Film: styles and genres Books
Liverpool University Press Peeping Tom
Book SynopsisReviled on its release, Peeping Tom (1960) all-but ended the career of director Michael Powell, previously one of Britain's most revered filmmakers. The story of a murderous cameraman and his compulsion to record his killings, Powell's film stunned the same critics who had acclaimed him for the work he'd made with writer-producer Emeric Pressburger (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 1943; A Matter of Life and Death, 1946), resulting in the film falling out of circulation almost as soon as it was released. It took the 1970s 'Movie Brat' generation to rehabilitate the director, and the film, which is now regarded as a masterpiece. In this Devil's Advocate, published to coincide with the film's 60th anniversary, Kiri Walden charts the origins, production and devastating critical reception of Peeping Tom, comparing it to the treatment meted out to its contemporary horror classic, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).
£21.84
Liverpool University Press Daughters of Darkness
Book SynopsisDaughters of Darkness (1971) is a vampire film like no other. Heralded as psychological high-Gothic cinema, loved for its art-house and erotic flavors, Harry Kümel's 1971 cult classic is unwrapped in intricate detail by writer Kat Ellinger to unravel the many mysteries surrounding just what makes it so appealing. This book, as part of the Devil’s Advocates series, examines the film in the context of its peers and contemporaries, in order to argue its place an important evolutionary link in the chain of female vampire cinema. The text also explores the film's association with fairy tales, the Gothic genre, and fantastic tradition, as well as delving into aspects of the legend of Countess Bathory, traditional vampire lore, and much more. The book contains new and exclusive interviews with director Harry Kümel and actress and star Danielle Ouimet.
£75.00
Liverpool University Press Ex Machina
Book SynopsisEx Machina (2014) impressed critics and audiences alike with its bold ideas and all-too-realistic depiction of the unexpected consequences of constructing a sentient being. In his feature directorial debut, Alex Garland uses efficient storytelling, a compelling narrative, and heady concepts to create a modern science fiction masterpiece that explores gender, scientific advancement, and the very concept of humanity, all in a compelling, suspenseful film. Artificial intelligence has long been a sci-fi staple, but here, Garland posits what would happen if, for once, humans, rather than AI, were the real villains. In exploring Ex Machina’s ideas about consciousness, embodiment, and masculinity, all through the lens of a misogynist mad scientist, Joshua Grimm argues the result is a fascinating, truly unique film that immediately established Garland as a breakout voice in the landscape of science fiction film.
£75.00
Liverpool University Press Stalker
Book SynopsisFew filmmakers could even attempt the fearlessness of Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinema and his most ambitious work, Stalker (1977), is arguably the most thoughtful science-fiction film ever made. Stalker parallels its speculative elements with a harrowing narrative of human fragility and philosophy. It is as much a movie about the complexity of its characters as it is the mysteriousness of its labyrinthine landscape, the ambiguous Zone and its heart, the Room of Desire. It is at once a darkly nihilistic film, ominous and threatening, and yet also profoundly hopeful and at its core a story of true faith. This book attempts to unravel the film’s complexities, from its difficult production and through its many cinematic elements: its composition and cinematography, the many philosophies it engages with, its poetic and literary influences, along with the cultural and historical landscapes that cultivated it, and the enormity of its influence across the following generations. Stalker challenges us to engage with film in a different way: a poetic cinema that asks much more of you as a viewer than most. Most of all, to explore why this film—even forty years since its original release—still affects us as an audience as profoundly as ever.
£75.00
Liverpool University Press Snuff
Book SynopsisSnuff (1976) occupies a unique place in cinematic history, as the first commercially successful film to capitalise upon the myth of the ‘snuff’ movie. By blending cinema verité styling with a media moral panic, savvy producer Allan Shackleton’s blending of a long-forgotten exploitation film with a newly filmed bloody, if unconvincing conclusion, only served to consolidate the belief that somewhere, at some time, someone was killed on camera in an attack that was as much about the sexual gratification of the film’s intended audience, as it was about the commercial rewards for those producing the film. In the years since its release, the film has been routinely cited as ‘evidence’ of the snuff movie’s existence, contributing to a cultural history that exists outside of the film. This book explores the production, distribution and exhibition of the film Snuff, alongside that cultural history, considering how a scarcely seen exploitation film contributed to a popular understanding of the snuff movie. It assesses the cultural, cinematic and political legacy of the film and asks whether the established definition of what might constitute a snuff movie, that was defined 45 years ago, is sufficient in an attention economy that is based upon participatory culture.
