Film history, theory or criticism Books
Berghahn Books The Bressonians
Book SynopsisHow should we understand film authorship in an era when the idea of the solitary and sovereign auteur has come under attack, with critics proclaiming the death of the author and the end of cinema? The Bressonians provides an answer in the form of a strikingly original study of Bresson and his influence on the work of filmmakers Jean Eustache and Maurice Pialat. Extending the discourse of authorship beyond the idea of a singular visionary, it explores how the imperatives of excellence function within cinema's pluralistic community. Bresson's example offered both an artistic legacy and a creative burden within which filmmakers reckoned in different, often arduous, and altogether compelling ways.
£999.99
Liverpool University Press The Wicker Man
Book SynopsisMany fans of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) may know that this classic is considered a fine sample of folk horror. Few will consider that it’s also a prime example of holiday horror. Holiday horror draws its energy from the featured festive day, here May Day. Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), a “Christian copper,” is lured to the remote Scottish island Summerisle where, hidden from the eyes of all, a thriving Celtic, pagan religion holds sway. His arrival at the start of the May Day celebration is no accident. The clash between religions, fought on the landscape of the holiday, drives the story to its famous conclusion. In this Devil’s Advocate, Steve A. Wiggins delineates what holiday horror is and surveys various aspects of “the Citizen Kane of horror movies” that utilize the holiday. Beginning with a brief overview of Beltane and how May Day has been celebrated, this study considers the role of sexuality and fertility in the film. Conflicting with Howie’s Christian principles, this leads to an exploration of his theology as contrasted with that of Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) and his tenants. Such differences in belief make the fiery ending practically inevitable.Trade Review‘Wiggins proves an engaging, erudite commentator on assorted interlinked elements, with the recurring holiday horror themes (notably, sacrifice) running parallel to an examination of the origins of what we know as “holidays” / “vacations” and a consideration of religion’s transformation through the centuries… Wiggins’ highly perceptive and refreshing study will provide yet another excuse to revisit and celebrate one of Britain’s greatest achievements in the genre.’ Steven West, FrightFestTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Holiday Horror Chapter 2: May Day Chapter 3: Scary Sex Chapter 4: The Horror of Theology Conclusion: Conflict and Legacy
£19.99
University of Wales Press The New Queer Gothic
Book SynopsisUses examples from film and literature to define a new genre of Queer Gothic literature and demonstrate how it was shaped by women writers.The New Queer Gothic: Reading Queer Girls and Women in Contemporary Fiction and Film comprises literary, cultural, and film analysis to situate and define the New Queer Gothic as a product of woman-authored twentieth and twenty-first-century novels. The first in-depth analysis of contemporary queer and Gothic texts to focus on the subjectivity, characterization, and representation of queer girls and women, it investigates and celebrates the relationship between queer feminine identity and the Gothic, beyond purely paranoid readings. Using contemporary texts and theory, it focuses on the representation of queer girls and women in contemporary queer and Gothic texts. It includes original analyses of a selection of global film and fiction texts released in the past fifteen years.
£71.25
University of Wales Press Urban Legends
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£77.46
Liverpool University Press The Films of Michael Mann
Book SynopsisThrough his investigation of Mann's filmography and the personality that flowsthrough it, author Deryck Swan provides the reader with accessible and new waysof thinking about his films to date, including, amongst myriad other things,references to painter Morris Louis, desert modernism, West Coastprison culture, Chicago Mayor Richard M.
£30.00
The Book Guild Ltd How James Bond Saved My Life
Book SynopsisHow James Bond Saved My Life is a unique self-help memoir. The author takes you on a journey through cinema, delving into the significance of cinematic role models and how cinematic characters can empower and inspire young minds, be it Bond, Batman or Wonder Woman.David shares his experiences as a non-verbal school child requiring speech therapy and his childhood growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles to establish the significance of cinema. David intertwines personal anecdotes from his past, the bullying at school, and his struggle in learning to speak, with his professional expertise as a qualified youth worker and film tutor to present a compelling case for the importance of switching off from the everyday world and tuning into the world of cinema.
£9.49
New Texture Be Italian
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£14.95
Rutgers University Press Ida Lupino Director 2nd Edition
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£23.74
Bierke Publishing Before Your Eyes Vietnam
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Cecil B. DeMille, Classical Hollywood, and Modern American Mass Culture: 1910–1960
Book SynopsisThis book uses the long and profitable career of Cecil B. DeMille to track the evolution of Classical Hollywood and its influence on emerging mass commercial culture in the US. DeMille’s success rested on how well his films presumed a broad consensus in the American public—expressed through consumer hedonism, faith, and an “exceptional” national history—which merged seamlessly with the efficient production methods developed by the largest integrated studios. DeMille’s sudden mid-career shift away from spectator perversity to corporate propagandist permanently tarnished the director’s historical standing among scholars, yet should not overshadow the profound links between his success and the rise and fall of mid-century mass culture.Table of Contents1. Locating DeMille 2. The Brand3. The Wanderer4. A New and Filmable Past 5. Greetings from Mr. Hollywood6. Who is Cecil B. DeMille?7. Behold Their Mighty Hands8. Re-Locating DeMille
£62.99
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Steven Spielberg's Style by Stealth
Book SynopsisThis book reveals how Spielberg utilises stylistic strategies that are both unique and innovative when considered within the context of the classical Hollywood system. James Mairata identifies two distinct systems at work in Spielberg's application of style. One is the use of deep space compositions and staging, a form that was commonly seen in Hollywood cinema until the rise of the 'New Hollywood' in the early 1970s. The other system is based on the ubiquitous shot, reverse shot arrangement most commonly used for dialogue scenes, and which Spielberg has modified into what the author describes as wide reverses. Through the integration of both systems, Spielberg is able to create a more complete visual sense of scenographic space and a more comprehensive world of the narrative, while still remaining within the conventional boundaries of classical style. The wide reverse system also permits him to present a more highly developed version of Hollywood's conventional practice of rendering style as transparent or unnoticed. This volume shows that this, together with the wide reverse further enables Spielberg to create a narrative that offers the spectator both a more immersive and more affective experience. Table of Contents1. Introduction: Setting the Scene.- Section I: Origin Chapter 2: Fundamentals of Classical Narration.- Chapter 3: Spielberg as Filmmaker.- Chapter III: Continuity Editing as System.- Section II: Function.- Chapter 4: Deep Space Composition and Staging.- Chapter 5: Space and the Wide Reverse Strategy.- Chapter 6: The Wide Reverse and Extended Variation.- Section III: Effect, Affect and Precedent.- Chapter 7: The Wide Reverse, Cognition and Affect.- Chapter 8: Manifestations of the Wide Reverse in Mainstream Narrative Cinema.- Chapter 9: Conclusion: Style by Stealth.
