to 7 are stunning. Her take on The Gleaners and I, The Widows of Noirmoutier , and The Beaches of Agnès is astute." --Steven Ungar, coauthor of Popular Front Paris and the Poetics of Culture"Conway writes in an easy, conversational manner, conveying a good deal of information and numerous insights… Varda remains one of the least-examined figures of the French New Wave, so this book is especially welcome. Highly recommended."--Choice"The meticulous archival research, and the author's personal connection to her subject combine to make Agnès Varda an engaging, helpful read for scholars, students, and laypersons alike."--French Review"An excellent, in-depth study of the major works of the pioneering French New Wave auteur Agnes Varda, who not only preceded and helped to found the movement, but also became one of its most outstanding figures. . . . Agnes Varda is an outstanding work, not to mention a labor of love, and this love is evident in the scholarly care and expertise tendered to understanding Varda's working process and her life's work."--Film Matters

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Book SynopsisBefore his death in 2016, Abbas Kiarostami wrote or directed more than thirty films in a career that mirrored Iranian cinema''s rise as an international force. His 1997 feature Taste of Cherry made him the first Iranian filmmaker to win the Palme d''Or at Cannes. Critics'' polls continue to place Close-Up (1990) and Through the Olive Trees (1994) among the masterpieces of world cinema. Yet Kiarostami''s naturalistic impulses and winding complexity made him one of the most divisive—if influential—filmmakers of his time. In this expanded second edition, award-winning Iranian filmmaker Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum renew their illuminating cross-cultural dialogue on Kiarostami''s work. The pair chart the filmmaker''s late-in-life turn toward art galleries, museums, still photography, and installations. They also bring their distinct but complementary perspectives to a new conversation on the experimental film Shirin. FinaTrade Review"Invaluable." --Harper's Magazine Praise for the first edition: "Offers a useful basic introduction to Kiarostami and contemporary Iranian film. . . . Additionally, the book contains a very helpful filmography wherein a summary is provided for each of Kiarostami's films, including the [shorts] and documentaries he made in the 1970s."--Film International"A lively, accessible, and insightful introduction to the distinctive voice for a roiling, enigmatic culture."--ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Abbas KiarostamiJonathan Rosenbaum Abbas KiarostamiMehrnaz Saeed-Vafa A Dialogue between the Authors Interviews with Abbas Kiarostami A Dialogue about Shirin New Dialogue: Fifteen Years Later Watching Kiarostami Films at HomeJonathan Rosenbaum Reflections on Like Someone in LoveMehrnaz Saeed-VafaFilmographyBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA fascinating read combining film and Asian studies, Theorizing Colonial Cinema reveals new contexts within film theory, history, and ideologies as it centers the question of the colonial perspective and emphasizes how the present is constantly entangled with the colonial past.Trade Review"With this excellent anthology, the history of colonization finally receives the full reckoning it deserves in articulations of film history and theory. By accounting for the legacies, stages, stagings, and afterlives of imperialism writ large and small in cinemas of or about Asia, the authors of this collection teach us how profoundly our historical and conceptual understanding of film transforms when we begin from the time and place of the colony. This is a ground shift that can no longer be ignored."—Priya Jaikumar, author of Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space"There was a time when writing about cinema was mostly about cinema from Western European countries and the US, spoken in one of the six European languages of Western modernity. No longer. Storytelling in moving images and non-Western languages carries within them praxes of living rooted in colonial legacies absent in the hegemonic history of Western cinematography. Theorizing Colonial Cinema is written by a majority of scholars that inhabits and endures colonial legacies and are embedded in the soundtrack languages of these moving images. This book is a landmark that complements and surpasses Third Cinema's heritage of the '60s and '70s."—Walter D. Mignolo, author of The Politis of Decolonial Investigations"A brilliant intervention into history, film, and cultural studies that goes far beyond the national cinema rubric and conventional binaries such as colonizer/colonized, white/non-white, East/West, anthropos/humanitas, theory/text, human/animal – this work by leading scholars of colonialism and film excavates cultural production and its political unconscious under colonialism to show not only the entanglements of colonialism and film but also the coloniality of cinema itself and the inevitable return of the repressed through the Cold War and postmillennial moments. A major work that will make many waves across disciplines and areas of specialization."