£71.25
Liverpool University Press Re-Animator
Book SynopsisSince its release at the mid-point of the 1980s American horror boom, Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator (1985) has endured as one of the most beloved cult horror films of that era. Greeted by enthusiastic early reviews, Re-Animator has maintained a spot at the periphery of the classic horror film canon. While Re-Animator has not entirely gone without critical attention, it has often been overshadowed in horror studies by more familiar titles from the period. Eddie Falvey’s book, which represents the first book-length study of Re-Animator, repositions it as one of the most significant American horror films of its era. For Falvey, Re-Animator sits at the intersection of various developments that were taking place within the context of 1980s American horror production. He uses Re-Animator to explore the rise and fall of Charles Band’s Empire Pictures, the revival of the mad science sub-genre, the emergent popularity of both gore aesthetics and horror-comedies, as well as a new appetite for the works of H.P. Lovecraft in adaptation. Falvey also tracks the film's legacies, observing not only how Re-Animator’s success gave rise to a new Lovecraftian cycle fronted by Stuart Gordon, but also how its cult status has continued to grow, marked by sequels, spin-offs, parodies and re-releases. As such, Falvey's book promises to be a book both about Re-Animator itself and about the various contexts that birthed it and continue to reflect its influence.Trade Review'The contextual analysis of Re-Animator in this typically thoughtful Devil’s Advocates study examines it as a pivotal product of the briefly thriving Empire Pictures... Falvey’s analysis hits just the right tone of affection, with pleasing incidental detail.' Steven West, FrightFest'Re-animator is fertile ground for thinking about the role of horror cinema in America, both aesthetically and sociologically, and even politically. That's what Eddie Falvey does with the film in the latest monograph from the Devil's advocates series... The thoroughness of his account is exemplified by the bibliography, which is a great place to start for those who want a deep dive into the significant changes in horror films from the mid -80's to the present.' Douglas Holm, KBOO
£78.38
Liverpool University Press Re-Animator
Book SynopsisSince its release at the mid-point of the 1980s American horror boom, Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator (1985) has endured as one of the most beloved cult horror films of that era. Greeted by enthusiastic early reviews, Re-Animator has maintained a spot at the periphery of the classic horror film canon. While Re-Animator has not entirely gone without critical attention, it has often been overshadowed in horror studies by more familiar titles from the period. Eddie Falvey’s book, which represents the first book-length study of Re-Animator, repositions it as one of the most significant American horror films of its era. For Falvey, Re-Animator sits at the intersection of various developments that were taking place within the context of 1980s American horror production. He uses Re-Animator to explore the rise and fall of Charles Band’s Empire Pictures, the revival of the mad science sub-genre, the emergent popularity of both gore aesthetics and horror-comedies, as well as a new appetite for the works of H.P. Lovecraft in adaptation. Falvey also tracks the film's legacies, observing not only how Re-Animator’s success gave rise to a new Lovecraftian cycle fronted by Stuart Gordon, but also how its cult status has continued to grow, marked by sequels, spin-offs, parodies and re-releases. As such, Falvey's book promises to be a book both about Re-Animator itself and about the various contexts that birthed it and continue to reflect its influence.Trade Review'The contextual analysis of Re-Animator in this typically thoughtful Devil’s Advocates study examines it as a pivotal product of the briefly thriving Empire Pictures... Falvey’s analysis hits just the right tone of affection, with pleasing incidental detail.' Steven West, FrightFest'Re-animator is fertile ground for thinking about the role of horror cinema in America, both aesthetically and sociologically, and even politically. That's what Eddie Falvey does with the film in the latest monograph from the Devil's advocates series... The thoroughness of his account is exemplified by the bibliography, which is a great place to start for those who want a deep dive into the significant changes in horror films from the mid -80's to the present.' Douglas Holm, KBOO
£20.89
Liverpool University Press The Gothic Peckinpah
Book SynopsisThis book argues for the importance of Gothic in understanding one of the key elements within the films of Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984). Although occasionally noted in the past, the Gothic has been generally overlooked when most critics consider the work of Sam Peckinpah with the exception of the Freudian based Crucified Heroes (1979) by Terence Butler. This work not only examines the films made after that date, especially the often dismissed The Osterman Weekend (1983) and the two music videos he made for Julian Lennon, but also places the director within the context of the developing work on Gothic that has since appeared. Peckinpah has been identified as the director of one undisputed masterpiece, The Wild Bunch (1969). By focussing on the key role Gothic plays in most of the director's work, this book offers a way to see Peckinpah beyond The Wild Bunch and the Western, viewing him as a director who had the potential of evolving further, had circumstances permitted, to continue his critique of American life within the developing lens of the Gothic.
