Film history, theory or criticism Books

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

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Book SynopsisSam Rohdie's insightful and compelling analysis of Luchino Visconti's 1960 epic of modern urban life provides reveals the film as one of the greatest masterpieces of Italian cinema. Rocco tells the story of a family of peasants uprooted from their village in southern Italy, and forced to battle for existence in the industrial metropolis of Milan. Though fascinated by the social reality of modern Italy, Visconti had by this time thrown off the influence of the neorealist movement. He had developed a style all his own, enriched by his experience of directing opera for the stage. As a result, the characters in Rocco are no longer held in check by the naturalistic conventions of neorealism. Instead, they erupt on the screen with all the emotional power of heightened melodrama. The violent sexuality projected by stars Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Claudia Cardinale and the rest of Visconti's impressive cast was too much for the Italian censors, who cut several scenes. Rohdie discusses the film in terms of its 'passionate splendid realism', arguing that these two apparently opposing moods are held in balance rather than contradiction in the film, part of 'the very condition of the film's power - and grace.'Table of ContentsForeword to the 2020 Edition Acknowledgements Introduction Rocco and His Brothers Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThelma & Louise, directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri, sparked a remarkable public discussion about feminism, violence, and the representation of women in cinema on its release in 1991. Subject to media vilification for its apparent justification of armed robbery and manslaughter, it was a huge hit with audiences composed largely but not exclusively of women who cheered the fugitive central characters played by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. Marita Sturken examines Thelma & Louise as one of those rare films that encapsulates the politics of its time. She discusses the film's reworking of the outlaw genre, its reversal of gender roles, and its engagement with the complex relationship of women, guns adn the law. The insights of director Scott, screenwriter Khouri as well as Davis and Sarandon are deployed in an analysis of Thelma & Louise and the controversies it sparked. This is a compelling study of a landmark in 1990s American cinema. In her foreword to this new edition, Sturken looks back on the film's reception at the time of its release, and considers its continuing resonances and topicality in the age of #MeToo.Table of ContentsForeword to the 2020 Edition Acknowledgments Thelma & Louise Notes Credits

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Book SynopsisSingle Lives is a collection of singleness studies essays from the interdisciplinary humanities that explores the last two hundred years of literature and popular media by, about, and for single women in the US and the UK. Independent women have always been a center around which social anxieties and excitement coalesced. Moving between the family home and domestic independence, between household and public labor, and between celibacy and a range of sexual relations, the single woman remains a literary and cultural focus, as she has been from the 19th to the 21st centuries. This collection offers readers the opportunity to uncover the social, political, economic, and cultural connections between the "singly blessed" women and "bachelor girls" of the 19th and early 20th century and "all the single ladies" of the 21st century. Essays read singleness across genre and field, offering new approaches to studying modern and contemporary single women in literature, film, and history. Authors engage scholarship from wide ranging fields of social history, women's studies, queer theory, and Black feminism. The collection reads familiar texts against the grain, rethinking archival resources, revisiting familiar figures, and exploring new sources: cookbooks, ephemera, personal documents, recovered film histories, and forms of domestic space and labor.This is a book for scholars of gender and sexuality, social history, feminist film and media scholars, and literary historians, and reflects the urgent contemporary interest in single women as a political, economic, and cultural force. Trade Review"Single Lives, focusing on a wide range of British and American texts from the nineteenth to the present century, makes a timely feminist intervention into ongoing critical conversations about the representation of women’s singleness. This engaging interdisciplinary collection, which foregrounds diverse embodiments of singleness, revisits familiar figures, and promotes expanded methods and sources to better understand single women’s lived experiences, promises to greatly enrich the field of singleness studies." -- Anthea Taylor * author of Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster *"Drawing from wide-ranging disciplines and spanning a century of British and American history, Single Lives offers an original and engrossing analysis of how the figure of the single woman stands as an implicit challenge to the norm of the patriarchal nuclear family." -- Kathleen Rowe Karlyn * author of The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter *"Single Lives, focusing on a wide range of British and American texts from the nineteenth to the present century, makes a timely feminist intervention into ongoing critical conversations about the representation of women’s singleness. This engaging interdisciplinary collection, which foregrounds diverse embodiments of singleness, revisits familiar figures, and promotes expanded methods and sources to better understand single women’s lived experiences, promises to greatly enrich the field of singleness studies." -- Anthea Taylor * author of Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster *"Drawing from wide-ranging disciplines and spanning a century of British and American history, Single Lives offers an original and engrossing analysis of how the figure of the single woman stands as an implicit challenge to the norm of the patriarchal nuclear family." -- Kathleen Rowe Karlyn * author of The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Situating Single Lives by Katherine Fama and Jorie Lagerwey Part I: Singles Studies: Archives and Methods Chapter 1: Searching for Singles: Archival Approaches for Singleness Studies and Black Women’s Collections by Andreá N. Williams Chapter 2: Reclaiming Single Women’s Work: Gender, Melodrama, and the Processes of Adaptation in The Best of Everything by Jennifer S. Clark Chapter 3: Recovering Single Biography: Jane Armstrong Tucker, Illness, and the Single Life by Elizabeth DeWolfe Part II: Familiar Figures: Representing and Reforming the Single Woman Chapter 4: Becoming Single: Gidget “Betwixt and Between” by Pamela Robertson Wojcik Chapter 5: F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Sinking Ship of Future Matrimony:” The Unmarried Flapper in Literature and on Screen by Martina Mastandrea Chapter 6: Neither Betwixt nor Between: Divorced Mothers in the United States, 1920-1965 by Kristin Celello Chapter 7: Serves One: Exploring Representations of Female Singleness in American Cookbooks by Ursula Kania Part III: Singles at Home: Domestic Labors Chapter 8: Feeling “Like a Queen:” Later-Life Single Women at Home in Modern American Short Fiction by Katherine Fama Chapter 9: “Spinsters’ Rest?”: The Discomforts of Home in British Women’s Short Stories of the 1920s to the 1940s by Emma Liggins Chapter 10: All the Single Nannies: Reforming Elite Domesticity and the Cultural Imaginary by Ann Mattis Afterword by Benjamin Kahan Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA screenwriter, novelist, labor leader, Hollywood insider, and feminist, Mary C. McCall Jr. was one of the film industry's most powerful figures in the 1940s and early 1950s. J. E. Smyth tells McCall's remarkable story for the first time.

