Film history, theory or criticism Books

Book SynopsisJennifer DeClue examines Black feminist avant-garde films from filmmakers including Kara Walker, Tourmaline, and Ja'Tovia Gary that visualize violence suffered by Black women in the United States.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Visitation 1 1. The Archive and the Silhouette: Framing Black Feminist Avant-Garde Cinema 29 2. Reckoning at the Bridge: Saved and the Archive of Laura Nelson 65 3. Carrying the Knowledge / Performing the Archive: An Afternoon with Marsha P. Johnson 99 4. Ecstasy and the Archive: A Black Feminist Phenomenology of Freedom 143 Coda. On Tenderness 183 Notes 187 Bibliography 211 Index 221

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe sacred ethos of the American Dream has become a central pillar of American civil religion. The belief that meaning is fashioned from some mixture of family, friends, a stable career, and financial security permeates American culture. Profane Parables examines three films that assault this venerated American myth.Trade ReviewRindge writes with both academic rigor and an approachable tone, which makes the text accessible for audiences in both academic circles and broader spheres, such as those interested in American civil religion, the particular filmmakers Rindge cites, or the biblical genre of parables. -- Joel Mayward -- Journal of Religion and FilmRindge's Profane Parables is an excellent work. It will appeal greatly to scholars of American Studies, film, religion, and popular culture. -- Margaret Weber -- Journal of Popular CultureA wonderful piece of work -- ChoiceAs a whole, Profane Parables is a refined work that offers both a thought provoking and an easy read and I would recommend it to anyone thinking of exploring film from the perspective of biblical studies or interested in film, myths and morals. -- Sofia Sjö -- Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital CutureTable of Contents Introduction 1. The American Dream: The Sacred Ethos of American Religion 2. Fight Club: Lamenting God's Abandonment and the American Dream 3. American Beauty: Death as Divine Beauty 4. About Schmidt: An American Rich Fool 5. Films as Parables of Disorientation Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisShe would appear in more than thirty films and be named after a Road Atlas by Cecil B Demille. A football play would be named after her. She would appear on To Tell the Truth. She would be arrested six times in one day for indecency. She would be immortalized in the final scene of The Right Stuff, cartoons, popular culture, and live on as the iconic symbol of the Chicago World's Fair of 1933. She would pave the way for every sex symbol to follow from Marilyn Monroe to Lady Gaga. She would die penniless and in debt. In the end, Sammy Davis Jr. would write her a $10,000 check when she had nothing left. Her name was Sally Rand. Until now, there has not been a biography of Sally Rand. But you can draw a line from her to Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch, Ann Margret, Madonna, and Lady Gaga. She broke the mold in 1933, by proclaiming the female body as something beautiful and taking it out of the strip club with her ethereal fan dance. She was a poor girl from the Ozarks who ran awa

Read more less

Book SynopsisSince the earliest days of the nation, US citizenship has been linked to military service. Even though blacks fought and died in all American wars, their own freedom was usually restricted or denied. In many ways, World War II exposed this contradiction.As demand for manpower grew during the war, government officials and military leaders realized that the war could not be won without black support. To generate African American enthusiasm, the federal government turned to mass media. Several government films were produced and distributed, movies that have remained largely unexamined by scholars. Kathleen M. German delves into the dilemma of race and the federal government's attempts to appeal to black patriotism and pride even while postponing demands for equality and integration until victory was achieved.German's study intersects three disciplines: the history of the African American experience in World War II, the theory of documentary film, and the study of

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor Elena del Río, extreme cinema is not only qualitatively different from the representations of violence we encounter in popular, mainstream cinema; it also constitutes a critique of the socio-moral system that produces (in every sense of the word) such violence. Drawing inspiration from Deleuze's ethics of immanence, Spinoza's ethology of passions and Nietzsche's typology of forces, The Grace of Destruction examines the affective extremities common in much of global, contemporary cinema from the affirmative perspective of vital forces and situationsextremities such as moral/religious oppression, biopolitical violence, the pain involved in gender relations, the event of death and planetary extinction. Her analysis diverges from the current literature on extreme cinema through its selection of films, which include key international examples, and through its foregrounding of relational, affective politics over representations of sexuality and graphic violence. Detailed formal Trade ReviewDel Río’s Grace of Destruction… [continues] to invigorate the conversation surrounding the new extreme cinema while also expanding the applicability of its terms in productive and challenging ways that particularly encourage us to consider the ethical and philosophical ramifications that only the extreme encounter can engender. * Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media *The exploration of how Deleuze’s inflections of Nietzschean and Spinozan thought are brought out ... are precise, well-researched, pertinent and compelling. he philosophies are engaged with and pursued in rigorous fashion often via contemporary scholarly reworkings, which elicit surprising yet convincing conclusions ... The chapters are well linked and build neatly upon one another, but readers familiar with the book’s philosophical touchpoints could nonetheless dive directly into individual chapters should they be so inclined. * Film-Philosophy *[The Grace of Destruction]... is an inspiring and thought-provoking book that should appeal to a broad readership (interested in global film, film philosophy, cine-ethics, extreme cinemas, and politics) and is fit for an era when critically interrogating the habitual ways in which we think, live, and act (as citizens and a species) has never been more important. -- David H. Fleming * SYMPOSIUM: The Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy *Elena del Río's The Grace of Destruction is a remarkable book combining a passion for cinema that yields stunning critical insights with an acute theoretical genealogy of contemporary culture’s moralism. Although thoroughly attuned to the most recent developments in Deleuzian philosophies of cinema and affect, and without being negatively reactive against the contemporary field of cinema studies, del Río's work manages to be breathtakingly original. Anyone interested in cinematic aesthetics and the radical potential of cinema as a mode of thought should read this book. * Claire Colebrook, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, The Pennsylvania State University, USA *In her formidable new book, The Grace of Destruction, Elena del Río examines a corpus of violent, shocking, and ultimately extreme films—the very films that moralists might otherwise condemn—in order to mount furious critique of the transcendent values of modern morality. In conversation with Spinoza, Nietzsche, Deleuze, and Guattari, among others, The Grace of Destruction dares its readers to conceive of cinema as a vitalist ethics, but also to grasp ethics in the absence of humanism. A brave, uncompromising, and important book. * Gregory Flaxman, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: From Violence to Forces: Extreme Cinemas as Ethological Experimentation Chapter 1: The Disease of Morality Chapter 2: Bare Life Chapter 3: Physics of Violence, Folds of Pain Chapter 4: Ethology of Death Chapter 5: Extinction Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisDocumentary has never attracted such audiences, never been produced with such ease from so many corners of the globe, never embraced such variety of expression. The very distinctions between the filmed, the filmer and the spectator are being dissolved. The Act of Documenting addresses what this means for documentary's 21st century position as a genus in the class cinema; for its foundations as, primarily, a scientistic, eurocentric and patriarchal discourse; for its future in a world where assumptions of photographic image integrity cannot be sustained. Unpacked are distinctions between performance and performativy and between different levels of interaction, linearity and hypertextuality, engagement and impact, ethics and conditions of reception. Winston, Vanstone and Wang Chi explore and celebrate documentary''s potentials in the digital age.Trade ReviewThe Act of Documenting is a first work of its kind (barring anthologies) that I have come across in the last five years that eclectically distills scholarship in … [multiple] areas to effectively map and analyze the field of contemporary documentary studies. * Rahul Mukherjee, Film Quarterly *Fiercely argued, urgently rendered, and rigorously researched, The Act of Documenting whacks through the ethical, political, moral, evidentiary, and argumentative acts undergirding documentary production and reception. This gutsy, vital book cuts to the core of documentary: it interrogates the place of documentary in the world and how it engages people and ideas in ways that truly matter. Moving adroitly between the histories of analog documentary and the promising landscapes of digital forms, this substantial, sage book irrefutably shows that ethics, politics, and philosophical inquiry override formats, interfaces, and technologies. Polemical yet lyrical, forceful yet inviting, this book leaves the reader exhilarated with new ways of thinking about and through documentary. The opening chapter précis could be assembled as an intellectual toolkit for all us in the act of documentary—theorists, historians, practitioners, programmers, or offered as a manifesto cracking open the most salient issues demanding our attention and action. * Patricia R. Zimmermann, Professor of Screen Studies, Ithaca College, USA *By shifting emphasis from the category of documentary to the diverse practices of documenting, Winston and his co-authors exchange the generic preoccupations of many past approaches for a more open exploration of what is going on audio-visually around ‘the real’. Their provocative appraisal takes our understanding of international media culture to new places. * John Corner, Visiting Professor in Communication Studies, University of Leeds, UK *Recognising that documentary, or ‘documedia’ as the authors’ prefer, is on new terrain in the digital 21st Century, this book offers up fresh ideas that we will be debating in classrooms, in conferences, and in films and online for decades to come. Taking seriously, and at times, seriously debunking, the claims of documentary’s new challenges and affordances in the 21st Century, The Act of Documenting offers a fresh perspective on this dynamic and ever-changing thing we still call (for better or worse) documentary. * Alisa Lebow, Producer/Director of Filming Revolution, University of Sussex, UK *The Act of Documenting, by Brian Winston, Gail Vanstone, and Wang Chi, is an elegantly argued, complex investigation of the ethics of each phase of documentary media making. It is in this context that they take on the ethics of The Act of Killing. Once I found that they would implicitly challenge even the ethics of my relation to my subjects (not villains but people I admire) in my own media making, the whole book became totally engrossing. -- Julia Lesage, Professor Emerita, University of Oregon * Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media *The text is thorough and does a fine job of clearly defining terms and laying out, and supporting, arguments. The work represents high-quality scholarship that most likely will appeal to advanced students and professionals, though it is definitely accessible to beginners, who will find here a tool that will help them expand their intellectual horizons. * Journal of Folklore Research *A volume from which film students can explore informative, clearly structured, and detailed content, while practitioners and scholars can appreciate its thought-provoking and challenging nature. * Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media *Table of ContentsAN AGENDA 1. “A Much Hailed Triumph” 2. “The Shakiest of Foundations” 3. The Act of Documenting PART ONE: DIGITAL POTENTIALS 1. “A Walk in the Woods” Image: AUTHENTICITY: Indexing -- Evidence TRUST: Manipulation -- Judgment SAVVY: Inferences -- Probability 2. “A breath of fresh air for documentary” Kit: CONTRADICTION: Digitization -- Standards GLOBALIZATIONi: Proliferation-- Resistance 3. “Life as narrativized” Story: INTERPASSIVITY: Navigation -- Feedback -- Intervention HOMO NARRANS: Texts -- Stories SCRIPTRIX NARRANS: Challenge --Paths PART TWO: ACTUAL EFFECTS…. …. on THE FILMED 4. “To thine own self be true” Performing: APPEARING: Distrust -- Presentational Acting -- Representational Being BEHAVING: Performativity -- Casting 5. “Giving Voice” Co-creating: CONTROL: Engagement -- Empowerment CHANGE: Facilitating -- Embedding …. on THE FILMER 6. “To Make Space For The Un-Thought” Subjectivities: GENDER: Narcissism -- Auto/Biography EMANCIPATION: Exclusions -- “Facts” 7. “Nous somme dans le bain”/”We are implicated” Care: HARM: Involvement -- Consequences RIGHTS: Protocols -- Control …. on THE SPECTATOR 8. "You have to make up your own mind” Perception: EXPECTATIONS: Truth -- Omission ASSUMPTONS: Wow! -- Ostranenie 9. “When the lights go up” -- Reception OUTCOMES: Impact -- Engagement -- Research CONDITIONS: Autonomy -- Hazards MINUTES: THE ACT OF DOCUMENTING Considerations