—Takashi Fujitani, author of Race for Empire, University of TorontoTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsOn Romanization, Naming and TranslationIntroduction, by Nayoung Aimee Kwon and Takushi OdagiriPart I: "Time and Racialized Other: Colonial Modernity and Early Cinema"1. Time, Race, and the Asynchronous in the Colonial Documentaries of Malaya, by Nadine Chan2. Facing Malcontent Colonial Korean Comrades: A Typology of Colonial Cinema in Asia's Socialist Alliances, by Moonim Baek3. Colonial-Era Film Theory, Spectatorship, and the Problem of Internalization, by Aaron Gerow4. Chinese Cinema's Other: Wrangling over "China-humiliating" Films (ruHua pian), by Yiman Wang5. World Export: Melodramas of Colonial Conquest, by Jane Marie GainesPart II: "Divided Mis-en-Scène: Colonial Cinema and Cold War Afterimages"6. Tarzan/Taishan and Other Orphans: Taiwan's Melodrama of Decolonization, by Zhang Zhen7. What Is an Auteur? Hŏ Yŏng/Hinatsu Eitarō/Huyung Between (Post)Colonial Indonesia, Japan, and Korea, by Thomas A. C. Barker and Nikki J. Y. LeePart III: "Millennial Hauntings: Rising Global Asian Cinemas"8. Cinema's Coloniality, by Takushi Odagiri9. A Hallucinatory History of the Philippine-American War: Khavn's Balangiga: Howling Wilderness, by José B. Capino10. Millennial Vengeance: Park Chan-Wook's Agassi (The Handmaiden) and the Return of Postcolonial Japonisme, by Nayoung Aimee KwonIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWe enjoy laughing at The Room, but to stop there would reflect poorly on us as an audience. Something so singular and immense deserves loving attention and careful study, and that's what we find in this rich and delightful collection of essays. -- Matthew Strohl, author of Why It's OK to Love Bad Movies, Professor of Philosophy at the University of MontanaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Let's Toss the Ball Around, by Adam RosenPart I: Cliché and Convention, Misapplied1. Chris-R's Gun: The Room as an Unconscious Parody of Hollywood Film Conventions, by Carter Soles2. Do You Understand Life? Do You? Tommy Wiseau and the Anti-Method Acting Style, by James Curnow3. "She Can't Love Anyone": The Evil Women and Tormented Men of The Room, by Lenika CruzPart II: Unlocking The Room4. Is The Room Worse than Vertigo? The Aesthetic Philosophy of "So Bad it's Good", by James MacDowell5. Everybody Betray Me! Revenge, Reverse Revenge, and Slave Morality in The Room, by John Dyck6. Anything for My Princess: Using Don Quixote to Bring (Some) Coherence to The Room, by Adam Rosen7. Crypto-Wiseaulogy: Uncovering Stanley Kubrick, Jewishness, and Judaism in The Room, by Nathan AbramsPart III: Cult and the (Class)Room8. I Just Like to Watch You Guys: How Screenings of The Room Give People Permission to Perform, by Ellen Wright9. The Room in the Classroom: How I Use a Bad Movie to Teach Good Filmmaking, by Ross Morin10. For the Love of Cult, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Build My Own Screening of The Room, by Amanda Ann KleinPart IV: Fan Reception11. How Can They Say This About Me? Riffing Johnny, Lisa, and Denny in Online Homebrew Commentaries of The Room, by Matt Foy12. "Can We Please Not Talk about James Franco?": How The Disaster Artist Threatened The Room's Fanbase, by John Donegan13. I'm Tired, I'm Wasted: The Room as a Waste of Time, by Ernest MathijsPart V: Constructing Tommy Wiseau14. Oh Man, I Just Can't Figure You Out: Building the Persona of Tommy Wiseau through The Disaster Artist, by Hario Satrio Priambodho15. I'm an American, Just Like You: The Room and American Cinema, Identity, and Masculinity, by Landon Palmer16. To Err Is Human, to Auteur, Divine: Tommy Wiseau as Auteur, by Renee Middlemost17. I Don't Have a Friend in the World: The Lonely Authenticity of Tommy Wiseau, by Keith Kahn-HarrisWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisWandering Women: Urban Ecologies of Italian Feminist Filmmakingexploresthe work of contemporary Italian women directors from feminist and ecological perspectives. Mostly relegated to the margins of the cultural scene, and concerned with women's marginality, the compelling films Wandering Women sheds light on tell stories of displacement and liminality that unfold through the act of walking in the city.The unusual emptiness of the cities that the nomadic female protagonists traverse highlights the absence of, and their wish for, life-sustaining communities.Laura Di Bianco contends thatwomen's urban filmmakingwhile articulating a claim for belonging and asserting cinematic and social agencybrings into view landscapes of the Anthropocene, where urban decay and the erasure of nature intersect with human alienation.Though a minor cinema, it is also a powerful movement of resistance against the dominant male narratives about the world we inhabit. Based on interviews with directors,WanderinTrade ReviewLaura Di Bianco combines ecocritical and feminist perspectives with acute awareness of social inequalities as she travels through the landscape of contemporary women's cinema in Italy. For its interdisciplinary outlook, Wandering Women will be of great interest to readers in Italian studies, gender studies, and environmental humanities. They will discover eight remarkable women film directors spanning three generations, who treat the urban environment as a living ecology. -- Giuliana Bruno, Harvard University, author of Streetwalking on a Ruined MapWandering Women invites readers on a lively voyage through Italian urban environments, from Milan to Rome, from Naples to Taranto and Reggio Calabria, following a dynamic canon of films made by Italian women directors. Addressing questions of ideology, geography, ecology, and