£87.90
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Ambiguity and Film Criticism: Reasonable Doubt
Book SynopsisThis book defends an account of ambiguity which illuminates the aesthetic possibilities of film and the nature of film criticism. Ambiguity typically describes the condition of multiple meanings. But we can find multiple meanings in what appears unambiguous to us. So, what makes ambiguity ambiguous? This study argues that a sense of uncertainty is vital to the concept. Ambiguity is what presses us to inquire into our puzzlement over a movie, to persistently ask “why is it as it is?” Notably, this account of the concept is also an account of its criticism. It recognises that a satisfying assessment of what is ambiguous involves both our reason and doubt; that is, reason and doubt can work together in our practice of reading. This book, then, considers ambiguity as a form of reasonable doubt, one that invites us to reflect on our critical efforts, rethinking the operation of film criticism. Table of ContentsIntroduction: Rethinking Ambiguity.- Part One: Considering Context and Convention.- 1. Difficulty of Explanation: The Enigmatic Vase Shots in Late Spring.- 2. Perplexing Style: The Programmatic Editing Strategy of Ten.- 3. Appropriateness of Clarification: Analytical Découpage and the Reductive Viewpoint.- Part Two: Reading in Detail.- 4. Depth of Suggestion: The Demonstrative Gestures in In a Lonely Place.- 5. Uncertainty of Understanding: The Unsettling Direct Look in Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.- Part Three: Coming to a Close.- 6. Questioning Closure: The Inconclusive Final Moments of Force Majeur.- Concluding Remarks: Reason and Responsibility.
£75.99
Springer Nature Switzerland AG The Cinematic Superhero as Social Practice
Book SynopsisThis book analyzes the cinematic superhero as social practice. The study’s critical context brings together psychoanalysis and restorative and reflective nostalgia as a way of understanding the ideological function of superhero fantasy. It explores the origins of cinematic superhero fantasy from antecedents in myth and religion, to twentieth-century comic book, to the cinematic breakthrough with Superman (1978). The authors then focus on Spider-Man as reflective response to Superman’s restorative nostalgia, and read MCU’s overarching narrative from Iron Man to End Game in terms of the concurrent social, political, and environmental conditions as a world in crisis. Zornado and Reilly take up Wonder Woman and Black Panther as self-conscious attempts to reflect on gender and race in restorative superhero fantasy, and explore Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy as a meditation on the need for authoritarian fascism. The book concludes with Logan, Wonder Woman 1984, and Amazon Prime’s The Boys as distinctly reflective fantasy narratives critical of the superhero fantasy phenomenon.Table of Contents1. Chapter One: Introduction: A Plague of Superheroes2. Chapter Two: The Superhero with a Thousand Faces 3. Chapter Three: Fantasy and the Working-Class Superhero 4. Chapter Four: Fantasies of the Anthropocene 5. Chapter Five: The Cinematic Superhero as Other 6. Chapter Six: Superhero Fantasy in Crisis 7. Chapter Seven: Conclusion: Destroy All Monsters!
£85.49
Springer International Publishing AG Empathetic Space on Screen: Constructing Powerful Place and Setting
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£21.38
Taschen GmbH Alfred Hitchcock. Sämtliche Filme
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£28.50
Silkworm Books / Trasvin Publications LP Thai Cinema Uncensored
Book SynopsisIn this first full-length study on the topic, Matthew Hunt—with access to rare and controversial films—provides a history of film censorship in Thailand. Hunt outlines its beginnings in the country, when films were censored by the police for political and ideological reasons, rather than on the basis of taste and decency, to the present when issues such as politics, religion, and sex are the main reasons films are banned. He also examines how Thai filmmakers approach culturally sensitive subjects and how their films have been censored as a result. Hunt presents interviews with ten leading directors, including conversations with Thai New Wave veterans Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Pen-ek Ratanaruang. In these interviews, the directors discuss their most controversial films, which range from mainstream studio movies to independent arthouse releases, and explain their responses to censorship.Trade Review"Thais and Thailand watchers will recognise the bigger story, an all-too-common narrative arc streaked with moments of fear, absurdity and humour, in Hunt’s lingering closeups on the mangled, hidden wreckage of film censorship." * ArtReview *"Thai Cinema Uncensored...is a work of resistance against the censors. It describes in detail the struggle of filmmakers to work around inconsistent censorship rules. Matthew Hunt writes with a sense of urgency to legitimize these films and work towards a future where Thai filmmakers make the films they want without having to worry if people will be able to watch them. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding of Thai films and the history that has shaped them." * International Examiner *
£27.99
Brill Psychoanalysis in French and Francophone Literature and Film
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£75.81
Set Margins' Publications Slander
Book Synopsis
£18.05
Amsterdam University Press Soul of the Documentary: Framing, Expression, Ethics
Book SynopsisSoul of the Documentary offers a groundbreaking new approach to documentary cinema. Ilona Hongisto stirs current thinking by suggesting that the work of documentary films is not reducible to representing what already exists. By close-reading a diverse body of films - from The Last Bolshevik to Grey Gardens - Hongisto shows how documentary cinema intervenes in the real by framing it and creatively contributes to its perpetual unfolding. The emphasis on framing brings new urgency to the documentary tradition and its objectives, and provokes significant novel possibilities for thinking about the documentary's ethical and political potentials in the contemporary world.Trade Review"Documentary does not simply document what is; it presses reality to reveal what is to come. This thrillingly original and well-argued book brings a shot of energy to studies of documentary cinema, film theory, and the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Ilona Hongisto shows that documentary cinema is an active space of becoming, whose power lies not in indexicality but in capture, the selection of certain aspects of the real to actualize. Her analysis of the aesthetics of the documentary frame, which captures and expresses according to the distinct operations of imagination, fabulation, and affection, will inspire scholars and filmmakers alike." -- Laura U. Marks, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University 'With this book, Hongisto breaks new ground. She introduces a fresh vocabulary to explore our experience of documentary reality as a becoming, a transit zone between what is and what is not yet. There is a deep purpose here: to reconsider how we engage with and understand documentary film, and perhaps cinema itself.' -- Bill Nichols, author of Introduction to Documentary and a regular consultant with filmmakers Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue: capturing a world of becoming PART 1 IMAGINATION: RELATIONAL DOCUMENTS Chapter 1: Frames of the photograph Chapter 2: A documentary fable PART 2 FABULATION: DOCUMENTARY VISIONS Chapter 3: Making up legends Chapter 4: Acts of resistance PART 3 AFFECTION: DOCUMENTING THE POTENTIAL Chapter 5: Moments of affection Chapter 6: The primacy of feeling Epilogue: ethics of sustainability Notes Works Cited Index
£35.10
Lund University Press,Sweden Ingmar Bergman: An Enduring Legacy
Book SynopsisThis unique collection focuses on the work of legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Written in the wake of the centenary of Bergman’s birth in 2018, the volume aims to combine new approaches to Bergman’s films and writings with more traditional analyses. Established themes such as Bergman’s interest in philosophy and psychology are addressed, but also less familiar topics, notably his relationship with Hollywood and his elaborate use of film music and autobiographical writing that characterised his later work. There are new analyses of aspects of Bergman’s most famous films, including Smiles of a Summer Night and Fanny and Alexander, but also insightful readings of lesser-known works, such as Saraband and Sawdust and Tinsel.An electronic version of this book is available under a creative commons licence: manchesteropenhive.com/view/9789198557718/9789198557718.xmlTable of ContentsIngmar Bergman at 100: an introduction – Erik Hedling1 Ingmar Bergman on the international scene – Peter Cowie2 Bergman transnational: Munich–Rome–Los Angeles, or ‘the last temptation of Ingmar Bergman’ – Thomas Elsaesser3 Bergman and the business: notes on the director’s ‘worth in the market’ – Olof Hedling4 Bergman, writing, and photographs: the auteur as an ekphrastic ghost – Maaret Koskinen5 The playfulness of Ingmar Bergman: screenwriting from notebooks to screenplays – Anna Sofia Rossholm6 Cinema as a detour: Ingmar Bergman, writer – Jan Holmberg7 Laughing through tears: the soundscape of Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night – Alexis Luko 8 Sound, act, presence: classical music in the films of Ingmar Bergman—a lecture recital – Anyssa Neumann9 Film-musical moments in Ingmar Bergman’s films – Ann-Kristin Wallengren10 Where does music come from? Musical meaning and musical discourse in Ingmar Bergman’s films – Per F. Broman11 Bergman, Janov, and Autumn Sonata – Paisley Livingston12 Persona’s penis – Daniel Humphrey13 Battlefield family: Ingmar Bergman, Henrik Ibsen, and television – Michael Tapper14 Bergman/Birdman/Vogler: an ecocritical examination of the birds of Bergman – Linda Haverty Rugg15 Visionaries and charlatans: Ingmar Bergman’s filmmaking – Laura Hubner16 Imagined without dialogue: Sawdust and Tinsel and Dreams – Dan Williams17 The ghost in the machine: Saraband – Lars Gustaf Andersson18 Return to the bourgeoisie: Fanny and Alexander in Swedish politics – Erik HedlingIndex