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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 trenchant philosopher of modernityher work was prescient, anticipating issues not widely raised until decades after her decline into obscurity. With elegant wit and a deft command of the archive, Marsha Gordon tells a timely story about the life of a woman on the front lines of a culture war that is still raging today.Trade Review"As Marsha Gordon argues in her engaging new biography, Becoming the Ex-Wife, the novel 'offers a strong case for the protections of marriage and the dangers of being an unattached woman.' . . . In her biography, Gordon makes an excellent case for Parrott as an unjustly forgotten historical figure: a sociological flash point, a beneficiary of feminism and victim of patriarchy who got her enemies mixed up." * The New Yorker *“Why did a once-transfixed reading public turn away, and why is Parrott so often now eliminated from a pantheon of popular urban “working girl” writers that includes Helen Gurley Brown, Candace Bushnell, Nora Ephron, Dorothy Parker and, perhaps most comparably, Jacqueline Susann? . . . A reissue of Ursula Parrott’s racy novel “Ex-Wife,” and a new biography of its author, remind us of the brazenly talented women sidelined by convention. . . . [Gordon] surfaces plenty of colorful period detail: passport photos of everyone looking mussed and truculent in that Jazz Age way; correspondence from exasperated agents, editors and lovers; even an adorable 'mapback' version marked with key locations in 'Ex-Wife.'” * The New York Times *“[V]igorous, entertaining, and well-researched . . . [Gordon’s] biography salvages and reconstructs Parrott’s many remains, rescuing an important American voice and cultural figure from near oblivion. . . . The result is a clear, full, yet unlabored portrait of Parrott, written in agile, accessible prose. Gordon’s tone is warm but unsentimental (as was Parrott herself), occasionally displaying a subtle and welcome bit of cheek or zing befitting her subject." * Los Angeles Review of Books *“[R]igorous . . . an enlightening companion to the novel" * The Baffler *"Marsha Gordon’s Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott is a thoroughly researched, sympathetic, but not uncritical portrait of a woman who achieved exceptional commercial success as a writer and who was, for a while, 'the most famous divorcée in the United States.'" -- Joyce Carol Oates * The New York Review of Books *"Gordon’s biography . . . is good on Parrott’s significance for an understanding of American life – and women’s lives, in particular – in the interwar period, with its glancing insights into alcoholism and abortion. Keenly supported by examples from the writings, Gordon also shows how her subject’s life was often too strange for any kind of fiction." * Times Literary Supplement *"Parrott led a scandalous, glamorous, sometimes lonely life in the public eye, and Gordon, professor and director of the film studies program at North Carolina State University, has done the world a great service by bringing her back into the spotlight." * Washington City Paper *"In Becoming the Ex-Wife, Marsha Gordon sheds welcome light on this remarkable and troubled writer, who knew too well how hard it was to be a modern woman who wanted sexual freedom and a career of her own choosing. In this well-researched and fascinating biography, Parrott emerges as a star who should be remembered alongside Jazz Age icons like Dorothy Parker and the Fitzgeralds.” * Newcity Lit *"[O]ffers an in-depth look at Parrott’s complicated and sometimes scandalous life." * Walter Magazine *"Parrott is forgotten and Faulkner is famous. This is so much more than a matter of quality, which is why we need biography. . . . Marsha Gordon makes a compelling case for Parrott’s artistry and continuing relevance. . . . Ms. Gordon does something else that is quite shrewd: She has a concluding chapter, after Parrott has died, which concentrates on her subject’s literary legacy. The story of Parrott’s life is over, but her writing lives on, even if we don’t yet know it." * The New York Sun *"Marsha Gordon’s new biography of the best-selling author Ursula Parrott, Becoming the Ex-Wife, rescues this important author’s life from obscurity, . . . Both Gordon’s biography, and the 2023 publication of a McNally Edition of Parrott’s 1929 novel Ex-Wife have garnered a lot of well-deserved attention. . . . In Becoming the Ex-Wife, it is clear Gordon mined all the archives and saved what she could of this fascinating and accomplished woman’s life from obscurity.” * Biblio *"There are certain books which catch you completely by surprise. Marsha Gordon’s Becoming the Ex-Wife is one of those books. . . . Gordon does an excellent job of telling Parrott’s story because she balances her admiration with the right amount of critical eye. . . . If you can accept that a human can be both good and bad in various measures while finding their life story interesting, then you will enjoy this book immensely.” * History Nerds United *"Gordon’s biography . . . is good on Parrott’s significance for an understanding of American life – and women’s lives, in particular – in the interwar period, with its glancing insights into alcoholism and abortion. Keenly supported by examples from the writings, Gordon also shows how her subject’s life was often too strange for any kind of fiction." * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations A Note on Name Usage Introduction: "Maxims in the Copybook of Modernism" 1 • The Limited Life of a Dorchester Girl 2 • At Radcliffe: "A Pushy Lace-Curtain Irish Girl from Dorchester" 3 • First Husband, Lindesay Parrott: "Strange Moments of Tenderness and Pretty Constant Dislike" 4 • Modern Parenting 5 • Greenwich Village: The Path to Becoming a "Self-Sufficient, Independent, Successful Manager of Her Own Life" 6 • Hugh O’Connor: High Felicity on the "Road of No Rules" 7 • New Freedoms in the "Era of the One-Night Stand": The Ex-Wife Is Born 8 • Ursula Goes to Hollywood 9 • Second Husband, Charles Greenwood: "The Stupidest Thing I Ever Did in My Life" 10 • "Extravagant Hell" 11 • The Business of Being a Writer 12 • Third Husband, John Wildberg: The Faint Resemblance of Stability 13 • "The Monotony and Weariness of Living" 14 • Fourth Husband, Alfred Coster Schermerhorn: "Two Catastrophes Should Be Enough" 15 • Saving Private Bryan: The United States vs. Ursula Parrott 16 • Her "Breaks Went Bad" 17 • "Black Coffee, Scotch, and Excitement" Afterword: Remembering a "Leftover Lady" Acknowledgments Chronology Notes Published Writings of Ursula Parrott Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'A blast' - Ian Rankin'A lively celebration of 1980s action stars' - The Times'Hugely entertaining' - Edgar WrightNow with BONUS MATERIAL, from the editor of Empire magazine this is the behind-the-scenes story of the golden age of the action movie, the stars who ruled 80s and 90s Hollywood and the beloved films – from Die Hard to The Terminator – that made them famous.Charting Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War. It also reveals the untold stories of the colourful characters, from Steven Seagal to Bruce Willis, who ascended in their wake. These invincible action heroes used muscle, martial arts or the perfect weapon to save the day, becoming pop-culture titans.Drawing on candid interviews with the action stars themselves, plus their