Read more less

Book SynopsisBiopics and other movies and television shows based on real events are increasingly appearing at the multiplex and on streaming platforms alongside blockbuster franchises and adaptations. The appeal of movies and television shows based on true stories is that they claim to tell us what really happened, with the public and private versions of events packaged into one coherent narrative. But how do they do it, and what makes this version of events so appealing? The Biopic and Beyond investigates the process that turns the distant public figures that populate news and entertainment into screen characters that we can engage with and try to understand a little better. Even though they aren't the real thing, our engagement with fictionalized versions of public figures can, for better or worse, color the way we understand the real person behind them. Screen engagement with the fake person behind the real person doesn't only happen in biopics and docudramas, with media as varied as sketTrade ReviewIn The Biopic and Beyond: Celebrities as Characters in Screen Media, Piper takes on the core issue of authenticity in the depiction of docu-characters and packs a lot of provocative thought into a thin but valuable volume. * Journal of American Culture *This book makes a compelling case for the term docucharacter examining topics in the intersection of various forms of screen and celebrity cultures, from biopic to sketch comedy to fan culture. * Doris Berger, Vice President of Curatorial Affairs, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles, USA *The Biopic and Beyond explores an engaging set of questions concerning the ways in which stars and celebrities appear on our screens. Examining the different relationships between characters who we know from the public arena and their representations - by themselves and others - in a variety of films, television shows and media texts from the United States, Piper poses a set of complex conceptual examples that interrogate these increasingly pervasive cultural encounters. * Lucy Bolton, Reader in Film Studies, Queen Mary University of London, UK *Table of ContentsDedication Acknowledgements Introduction: Any Resemblance is Completely Intended 1. Re-Creating the Public 2. Creating the Private 3. The Illusion of Access 4. Beyond the Biopic: Sketch Comedy 5. Beyond the Biopic: Celebrities Play Themselves 6. Beyond the Biopic: Real Person Fan Fiction Conclusion: Defined by Docucharacter Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume explores the philosophical and metaphysical manifestations of contemporary cinema. Starting with the hypothesis that movies provide an experience that is both a pathway into the thinking mechanisms of modern humans and into our collective psyche, this study focuses on the elements that form the Romanian cinematic mind as part of the European cinema-thinking. While this book is based on specific case studies provided by recent productions in Romanian filmmaking, such as Proroca (2017) and Touch me Not (2018), it also contextualises the national cinema within the larger, European art of making movies. Offering close interpretations of the works of world-renowned directors like Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu, Corneliu Porumboiu or more recently Adina Pintilie and Constantin Popescu, this book questions the Romanianess of their cinematic techniques, and places their philosophical roots both in a particular mode of thinking and within continental philosophy.Trade ReviewDoru Pop's bold and erudite work conjures philosophers from Plato to Bergson to the newest inquiries into cinema's relationship with philosophy, examining how "thinking space" is created through the "evacuation" of elements usually considered constitutive of cinema. What is left - or what is created - when filmmakers renounce the concrete and the explicit? Using his unique cultural expertise, Doru Pop explores his country's celebrated recent cinema and its kinship with Dada, the other great aesthetic movement indebted to the Romanian fascination with the absurd and the incongruous. As Pop helps us understand how Romanian filmmakers unleash cinema's power and reveal its essence and capability, he also reminds us that experiencing cinema is ultimately meant to be a philosophical endeavor, an aesthetic form of struggle for meaning. * Ioana Uricaru, Associate Professor of Film and Media Culture, Middlebury College, USA *Doru Pop's book is subtle, astute, and precise, revealing how the cinematic and the metaphysical rely on the non-cinematic and the post-cinematic and the post-metaphysical to facilitate deep thinking and understanding. Pop offers a generous overview of the main questions and points of debate about how movies facilitate thinking. He not only sharpens the existing theoretical and conceptual toolbox in film studies about the epistemic functions of cinema, but also reveals Romanian New Wave films as inexhausted objects for theorizing and criticism. * Alina Haliliuc, Associate Professor, Communication Department, Denison University, USA *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: Meditations on Externality: Thinking Outside the Screen Chapter 1: The Eternal Flickering of the Film-Philosophies Quarrel Chapter 2: Offscreen Cinema: the Aesthetics of the Non-Cinematic Chapter 3: This is Not a Film You are Watching: The Visceral-Conceptual Response Chapter 4: A Magical Mystical Tour into the Romanian Cinematic Mind Epilogue: Rear-view Glances into the Post-Metaphysical Cinema Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe interdisciplinary French-American thinker René Girard (1923-2015) has been one of the towering figures of the humanities in the last half-century. The title of René Girard's first book offered his own thesis in summary form: romantic lie and novelistic truth [mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque]. And yet, for a thinker whose career began by an engagement with literature, it came as a shock to some that, in La Conversion de l'art, Girard asserted that the novel may be an outmoded form for revealing humans to themselves. However, Girard never specified what, if anything, might take the place of the novel. This collection of essays is one attempt at answering this question, by offering a series of analyses of films that aims to test mimetic theory in an area in which relatively little has so far been offered. Does it make any sense to talk of vérité filmique? In addition, Mimetic Theory and Film is a response to the widespread objection that there is nTrade ReviewRecognizing a growing interest at the international level, this volume is a timely publication in studies of film, philosophy, and the work of René Girard, exploring with insight and acuity the intersections of mimetic dynamics, sacrifice, and the moving image. Assembling authoritative critical voices on mimetic theory and analysing both classic and recent films, this book shows the hermeneutical and critical productivity of Girard's theoretical insights for film studies. A must-read for anyone in the field. * Pierpaolo Antonello, Reader in Modern Italian Literature and Culture, University of Cambridge, UK, and co-editor of Mimesis, Desire, and the Novel: René Girard and Literary Criticism (2015) *A strong collection of major Girard scholars who persuasively argue for reading film through René Girard’s mimetic theory. The introduction by Fleming and Bubbio itself is a valuable guide for extending Girard’s ideas. This volume will be of great interest and use for readers in film studies, popular culture, and those following the exciting (re)turn to Girard occurring at Bloomsbury. * William A. Johnsen, Professor of English, Michigan State University, USA, and editor of Contagion: The Journal of The Colloquium on Violence and Religion *For over fifty years, Rene´ Girard's mimetic theory has given us a startling way of reading texts, especially novels and other classic literature. His approach identifies a strong complicity between ‘the sacred’ and the violence which is at the root of social and cultural formation. The present volume offers an overdue extension of this hermeneutic, by exploring the mimetic dimension of cinema. However, the essays are far from being a simple mechanical application of Girard's theory. Once again, the remarkable energy and creativity of the Australian circle of Girardian scholars have yielded fresh questions, but also a new fertility, with regard to Girardian theory. * Michael Kirwan, SJ, Research Associate, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK, and co-editor of Philosophy, Theology and the Jesuit Tradition (Bloomsbury, 2017) *Table of ContentsNotes on Editors and Contributors Introduction Diego Bubbio and Chris Fleming, Western Sydney University, Australia 1. Buñuel’s Apocalypse Now Andrew McKenna, Loyola University Chicago, USA 2. On Fiction and Truth: Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing Paul Dumouchel, Ritsumeikan Uiversity, Japan 3. Passing "The Imitation Game": Ex Machina, the Ethical, and Mimetic Theory Sandor Goodhart, Purdue University, USA 4. Femina ex-machina Jean-Pierre Dupuy, École Polytechnique, Paris, France 5. Looking for a Scapegoat and Finding Oneself: Kieslowski’s Decalogue and Mimetic Theory Jeremiah Alberg, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan 6. Violence and Politics in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood Richard van Oort, University of Victoria, Canada 7. The Screenic Age Eric Gans, UCLA, USA 8. A Sacrificial Crisis Not Far Away: Star Wars as a Genuinely Modern Mythology Paolo Diego Bubbio, Western Sydney University, Australia 9. Mimetic Magic and Anti-Sacrificial Slayage: A Girardian Reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer George A. Dunn, University of Indianapolis, USA, and Brian McDonald, Indiana University, USA 10. It’s Not the End of the World: Post-Apocalyptic Flourishing in Cartoon Network's Adventure Time Emma A. Jane, University of New South Wales, Australia Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisEco-theory and Annihilation is part of the Film Theory in Practice series, which blends the explanation of a film theory with the interpretation of a film and provides discrete examples of how film theory can serve as the basis for textual analysis. This book offers a concise introduction to eco-theory in jargon-free language and shows how this theory can be deployed to interpret Alex Garland''s controversial film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer''s hit novel Annihilation.Eco-theory is one of the most exciting and timely offshoots of contemporary critical theory, but it is too frequently treated as only a recent development. Covering historical developments in nature philosophy, geology, and organic chemistry, as well as contemporary critical methodologies like systems theory and new materialism, Eco-Theory and Annihilation introduces readers to the full extent of eco-theory's lively variations, as well as investigates the complications that arise when those variations are mediated by the generic expectations of filmic science fiction. This book illuminates the deep history of eco-theory, maps its contemporary coordinates, and demonstrates how it can shed light on Garland's provocative eco-sci-fi thriller.