£23.75
Bloomsbury Publishing USA Sex Education
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£85.50
Bloomsbury Publishing USA Beyond the Monoplot
Book Synopsis
£85.50
Bloomsbury Publishing USA The Nightmare Before Christmas
£85.50
State University of New York Press Expanding Cinemas
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£32.03
State University of New York Press On Shoreless Sea
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£20.90
Academic Studies Press Films Feisty Femmes
£78.19
Ebury Publishing Empire Movie Miscellany Instant Film Buff Status
Book SynopsisFrom the team who brought you The Empire Film Guide, here are all the obscure, indecent and downright bizarre movie facts and figures that were not considered sensible for a practical film guide. Discover which country translated GI Jane as Satan Female Soldier, which Hollywood heartthrob is the lead singer of 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, and which country takes a bag of toasted leaf cutter ants to the cinema instead of popcorn! The Schott''s Miscellany of movies, packed full of movie facts, figures and lists, as well as explanations of filmmaking terminology and a shot miscellany - a list of all the various camera shots. You will soon know your Oscar Hosts from your Monty Python French insults, and never be short of small talk again!
£11.99
The Visible Press The Afterimage Reader
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£23.75
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) Babylon Berlin German Visual Spectacle and Global
Book SynopsisThe essays in this collection address the German television series Babylon Berlin and explore its unique contribution to contemporary visual culture.Since its inception in 2017 the series, a neo-noir thriller set in Berlin in the final years of the Weimar republic, has reached audiences throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas and has been met with both critical and popular acclaim. As a visual work rife with historical and contemporary citations Babylon Berlin offers its audience a panoramic view of politics, crime, culture, gender, and sexual relations in the German capital.Focusing especially on the intermedial and transhistorical dimensions of the series, across four partsBabylon Berlin, Global Media and Fan Culture; The Look and Sound of Babylon Berlin; Representing Weimar History; and Weimar Intertextsthe volume brings together an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars to critically examine various facets of the show,
£20.89
Globe Pequot Press Starring Joan Crawford
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£29.75
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Star Wars
Book SynopsisThe release of Star Wars in 1977 marked the start of what would become a colossal global franchise. Star Wars remains the second highest-grossing film in the United States, and George Lucas's six-part narrative has grown into something more: a culture that goes far beyond the films themselves, with tie-in toys, novels, comics, games and DVDs as well as an enthusiastic fan community which creates its own Star Wars fictions. Critical studies of Star Wars have treated it as a cultural phenomenon, or in terms of its special effects, fans and merchandising, or as a film that marked the end of New Hollywood's innovation and the birth of the blockbuster. Will Brooker's illuminating study of the film takes issue with many of these commonly-held ideas about Star Wars. He provides a close analysis of Star Wars as a film, carefully examining its shots, editing, sound design, cinematography and performances. Placing the film in the context of George Lucas's previous work, from his student shorts to his 1970s features, and the diverse influences that shaped his approach, from John Ford to Jean-Luc Godard, Brooker argues that Star Wars is not, as Lucas himself has claimed, a departure from his earlier cinema, but a continuation of his experiments with sound and image. He reveals Lucas's contradictory desires for total order and control, embodied by the Empire, and for the raw energy and creative improvisation of the Rebels. What seemed a simple fairy-tale becomes far more complex when we realise that the director is rooting for both sides; and this tension unsettles the saga as a whole, blurring the boundaries between Empire and Republic, dark side and light side, father and son. In his foreword to this new edition, Will Brooker discusses is how subsequent films in the series, specifically Rogue One (2016) and The Last Jedi (2017), foregrounded and developed the themes of opposition that are at the heart of Star Wars. He shows how Derridean theories of opposites which become undermined and subverted, and which change places are made more clear with hindsight and provide us with a useful lens for looking back at the 1977 Star Wars.Trade ReviewThe tone of this book is playful and thoughtful… A great stocking filler for the Star Wars geek in your life. * Irish Tech News *Table of ContentsForeword to the 2020 Edition Acknowledgments Introduction.- 1. Before Star Wars 2. Dirt 3. Order 4. Border Crossing 5. Notes 6. Bibliography 7. Credits
£12.34
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Godfather, Part II
Book SynopsisFrancis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part II (1974) is a magisterial cinematic work, a gorgeous, stylized, auteur epic, and one of the few sequels judged by many to be greater than its predecessor. This despite the fact that it consists largely of meetings between aspiring 'Godfather' Michael Corleone and fellow gangsters, politicians and family members. The meetings remind us that the modern gangster’s success is built upon inside information and on strategic planning. Michael and his father Vito’s days resemble those of the legitimate businessmen they aspire or pretend to be. Jon Lewis's study of Coppola's masterpiece provides a close analysis of the film and a discussion of its cinematic and political contexts. It is structured in three sections: “The Sequel,” “The Dissolve,” and “The Sicilian Thing” – accommodating three avenues of inquiry, respectively: the film’s importance in and to Hollywood history, its unique, auteur style and form; and its cultural significance. Of interest, then, is New Hollywood history, mise-en-scene, and a view of the Corleone saga as a cautionary capitalist parable, as a metaphor of the corruption of American power, post-Vietnam, post-Watergate.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. The Sequel 2. The Dissolve 3. The Sicilian Thing Credits
£12.99
British Film Institute 100 Cult Films
Book SynopsisSome films should never have been made. They are too unsettling, too dangerous, too challenging, too outrageous and even too badly made to be let loose on unsuspecting audiences.Yet these films, from the shocking Cannibal Holocaust to the apocalyptic Donnie Darko, from the destructive Tetsuo to the awfully bad The Room, from the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap to the campy Showgirls, from the asylum of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari to the circus of Freaks, from the gangs of The Warriors to the gangsters of In Bruges and from the flamboyant Rocky Horror Picture Show to the ultimate cool of The Big Lebowski, have all garnered passionate fan followings.Cult cinema has made tragic misfits, monsters and cyborgs, such as Edward Scissorhands or Blade Runner''s replicants, heroes of our times. 100 Cult Films explains why these figures continue to inspire fans around the globe. Cult film experts Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik round up the most cultish of giallo, blaxploitation, anime, sexploitati
£23.39
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Gone With the Wind
Book SynopsisGone with the Wind (1939) is one of the greatest films of all time - the best-known of Hollywood''s Golden Age and a work that has, in popular imagination, defined southern American history for three-quarters of a century. Drawing on three decades of pertinent research, Helen Taylor charts the film''s production history, reception and legacy.