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1969, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema transformed the emerging discipline of film studies. Remarkably eclectic and informed, Peter Wollen's highly influential and groundbreaking work remains a brilliant and accessible theorisation of film as an art form and as a sign system. The book is divided into three main sections. The first explores the work of Sergei Eisenstein as film-maker, designer and aesthetician. The second, which contains a celebrated comparison of the films of John Ford and Howard Hawks, is an exposition and defence of the auteur theory. The third formulates a semiology of the cinema, invoking cinema as an exemplary test-case for comparative aesthetics and general theories of signification. Wollen's Conclusion argues for an avant-garde cinema, bringing post-structuralist ideas into his discussion of Godard and other contemporaries. Published as part of the BFI Silver series, this fifth edition features a new foreword by film theorist David Rodowick and brings together material from the four previous editions, inviting the reader to trace the development of Wollen's thinking, and the unfolding of the discourse of cinema.Table of ContentsForeword to the 5th Edition.- D. N. Rodowick.- Introduction.- 1: Eisenstein's Aesthetics.- 2: The Auteur Theory.- 3: The Semiology of the Cinema.- Conclusion (1972).- Appendices.- The Writings of Lee Russell: New Left Review (1964–7).- Conclusion (1969).- Style and Aesthetics (1969).- Pantheon Directors (1969).- Afterword (1997): Lee Russell Interviews Peter Wollen.- Booklist (1972).- Acknowledgments (1969).- Editorial Note (2013).- Index.

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Book SynopsisSCOTT BUKATMANis a cultural theorist and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. His research explores how popular media such as film, comics and animation mediate between new technologies and human perceptual and bodily experience.

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Book SynopsisMovie Movements: Films That Changed the World of Cinema is a one-stop guide to the major movements that have shaped our sense of what cinema is and can be. It introduces the reader to definitions of the founding concepts in Film Studies such as authorship and genre, technological impacts and the rise of digital cinema, social influences and notions of the avant-garde, and cinema's emergence as a major art form that reflects and shapes the world. It explores, in concise and clear sections, how major works from the classic French realist La Regle de Jeu to the dazzling animation of Norman McLaren and the memorial documentary of Shoah, were conceived, developed and produced, and eventually received by the public, critics and film history. Offering a concise overview of a vast and compelling subject, it's a book for both the film enthusiast and the Film Studies student.Trade ReviewA tsunami of film noirs and isms * Total Film *Intelligent but very readable...a good coffee table book for any film buff -- Charlene Lydon * Film Ireland *James Clarke's Movie Movements is part of the Kamera book series, which are helpful guides to random cinema-related phenomena -- Charlene Lydon * Film Ireland *

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Book SynopsisThis BFI Film Classics study of Tokyo Monogatari/Tokyo Story (1953) reveals the making, meaning and legacy behind Ozu Yasujiro’s masterpiece. Ozu's moving family drama is universally acknowledged as one of the most significant Japanese films ever made. In its complex portrait of human motivation and lively sense of social space, it offers a profound and poignant insight into the generational shifts of post-war Japan. Alastair Phillips provides an in-depth analysis of the film and its key locations - the city of Tokyo, the town of Onomichi and the coastal resort of Atami - with a discussion of its representation of Japanese society at a time of great cultural change. Drawing upon Japanese and English language sources, he situates the film within various contemporary critical and industrial contexts and examines the multiple international dimensions of Tokyo Story's long after-life to understand its enormous contribution to global film culture.Trade ReviewGenerations the world over have pondered the complex beauty of Tokyo Story. Alastair Phillips pulls back the veil of awe that has come to surround the film over the years to reveal the making, meaning, and legacy of Ozu’s masterpiece. -- Michael Crandol, author of Ghost in the Well: The Hidden History of Horror Films in JapanThis is Alastair Phillips’s personal and professional cinematic journey from Tokyo to Onomichi. In this concise BFI volume, Phillips provides a detailed textual, socio-historical, and biographical analysis on Ozu Yasujiro and his masterwork. -- Daisuke Miyao, University of California, San Diego, USAAlastair Phillips’ Tokyo Story, a volume included in the continuing BFI Film Classics series … contains one of the most comprehensive and detailed discussions on this film. This is achieved not only through a close analysis of the entire text but also by examining every step of the filmmaking process from preproduction to reception, both in Japan and worldwide. This thorough approach, aided by several supporting primary sources in Japanese, makes this small volume a unique contribution to contemporary Ozu studies. -- Woojeong Joo * Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema *Table of Contents1. Openings and Journeys 2. Tokyo Stories 3. Tokyo 4. Onomichi 5. Tokyo Story in Japan 6. Tokyo Story in the World 7. Coda Credits Notes Bibliography and Filmography