Read more less

Book SynopsisEco-theory and Annihilation is part of the Film Theory in Practice series, which blends the explanation of a film theory with the interpretation of a film and provides discrete examples of how film theory can serve as the basis for textual analysis. This book offers a concise introduction to eco-theory in jargon-free language and shows how this theory can be deployed to interpret Alex Garland''s controversial film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer''s hit novel Annihilation.Eco-theory is one of the most exciting and timely offshoots of contemporary critical theory, but it is too frequently treated as only a recent development. Covering historical developments in nature philosophy, geology, and organic chemistry, as well as contemporary critical methodologies like systems theory and new materialism, Eco-Theory and Annihilation introduces readers to the full extent of eco-theory's lively variations, as well as investigates the complications that arise when those variations are mediated by the generic expectations of filmic science fiction. This book illuminates the deep history of eco-theory, maps its contemporary coordinates, and demonstrates how it can shed light on Garland's provocative eco-sci-fi thriller.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA New History of Documentary Film includes new research that offers a fresh way to understand how the field began and grew. Retaining the original edition's core structure, there is added emphasis of the interplay among various approaches to documentaries and the people who made them. This edition also clearly explains the ways that interactions among the shifting forces of economics, technology, and artistry shape the form.New to this edition:- An additional chapter that brings the story of English language documentary to the present day- Increased coverage of women and people of color in documentary production- Streaming- Animated documentaries- List of documentary filmmakers, organized chronologically by the years of their activity in the fieldTrade ReviewClearly written, rich with well-researched, historical details, and contemporary critical insights, Betsy A. McLane’s A New History of Documentary Film, 3rd ed., informs and analyzes (primarily) English language, nonfiction film, including recent works by women and non-white documentarians. Enhancing understanding and increasing enjoyment, McLane expands our knowledge, placing works within social and cultural, political and personal contexts, illuminating technical and aesthetic elements alike with well-chosen examples. This book is a joy to read with ample illustrations, text, and film recommendations and a useful index. * Diane Carson, Professor Emerita and Past President, St. Louis Community College and University Film and Video Association, USA *Documentary film is all around us. Cinema was born non-fictional but the history of film for too long did not devote to documentary the due attention. It was a global shortsightness, not restricted to the anglophile world. Fortunately those days are gone. Building from the groundbreaking work of Erik Barnouw and her own partnership with Jack S. Ellis for the first version of A New History of Documentary Film (2005), Betsy A. McLane regales us with a third, brand new edition, reviewing and updating a book that was already unique and prodigious when last appeared one decade ago. In a single volume here is the evolution of the documentary cinema, introducing the pioneer production of Robert Flaherty and Western European and Soviet documentarists and focusing especially on the USA, UK and Canada experiences, from its first steps to our 21st Century in all its diversity of voices and formats. Elegantly written and full of insights about an ever changing landscape, it is an essential guide for moviegoers, film students, filmmakers and any reader interested in a better understanding of one of the fundamental artistic expressions of an increasingly complex world. * Amir Labaki, Founder and director, É Tudo Verdade/It’s All True International Documentary Film Festival, Brazil, and author of A Verdade de Cada Um - O Documentário na Visão de Seus Principais Realizadores (2015) and Introdução ao Documentário Brasileiro (2006) *Table of ContentsForeword Introduction 1. Considering Documentary 2. Visual Anthropology-Humanities Studies/Exploitation 3. Soviet Formalism 4. Propaganda Definitions & Making Judgments 5. Government Agencies and WWII 6. Newsreels 1910-1955 7. Free Cinema 8. New Left in Europe, Canada and US 9. US Public Television/Corporation for Public Broadcasting 10. Early Cable and Satellite Television 11. Theatrical Documentary 12. New Subjects at the Turn of the Century 13. Streaming 14. Animation in Documentary Conclusions and Future Possibilities Documentary Filmmakers Biography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn A Guide to Post-classical Narration, Eleftheria Thanouli expands and substantially develops the innovative theoretical work of her previous publication, Post-classical Cinema: an International Poetics of Film Narration (2009). A Guide to Post-classical Narration: The Future of Film Storytelling presents a concise and comprehensive overview of the creative norms of the post-classical mode of narration. With dozens of cases studies and hundreds of color stills from films across the globe, this book provides the definitive account of post-classical storytelling and its techniques. After surfacing in auteur films in varied production milieus in the 1990s, the post-classical options continued to gain ground throughout the 2000s and 2010s, gradually fertilizing several mainstream productions in Hollywood. From Lars von Trier's Europa (1991) to Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (2021) and Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), the post-classical narratiTrade ReviewThis guide offers the first comprehensive study of post-classical cinema as a prominent and consistent form of storytelling in the current media landscape. Merging ongoing debates in film narratology with key topics from contemporary cinema studies, the narratological analyses and case studies in this book show how the post-classical has developed into a rich and diverse narrative style, with a surprisingly consistent set of underlying compositional principles and norms. * Steven Willemsen, Assistant Professor in Arts, Culture, and Media, University of Groningen, Netherlands *The complex fictional worlds of Nolan and Tarantino, among other contemporary filmmakers, are elucidated in Thanouli’s compelling approach to narrative analysis. A bracing and authoritative model for reading the most challenging film texts of the 21st century. * Robert Burgoyne, author of The New American War Film (2023) *This "guide" helps solve the Rubik’s Cube of Post-Classical Narration by exposing the innards of films that have baffled students since 1990. Sketching how 35 titles, drawn from her list of 220, expanded the rules and limits of storytelling on screen, Eleftheria Thanouli reinvigorates, with intensified continuity, the historical poetics championed by David Bordwell, her own distinguished guide. The fundaments of film theory uphold her bracingly clear survey of this spate of formerly (and formally) perplexing films, dissipating the critical fog surrounding them and shining back on film history in toto. * Dudley Andrew, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Film Studies, Yale University, USA *Thanouli makes a compelling case for post-classical narration as a persistent thread in global cinema since the 1990s, showing how new modes of self-consciousness and textual play have been integrated into contemporary screen storytelling. A key strength of the book is in its vivid, concise film analyses, which illustrate the overt and hypermediated convolutions of space, time, and narration that have reshaped cinema across a range of national and industrial contexts. * Allan Cameron, Professor of Media and Screen Studies, University of Auckland, Australia *Eleftheria Thanouli’s book is notable for employing formalist theory to delineate the distinctive traits of the post-classical mode of narration. Yet, this is not an abstract treatise on film narratology, for each chapter is infused with numerous concise and insightful case studies of films ranging from Requiem for a Dream to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, ending with a comparative study of the author’s and David Bordwell’s different formal analyses of Dunkirk. This book’s balance of theory and examples, as well as the clarity of Thanouli’s writing, makes it an ideal guide to the narrational strategies and tactics of post-classical cinema. * Warren Buckland, Reader in Film Studies, Oxford Brookes University, UK, and author of Narrative and Narration: Analyzing Cinematic Storytelling (2020) and editor of Puzzle Films (2008) *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface Introduction 1. Post-classical narrative logic 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Post-classical compositional motivation 1.3. Post-classical realistic motivation 1.4. Post-classical generic motivation 1.5. Post-classical artistic motivation 1.6. Conclusion 2. Post-classical space 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Intensified continuity 2.3. Graphic frame 2.4. Spatial montage 2.5. Conclusion 3. Post-classical time 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Mediated time 3.3. Complex chronology 3.4. Elastic duration 3.5. Conclusion 4. Post-classical narration 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Self-consciousness, knowledgeability, communicativeness 4.3. Levels of narration 4.4. Conclusion 5. The post-classical auteur: Quentin Tarantino 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Pulp Fiction (1994) 5.3. Kill Bill Vol. I (2003) 5.4. Inglourious Basterds (2009) 5.5. Once upon a time in Hollywood (2019) 5.6. Conclusion Conclusion References Filmography Appendix A: List of suggested post-classical films