£12.34
Columbia University Press Duchamp Is My Lawyer
Book SynopsisIn 1996, Kenneth Goldsmith created UbuWeb to post hard-to-find works of concrete poetry. It grew into an essential archive of twentieth- and twenty-first-century avant-garde and experimental literature, film, and music. In Duchamp Is My Lawyer, Goldsmith tells the history of UbuWeb, explaining the motivations behind its creation.Trade ReviewNamed a Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020 * PopMatters *UbuWeb is one of the great avant-garde projects of our times. In Duchamp Is My Lawyer, Goldsmith takes us through the aesthetic, legal, economic, and social aspects of the whole project. Through it, we see how the avant-garde had to shift gears to move from the era of analog media to that of digital, or database media. It is an essential document on the theory and practice of experimental media art. -- McKenzie Wark, author of A Hacker ManifestoKenneth Goldsmith’s Duchamp Is My Lawyer details the story of UbuWeb, a free-source library for visual, audio and written art. He cites many extraordinary items – from masterpieces to flukes, oddities and trifles – that will send us rushing to the site to see, but the discussion is equally about the weighty issues of freedom vs ownership of culture. Goldsmith takes a stand – with Duchamp grinning wryly over his shoulder – for availability, access and the accumulation of knowledge. He’s holding the cultural back door open and letting in all the outcasts, misfits and oddballs that would never get past the velvet ropes up front. -- Lee Ranaldo, Sonic YouthDuchamp Is My Lawyer reads like an upbeat mediactivist manifesto—providing all at once an alternative political economy of open access, a humorous introduction to legal poetics, a joyful survey of artistic resistance, and an empowering toolbox to keep the web as free as we care for it to be. -- Yves Citton, author of MediarchyIn 1996, Kenneth Goldsmith sat down at his computer and initiated a website he appropriately called UbuWeb—a site soon consisting of “thousands of freely downloadable avant-garde artifacts,” and unlike any of its peers in being entirely free and open to all: no sponsors, no fees, no memberships or passwords required. Over the decades, it has become clear that UbuWeb, although an unmatchable scholarly resource, is itself the avant-garde artwork we have been waiting for—a giant collage of appropriated materials, chosen, juxtaposed, and framed so as to constitute perhaps the best single available history of its subject, and one entirely created by a single author—Goldsmith himself. The artist’s lively, entertaining, and revelatory account of how this uniquely democratic site was created and maintained, how he resolved vexing copyright issues, and how UBU has helped us reconsider movements from Concrete Poetry to the feminist punk of Angry Women—is nothing short of inspiring. This should be required reading for all those who wonder whether it still possible, in 2020, to speak of the avant-garde. -- Marjorie Perloff, author of Unoriginal Genius: Poetry by Other Means in the New CenturyUbuWeb is an anomaly of the internets. The irony is that it completely functions the way we envisioned the everything would, in the beginning of internets history. Kenneth Goldsmith kept UbuWeb true to the core values of the network: humanity, collectiveness, and borderless openness. In a world where data is synonymous with control and value is synonymous with price, UbuWeb functions as an oasis. -- Peter Sunde, founder of The Pirate BayWith an unshakable belief that art belongs more in the public sphere than behind closed walls, physical or digital, Kenneth Goldsmith originated the first open source platform for those who revere culture. This invigorating and timely book surveys why brilliant ideas, images, and sounds are important to both preserve and proliferate as freely as ever. -- Naomi Beckwith, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoDuchamp Is My Lawyer is the in-depth secret history of one of Goldsmith's most expansive and long running projects—the renegade website UbuWeb. At once manifesto, memoir, treatise, exposition, critique, and gossip column, it presents an essential history of renegade underground creative activity in the past 100 or so years. Brilliantly structured and filled with wit, wisdom, and Goldsmith's provocations, it is also an inspiring and hilarious read. -- John Zorn, composer and performerOne of the smartest manifestos on art and internet politics that I've seen. * The Wire *This book, although written in the first person singular, is an example of collective enunciation, the 'I' of Kenneth Goldsmith being a cooperative person representing all those eager to rely on the creative and communicative possibilities of the net to build a collaborative framework that does not dissolve but offers new promises to all individuals as well. In that sense, Duchamp Is My Lawyer perfectly qualifies as what Deleuze and Guattari call 'minor literature,' . . .the noncanonical use of a 'major' system to serve the needs and expectations of those at the margins. * Leonardo Reviews *A remarkably fluid and engaging read. . . When I finished Duchamp Is My Lawyer, I had the pleasure of sitting in natural silence for a brief while, pondering how much I had learnt, how entertainingly the book had conveyed its message of openness, what a gift it is to have such a light touch. * PopMatters *Duchamp is My Lawyer is an approachable and even-handed discussion of UbuWeb and issues regarding copyright in the digital age. It also provides an insight into the evolution of the counter culture in the internet age and the practical, legal and financial issues of producing and consuming art today. Well worth seeking out. * Alexander Adams Art *This is a book for lovers of art’s revolutionary import and those interested in the interface between art and the law. Recommended. * Choice *UbuWeb is portrayed as a small utopia in the middle of the commercial Internet, built on the principles of freedom, equality and cultural progress, but also subversiveness . . . between the lines, [Goldsmith] persuades us to create other such utopian places online, to try to transform the Internet and reclaim its vision of the future. * 3/4 Magazine *Duchamp Is My Lawyer displays Goldsmith fulfilling an ethics of caring about others who care about conserving odd things. Caring is at the heart of this tender homage to eccentric collectors who have put themselves at legal risk to share their obsessions. * William Carlos Williams Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Back DoorPart I: PolemicsPart II: Pragmatics 1. Folk Law2. From Panorama to Postage Stamp: Avant-Garde Cinema and the Internet3. The Work of Video Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction4. Shadow Libraries and Preserving the Memory of the WorldPart III: Poetics5. Dirty Concrete6. From Ursonate to Re-Sonate7. People Like Us8. Aspen: A “Multimedia Magazine in a Box”9. Street Poets and Visionaries10. An Anthology of AnthologiesCoda: The Ghost in the AlgorithmAppendix: 101 Things on UbuWeb That You Don’t Know About but Should NotesAcknowledgmentsIndex
£19.80
Columbia University Press Dr. No