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Book SynopsisThis revised and updated new edition provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of cinema in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as to disaporic and transnational Chinese film-making, from the beginnings of cinema to the present day. Chapters by leading international scholars are grouped in thematic sections addressing key historical periods, film movements, genres, stars and auteurs, and the industrial and technological contexts of cinema in Greater China.Trade ReviewChinese cinema’s unprecedented growth in the last decade invites new considerations about the state of this vibrant industry. In this expanded second edition, The Chinese Cinema Book addresses important developments in digital technology, documentary filmmaking, and censorship, propaganda and film policy, as they relate to one of the fastest growing cinemas in the world. -- Olivia Khoo, Associate Professor, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, AustraliaThe Chinese Cinema Book is sure to be a standard textbook for Chinese cinema studies. It systematically explores the rich and kaleidoscopic history of Chinese cinemas and covers key and up-to-date theories in the field. A must-read for anyone interested in Chinese cinema studies. -- Yongchun Fu, Associate Professor of Zhejiang Unviersity Ningbo Institute of Technology, China.Substantially updated, with four new chapters alongside many other contributions from leading scholars, this new edition of The Chinese Cinema Book will be an essential resource for all researchers and teachers of Chinese film. As China looks poised to become the world’s largest film market, this volume’s comprehensive and illuminating approach to Chinese cinema from its earliest moments to the digital epoch is more valuable than ever. -- Margaret Hillenbrand, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, University of Oxford, UK.Comprehensive, authoritative and a great read. * Linda Mitchell, Seminar Tutor, Cardiff University, UK *Table of ContentsIntroduction“The Coming of Age of Chinese Cinemas Studies” Song Hwee Lim, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China, and Julian Ward, University of Edinburgh, UK Preface to Revised Edition Song Hwee Lim, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China, and Julian Ward, University of Edinburgh, UK Section I: Territories, Trajectories, Historiographies Chapter 1, “Transnational Chinese Film Studies” Chris Berry, King’s College London, UK Chapter 2, “National Cinema as Translocal Practice: reflections on Chinese LFI Historiography”Yingjin Zhang, University of California, San Diego, USA Chapter 3, “Cinemas of the Chinese Diaspora” Gina Marchetti, Hong Kong University, China Chapter 4, “Six Chinese Cinemas in Search of a Historiography” Song Hwee Lim Section II: Early Cinema to 1949 Chapter 5, “Shadow Magic and the Lost Decades in Chinese Film History” Zhiwei Xiao, California State University, San Marcos, and Xuelei Huang, University of Edinburgh, UK Chapter 6, “The Making of a National Cinema: Shanghai Cinema of the 1930s” Laikwan Pang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Chapter 7, “Wartime Cinema: Reconfiguration and Border Navigation” Yiman Wang, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA Chapter 8, “Chinese Filmmaking on the eve of the Communist Revolution” Paul Pickowicz, University of California, San Diego, USA Section III: The Forgotten Period – 1949-1980 Chapter 9, “The Remodelling of a National Cinema: Chinese film of the Seventeen Years (1949-1966)” Julian Ward, University of Edinburgh, UK Chapter 10, “Liminal Cinema: PRC Film Genres of the New Era” Michael Berry, University of California, Los Angeles, USA Chapter 11, “Healthy Realism in Taiwan, 1964-1980: Film Style, Cultural Policies and Mandarin Cinema” Guo-Juin Hong, Duke University, USA Chapter 12, “The Hong Kong Cantonese Cinema: Emergence, Development and Decline” Stephen Teo, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Section IV: The New Waves Chapter 13, “The Fifth Generation: A Re-assessment” Wendy Larson, University of Oregon, USA Chapter 14, “Taiwan New Cinema Movement and Its Legacy” Tonglin Lu, University of Montreal, Canada Chapter 15, “The Hong Kong New Wave: A Critical Reappraisal” Vivian P. Y. Lee, City University of Hong Kong, China Chapter 16, “Transnational Chinese-Language Auteurism: Time, Place, Gender” James Udden, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, USA Section V: Stars, Auteurs and Genres Chapter 17, “Dragons Forever: Chinese Martial Arts Stars” Leon Hunt, Brunel University, UK Chapter 18, “The Contemporary Wuxia Revival: Genre Evolution and the Hollywood Transnational Factor” Kenneth Chan, University of Northern Colorado, USA Chapter 19, “Independent Documentary in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong”Luke Robinson, University of Sussex, UK Section 6: Industry, Market and TechnologyChapter 20, “Contemporary Mainstream PRC Cinema”Yomi Braester, University of Washington, USA Chapter 21, “The Urban Generation: Underground and Independent Films from the PRC” Jason McGrath, University of Minnesota, USA Chapter 22, “Censorship, Propaganda, and Film Policy” Matthew Johnson, Taylor’s University, Malaysia Chapter 23, “Alternative Ways of Seeing: Post-Digital Detours in Chinese Cinema” Paola Voci, University of Otago, New Zealand Afterword“Liquidity of Being” Rey Chow, Duke University, USA Appendix 1Book-length Studies of Chinese Cinemas in the English Language Compiled by Wan-Jui Wang, Louise Williams, Li Pin, and Song Hwee Lim Appendix 2Chinese Film Titles Appendix 3Chinese Names Appendix 1 Book-length Studies of Chinese Cinemas in the English Language Compiled by Wan-Jui Wang, Louise Williams, Li Pin, and Song Hwee Lim Appendix 2Chinese Film Titles Appendix 3Chinese Names