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Arts of Cinema, Martin Seel explores film's connections to the other arts and the qualities that distinguish it from them. In nine concise and elegantly written chapters, he explores the cinema's singular aesthetic potential and uses specific examples from a diverse range of filmsfrom Antonioni and Hitchcock to The Searchers and The Bourne Supremacyto demonstrate the many ways this potential can be realized. Seel's analysis provides both a new perspective on film as a comprehensive aesthetic experience and a nuanced understanding of what the medium does to us once we are in the cinema.Trade ReviewIn his tremendously stimulating aesthetics of cinema, Martin Seel writes that films absorb the presence of the spectator more than all other works of art.... One of the merits of his book is that it is informed by a wide spectrum of film history, from the Marx Brothers to Fassbinder. * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *In his stimulating volume, the philosopher Seel looks for the essence and especially the particularity of the cinema, tracing the roots of cinema in other arts. According to Seel, film takes up elements from all of these arts and realizes its unique potential. Films like Hitchcock's North by Northwest or Antonioni's Zabriskie Point explode the boundaries of space and draw all of the spectator’s senses into it. * Deutschlandfunk [German Public Radio] *An exciting work of ‘philosophy meets cinema’—intellectually sophisticated but written in a rich, playful style—this book is both impressive and delightful. * academicworld.net *Seel grounds his philosophical work in close textual analysis of a small selection of representative films, including Hollywood classics, such as The Searchers; art films, such as Caché; and more recent action films, such as The Bourne Supremacy. As a work of philosophy and film theory, the book is notable for its lively engagement with complex ideas and for its inviting prose. It will appeal primarily to those with a strong interest in film aesthetics. * Choice *Anyone who studies, watches, or appreciates films for their beauty and artistic value will enjoy Seel's musings in philosophy and art. * Communication Booknotes Quarterly (CBQ) *Table of ContentsOpening Credits: Affairs—The Site of the Cinema—"Film"—The Course of Things—The Film Program 1. Film as Architecture: A Beginning—Division of Space—Ambient Sound—Some Opening Credits—Landscapes—Two Extremes—An Ending—Spatial Imagination—More Opening Credits 2. Film as Music: A Prelude—Time Connections—Action (1)—Double Motion—Action (2)—Spaces of Time—Higher Rhythm—Explosion 3. Film as Image: People Waiting—Pictorial Appearing—Image and Movement—Photography and Film—Another Trip— The Promise of Photography—Image Analysis—The Promise of Film—Another Ending 4. Film as Spectacle: Anarchy—Division of Space, Again—Virtuality—Sculpturality— Actors—Voices—Theatricality—Attractionism—Ecstasy 5. Film as Narrative: Three Films—Abstinence—Narrative Disposition—Telling Stories—Perspectivity—Filmic Storytelling—Cinema's Temporal Form—The Present Past 6. Film as Exploration: In Baghdad—Urban Landscapes—Realities—Processes of Documentation—A Double Promise—Techniques of Fiction— Questions of Style—Loss of Control—References to the World—The End 7. Film as Imagination: At Bakersfield—An Illusionistic Interpretation—The Figure of the Illusionist—Illusion and Immersion—Imagination Not Illusion—Photography and Film, Again—Twofold Attention—Illusion as a Technique—Caché 8. Film as Emotion: The End, Yet Again—The Illusionist's Final Appearance— Motion and Emotion—Corporeality—Sensate Understanding— Expressivity—Engagement—Twofold Attention, Again—Mixed Emotions—Godard 9. Film as Philosophy: Flashbacks—Another Affair—Three Dimensions—Cine- anthropology—Active Passivity—An Encore—Landscapes, Once Again Closing Credits: Notice—Thanks

Read more less

Book SynopsisA cultural history of modern lifestyle viewed through film and multimedia experiments of midcentury designers Charles and Ray Eames For the designers Charles and Ray Eames, happiness was both a technical and ideological problem central to the future of liberal democracy. Being happy demanded new things but also a vanguard life in media that the Eameses modeled as they brought film into their design practice. Midcentury modernism is often considered institutionalized, but Happiness by Design casts Eames-era designers as innovative media artists, technophilic humanists, change managers, and neglected film theorists.Happiness by Design offers a fresh cultural history of midcentury modernism through the film and multimedia experiments of Charles and Ray Eames and their peers—Will Burtin, László Moholy-Nagy, and György Kepes, among others—at a moment when designers enjoyed a new cultural prestige. Justus Nieland traces how, as representatives of the American Century’s exuberant material culture, Cold War designers engaged in creative activities that spanned disciplines and blended art and technoscience while reckoning with the environmental reach of media at the dawn of the information age.Eames-era modernism, Nieland shows, fueled novel techniques of culture administration, spawning new partnerships between cultural and educational institutions, corporations, and the state. From the studio, showroom floor, or classroom to the stages of world fairs and international conferences, the midcentury multimedia experiments of Charles and Ray Eames and their circle became key to a liberal democratic lifestyle—and also anticipated the look and feel of our networked present.Trade Review"Happiness by Design is a fascinating contribution to the fate of modernisms at midcentury. Justus Nieland unpacks the cheery products of Eames-era modern design as they manifest in material objects, in experimental films and multi-screen media, and in new forms of knowledge-making at conferences and lectures. He weaves all of this together in a rich and often surprising intellectual history of the midcentury ‘good life’ that questions how designers’ attempts to fashion human happiness quickly devolved into sad stories and risky futures."—Lynn Spigel, author of TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television"Happiness by Design is an astonishingly rich and inventive book. It immerses us in a world of midcentury modernism that feels connected to our present but is shaped by ideas and hopes we have perhaps forgotten. Justus Nieland has written a fantastic cultural history of the artists, filmmakers, and intellectuals who not only created some of the most iconic works of the period, but also whole environments filled with media and technologies actually designed to make life better."—Mark Goble, author of Beautiful Circuits: Modernism and the Mediated Life"Who doesn’t want to be happy? Justus Nieland’s brilliant book exposes the political and aesthetic stakes of this seemingly innocent desire voiced by so many of us in the present. Breaking new ground in film studies, Happiness by Design builds an account of how happiness became a technology, medium, and measure of human well-being and security. Happiness, in this book, is not just an emotion—it is a technique that has become central to how we imagine not only who we are but how we will survive in a rapidly changing world."—Orit Halpern, author of Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945 "The book’s design reinforces its subjects’ focus on knowledge organization and delivery."—ARLIS/NA Reviews"A dazzling array of theorizing on the plight of the world and the roles of designers and theoreticians in it."—CHOICE"Happiness by Design is an astonishingly rich portrait of an era whose reinvention of happiness out of global disaster might help chart out our own life among the ruins."—American Literary History"Lusciously illustrated . . . this book invites historians of design to consider the interdisciplinary practices and media techniques that shaped twentieth-century modernist design in the US and offers an invaluable resource for media scholars interested in the ways that design culture shaped period media practices. A wonderful read."—Design and Culture "Adventurous readers as well as film enthusiasts wishing to understand the medium in a much-wider context will find a veritable treasure trove of information."—Film International "Extensively researched and richly illustrated, Happiness by Design is a fascinating and inventive approach to the transformations of modernism at midcentury."—Synoptique"Throughout this probe into designers’ media experiments and their involvement in the organization of culture, Nieland employs his own organizational techniques, engaging midcentury discourses and reckonings with technology and information."—CAA Reviews"A dazzling intellectual history of a period marked by creative ferment and interdisciplinary collaboration... the result should change the way we think about our own disciplinary history."—Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