Book SynopsisDr. No introduced the James Bond formula that has been a box-office fixture ever since. An explosive cocktail of action, spectacle, and sex, the film transformed popular cinema. James Chapman provides a lively and comprehensive study of Dr. No, marshaling a wealth of archival research to place the film in its historical moment.Trade ReviewDr. No: The First James Bond Film by James Chapman is particularly well researched. I especially appreciate the time the author took to dispel myths and legends about the movie. He delved into archives, first-hand sources, as well as unfinished scripts to separate fact from fiction. * Man of la Book: A Bookish Blog *Dr. No is a potentially invaluable resource for Bond scholars and cultural historians, as well as Bond fans keen to engage with the films at a more developed level. The lively writing and assured knowledge make the ideas and analysis feel fresh and revelatory. Chapman investigates and interrogates the many myths and half-truths surrounding the making of the film and the relationships between the key players in order to fully reassess the reputations and reception of the film both at its time of release and now. -- Laura Crossely, Bournemouth UniversityAn impressive and thoroughly enjoyable book. More than twenty years after the landmark volume Licence to Thrill, the author’s latest contribution to the field is meticulously researched and engagingly written. Merging the rigor of the historian with the enthusiasm of the aficionado and consistently illuminated by fresh archival discoveries, Chapman’s Dr. No reminds us that, in the field of Bond studies, nobody does it better. -- Jeremy Strong, author of James Bond UncoveredThe reward of James Chapman’s inquiry is that it explains how and why Dr. No "got it right" from the start while considering the “first” Bond film as a text on its own. Excavating a wealth of primary research, Chapman spearheads the archival and industrial turn in Bond studies to arrive at a new understanding of the ongoing appeal of the James Bond franchise. -- Jaap Verheul, editor of The Cultural Life of James BondJames Chapman's brilliant-realised study of the first Eon-produced James Bond film is a testament not only to the current renaissance of James Bond studies as a field but also the cultural significance of Dr. No in its own right, a film that arguably spawned the modern franchise blockbuster as we know it. Of course, Chapman's rigorous scholarship is the primary draw, here; he proves, once again, that, when it comes to matters of James Bond, "nobody does it better." Dr. No: The First James Bond Film breaks new ground, here, and is likely to pave the way for subsequent "deep-dive" scholarly examinations of specific films in the Bond series. This is film and cultural history scholarship at its finest. -- Ian Kinane, editor of the International Journal of James Bond StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Sex, Snobbery, and Sadism 2. Everything or Nothing3. Monkey Business4. Underneath the Mango Tree5. A Bizarre Comedy Melodrama 6. I’m Just LookingConclusionAppendix I: Dr. No Production CreditsAppendix II: Dr. No Production BudgetAppendix III: Dr. No Daily Progress ReportsNotesBibliographyIndex
£19.80
University of Illinois Press The Disney Animation Renaissance
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Sharp and filled with knowledge. . . . The book shines a light on the Florida studio's legacy within the wider Disney history and its impact during the Disney Renaissance can't be undersold." --Boardwalk Times"Lescher’s admiring narrative, which incorporates her firsthand experience and interviews with fellow artists, illuminates the talent of Disney animators. Readers who cherish all things House of Mouse will find much to appreciate." --Publishers Weekly"An academic monograph that is also accessible to Disney animation and parks fans. . . . Animation fans will lock onto the history of the films that the studio contributed to making. Parks fans cannot help but be fascinated by the evolution of the attraction and the perceptions of the animators behind the glass. And most of all, the work shows how serious academic studies on animation endeavors can provide us with valuable lessons about business, technology, innovation, and culture. " --Between Disney"Utilizing personal interviews and vast repositories of documents in Disney archives, Lescher’s analysis and research is thorough. . . . An intriguing piece of Disney lore." --Library Journal"Adds significantly to the canon of Disney commentary. Mary Lescher was part of an interesting experiment--the creation of a working animation studio that doubled as a theme park attraction--and she was there at a crucial point in the history of animation, when the industry was on the brink of a technological revolution thanks to the development of 3-D digital tools. She chronicles that experiment, as well as the various changes swirling around animation, in an effective and even fond manner, letting us see behind the scenes."--J. P. Telotte, author of The Mouse Machine: Disney and TechnologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction A Theme Park Attraction (1989-1990) Traditional or Digital: It’s All Hand-Drawn (1989-1990) B Unit to the Blockbusters (1991-1997) The Little Studio That Could (1998-1999) Shutting Down the Studio (2000-2004) Conclusion NotesAnimation GlossaryFilmographyBibliographyIndex
£77.35
University of Illinois Press Werner Herzog
Book SynopsisWerner Herzog''s protean imagination has produced a filmography that is nothing less than a sustained meditation on the modern human condition. Though Herzog takes his topics from around the world, the Americas have provided the setting and subject matter for iconic works ranging from Aquirre, The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo to Grizzly Man. Joshua Lund offers the first systematic interpretation of Werner Herzog''s Americas-themed works, illuminating the director''s career as a political filmmaker—a label Herzog himself rejects. Lund draws on materialist and post-colonial approaches to argue that Herzog''s American work confronts us with the circulation, distribution, accumulation, application, and negotiation of power that resides, quietly, at the center of his films. By operating beyond conventional ideological categories, Herzog renders political ideas in radically unfamiliar ways while fearlessly confronting his viewers with questions of world-hiTrade Review"This thoughtful study offers a worthwhile critical perspective on Werner Herzog, one of the world's great living film artists." --The Arts Fuse”From the fascinating films of Werner Herzog, Joshua Lund crafts a striking book that sheds light on the political significance of a range of aesthetic issues. Behind Herzog's films stands the ghost of America, confronting us with the tragic powerlessness of her heroes and meditating on the historical failure of her cultural-economic model. We have never seen Herzog's films with greater clarity.”—Luc Vancheri, author of Psycho: La leçon d'iconologie d'Alfred Hitchcock"This is a book that was written to be read. With a view to shedding light on Herzog’s notoriously hard-to-pin-down politics, Lund focuses on the idea of “America” as it figures in Herzog’s oeuvre, treating it as a broad and privileged category for reflecting on capitalist modernity. Each of the main chapters of Werner Herzog centers on a single film, tracing the arc of its plot, elegantly interweaving observations about other Herzog films, unusual historical and literary material, and commentary on the growing critical literature. It does all this without devolving into an easily forgotten scholasticism. Lund’s concerns go to the heart of what is so powerful and disorienting about Herzog’s work. By the end of each chapter, one has been expertly led along an unpredictable path to a fresh apprehension of the films. The book has everything what one wants from film criticism: excellent writing; suspense and surprise; erudition; and most of all, a strong and irreverent critical voice, worthy of Herzog’s own renegade sensibility."—Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, author of The Process Genre: Cinema and the Aesthetic of Labor