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

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Book SynopsisThe Marx Brothers are universally considered to be classic Hollywood’s preeminent comedy team and Duck Soup is generally regarded as their quintessential film. A topical satire of dictatorship and government in general, the movie was a critical failure and box-office let-down on its initial release in 1933. J. Hoberman's study of the film traces its reputation history, from the initial disappointment of its release, to its rise to cult status in the 1960s when the Marx’s anarchic, anti-establishment humor seemed again timely. Hoberman places Duck Soup, alongside analogous comedies—Dr. Strangelove (1964), the Beatles films, Morgan! (1966), The President’s Analyst (1967) and The Producers (1968). It attained canonical stature as a touchstone for Woody Allen and would be recognized by the Library of Congress in the 1990s. Hoberman's analysis provides a historical and political context as well as an in-depth production history, drawing on primary sources and emphasizing director McCarey’s prior work along with the Marx Brothers as well as the situation at Paramount, a substantial synopsis, and an account of the movie’s initial reception, concluding with its subsequent elevation to comic masterpiece.Trade ReviewA lively, personal, but also extremely informative and well-researched study of a Marx Brothers classic. -- Steven Cohan, Syracuse University, USATable of Contents1.My True Confession 2.Serious Marxian Attributes 3.Making Duck Soup 4. The Movie 5.“Absurd Without Being Funny” 6.“Je suis marxiste, tendance Groucho” 7.Who Are You Going to Believe—Me or Your Own Eyes? Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWho made the phone call that got HBO to launchthe show? What's the significance of all those eggs? And, what the hell ever happened to the Russian? In Woke Up This Morning, Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripahave all the answers and they're revealing where all the bodies are buried.Inspired by the incredibly successful Talking Sopranos podcast, The Sopranos stars Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri) finally reveal all the Soprano family secrets in a surprising, funny, and honest new book. Woke Up This Morning is the definitive behind-the-scenes history of the groundbreaking HBO series that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, ushered in a new Golden Age of Television, and to this day continues to be one of the most binged shows of all time.Michael and Steve tell all the incredible stories that The Sopranos fans have been waiting to hear for over twenty years. The book covers the entire history of The SopranTrade Review‘I will be reading and rereading Woke Up This Morning ….These rollicking gabfests… bring together nearly everyone, on screen and off, who made the series a creative and cultural landmark. The freely offered admiration expressed by so many for their missing comrade and unofficial cast captain, Gandolfini, makes these stories about playing tough guys all the more tender’ New York Times ‘Ever wished you could hang out with the cast and crew of The Sopranos and just listen to them trade stories? … There are plenty of tantalizing bits of trivia—Tony was Tommy Soprano in the pilot script; producers wanted Lorraine Bracco to play Tony’s wife, but she said she would only consider playing Melfi, the psychiatrist—but this isn’t just a trivia collection. Mostly it’s about friends and colleagues getting together to pay tribute to one another and to a series that rewrote many of the rules of television. Love and respect for the show’s star, the late James Gandolfini, permeates the book, as does admiration for the show’s creator, David Chase, who started with a vague idea about a crook and his mother and built it into something that’s almost Shakespearean in its thematic scope. For Sopranos fans this one is an absolute must-read’ Booklist ‘Essential for fans, with a revelation on every page … Devotees will revel in the stroll into series minutiae’ Kirkus Reviews ‘A spectacular tell-all about the making of the Emmy-winning hit television series … What makes this sing is the passion and energy brought by Imperioli and Schirripa and its indelible tribute to the late James Gandolfini. As Aida Turturro (Janice Soprano) recalls, 'He was there for you no matter what.' This is the ultimate book on The Sopranos, made by the people who lived it’ Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisNamed a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, and NPR In this genre-defying “new kind of history” (The New Yorker), the chief film critic of Slate places comedy legend and acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton’s unique creative genius in the context of his time.Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman. Even through his dark middle years as a severely depressed alcoholic finding work on the margins of show business, Keaton’s life had a way of reflecting the changes going on in the world around him. H

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Book Synopsis Since the early days of motion picture production, film scores have helped define our emotional and aesthetic perception of stories on screen--particularly with space movies and television. The music from The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and others has helped define the public''s awareness of space almost as much as the films themselves. In some cases, they have redefined the norms of film music. Star Wars not only revived the popularity of orchestral film scores but also helped stimulate an increased public interest in classical orchestral music around the world. This work explores the music and the composers who have helped define the sound of space for over a century, transforming how we perceive space and even inspiring greater interest in space exploration. This book also details how music has been performed and played in space since the early days of the space race.