aesthetics, Di Bianco's engrossing book examines figures both on screen and behind the scenes, showing how innovative filmmakers and their films reciprocally shape cinematic, urban, and affective places. This groundbreaking study is built on Di Bianco's deep knowledge of cinematic history and its many protagonists—directors, production crews, cities, ecologies, landscapes. Wandering Women is a convivial, generative conversation across generations of filmmakers. It is an innovative and timely treatise on ecology, cinema, and the Anthropocene in Italy, one that is destined to become a landmark in Italian film studies. -- Elena Past, author of Italian Ecocinema Beyond the HumanTable of ContentsPreface: Women Make Movies in ItalyAcknowledgmentsNote on TranslationIntroduction: Mapping Italian Women's Filmmaking1. Walking in Resilient Cities: Traveling with CeciliaFegatello: The Nightless City2. Urban Wandering, Scrapbooking, and Filmmaking: As the Shadow, My Tomorrow, Poetry You See MeFegatello: Ophelia Does Not Drown3. Mothers and Daughters: Stories of Survival and Care: The White Space, I Like to WorkFegatello: All About You4. Coming of Age in the City: Garbage, Corpses, and Miracles: Corpo Celeste, Domenica, Lost KissesFegatello: The Macaluso Sisters5. A Psychogeology of the City: N-AbleFegatello: In This WorldEpilogue: The Cities of WomenFilmographyBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisFlashbacks in Film examines film flashback as a rich multimodal narrative device, analyzing the cognitive underpinnings of film flashbacks and the mechanisms that lead viewers to successfully comprehend them.Combining a cognitive film theory approach with the theoretical framework proposed by blending theory, which claims that human beings' general ability for conceptual integration underlies most of our daily activities, this book argues that flashbacks make sense to the viewer, as they are specifically designed for the viewer's cognitive understanding. Through a mixture of analysis and dozens of case studies, this book demonstrates that successful film flashbacks appeal to the spectator's natural perceptual and cognitive abilities, which spectators exercise daily.This book will serve as a valuable resource for scholars interested in film studies, media studies, and cognitive linguistics.Trade Review"In conclusion, Gordejuela has put forward a book that is rich in content and that opens up new questions just as it answers its principal ones. As such, it is likely to spark productive discussions in many related research fields." - Federica CavalettiTable of Contents1. Introduction: a cognitive approach to film; 2. Flashbacks in film; 3. Blended joint attention; 4. Viewpoint compression; 5. Time compression; 6 The whole picture; 7 Conclusions

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Book SynopsisGlitch Art in Theory and Practice: Critical Failures and Post-Digital Aesthetics explores the concept of glitch alongside contemporary digital political economy to develop a general theory of critical media using glitch as a case study and model, focusing specifically on examples of digital art and aesthetics. While prior literature on glitch practice in visual arts has been divided between historical discussions and social-political analyses, this work provides a rigorous, contemporary theoretical foundation and framework.Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Origins of 'Glitch' in The Stoppage2. The Heritage of Materialist Media3. Digital Misfunction and Materialist Approaches4. Critical Engagements with FailureConclusion: ProspectsGlossary

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Book SynopsisDespite a career spanning over forty years, filmmaker Alan Rudolph has flown largely under the radar of independent film scholars and enthusiasts, often remembered as Robert Altman’s protege. Through a reading of his 1985 film Trouble in Mind, Caryl Flinn demonstrates that Rudolph is long overdue for critical re-evaluation.Trade ReviewIn recent years the discipline of cinema studies seems to be moving into the archive but without the excitement that characterized so much of the writing during the early years of cinema studies. This book on Trouble in Mind promises a new mode of study with roots in the archive but with multiple strategies for making it yield interpretive criticism. The result is a rich appreciation of how the film was received." - Krin Gabbard, Stony Brook University"This book fills a void in the work on independent cinema, particularly with regard to the 1980s, as well as director Alan Rudolph, who has largely remained in the shadow of his mentor Robert Altman in film scholarship. It serves as a model for reading films of this period in light of Reagan-era politics and policies." - Richard Ness, Western Illinois UniversityTable of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Plot: Borrowed Pasts and Unclear Futures Chapter 3: Trouble in Mind in Independent Cinema: Smooth Sailing in a Troubled Term Chapter 4: Neo noir and Anti noir: Playing with Tropes Chapter 5: The Style of Dreams: Image and Music Chapter 6: The 1980s: Broken Politics, Surfaces, and Dreams Chapter 7: Marketing and Reception Chapter 8: Archives, Afterlives, and Author’s Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhile credit for the success of Citizen Kane has traditionally been attributed solely to its director, Orson Welles, this study documents the shared