£16.14
University of Illinois Press The Disney Animation Renaissance
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Sharp and filled with knowledge. . . . The book shines a light on the Florida studio's legacy within the wider Disney history and its impact during the Disney Renaissance can't be undersold." --Boardwalk Times"Lescher’s admiring narrative, which incorporates her firsthand experience and interviews with fellow artists, illuminates the talent of Disney animators. Readers who cherish all things House of Mouse will find much to appreciate." --Publishers Weekly"An academic monograph that is also accessible to Disney animation and parks fans. . . . Animation fans will lock onto the history of the films that the studio contributed to making. Parks fans cannot help but be fascinated by the evolution of the attraction and the perceptions of the animators behind the glass. And most of all, the work shows how serious academic studies on animation endeavors can provide us with valuable lessons about business, technology, innovation, and culture. " --Between Disney"Utilizing personal interviews and vast repositories of documents in Disney archives, Lescher’s analysis and research is thorough. . . . An intriguing piece of Disney lore." --Library Journal"Adds significantly to the canon of Disney commentary. Mary Lescher was part of an interesting experiment--the creation of a working animation studio that doubled as a theme park attraction--and she was there at a crucial point in the history of animation, when the industry was on the brink of a technological revolution thanks to the development of 3-D digital tools. She chronicles that experiment, as well as the various changes swirling around animation, in an effective and even fond manner, letting us see behind the scenes."--J. P. Telotte, author of The Mouse Machine: Disney and TechnologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction A Theme Park Attraction (1989-1990) Traditional or Digital: It’s All Hand-Drawn (1989-1990) B Unit to the Blockbusters (1991-1997) The Little Studio That Could (1998-1999) Shutting Down the Studio (2000-2004) Conclusion NotesAnimation GlossaryFilmographyBibliographyIndex
£21.59
University of Illinois Press The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Russell has positioned her concise, structurally adventurous contribution to 'Stanwyck studies' to reflect the expanding range of cultural approaches to women in media published during the past decade. . . . The twenty-six bite-sized essays cover themes of work, gender, sexuality, ageing, misogyny, class and race." --Times Literary Supplement"Catherine Russell's The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck adds illuminating dimension to the actress's complex life story and equally vaunted career. Her meticulously researched and thoughtful analysis brings a fresh perspective to Stanwyck' s legacy, and captures the enduring power and charm of the classical Hollywood movie star." --Cineaste"The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck makes the choice to refuse to simplify Stanwyck’s career. It underscores Stanwyck’s importance, but it doesn’t pretend like she, the films, or the era that created them are something they’re not. As a result, Russell has put together an unflinching work of criticism that must be acknowledged as the definitive work on the subject. It’s essential reading for anyone interested in Stanwyck or the era of film she headlined." --NewCity“Catherine Russell’s inventive study of Barbara Stanwyck’s long, fascinating career as a ‘working star’ offers a tantalizing model for other feminist histories of women’s work in the film industry. Achronological and essayistic, Russell’s approach weaves back and forth between Stanwyck’s onscreen roles, her star persona, and her working life to document what Russell calls ‘the structural misogyny of the industry.’”--Shelley Stamp, author of Lois Weber in Early Hollywood and Movie-Struck Girls“A deeply creative and insightful critical study of Barbara Stanwyck’s agency and labor as a performer, The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck is a stunning blend of feminist historiography, archival research, star-studies, biography, and film analysis--a rewarding and immensely pleasurable read.”--Julie Grossman, author of The Femme FataleTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction to Stanwyck Studies A All I Desire: Pastiche and Performance B The Barbara Stanwyck Show: Everyday Melodrama C Crimes of Passion: A Destructive Character D Dion the Son, and Barbara the Bad Mother E Edith Head: Clothing Makes the Woman a Woman F Forty Guns and The Furies: Angry Women G Gambling Ladies: Playing Games H William Holden: Making Men I Illicit: How to be Ultramodern J Jungle Films/White Women K Kate Crawley: Cross-Dressing in the Archive L The Lady Eve: Performativity and Melancholia M Fred MacMurray: Kissing and Playing N No Man of Her Own: Double Women and the Star O Annie Oakley: A Girl and a Gun P Paranoia, Abjection, and Gaslighting Q The Queen R Riding, Falling, and Stunts S The Stella Dallas Debates T Theresa Harris: Black Double U Union Pacific: Unmaking History V Voice, Body, Identity W Working Women and Cultural Labor X Exotica and Bitter Tears Y You Belong to Me: Archives and Fans Z Zeppo Marx: Comedy and Agency Notes Bibliography Index
£21.59
Indiana University Press Everything Is Sampled
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Everything Is Sampled deploys the idea of production in deft and thoughtful manners to think together African arts, the integrity of the discrete aesthetic phenomenon, and the historical matrix within which aesthetic objects gain life. Everything Is Sampled adopts and rechannels terms implicated in the workings of text-making practices like curation, translation, media and modes (streaming technologies included), to establish patterns of changes and regularities in drama, film, video, poetry, and art installation. Individuals interested in lucid cultural analysis ought to find the eminently accessible style of presentation very appealing."—Adeleke Adeeko, Ohio State University"Everything Is Sampled will make significant contributions to African literary and cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and world literature studies. It's central objects of analysis extend over an impressively wide range of artistic productions in sub-Saharan Africa, from the mid twentieth-century to the contemporary moment of globalization and digital culture. This unusual capaciousness is risky but exciting. Adesokan's work takes on this ambitious task with a flair that is at once substantive and stylistic."—Olakunle George, Brown UniversityTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The New Terrains of African Arts and LettersPart One: Shifting Margins1. Modes of Creative Practice2. Spatial Assemblages: Festivals as CurationPart Two: Across the Digital Divide3. The Griot's Compositions in Time4. Adaptation or Remake: New Formats for Old Prints5. Approaching the World as Platform, Literally6. The Remix: Of New Identities and Technologies of ReuseEpilogue: In Relative AccountAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex
£31.50
Indiana University Press African Cinema Manifesto and Practice for