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Book SynopsisFrank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is one of the best-loved films of Classical Hollywood cinema, a story of despair and redemption in the aftermath of war that is one of the central movies of the 1940s, and a key text in America’s understanding of itself. This is a film that remains relevant to our own anxieties and yearnings, to all the contradictions of ordinary life, while also enacting for us the quintessence of the classic Hollywood aesthetic. Nostalgia, humour, and a tough resilience weave themselves through this movie, intertwining it with the fraught cultural moment of the end of World War II that saw its birth. It offers a still compelling merging of fantasy and realism that was utterly unique when it was first released, and has rarely been matched since. Michael Newton's study of the film investigates the source of its extraordinary power and its long-lasting impact. He begins by introducing the key figures in the movie’s production - notably director Frank Capra and star James Stewart - and traces the making of the film, and then provides a brief synopsis of the film, considering its aesthetic processes and procedures, touching on all those things that make it such an astonishing film. Newton's careful analysis explores all those aspects of the film that are fundamental to our understanding of it, particularly the way in which the film brings tragedy and comedy together. Finally, Newton tells the story of the film’s reception and afterlife, accounting for its initial relative failure and its subsequent immense popularity.Trade ReviewMichael Newton’s story of the making of Frank Capra’s 1946 movie is full of quirky facts. -- Martin Chilton * The Independent *Digging into the film’s roots and post-war background, Newton is rigorous on its politics, populism and fraught production history, and generous with the minutiae of on-set accidents and more. But what emerges clearest is Capra’s abiding faith in feeling and beauty. -- Kevin Harley * Total Film *Michael Newton’s excellent study, part of the BFI’s Film Classics series, looks at the movie’s creation, the vital contributions of Capra and the film’s star, James Stewart, a brief summary of the plot and an examination of why it has proved to be so enduring. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction to It's a Wonderful Life and key figures in its production history Analysis of It's a Wonderful Life Reception and Afterlife Notes Credits

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Book SynopsisStanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is widely regarded as one of the best films ever made. It has been celebrated for its beauty and mystery, its realistic depiction of space travel and dazzling display of visual effects, the breathtaking scope of its story, which reaches across millions of years, and the thought-provoking depth of its meditation on evolution, technology and humanity's encounters with the unknown. 2001 has been described as the most expensive avant-garde movie ever made and as a psychedelic trip, a unique expression of the spirit of the 1960s and as a timeless masterpiece. Peter Krämer's insightful study explores 2001's complex origins, the unique shape it took and the extraordinary impact it made on contemporary audiences, drawing on new research in the Stanley Kubrick Archive to challenges many of the widely-held assumptions about the film. This edition includes a new afterword by the author.Trade ReviewA fun, thoughtful and enjoyable read. * Irish Tech News *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Production Context Production Process Form, Style and Theme Marketing and Reception Cultural Setting Conclusion Afterword to the 2020 edition Credits

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Book SynopsisIlluminates the role of art direction and production design in the creation of some of the most memorable moments in film history. This title narrates the story of art direction - from the massive Roman architecture of "Ben Hur", to the infamous Dakota apartment in "Rosemary's Baby", to the digital CGI enhanced city of Gotham in "Batman Begins".Trade Review"[Designs on Film] traces the art of building pretend worlds. Starting back in the pre-talkie years, and moving through Hollywood's golden age and the epic-crazy '60s, right up to contemporary Hollywood, the book is packed with insider tidbits about the wildly inventive-and improvisational-business of movie-making." -- Wall Street Journal "Whitlock makes a major contribution to movie literature by saluting undersung production designers, set decorators and art directors." -- Los Angeles Times "An amazing glimpse into art direction." -- The New Yorker "This lush book of pictures and drawings showcases big-screen glamour over the decades, from the opulence of Cleopatra to the more modern majesty of Batman. -- Entertainment Weekly "A compendium of images celebrating iconic interiors and architecture...[Whitlock] sifted through decades of archival photographs to assemble this rare glimpse into the world of Hollywood art direction and set design. " -- Dwell

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Book SynopsisThe golden age of German cinema began at the end of the First World War and ended shortly after the coming of sound. This book demonstrates the connection between German Romanticism and the cinema through Expressionist writings.Trade Review"A sumptuous meal for those interested in the dark and brooding days of German cinema." * Cinema Journal *"Arguably one of the best books on cinema yet written." * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsForeword to the English language edition 1 The Predisposition towards Expressionism 2 The Beginnings of the Expressionist Film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Genuine; Von Morgens bis Mitternachts; Torgus; Raskolnikow 3 The Spell of Light: the Influence of Max Reinhardt The Student of Prague (1913); Max Reinhardt; The Go/em (1920); Die Chronik Pon Grieshuus; Vanina; Carl Boese on the special effects for The Go/em 4 Lubitsch and the Costume Film !vfadame Dubarry; Sumurun; Anna Boleyn; Danton; Othello; Pola Negri 5 The Stylized Fantastic Der Miide Tod 6 The Symphonies of Horror Nosferatu; the demoniac bourgeois; the sway of the Doppelgiinger 7 'Decorative· Expressionism Waxworks; the concept of space; the obsession with corridors and staircases; Paul Leni on set designing 8 The World of Shadows and Mirrors Warning Shadows; the Expressionist actor 9 Studio Architecture and Landscape Die Nibelungen; geometric grouping 10 The Expressionist Debut of a 'Realistic' Director Der Schatz 11 Kammerspielfilm and Stimmung Hintertreppe; Scherben; Sylvester; Paul Czinner; Elisabeth Bergner; Stimmung 12 Murnau and the Kammerspielfilm The Last Laugh; the mobile camera 13 The Handling of Crowds Metropolis; the influence of the Expressionist choruses and Piscator 14 The Fritz Lang Thriller Die Spinnen; Dr Mabuse der Spieler; Spione; Die Frau im Mond 15 Tragedies of the Street Die Strasse; The joyless Street; Asta Nielsen; Dirnentragiidie; the Absolute film; Asphalt 16 The Evolution of the Costume Film Tartuffe 17 The Eye of the Camera in E.A. Dupont Das Alte Gesetz; Variety 18 The Climax of the Chiaroscuro Faust 19 Pabst and the Miracle of Louise Brooks Pandora's Box; Diary of a Lost Girl; Censorship and Pabst's realism 20 The Decline of the German Film The coming of sound; Die Dreigroschenoper; M; Das Testament des Dr Mabuse; Miidchen in Uniform; the Ufa style; Leni Riefenstahl; the post-Nazi era Appendix: The Dreigroschenoper Lawsuit Principal Works Mentioned in the Text Selective Filmography, 1913-33 Index Sources of Illustrations