Read more less

Book SynopsisDecades before the emergence of a French self-styled 'hood' film around 1995, French filmmakers looked beyond the gates of the capital for inspiration and content. In the Paris suburbs they found an inexhaustible reservoir of forms, landscapes and social types in which to anchor their fictions, from bourgeois villas and bucolic riverside cafés to post-war housing estates and postmodern new towns. For the first time in English, contributors to this volume address key aspects of this long film history, marked by such towering figures as Jean Renoir, Jacques Tati and Jean-Luc Godard. Idyllic or menacing, expansive or claustrophobic, the suburb served divergent aesthetic and ideological programmes across the better part of a century. Themes central to French cultural modernity – class conflict, leisure, boredom and anti-authoritarianism – cut across the fifteen chapters.Trade Review‘This edited volume is an important contribution to conceptions of geography and French cinema. The fifteen contributions address the banlieue in film as geographic suburb and mise-en-scène that is both incidental landscape and elemental context for cinematic storytelling. Overall, the volume demonstrates how notions of banlieue cinema allow us to reconsider well-known French interwar and postwar films with an awareness of the postcolonial and hip-hop discourses that have over-coded an underlying historical context. The richness of this approach lies in how it foregrounds spatial dynamics within the Hexagon, or metropolitan France, as supplemented by longstanding histories of migration and regional idioms [...] A wide range of perspectives thus describe and reconsider the “space of periphery” in French cinema.’Peter J. Bloom, University of California, H-France Review, Vol. 19 (2019) -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction – Philippe Met and Derek Schilling1 On the origins of the banlieue film, 1930–80 – Annie Fourcaut2 Lumière, Méliès, Pathé and Gaumont: French filmmaking in the suburbs, 1896–1920 – Roland-François Lack3 Roads, rivers and canals: spaces of freedom from Epstein to Vigo – Jean-Louis Pautrot4 The banlieue in French cinema of the 1930s – Keith Reader5 Julien Duvivier and interwar ‘banlieutopia’ – Margaret C. Flinn6 Margins and thresholds of French cinema: Ménilmontant, Le Sang des bêtes, Colloque de chiens – Eric Bullot7 Georges Franju and the grotesque genius of the banlieue – Tristan Jean8 Tati, suburbia and modernity – Malcolm Turvey9 A crucible of emotions: Maurice Pialat’s L’Amour existe – Elisabeth Cardonne-Arlyck10 Godard’s suburban years – Térésa Faucon11 The banlieue wore black: postwar French polar, from Becker to Corneau – Philippe Met12 Erasing the suburbs: the grands ensembles in documentary film and television, 1950–80 – Camille Canteux13 Elusive happiness: screening France’s new towns after 1968 - Derek Schilling14 Towers of evil: Jean-Claude Brisseau – David Vasse15 What’s left of the ‘red suburb’? Hervé Le Roux’s Reprise as case study – Guillaume SoulezIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisModern European cinema and love examines nine European directors whose films contain stories about romantic love and marriage. The directors are Jean Renoir, Ingmar Bergman, Alain Resnais, Michelangelo Antonioni, Agnès Varda, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and Éric Rohmer. The book approaches questions of love and marriage from a philosophical perspective, applying the ideas of authors such as Stanley Cavell, Leo Bersani, Luce Irigaray and Alain Badiou, while also tracing key concepts from Freudian psychoanalysis. Each of the filmmakers engages deeply with notions of modern love and marriage, often in positive ways, but also in ways that question the institutions of love, marriage and the ‘couple’.Trade Review‘In this thoughtful and persuasive book, Richard Rushton focuses on how European cinema from the 1960s onwards has grappled with the problem of other minds by representing the thoroughly modern marriage. Rushton draws on Stanley Cavell’s work on comedies of remarriage to show how the heterosexual couple in crisis is a dominant feature of European cinema too. He thus offers a new perspective on debates about the relationship between European and Hollywood cinema, in a framework that emphasises how both filmmaking cultures work through the impact of changing gender relations and the new subjectivities they forge.’Fiona Handyside, Associate Professor in Film Studies, University of Exeter‘In a refreshingly clear-sighted reconsideration of some cornerstone films of European art cinema, Richard Rushton demonstrates arresting connections with the classical Hollywood romantic comedy. Reading the cycles side by side, by way of philosophical theories of love, marriage and subjectivity, he opens up new perspectives on both as well as on that most enduringly ubiquitous axis of social organisation and human meaning, the romantic relationship itself. Remaining admirably accessible throughout, this is a book for lovers of cinema and lovers tout court alike.’Mary Harrod , Associate Professor of Film Studies, University of Warwick'Rushton’s brilliant move is to take such difficult matters as love, romance and coupling as seriously as European New Wave cinema did. In doing so, he not only provides rich new readings of well-loved films but also shakes loose the supposed ideological coherence of those New Waves.'Kyle Stevens, Associate Professor of English, Appalachian State University -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: acknowledgment and connectedness1 Remarriage in Hollywood and Europe2 The falsity of social worlds: The Rules of the Game3 Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night: acknowledgment and deception4 Ingmar Bergman: comedies and tragedies5 Alain Resnais and the communication of love6 Michelangelo Antonioni: learning how to love7 Agnès Varda: the construction and destruction of the couple8 François Truffaut and the impossible couple9 Federico Fellini: love and forgiveness10 Jean-Luc Godard: in praise of two11 Éric Rohmer: the ordinary miracle of loveIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisGlobal London on screen presents a mélange of films by directors from the Global South and North, portraying everyday life to the more fantastical, odious, or extraordinary in terms of circumstances as captured cinematically in this superdiverse city. This book portrays a segment of such superdiversity by historicising and theorising various cinematic reproductions of London by filmmakers coming to this megacity from abroad. As visitors, cosmopolitans, or even migrant filmmakers, their treatment of London’s zonal locations as both foreign and familiar is fascinating; their narratives and visualisations of London’s spatial and architectural uniqueness is given a sojourners’ touch; while other foreign filmmakers showcase and sometimes problematise London’s socio-cultural globality and locality as both British and a city open (and sometimes closed off) to the world.Trade Review'This collection opens up vistas to what is often forgotten or not seen in a global city like London. The contributors reveal deep histories of the different Londons on screen, and their profound knowledge about the subject make this a great read.'Saskia Sassen, The Robert S. Lind Professor of Sociology, Columbia University -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Global London on screen: visitors, cosmopolitans and migratory cinematic visions of a superdiverse city – Keith B. Wagner1 ‘God is everywhere!’: engineering the immigrant landscape of Emeric Pressburger’s Miracle in Soho – Jingan MacPherson Young2 Dropping out: interiority, claustrophobia and decadence in cosmopolitan London cinema of the 1960s and 1970s – Kevin M. Flanagan3 On location in 1970s London: an interview with Gavrik Losey – Paul Newland4 Outside in: Twilight City and the birth of global London – Malini Guha5 ‘Where I come from, we eat places like this for breakfast’: Aki Kaurismäki’s I Hired a Contract Killer as transnational representation of local London – Claire MonkBollywood’s London: the moral-political undertow of London’s Hindi cinema presence – Shakuntala Banaji and Rahoul Masrani7 Brazucas on screen: the Brazilian diaspora in London as depicted in Henrique Goldman’s Jean Charles – Stephanie Dennison8 A critical analysis of the Nollywood film Osuofia in London – Uchenna Onuzulike9 Poetics of double erasure: British East/South-East Asian cinema and Lilting – Victor Fan10 Global Hollywood and the London set piece – Lawrence Webb11 Performative liveness in Lost in London: cinematic streaming and the digital happening in globalising London – Michael A. Unger and Keith B. Wagner12 Borders and cosmopolitanism in the global city: London River – Ana Virginia López Fuentes13 Utopia as a cosmopolitan method in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men – Mónica MartínEpilogue: The rise of sourdough bread: The Street, gentrification and Brexit – Charlotte BrunsdonIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisFeaturing more than 6,500 articles, including over 350 new entries, this fifth edition of The Encyclopedia of British Film is an invaluable reference guide to the British film industry. It is the most authoritative volume yet, stretching from the inception of the industry to the present day, with detailed listings of the producers, directors, actors and studios behind a century or so of great British cinema. Brian McFarlane's meticulously researched guide is the definitive companion for anyone interested in the world of film. Previous editions have sold many thousands of copies, and this fifth instalment will be an essential work of reference for universities, libraries and enthusiasts of British cinema.Trade Review'A massive achievement.'The Observer'Superbly done – comprehensive, eclectic and compulsively readable ... a delight to browse as well as an indispensable tool.'Sight & Sound'A fantastic achievement.'Professor Charles Barr'The Encyclopedia is astonishing – I learn things from it every time I open it.'Kevin Brownlow -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction to the Fifth EditionIntroduction to the Fourth EditionIntroduction to the Third EditionIntroduction to the Second EditionIntroduction to the First EditionEntries A–ZAwardsSome title changesSelect bibliographyThematic entries

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe loneliness room is a richly evocative account of loneliness as told through the photographs, videos, songs, poems, and writings supplied by its participants. -- .

Read more less

Book SynopsisJason Statham has risen from street seller through championship diving and modelling to become arguably the biggest British male film star of the twenty-first century. This is the first book to offer a critical analysis of his work across a variety of media, including film, television, video games and music videos. Each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of Statham’s career, from his distinctive screen presence to his style, branding and celebrity. Accessibly written, and featuring a contribution from Hollywood director Paul Feig, who worked with Statham on the 2015 action-comedy Spy, the collection will appeal to a wide audience of scholars, students and fans.Table of ContentsIntroduction – Steven Gerrard and Robert Shail1 Reframing the British tough guy: Jason Statham as postmodern hero - Robert Shail2 ‘I’m certainly not Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt’: Jason Statham, fandom and a new type of (anti)hero - Renee Middlemost3 The power of Statham - Paul Feig4 ‘It’s that peasant mentality’: the cult persona of Jason Statham, Hollywood outsider - Jonathan Mack5 A balancing act(or): Jason Statham and the ensemble film – Sarah Thomas6 Blagging it both ways: The Bank Job and the British heist movie - James Chapman7 Jason Statham in Spy: subverting genre and gender - Clare Smith8 Arthouse Statham - Martin Carter9 Transporting Jason Statham: national identity in the Transporter trilogy - Jennie Lewis-Vidler10 The avatar hero: exploring the virtualisation of the Statham brand - Dean Bowman and Erin Pearson11 Ageing Statham: expendable expendable? - Nathasha Parcei12 Crank it up! Scoring Statham - Shelley O’Brien 13 Clothes make the man: Statham’s sartorial serendipity - Steven GerrardConclusion - Steven Gerrard and Robert ShailIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat is folk horror and how culturally significant is it? This collection is the first study to address these questions while considering the special importance of British cinema to the genre’s development.The book presents political and aesthetic analyses of folk horror’s uncanny landscapes and frightful folk. It places canonical films like Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) and The Wicker Man (1973) in a new light and expands the canon to include films like the sci-fi horror Doomwatch (1970–72) and the horror documentary Requiem for a Village (1975) alongside filmmakers Ken Russell and Ben Wheatley.A series of engrossing chapters by established scholars and new writers argue for the uniqueness of folk horror from perspectives that include the fragmented national history of pagan heresies and Celtic cultures, of peasant lifestyles, folkloric rediscoveries and postcolonial decline.Table of ContentsForeword by John DasIntroduction: what makes the folk horrific? – Louis Bayman and K.J. Donnelly Part I: Debating The Wicker Man (1973) 1 The context of The Wicker Man – Ronald Hutton 2 A deeply religious people: The Wicker Man, contemporary paganism, and Dracula reversed– Laurel Zwissler 3 Folk horror: a discursive approach, with application to Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) and Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves (1984) – Mikel J. Koven Part II: Return of the British repressed 4 The folk of folk horror – Derek Johnston 5 Doomwatch: sacrifice zones and folk horror – Dawn Keetley 6 My ancestors died here: Requiem for a Village and the rural English horror of modernity and socio-cultural change – Paul Newland 7 Outsider history, or outside of history – K. J. Donnelly 8 Anglo creep and Celtic resistance in Apostle – Beth Carroll 9 Women’s folk horror in Britain: history, industry, style – Amy Harris Part III: Folk horror’s cultural landscapes 10 Ritualistic rhythms: exploring the sensory effect of drums in British folk horror cinema – Lyndsay Townsend 11 ‘Nature came before man’: human as subject and object within the folk horror anti-landscape – David Evans-Powell 12 Hieroglyphics: Arthur Machen on screen – Mark Goodall 13 Albion unearthed: social, political and cultural influences on British folk horror, urban wyrd and backwoods cinema – Andy Paciorek 14 ‘Isn’t folk horror all horror?’: a wyrd genre – Diane A. RodgersIndex