Book SynopsisChallenging established views and assumptions about traditions and practices of filmmaking in the African diaspora, this three-volume set offers readers a researched critique on black film. Volume One of this landmark series on African cinema draws together foundational scholarship on its history and evolution. Beginning with the ideological project of colonial film to legitimize the economic exploitation and cultural hegemony of the African continent during imperial rule to its counter-historical formation and theorization. It comprises essays by film scholars and filmmakers alike, among them Roy Armes, Med Hondo, Fèrid Boughedir, Haile Gerima, Oliver Barlet, Teshome Gabriel, and David Murphy, including three distinct dossiers: a timeline of key dates in the history of African cinema; a comprehensive chronicle and account of the contributions by African women in cinema; and a homage and overview of Ousmane Sembène, the Father of African cinema.Trade Review"African Cinema: Manifesto and Practice for Cultural Decolonization combines theory and praxis as a means to explore the social, cultural, political, economic and gendered dynamics of African cinemas within a global context, all of which are determining factors in how African filmmaking practitioners and stakeholders negotiate their place as directors, producers, organizers, activists, scholars, distributors, cultural readers. The collection is an important addition to African Cinema Studies in particular, and the library of Film Studies in general."—Beti Ellerson, Founder and Director, Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema"Setting out, African Cinema positioned itself at the intersection of a theory and practice of cultural self-apprehension, with all the contradictions that come with that position. In this three-volume compendium, Martin, Kaboré and their various collaborators have provided a comprehensive, almost exhaustive, account eventuating in a third, element—history. A more comprehensive account will be hard to find anywhere else."—Akin Adesokan, Indiana University"This is a long-awaited volume of detailed, and analytical information and commentary that maps the development of the cinema of a large continent and the background ideas that have influenced its formation."—June Givanni, Director of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive (JGPACA)Table of ContentsDedicationAcknowledgementsAfrican Cinema and the Diasporic: Introductory Considerations, by Michael T. Martin and Gaston Jean-Marie KaboréPart I: Colonial FormationsColonial Cinema, by Roy ArmesThe Colonialist Regime of Representation, 1945-1960, by James E. GenovaPolitics of Cultural Conversion in Colonialist African Cinema, by Femi Okiremuete ShakaThe African Bioscope: Movie-House Culture in British Colonial Africa, by James BurnsFrom the Inside: The Colonial Film Unit and the Beginning of the End, by Tom RiceThe Independence Generation: Film Culture and the Anti-Colonial Struggle in the 1950s, by Odile GoergPart II: Constituting African CinemaWhat Is Cinema for Us?, by Med HondoA Cinema Fighting for Its Liberation, by Férid BoughedirWhere Are the African Women Filmmakers?, by Haile GerimaThe FEPACI and Its Artistic Legacies, by Sada NiangNew Avenues for FEPACI: Interview with Seipati Bulane-Hopa, by Monique Mbeka PhobaThe Six Decades of African Film, by Olivier BarletAfrica, The Last Cinema, by Clyde R. TaylorThe Pan-African Cinema Movement: Achievements, Misadventures, and Failures (1969-2020), by Férid BoughedirPart III: Theorizing African CinemaAfrican Cinema(s): Definitions, Identity, and Theoretical Considerations, by Alexie TcheuyapTheorizing African Cinema: Contemporary African Cinematic Discourse and Its Discontents, by Esiaba IrobiThe Theoretical Construction of African Cinema, by Stephen A. ZacksToward a Critical Theory of Third World Films, by Teshome H. GabrielAfricans Filming Africa: Questioning Theories of an Authentic African Cinema, by David MurphyTradition/Modernity and the Discourse of African Cinema, by Jude AkudinobiToward a Theory of Orality in African Cinema, by Keyan G. Tomaselli, Arnold Shepperson, and Maureen N. EkeFilm and the Problem of Languages in Africa, by Paulin Soumanou VieyraIn Defense of African Film Studies, by Boukary SawadogoPart IV: Articulations of African CinemaDossier 1: Key Dates in the History of African Cinema, by Olivier Barlet and Claude ForestDossier 2: Ousmane Sembène, by Sada Niang and Samba GadjigoDossier 3: African Women in Cinema, by Beti Ellerson
£29.70
University of California Press Hard Core
Book SynopsisIn this study, the author moves beyond the impasse of the anti-porn/anti-censorship debate to analyze what hard-core film pornography is and does - as a genre with a history, as a specific cinematic form, and as part of contemporary discourse on sexuality.
£22.50
University of California Press The First True Hitchcock
Book SynopsisHitchcock's previously untold origin story. Alfred Hitchcock called The Lodger the first true Hitchcock movie,the one that anticipated all the others. And yet the story of how The Lodger came to be made is shrouded in myth, often repeated and much embellished, even by Hitchcock himself. The First True Hitchcock focuses on the twelve-month period that encompassed The Lodger's production in 1926 and release in 1927, presenting a new picture of this pivotal year in Hitchcock's life and in the wider film world. Using fresh archival discoveries, Henry K. Miller situates Hitchcock's formation as a director against the backdrop of a continent shattered by war and confronted with the looming presence of a new superpower, the United States, and its most visible exportfilm. The previously untold story of The Lodger's making in the London fogand attempted remaking in the Los Angeles sunis the story of how Hitchcock became Hitchcock.Trade Review'Henry K. Miller’s in-depth study of the production and impact of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film The Lodger is an essential addition to the Hitch canon." * The Film Stage *"Miller reminds us that film history consistently requires an understanding of past worlds that no matter how ‘fixed’ have long since vanished." * Sight & Sound *"The First True Hitchcock is an invigoratingly deep dive into the movie that launched one of world cinema’s most endlessly intriguing careers." * Hitchcock Annual *Table of ContentsPreface Map of London, 1926–1927 1. The Embankment at Midnight 2. The Reputation and the Myth 3. No Old Masters 4. The Autocrat of the Studio 5. To Catch a Thief 6. The First True Hitchcock 7. Stories of the Days to Come 8. Wilshire Palms Notes Bibliography Index
£20.70
University of California Press Dreams of Flight