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Book SynopsisDoes it take faith to be a Jedi? Are droids capable of thought? Should Jar Jar Binks be held responsible for the rise of the Empire? Presenting entirely new essays, no aspect of the myth and magic of George Lucas's creation is left philosophically unexamined in The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy. The editors of the original Star Wars and Philosophy strike back in this Ultimate volume that encompasses the complete Star Wars universe Presents the most far-reaching examination of the philosophy behind Star Wars includes coverage of the entire film catalogue to date as well as the Expanded Universe of novels, comics, television series, games and toys Provides serious explorations into the deeper meaning of George Lucas's philosophically rich creation Topics explored include the moral code of bounty-hunter favourite Boba Fett, Stoicism and the Jedi Order, the nature of the Dark Side, Anakin and Achilles in a nTable of ContentsAcknowledgments: Legacy of the Force ix Introduction: “The Circle is Now Complete” 1 I The Philosophical Menace 5 1 The Platonic Paradox of Darth Plagueis: How Could a Sith Lord Be Wise? 7Terrance MacMullan 2 “You Are Asking Me to Be Rational”: Stoic Philosophy and the Jedi Order 20Matt Hummel 3 The Jedi Knights of Faith: Anakin, Luke, and Søren (Kierkegaard) 31William A. Lindenmuth 4 Anakin and Achilles: Scars of Nihilism 42Don Adams 5 Dark Times: The End of the Republic and the Beginning of Chinese Philosophy 53Kevin S. Decker II Attack of the Morals 65 6 Chasing Kevin Smith: Was It Immoral for the Rebel Alliance to Destroy Death Star II? 67Charles C. Camosy 7 The Ballad of Boba Fett: Mercenary Agency and Amoralism in War 79David LaRocca 8 How Guilty is Jar Jar Binks? 90Nicolas Michaud 9 “Know the Dark Side”: A Theodicy of the Force 100Jason T. Eberl III Revenge of the Alliance 115 10 “Like My Father before Me”: Loss and Redemption of Fatherhood in Star Wars 117Charles Taliaferro and Annika Beck 11 The Friends of a Jedi: Friendship, Family, and Civic Duty in a Galaxy at War 127Greg Littmann 12 Light Side, Dark Side, and Switching Sides: Loyalty and Betrayal in Star Wars 136Daniel Malloy 13 Guardians and Tyrants in the Republics of Star Wars and Plato 148Adam Barkman and Kyle Alkema IV A New Hermeneutic 159 14 Pregnant Padme and Slave Leia: ´ Star Wars’ Female Role Models 161Cole Bowman 15 Docile Bodies and a Viscous Force: Fear of the Flesh in Return of the Jedi 172Jennifer L. McMahon 16 Of Battle Droids and Zillo Beasts: Moral Status in the Star Wars Galaxy 183James M. Okapal V Metaphysics Strikes Back 193 17 Why the Force Must Have a Dark Side 195George A. Dunn 18 What is It Like to Be a Jedi? A Life in the Force 208Marek McGann 19 “Never Tell Me the Odds”: An Inquiry Concerning Jedi Understanding 219Andrew Zimmerman Jones VI Return of the Non-Human 229 20 Mindless Philosophers and Overweight Globs of Grease: Are Droids Capable of Thought? 231Dan Burkett 21 Can Chewie Speak? Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Language 240Rhiannon Grant and Myfanwy Reynolds 22 Can the Zillo Beast Strike Back? Cloning, De-extinction, and the Species Problem 250Leonard Finkelman VII The Fandom Awakens 261 23 “In That Time . . . ” in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Epic Myth-Understandings and Myth-Appropriation in Star Wars 263John Thompson 24 Star Wars, Emotions, and the Paradox of Fiction 274Lance Belluomini 25 The Mind of Blue Snaggletooth: The Intentional Stance, Vintage Star Wars Action Figures, and the Origins of Religion 287Dennis Knepp 26 Gospel, Gossip, and Ghent: How Should We Understand the New Star Wars? 296Roy T. Cook and Nathan Kellen Contributors: Troopers of the 501st Legion 308 Index 317

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Book SynopsisNarratives are artefacts of a special kind: they are intentionally crafted devices which fulfil their story-telling function by manifesting the intentions of their makers. But narrative itself is too inclusive a category for much more to be said about it than this; we should focus attention instead on the vaguely defined but interesting category of things rich in narrative structure. Such devices offer significant possibilities, not merely for the representation of stories, but for the expression of point of view; they have also played an important role in the evolution of reliable communication. Narratives and narrators argues that much of the pleasure of narrative communication depends on deep-seated and early developing tendencies in human beings to imitation and to joint attention, and imitation turns out to be the key to understanding such important literary techniques as free indirect discourse and character-focused narration. The book also examines irony in narrative, with an emTrade ReviewRich with examples drawn from both literature and film ... the book makes an interesting and important contribution not only to our understanding of the nature of narratives but also to the nature of our engagement with them. * Amy Kind, The Philosophical Quarterly *a rich study. * Adriana Boneta, Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *abounds in analyses and arguments as Currie identifies and interrogates (generally successfully) strong counter-theses that challenge his own * Daniel D. Hutto, Times Literary Supplement *I expect Gregory Currie's new book, Narratives and Narrators, to attain the same importance and influence in philosophical thinking about narrative that his earlier books The Nature of Fiction and Image and Mind have had in the philosophy of fiction and film, respectively. It is an ambitious, careful, and philosophically rich work containing a number of novel and important arguments... The book has many virtues, and the greatest of them might be that it opens up new areas for exploration in the philosophic study of narrative. * James Harold, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *The book is ambitious in its topics and contains fresh approaches to various traditional problems ... full of thought-provoking arguments and intriguing proposals. * Jukka Mikkonen, Mind *This fairly short book does a lot of work ... consistently challenging * Raphael Lyne, Cambridge Quarterly *Table of ContentsPreface ; Acknowledgements ; Analytical contents ; 1. Representation ; 2. The content of narrative ; 3. Two ways of looking at a narrative ; 4. Authors and narrators ; 5. Expression and imitation ; 6. Resistance ; 7. Character-focused narration ; 8. Irony: a pretended point of view ; 9. Dis-interpretation ; 10. Narrative and character ; 11. Character scepticism ; In Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Indexes