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe only book you need to become an expert on film history, technique, and appreciation.If you are looking at this book, then you probably love watching movies and television shows. Who doesn't? But most of us do so as passive entertainmentto wind down, relax, and escape into alternative worlds. Pay close attention though, and you can enhance your movie-watching experience and deepen your appreciation for the art of film. This book will show you how. In The 12-Hour Film Expert, Noah Charney and James Charney offer readers all they need to know about how films are made and how to watch them in a more thoughtful way. Through twelve chapters covering a wide array of genres and periods, the authors highlight key films in each area of focus and explore important figures and more recent films to help readers develop their core understanding of films, ranging from comedies to silent films, noirs to romances, and everything in between. Most importantly though, readers will learn how to truly watch movies. The 12-Hour Film Expert asks essential questions: What did the key films do differently? How did they push the envelope, establish new precedents? The result is a capsule-sized course in film appreciation. The only book readers need to master their grasp of film history, technique, and appreciation, it is perfect for movie lovers of all ages. Grab the popcorn and settle in!

Read more less

Book SynopsisTeenagers and Teenpics tells the story of two signature developments in the 1950s: the decline of the classical Hollywood cinema and the emergence of that strange new creature, the American teenager. Hollywood's discovery of the teenage moviegoer initiated a progressive "juvenilization" of film content that is today the operative reality of the American motion picture industry. The juvenilization of the American movies is best revealed in the development of the 1950s "teenpic," a picture targeted at teenagers even to the exclusion of their elders. In a wry and readable style, Doherty defines and interprets the various teenpic film types: rock 'n' roll pictures, j.d. films, horror and sci-fi weirdies, and clean teenpics. Individual films are examined both in light of their impact on the motion picture industry and in terms of their important role in validating the emerging teenage subculture. Also included in this edition is an expanded treatment of teenpics since the 1950s, especially the teenpics produced during the age of AIDS. Author note: Thomas Doherty is Associate Professor of American Studies and Chair of the Film Studies Program at Brandeis University. He is the author of two previous books, including Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934, which was a New York Times Notable Book for 1999.Trade Review"Thomas Doherty is a wonderful film historian, as well as an astute cultural observer and a scholarly live wire. His account of Hollywood youth movies is as sensitive to the craziness of the marketplace as that of the movies themselves-smart, detailed, and near-definitive."-J. Hoberman, film critic, The Village Voice "Thomas Doherty's Teenagers and Teenpics, a fascinating study of Hollywood's response to the newly discovered youth market in the 1950s, felicitously brings together solid research, sensitive critical analysis, and an engaging writing style. Too long out of print, Doherty's book, which now brings the saga of 'teenpics' up to date, remains an indispensable guide to a significant aspect of American culture."-Michael Anderegg, author Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture "For an example of real scholarship in the field of cultural studies, one cannot do better than Thomas Doherty's Teenagers and Teenpics-an astute introduction to the 'juvenilization,' not just of Hollywood, but of America's post-war pop culture more generally."-James Miller, Director of Liberal Studies, New School University, and author of Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. American Movies as a Less-than-Mass Medium2. A Commercial History3. The Teenage Marketplace4. Rock 'n' Roll Teenpics5. Dangerous Youth6. The Horror Teenpics7. The Clean Teenpics8. Generation after Generation of TeenpicsNotesSelected FilmographyIndex to Film TitlesGeneral Index

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisQueen Latifah's lyrics tout female superiority. Salt 'n Pepa energize with eroticism. Julie Brown's unsettling version of a campus queen dethrones the mainstream icon. Martina McBride's song of liberation gives new meaning to Independance Day. Today in the music video industry such women artists have assumed a remarkable and refreshing new presence. Although many popular videos have been condemned for sexism, the medium has experienced a striking change. Both in repertoires and in performances the politics of feminism has moved to the front row. More and more, women are being presented as strong and positive. Ladies First takes a close look at this exciting phenomenon and shows how both on and off screen strong females have assumed larger roles in the industry. Whether their songs are country, rock, or rap, the ladies of contemporary music video continue to assert, confront, and challenge. Demolishing stereotypes, today's singers expose the flawed images that have restricted women. They condemn male dominance. They assert the right of women to be sexual and to express sexuality. In country music, they rely on the power of sincerity and storytelling. In rap songs they self-promote, reach out, and give uplift. Their lyrics are skillful, clever, and infectiously appealing, and their inviting sense of humor makes a large audience embrace them and their messages.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWomen in Filmmaking and Their Struggle Against Bias"After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels" –Ann Richards#1 Bestseller in Acting & Auditioning, Performing Arts, and Guides & Reviews Women in filmmaking since the beginning. Women have been instrumental in the success of American cinema since its very beginning. One of the first people to ever pick up a motion picture camera was a woman; as was the first screenwriter to win two Academy Awards, the inventor of the boom microphone, and the first person to be credited with the title Film Editor. Throughout the history of Hollywood, women have been revolutionizing, innovating, and shaping filmmaking. Yet their stories are rarely shared. This is what film reporter Alicia Malone wants to change. The first female directors. Backwards & In Heels tells the history of women in film in a different way, with stories about incredible women who made their mark in each Hollywood era. Every story is inspiring, detailing the accomplishments of extraordinary women and the obstacles they faced. Backwards & In Heels combines research and exclusive interviews with influential women and men working in Hollywood today, including Geena Davis, J.J. Abrams, Ava DuVernay, Octavia Spencer, America Ferrera, Paul Feig, and many more; as well as film professors, historians and experts.Time to level the playing field. Think of Backwards & In Heels as a guidebook, your entry into the complex world of women in film. Join Alicia Malone as she champions Hollywood women of the past and present and looks to the future.Learn little known facts about: The first females in film direction Iconic movie stars Present day activists If you enjoyed books such as Renegade Women in Film and TV or The Purple Diaries, you’ll love Alicia Malone’s Backwards & In Heels. Also, don’t miss Alicia’s #1 Bestseller in Movies & Video Guides & Reviews, The Female Gaze: Essential Movies Made by Women.Trade Review"Starting in the very early days of film, Backwards & in Heels covers women holding all different positions throughout the film industry. From editors, to directors, to producers, to actresses, women have done it all. The problem is, in many areas, the number of women who have held these positions is few and with very little recognition. It is a battle for women that is still being fought today." –My Current Interests “Alicia Malone is one of the most inspiring voices in media today. Her book is a painful eye-opener that everyone with an interest in film should read.” –Chris Stuckmann, Film Critic “Alicia is a wonderful human whose voracious appetite for, and knowledge of, cinema and its history is immense and passionate. I can't think of anyone more suited to dig into this very important part of the story of film.” –Elijah Wood “Alicia Malone has opened my eyes to stories and stats about Women in Film, making me recognize the constant prejudices and imbalances that occur in the film industry even today, but also the ways in which women have been and continue to be celebrated. Proud to be a fellow feminist for film!” –Maude Garrett, Founder of GeekBomb.com “Alicia Malone gives me hope for the future of film appreciation. Her knowledge and curiosity are matched only by her enthusiasm for all things cinematic." –Leonard Maltin