Book SynopsisThe first full-length study of the iconic 1960s film The Great Escape and its place in Hollywood and American history.Escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) on a stolen motorcycle jumps an imposing barbed wire fencecaught on film, the act and its aftermath have become an unforgettable symbol of triumph as well as defeat for 1960s America. Combining production and reception history with close reading, Dreams of Flight offers the first full-length study of The Great Escape, the classic film based on a true story of Allied prisoners who hatched an audacious plan to divert and thwart the Wehrmacht and escape into the nearby countryside. Through breezy prose and pithy analysis, Dana Polan centersThe Great Escapewithin American cultural and intellectual history, drawing a vivid picture of the country in the 1960s. We see a nation grappling with its own military history, a society undergoing significant shifts in its culture and identity, and a film industry in transition from Old HollywTrade Review"Dana Polan’s rich assessment of the film’s making coupled with a superb analysis of the film itself, script, style, themes and directorial bravura is filled with informative nuggets. Eschewing the standard star bio approach, Polan goes much deeper. . . . Written with tremendous authority and great style." * Cinema Retro *“Dreams of Flight is an act of devotion, a work of extreme connoisseurship.” * Air Mail *"Far more than just a love letter to a foundational film from an author and devoted fan, Dreams of Flight is a rewarding work of scholarly reclamation, a volume that is always precise in its observation of the hidden dimensions of The Great Escape. . . . Through careful attention to formal choices and an impressively broad engagement with memory, history, and cinematic legacies, Dreams of Flight uncovers the many textures of its popular subject." * Velvet Light Trap *"This book expands in myriad and often surprising directions. . . . Dreams of Flight is remarkable for the extent and imaginative richness of the research materials it brings to bear." * California History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Engineering The Great Escape From Book to Film (and In Between) 2. Tunneling In The Great Escape: Style, Theme, and Structure 3. Afterlives Coda Appendix: "It Really Happened" Notes Index
£18.90
University of California Press What Film Is Good For
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Foreword by Mike Figgis Introduction: Film Ethics as Delivering the Goods Martin P. Rossouw and Julian Hanich PART ONE. ADAPTIVE GOODS 1. . . . A Portal to Another World: On Cinema, Climate Change, and a Good Apocalypse Jennifer Fay 2. . . . Scaling Down: On the Unsustainable Pleasure of Large-File Streaming Laura U. Marks 3. . . . It’s Invaluable: On Film Spectatorship in the Era of Covid-19 Sarah Cooper 4. . . . Stabilities and Mobilities: On the Generic Values of Emplacements, Displacements, and Outplacements Timothy Corrigan PART TWO. EMPATHETIC GOODS 5. . . . Lies, Loops, or Liberation: On the Dis/Obedience of Feeling More Michele Aaron 6. . . . Public Engagement: On Postcolonial African Cinema’s Critical Value Litheko Modisane 7. . . . Shedding Light on Abject Lives: On Global Cinema as Ethical Art Seung-hoon Jeong 8. . . . Empathy: On Its Limitations and Liabilities Malcolm Turvey 9. . . . Political Impact: On the Societal Vibrancy of Film Jens Eder PART THREE. SENSTITIVE GOODS 10. . . . Moral Reflection: On the Reflective Afterlife of Screen Stories Carl Plantinga and Garrett Strpko 11. . . . Challenge and Discomfort: On Situated Elitist Pleasures in Art and Indie Film Geoff King 12. . . . Heterocosmic Connections: On the Many Worlds and World Values of Cinema Daniel Yacavone 13. . . . Depth of Experience: On Early Phenomenology and the Value of Boredom in the Cinema Christian Ferencz-Flatz 14. . . . Striking Beauty: On Recuperating the Beautiful in Cinema Julian Hanich PART FOUR. REVIVING GOODS 15. . . . Wondering Offscreen: On Cinema’s Transformations of Our Relation to the Unseen Jaimie Baron 16. . . . Coming to Wonder: On Cinema’s Renewal of Vision Catherine Wheatley 17. . . . Moral Improvement: On How Watching Films Might Make Us Better People Thomas E. Wartenberg 18. . . . Cinematic Ethics: On Film as Transformative Experience Robert Sinnerbrink 19. . . . Spiritual Exercises Before a Screen: On “Film as Philosophy” and Its Transformational Ethics Martin P. Rossouw PART FIVE. COMMUNAL GOODS 20. . . . Remembrance and Reflection: On Social Justice Cinema in the #BlackLivesMatter Era Maryann Erigha Lawer 21. . . . Making Movie Generations: On the Cultural Work of Hollywood Remaking Kathleen Loock 22. . . . Reaching Unlettered Audiences: On Global Blockbuster Cinema and Its Oral Affinities Sheila J. Nayar 23. . . . Love of Community and Reality: On André Bazin and the Good of Cinema Dudley Andrew PART SIX. MEDIAL GOODS 24. . . . Projection and Protection: On Cinemagoing as Playing Hide-and-Seek with Reality Francesco Casetti 25. . . . An Animated and Animating Medium: On Hegel,Adorno, and the Good of Film Nicholas Baer 26. . . . The Bigger Picture: On Watching Films on a Cinema Screen Martine Beugnet 27. . . . Quality Time: On Resisting What’s Next, or Staying with the Credits Tiago de Luca PART SEVEN. UNSETTLED GOODS 28. . . . Wanton Destruction: On Cinema’s Antisocial Thrills Adrian Martin 29. . . . Alienating Interventions: On What the “Bad” in David Lynch’s Films Is “Good” For Annie van den Oever and Dominique Chateau 30. . . . Dangerous Situations: On Whether Cinema Is Poisonous Michel Chion 31. . . . Good for Nothing? On How Films Help Us through the Night Tom Gunning 32. . . . Medium-Sized Matters: On Whether Cinema Has Made Any Difference Mark Cousins Afterword by Radu Jude List of Contributors Index
£22.50
University of California Press Recollecting Lotte Eisner
Book SynopsisRecollecting Lotte Eisner provides the first in-depth examination of the remarkable transnational career of film journalist, archivist, and historian Lotte Eisner (18961983). From her early years as a film critic in interwar Berlin to her escape from prison in occupied France and from her role as chief curator at the Cinémathèque française to that as the mythic collective conscience of New German Cinema, Eisner was a prolific writer and lecturer and a pivotal voice in early film and media studies. Situated at the juncture of feminist media historiography and disciplinary intellectual history, this groundbreaking book is based on extensive multilingual archival research and the excavation of a rich corpus of previously overlooked materials. Introducing samples of Eisner's writing in translation, this volume makes some of the most important contributions of a foundational scholar in the field of film studies accessible for the first time to an English-language readership.Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Introduction 1 • Fräulein Doktor Eisner 2 • A Reluctant Bellwether: Dr. L. H. Eisner and Flapper at the Film-Kurier, 1927–1933 3 • “La seule historienne”: Exile, Salvage, and Community at the Cinémathèque Française 4 • “Lacunae Everywhere”: Iterative Historiography and the Midcentury Palimpsests Conclusion: The Woolly Mammoth of the Cinémathèque Appendix: Film-Kurier Bibliography, by the Numbers Notes References Index
£22.50
University of California Press Becoming the ExWife
Book SynopsisMakes an excellent case for Parrott as an unjustly forgotten historical figure.TheNew YorkerRemind[s] us of the brazenly talented women sidelined by convention.New York Times The riveting biography of Ursula Parrottbest-selling author, Hollywood screenwriter, and voice for the modern woman. Credited with popularizing the label ex-wife in 1929, Ursula Parrott wrote provocatively about divorcées, career women, single mothers, work-life balance, and a host of new challenges facing modern women. Her best sellers, Hollywood film deals, marriages and divorces, and run-ins with the law made her a household name. Part biography, part cultural history, Becoming the Ex-Wife establishes Parrott's rightful place in twentieth-century American culture, uncovering her neglected work and keen insights into American women's lives during a period of immense social change. Although she was frequently dismissed as a woman's writer, reading Parrott's writing today makes it clear that she was a trencha
£20.70