creative achievements of Welles and his principal collaborators.Trade Review"This revised and updated edition has been enlarged to include a new preface, new photos, and a discussion of Welles's second feature, The Magnificent Ambersons. . . . Considering Kane's importance to American film, this is essential for all movie collections." * Library Journal *"Carringer has had access to previously inaccessible studio records, resulting in an unprecedentedly documented account of the collaborative creation of Kane; Carringer has also interviewed numerous participants in the film's making, including Welles himself. The result is not only new knowledge about Kane, but a new understanding about how films were made in the studio system." * Film Quarterly *"A meticulous technical study . . . not only reminds us of why we want to read about Welles in the first place, but comes closer to the core of the man than [biographies of Welles]." * Village Voice *Table of ContentsPreface A Word on Sources Acknowledgments 1. Heart of Darkness 2. Scripting 3. Art Direction 4. Cinematography 5. Postproduction and Release 6. Collaboration and The Magnificent Ambersons Appendix: Outtakes Production Credits Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis selection of essays taken from "Hollywood Quarterly" reflect the astonishing eclecticism of the journal, with sections on animation, the avant-garde, and documentary to go along with a representative sampling of articles about feature-length narrative films.Trade Review"Hollywood Quarterly was so far ahead of its time it seems eclectic even today. Contributors to the journal routinely ranged from those who actually made movies...to those in academia who were at the time only beginning to comprehend the significance of cinema to 20th Century culture.... This anthology offers invaluable insight into the early history of film scholarship, education and perhaps most importantly, industry relations at a most crucial time in motion picture history."-Jon Lewis, author of Hollywood vs. Hard CoreTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Hollywood Quarterly, 1945--1957 Eric Smoodin and Ann Martin Editorial Statement (1945) 1. The Avant-Garde 2. Animation 3. Documentary 4. Radio 5. Practice 6. Television 7. The Hollywood Picture 8. Scenes from Abroad 9. Notes and Communications Index of Names Index of Films

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Book SynopsisThis history of the horror film explores the genre's relationship to the social and cultural history of homosexuality in America. The text draws on a wide variety of films and primary sources including censorship files, critical reviews, promotional materials, fanzines and popular news weeklies.Table of Contents1. Defining the Monster Queer in the Classical Hollywod Horror Film, 2. Shock Treatment: Curing the Monster Queer during World War II, 3. Pods, Pederasts, and Perverts: (Re)Criminalizing the Monster Queer in Cold War Culture, 4. Exposing the Monster Queer to the Sunlight, Circa the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, 5. Satan Spawn and Out and Proud: Monster Queers in the Postmodern Era

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Book SynopsisUsing examples such as "Big Brother" and "Billy Elliot", Bignell offers a comprehensive, intelligent and readable introduction into the critical approach in contemporary media studies. This second edition includes sections on men's style magazines, docusoaps and "reality TV".Trade ReviewJonathan Bignell's comprehensive, intelligent and readable introduction to semiotics is ahead of the field in clarity, in its astutue use of contemporary examples, and in his openness to both the latest theoretical developments and the criticisms of semiotics theory launched over the last decade by media sociologists.|...best suited to upper-level undergraduates and keen graduate students in media/cultural studies, providing an accessible and lucid overview of things they should really know about. -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Signs and myths 2. Advertisements 3. Magazines4. Newspapers5. Television news6. Television realisms7. Television fictions8. Cinema9. Interactive media BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis anthology brings together the key statements from the main debates in feminist film theory in Britain and the United States since 1970. The book maps the impact of major theoretical developments on this growing field, in terms of both theoretical shifts and changes in methodologies.Trade ReviewLike feminist theory in general, feminist film theory has undergone considerable change and revision since its heady days of the early 1970s. This collection of 23 representative essays and extracts illustrates this history extremely well, providing a useful framework for understanding the variety to be found in feminist film analysis ...The range of material, and helpful introductions, make this an ideal teaching text. Like feminist theory in general, feminist film theory has undergone considerable change and revision since its heady days of the early 1970s. This collection of 23 representative essays and extracts illustrates this history extremely well, providing a useful framework for understanding the variety to be found in feminist film analysis ...The range of material, and helpful introductions, make this an ideal teaching text.

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