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe overlooked yet vibrant history of Black participation in American film, from the beginning of cinema through the civil rights movement From the dawn of the medium onward, Black filmmakers have helped define American cinema. Black performers, producers and directors—Bert Williams, Oscar Micheaux, Herb Jeffries, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Ruby Dee and William Greaves, to name just a few—had a vast and resounding impact. Black film artists not only developed an enduring independent tradition but also transformed mainstream Hollywood, fueled and reflected sociopolitical movements, captured Black experience in all its robust complexity, and influenced generations to come. As harrowing as it is beautiful, this history of Black cinema and its legacy is often overlooked. Regeneration accompanies a first-of-its-kind exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures exploring seven decades of Black participation in American cinema. Amplifying this underrepresented history in colorful and striking detail, the book features an in-depth curatorial essay and scholarly case-study texts on topics such as early Black independent filmmaking, Black spectatorship during the Jim Crow era and home movies as an essential form of Black self-representation. The volume also makes meaningful connections to the present through interviews with award-winning contemporary Black filmmakers Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins and Dawn Porter. An extensive filmography and chronology offer an essential resource for anyone interested in Black cinema, while images of contemporary visual artworks further illustrate the volume throughout.Trade ReviewThis one wins Oscars in multiple categories. -- Hamilton Cain * Oprah Daily *Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 is jam packed with treasures and revelations … [An] astonishing, well-paced journey through seven-plus decades of movie history. -- Phyllis Tuchman * Brooklyn Rail *Comprised of erudite essays, illustrative case studies ... Simply outstanding. * Midwest Book Review *A sense of doubleness reverberates throughout the show as it continues to chart year after year of bigotry and resistance, institutional repression and artistic sovereignty, struggles that were literally embodied by performers working in old Hollywood and outside its cruelly restrictive gates. -- Manohla Dargis * New York Times *Evokes the pride of cultural acknowledgment and serves as a dismaying reminder of the pernicious effects of racism and discrimination over the decades. -- Mekeisha Madden * Financial Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisShows how cinematic treatments of fashion during times of crisis offer subtle reflections on the everyday lives, desires, careers, and self-perceptions of postwar German women. This book steers attention toward two key aspects of German culture - film and fashion - that shared similar trajectories and multiple connections, looking at them not only in the immediate postwar years but as far back as 1939. They formed spectacular sites of the postwar recovery processes in both East and West Germany. Viewed against the background of the abundant fashion discourses in the Berlin-based press, the films discussed include classics such as The Murderers Are among Us, Street Acquaintance, and Destinies of Women as well as neglected works such as And the Heavens above Us, Martina, Modell Bianka, and Ingrid. These films' treatments of fashion during times of crisis offer subtle reflections on the everyday lives, desires, careers, and self-perceptions of the women who made up a large majority of the postwar public. Costume - in films produced both by DEFA and by West German studios - is a productive site to explore the intersections between realism and escapism. With its focus on costumes within the context of the films' production, distribution, and reception, this book opens up wider discussions about the role of the costume designer, the ways film costumes can be read as intertexts, and the impact on audiences' behaviors and looks. The book reveals multiple connections between film and fashion, both across the temporal dividing line of 1945 and the Cold War split between East and West. Mila Ganeva is Department Chair and Professor of German at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.Trade Review[A] captivating interpretation of fashion and film in 'the long 1940s' in Germany . . . . a valuable resource for scholars and students, as well as a lively and fascinating read for a broader audience. -- Victoria Vygodskaia-Rust * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW *Meticulously researched...Ganeva's trenchant analysis shows how fashion maintained pretences of normality during wartime, bolstered the processes of postwar normalization, and eventually helped to define attitudes towards consumer culture and material abundance in a 1950s Germany divided between East and West. -- Marketa Uhlirova * SCREEN *With [this book] Mila Ganeva puts forth an insight-rich study of the cultural meaning of fashion in film and the press from the Nazi period to the beginnings of the Cold War in Berlin. . . . [C]learly written and precisely researched . . . . An important contribution to research on the female horizon of experience in the 1940s and 1950s. -- Jan Uelzmann * FILMBLATT *This interesting book sheds light on the [postwar] period [in Germany] by documenting that both [the film and fashion] industries cultivated a vision of the autonomous, professionally accomplished woman and that numerous women were able to achieve an independent existence within these industries. -- R. Bledsoe * CHOICE *The book . . . is outstandingly researched and fills a thematic gap in the literature of German film history. -- Hans Helmut Prinzler * WWW.HHPRINZLER.DE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Vicarious Consumption: Wartime Fashion in Film and the Press, 1939-44 "Fashions for Fräuleins": The Rebirth of the Fashion Industry and Media in Berlin after 1945 Vignette 1 - Charlotte Glückstein: Historical Ruptures and Continuities in Postwar Fashion Fashion amidst the Ruins: Revisiting Two Early Rubble Films, . . . und über uns der Himmel (1947) and Die Mörder sind unter uns (1946) Vignette 2 - Hildegard Knef: Star Appeal from Fashion to Film Farewell to the Rubble and Welcome to the New Look: Straßenbekanntschaft (1948) and Martina (1949) Consuming Fashion on the Screens of the Early 1950s: Modell Bianka (1951), Frauenschicksale (1952), and Ingrid: Die Geschichte eines Fotomodells (1955) Epilogue Appendix 1:Principal Costume and Fashion Designers: Biographical Notes Appendix 2: Films and Newsreels Discussed Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThere are many elements in the concept of visual continuity, and they are all interrelated. In films or film series that are described as sequels, establishing a visual integrity relationship between films comes to the fore. The concept of the sequel appears in two ways. Sometimes, while the ideas are scripted, the story is divided into more than one part. Sometimes the story is planned as a single movie, and after a certain time, it can be realized as a follow-up movie/film for different reasons. In both systems of expression, it is necessary to seek harmony between all elements of visual design.Examinations and Analysis of Sequels and Serials in the Film Industry examines certain contents through the concepts of cinematography and narrative, focusing more on the practical side of cinema and partially on the theoretical side. It examines samples, sequels, serials, and trilogy universes on the axis of cinematography and narration. Covering topics such as film landscape, repeated narrative elements, and storytelling, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for film industry workers, film students and educators, sociologists, librarians, academicians, and researchers.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis collection of essays celebrates the work of international feminist filmmakers from the 1950s to the present. Featuring contributions from leading scholars, filmmakers, essayists and activists, On Feminist Films is the second volume in the South London Cultural Review series. Contributors include: Stuart Bell, Catherine Grant, So Mayer, Louisa Wei, Emma Wilson.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis"That Canada remains a society haunted by its war history seems clear." Since 1977, a new generation of Canadian writers and artists has been mapping the cultural landscapes formed by the memories of war we have inherited, and also the ones we are expected to forget. Challenging, even painful, the art and literature in Grace's magisterial study build causeways into history, connecting us to trials and traumas many Canadians have never known but that haunt society in subtle and compelling ways. A contemporary scholar of the period under examination, Grace exemplifies her role as witness, investing the text with personal, often lyrical, responses as a way of enacting this crucial memory-work. This comprehensive study is intended for scholars, students, and general readers interested in literature, theatre, and art relating to memories of the world wars.Trade Review"This is a passionately written academic book – a characterization which the author would probably agree should not be an oxymoron. The passion suggests that it is written as much for curious general readers as for academics. I hope it reaches many of both, particularly those who know or have known war survivors.... Grace’s specific subjects are Canadian literary and visual representations of 20th-century war created in the 1977-2007 period, and the tasks of collective national memory that these perform.... Official war histories record the losses, gains, and casualties but seldom the savage and often impulsive and unnecessary means by which these came about. In these 600+ pages Grace examines numerous novels, plays and television films..." [Full post at http://bit.ly/1xCVoAn] -- Frank Davey * Frank Davey Blog *"... officialdom and media have celebrated wartime exploit as a central fixture of the Canadian experience. This is factually dubious but worthy of thoughtful analysis. Professor Sherrill Grace, a professor of literature at the University of British Columbia, examines the phenomenon. The result is striking and poignant.... Prof. Grace examines this ritual of remembrance over a 30-year period, citing hundreds of Canadian poems and films, novels, memoirs and documentaries." [Full review at http://bit.ly/1uiwGSg] -- Holly Doan * Blacklock's Reporter *"An extraordinary and seminal work of truly impressive and seminal scholarship.... [E]specially recommended for academic library Canadian History reference collections and supplemental studies reading lists." -- Michael Dunford * Midwest Book Review Bookwatch *“[The prominent Canadian literary critic Sherrill] Grace’s new book is an exhaustive look at the way Canadian artists have recently understood and remembered both wars. Her work is nuanced, probing the contradictions and ambiguities of the ‘good’ war, particularly through Joy Kogawa’s Obasan. Grace regularly returns to the theme of democracy and freedom being ‘fragile,’ especially during wartime. She also asks crucial questions using the metaphor of memory as landscape.” [Full post at http://bit.ly/1FIEST8] -- Jamie Swift * ActiveHistory.ca *"[Sherrill Grace's book] examines the work of artists, who can be instrumental in voicing and depicting war memories that are painful, sometimes heroic, and often shocking...Blending raw personal point of view with objective academic discourse, Grace describes how she was propelled into writing this book.... Landscapes of War and Memory is a compelling and provocative cultural study that poses important questions regarding where Canada stands today in relation to war." June-July 2015 -- Anne Cimon * Canada's History Magazine *"Despite the passage of five decades, Canadian novelists, memoirists, playwrights and artists are decidedly far from finished with the World Wars—with the experiences of our predecessors in battle and the sometimes atrocious actions of citizens on the home front. In particular, UBC literature scholar Sherrill Grace argues, we are concerned with memory, with remembering and forgetting... 'Forgetting is a trap,' she shows us. Art, then, does the vital memory work of 'bearing witness' to our troubled and restless war-scarred past. -- Naomi K. Lewis * Alberta Views *In Landscapes of War and Memory, Sherrill Grace examines the twin processes of commemoration and amnesia that have shaped cultural responses in Canada to the two global conflicts of the twentieth century. Her study, immensely rich, surveys works of theatre, visual art, and film as well as novels and stories, but above all it is concerned with fiction in a catholic sense -- with the perpetual reinvention of the past.... I cannot do justice in a brief review to the six hundred pages of her book, and in summary I suggest only that it is a pleasure to read despite the sobering topic: Grace is an admirably clear writer, her study perfectly accessible. It will appeal to specialist readers of this journal as well as to students of Canada at large." [full review available at http://bit.ly/216Zr43] -- Nicholas Bradley * BC Studies, online *Remembering and forgetting are given equal focus as Grace encourages the reader to engage with the past and to consider the question posed by Frederick Varley in his famous painting of 1918, For What?.... Landscapes of War and Memory is intended for scholars, students, and all interested in literature, theatre, and art that addresses the memories of the two world wars. Elegantly written, beautifully illustrated, with copious notes and a detailed bibliography, Grace’s comprehensive study is a scholarly achievement of considerable magnitude.” -- Jane Mattisson Ekstam * British Journal of Canadian Studies *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements XIII PART I Landscapes of War/Landscapes of Memory 1 Landscapes of War 9 2 Landscapes of Memory 53 PART II Remembering the Nation in the First World War 3 Novels 103 From The Wars to Three Day Road 4 Theatres of War 167 From Billy Bishop to Vimy 5 “Away to the War and Back Again” 209 Remembering Canada in Film and Auto/Biography PART III Intermission Between the Wars 6 Living in a Haunted World 249 PART IV Testing the Nation in the Second World War 7 “Made in Canada” 293 The Second World War in the Pacific 8 The Promised Land 349 Canada or Kanada? 9 Canada and the Aftermath of the “Good” War 391 PART V A Peaceable Kingdom in the Twenty-First Century 10 Remembering War; Finding Peace? 449 Some Conclusions Notes 477 Bibliography 523 Permissions 561 Index 565