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the potential of 21st-Century Disney films to tackle some contemporary social and cultural issues in order to promote inclusive values. In particular, it examines three 21st-Century Disney animated films under a cosmopolitan lens to explore how they help to construct and reflect discourses.

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Book Synopsis A deeply reported, perceptive, and celebratory biography of beloved actor James Gandolfini from a prominent critic and film historianMore than a decade after his sudden passing, James Gandolfini still exerts a powerful pull on television and film enthusiasts around the world. His charismatic portrayal of complex, flawed, but always human men illuminated the contradictions in all of us, as well as our potential for grace, and the power of love and family. In Gandolfini, critic and historian Jason Bailey traces the twinned stories of the man and the unforgettable roles he played. Gandolfini’s roots were working class, raised in northern New Jersey as the son of Italian immigrants, and acting was something he loved for a long time before he could see it as a career. It wasn’t until he was well into his bohemian twenties that he dedicated himself to a life on the stage and screen. Bailey traces his rise, from bit parts to character rol

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Book SynopsisExploresthe detail of Jane Campion's film and television output, considering her vision and practice, legacy, and her contribution to feminist filmmaking

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewDoherty writes with such wit and verve, bringing the past to life... a very entertaining read. Publishers Weekly Compelling, colorful, insightful, and nearly encyclopedic in detail, this book seems destined to become the definitive scholarly biography of Breen. Highly recommended. Library Journal [An] entertaining and rigorous biography of Breen. -- Ada Calhoun New York Times Book Review A fascinating read for anyone interested in American film history. -- Carol O'Sullivan Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [An] authoritative, entertaining, unexpectedly unnerving biography. -- Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times [A] brilliant and absorbing new book. -- Gerald Peary The Phoenix Hollywood's Censor is a stinging portrait of a cultural strongman who made it his business to baby his fellow citizens. -- Dennis Drabelle Washington Post Written with controlled exuberance, and much wit. -- Scott Eyman Palm Beach Post A pleasure to read. -- Rob Hardy Commercial Dispatch An exemplary biography... Highly recommended. CHOICETable of ContentsOpening Credits Prologue: Hollywood, 1954 1. The Victorian Irishman 2. Bluenoses Against the Screen 3. Hollywood Shot to Pieces 4. The Breen Office 5. Decoding Classical Hollywood Cinema 6. Confessional 7. Intermission at RKO 8. At War with the Breen Office 9. In His Sacerdotalism 10. "Our Semitic Brethren" 11. Social Problems, Existential Dilemmas, and Outsized Anatomies 12. Invasion of the Art Films 13. Amending the Ten Commandments 14. Not the Breen Office 15. Final Cut: Joseph I. Breen and the Auteur Theory Appendix: The Production Code Notes Film Index Index

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Book Synopsis''So funny Nabokov meets Spinal Tap.'' STEPHEN MERCHANT''Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.'' TIM KEY''Absolutely miraculous.'' JESSE EISENBERG''A brain-swirlingly funny quest.'' ROBERT POPPERRichard Ayoade's fictional quest to rescue Harauld Hughes the almost mythical mid-century playwright from obscurity.The gifted filmmaker, corduroy activist and amateur dentist, Richard Ayoade, first chanced upon a copy of The Two-Hander Trilogy by Harauld Hughes in a second-hand bookshop. At first startled by his uncanny resemblance to the author's photo, he opened the volume and was electrified. Terse, aggressive, and elliptical, what was true of Ayoade was also true of Hughes's writing, which encompassed stage, screen, and some of the shortest poems ever published.Ayoade embarked on a documentary, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, to understand the unfathomable collapse of Hughes's final film O Bedlam! O Bedlam!, taking us deep inside the mind of the most furious British writer since the Boer War.This is the story of the story of that quest.Readers love The Unfinished Harauld Hughes:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ''Buy it, it''s hilarious.''⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ''Intelligent humour at its best.''⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ''Terrific, funny, nuts!''⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ''I was snorting with laughter.''⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ''Very clever, very funny.''

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Book SynopsisShowcasing 52 Essential films from the golden age to the present, Turner Classic Movies invites you into a world filled with stirring performances, dazzling musical numbers, and bold directorial visions that mark the greatest moments in film history. These are movies that define what it means to be a classic. Readers can enjoy one film per week, for a year of stellar viewing, or indulge in their own classic movie festival.Trade Review"[An] excellent book. Author Arnold distills why each movie is a must-see, and augments his knowledgeable text with sidebar quotes from various TCM hosts... Handsomely designed and packed with great photos, The Essentials would be a perfect gift for a young person who's just dipping his or her toe into these waters...but I found it equally appealing." --Leonard Maltin, leonardmaltin.com "An entertaining read... Beautifully-designed and illustrated... Author Jeremy Arnold does a superb job presenting the reasons why a particular film matters." --Raymond Benson, Cinema Retro

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