Read more less

Book Synopsis Subjective Realist Cinema looks at the fragmented narratives and multiple realities of a wide range of films that depict subjective experience and employ “subjective realist” narration, including recent examples such as Mulholland Drive, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The author proposes that an understanding of the narrative structures of these films, particularly their use of mixed and multiple realities, enhances viewers’ enjoyment and comprehension of such films, and that such comprehension offers a key to understanding contemporary filmmaking.Trade Review “In his timely and erudite book, Matthew Campora…makes use of a variety of analytical tools and methods, from narrative theory to historiography to reception studies. The result is a thorough volume that successfully combines theory and interpretation...Campora’s goals are numerous, and he moves through his information clearly and carefully…and makes the reader want to return to the films themselves, to watch them each anew with [his] insights in mind. Campora’s book illuminates many fascinating features of these films and this genre, and his book will be of interest to a wide variety of readers.” · Film Criticism “…identifies and defines a distinct group of films within contemporary complex narrative films, partly tracing historical antecedents, using a useful taxonomy for contemporary complex narrative films.” · Nitzan Ben Shaul, Tel Aviv University “This book effectively combines theories of multiform narrative with subjective realism to develop a sophisticated theory of complex storytelling in contemporary cinema. It presents detailed and distinct analyses of [a number of important films].” · Warren Buckland, Oxford Brookes UniversityTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Three Periods of Narrative Experimentation Multiform Narrative Subjective Realism Chapter 1. Complex Narratives The New Hollywood and The Smart Film New Hollywood Narration Fragmented Narratives Multi-strand Narratives Multiform Narratives Brazil Puzzle Films Chapter 2. Two Trajectories of the Cinema of Attractions The Narrative Trajectory: Realism and Spectacle The Avant-garde Trajectory: Realism and Defamiliarization Chapter 3. Subjective Realism and Multiform Narrative Subjective Realism Vertigo The Fantastic Wild Strawberries Chapter 4. Mulholland Drive Expressionism and the Uncanny Three Views As Surrealist or Trance Film As Fragmented Subjective Realist Film As Supernatural Film It Is All An Illusion Chapter 5. Memento The Four Strands Unreliable Narration Disrupted Expectations Subjective Realism Chapter 6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The Philosophy of Eternal Sunshine Temporal Inversions Subjective Realism Sonic Metalepsis The Marvelous Real Conclusion Filmography Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is the tale of how Hollywood, inspired by the success of Easy Rider, sold a cycle of films as the new dirty real.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe annual Beijing Film Academy Yearbook highlights the best academic debates, discussions and research from the previous year, as previously published in the highly prestigious Journal of Beijing Film Academy. This volume brings together specially selected articles, appearing for the first time in English, to bridge the gap in cross-cultural research in cinema and media studies. The book is the latest in the Intellect China Library series to produce work by Chinese scholars that have not previously been available to English language academia. Covering the subjects of film studies, visual arts, performing arts, media and cultural studies, the series aims to foster intellectual debate and to promote closer cross-cultural intellectual exchanges by introducing important works of Chinese scholarship to readers.

Read more less

Book Synopsis Hotbeds of Licentiousness is the first substantial critical engagement with British pornography on film across the 1970s, including the “Summer of Love,” the rise and fall of the Permissive Society, the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, and beyond. By focusing on a series of colorful filmmakers whose work, while omnipresent during the 1970s, now remains critically ignored, author Benjamin Halligan discusses pornography in terms of lifestyle aspirations and opportunities which point to radical changes in British society. In this way, pornography is approached as a crucial optic with which to consider recent cultural and social history.Trade Review “Halligan thrives when exploring a text’s cultural contradictions and the cracks in the philosophies underpinning the work. However, the book’s greatest asset is in taking these films (which rarely appear in most histories of British cinema) seriously.” • Choice “Halligan has uncovered a new canon of British filmmakers who for the most part have been ignored in previous histories, who played an important role in this secretive, frequently controversial world…In his new book… we get some fascinating insight into the history of British pornography and its connection to politics and the campaigning against it of groups such as the Festival of Light.. For anyone interested in this occasionally murky aspect of British film industry, this is an essential addition to a library.” • Cinema Retro “This book is a thought-provoking read not only for devotees of British cinema, but for anybody interested in the byways of film production, how obscenity is defined, the rationale for censorship and that liminal area where film interacts with the prevailing culture.” • Off ScreenTable of Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: The Soul of Pornography Part I: The Permissive Society and Its Discontents Chapter 1. Two Notional Regimes of Permissiveness Chapter 2. An Anti-Permissive Front Part II: The Hardcore Chapter 3. The ‘Connoisseur of Female Beauty’ and the ‘Curve Prospector’: Harrison Marks and Russell Gay Chapter 4. Erectile and Societal Dysfunctionality: The John Lindsay Loops Part III: The Softcore Chapter 5. Derek Ford in Essex Chapter 6. Tory Erotica: Sexual Fantasies for the Nouveau Riche Chapter 7. David Hamilton’s Uranian Cinema Coda: Post-Permissive Pornography Chapter 8. ‘Fucking Bang Me Like a Slag!’: Men with Men after Thatcher Conclusion: ‘That’s What the Average Man Wants’ Reference List

Read more less

Book SynopsisPrevenge (2016) is an entertainingly dark 21st-century horror movie detailing the serial killing journey of heavily pregnant Ruth. It’s a cleverly crafted narrative full of stark social commentary, traversing the delicate line between comedy and tragedy by fusing together a kitchen sink approach with a supernatural revenge plot. This book, as part of the Devil’s Advocates series, examines how the film deconstructs the slasher mythology and the sexism therein, and upends stereotypical representations of the ‘weak’ woman and ‘delicate’ mother. With new exclusive input from writer, director and star Alice Lowe, the text also looks at the production’s inception and development, assesses its debts to cult British cinema, and inspects its umbilical connections to Rosemary’s Baby, Alien, Village of the Damned and many other ‘Monstrous Child’ silver screen features. Trade Review'Andrew Graves offers a suitably appreciative, perceptive celebration of a movie that never wanted to be pigeonholed for the sake of its commercial prospects... This concise, engaging DEVIL’S ADVOCATES monograph is... a witty, insightful read that will inspire you to revisit Lowe’s glorious back catalogue.'Steven West, FrightFest

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis Devil’s Advocate explores the cinematic wonders of Brian Desmond Hurst’s much loved 1951 adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, through the prism of horror cinema, arguing that the film has less in common with cosy festive tradition than it does with terror cinema like James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein, Robert Weine’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and F.W. Murnau’s Faust. Beginning with Charles Dickens himself, a prolific writer of ghost stories, with A Christmas Carol being but one of many, Colin Fleming then considers earlier cinematic adaptations including 1935’s folk-horror-like Scrooge, before offering a full account of the Hurst/Sim version, stressing what must always be kept at the forefront of our minds: this is a ghost story.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn its release in 1986, Aliens was an immediate commercial and critical success and consolidated writer-director James Cameron's status as a major new Hollywood player. Reprising some of the features of Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and expanding them in a number of crucial ways, Aliens managed to reinforce the audience's attraction to the still fairly new Alien franchise and insert into it the seeds of narrative and visual changes that would be further explored in subsequent instalments of the series. Aliens is an endlessly fascinating mixture of different genres: sci-fi, revenge movies, action, war filmsand more specifically Vietnam War moviesall contribute in creating a visual experience that is dynamic and emotionally enthralling. The great care devoted to set and prop design gives the film its distinctive industrial and dirty atmosphere, while the narrative and psychological evolution of the Ripley character creates a modern and engaging heroine that would have a strong impact on genre cinema. This volume in the Constellations series examines in-depth James Cameron's film within the context of genre studies, with a particular eye to Aliens' nature as an example of hybrid science fiction. It provides readers with a detailed visual analysis of the film and an overview of its major themes, from its metaphorical reading of the Vietnam War to the representation of motherhood and family.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn recent years, teen witches have become highly visible figures. Fictional adolescent witches have headlined popular television shows like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-2021) and American Horror Story: Coven (2013-2014), while their real-life counterparts have become minor celebrities on Instagram and TikTok. As such, now is the ideal time to revisit Andrew Fleming’s 1996 supernatural horror film The Craft. A cult favourite, especially amongst young women, The Craft is a story about teen witches that employs the conventions of occult horror to explore themes of power, friendship and responsibility. This entry in the Devil’s Advocates series is a deep dive into the history, production and meaning of The Craft. Situating The Craft within the teen horror revival of the 1990s, Miranda Corcoran analyses the film within the context of nineties popular and political culture, while also discussing its treatment of issues such as race, gender, sexuality and class. Delving into the history of witchcraft beliefs and persecutions, this book also investigates how The Craft modifies the archetype of the witch and traces the film’s influence on subsequent popular culture.

Read more less