£115.00
Liverpool University Press Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian
Book SynopsisWomen and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema: Screening Hospitality puts gender at the centre of cinematic representations of contemporary transnational Italian identities. It offers an intersectional feminist analysis of the ways in which transnational migration has been represented, understood, and constructed in the contemporary cinema of Italy. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s notion of hospitality and in dialogue with postcolonial and decolonial theory, queer studies, and feminist critiques, the six chapters of the book focus on a series of exemplary fiction films from the last twenty years, which both reflect and shape the nation’s responses to the growing presence of transnational migrants in Italian society. The book shows how questions of gender, sexual difference, and reproductivity have been central to Italian filmmakers’ approaches to stories of mobility and displacement. Gender is also enmeshed in the rhetoric and poetic of hospitality that filmmakers propose as a critical framework to condemn Italian border policies and politics. Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema: Screening Hospitality traces an arc that moves from the embrace of a humanitarian rhetoric of infinite hospitality toward migrants, apparent in films produced in the early 2000s, to a more fluid understanding of Italian identities from a transnational perspective.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsPreface: Representing Migration in the Time of the CoronavirusChapter OneIntroduction: Screening Migrant HospitalityChapter TwoThe Limits of Hospitality: Marco Tullio Giordana’s Quando sei nato non puoi più nasconderti and Ivano De Matteo’s La bella genteChapter ThreeMaternal Hospitality and Liquid Maternity on ScreenChapter FourWomen and the City: Female Forms of Hospitality in Marina Spada’s Come l’ombra and Giulia Ciniselli and Anna Bernasconi’s Via Padova: Istruzioni per l’usoChapter FiveGuest Stars: Performing Hospitality in the Italian Film IndustryChapter SixConclusion: No Longer Guests: G2 Filmmakers and Their StoriesBibliographyFilmography
£95.00
Liverpool University Press Shakespeare and Science Fiction
Book Synopsis
£29.69
Liverpool University Press Ancient Rome at the Cinema: Story and Spectacle
Book Synopsis'Ancient Rome at the Cinema' is a lucid study of the worlds created in Roman historical epics. Based on analysis of the visual and narrative fabric of seven films set in Ancient Rome, 'Ancient Rome at the Cinema' demonstrates how cinematic versions of Ancient Rome have been able to captivate us, and inscribe their versions of the city and its history onto our imagination. Theodorakopoulos uses film theory and criticism to examine the ways in which historical drama creates the past through story-telling and visual effects. Particular emphasis is put on the tension between narrative and spectacle which is an inherent feature of cinema, and a long-standing preoccupation of film critics and theorists from the 1930s to the present. The book also examines the techniques and the rhetoric of realism which feature especially prominently in historical films. 'Ancient Rome at the Cinema' is a companion volume to 'Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture' by Gideon Nisbet (9781904675785, 2008, 2nd edition).Trade ReviewTheodorakopoulos ist eine weitgehend koharente Auseinandersetzung mit wichtigen Erzeugnissen des Antikfilmgenres gelungen, wobei gerade die Heterogenitat der Beispiele aus dem Mainstream-Kino und dem Autorenfilm die Untersuchung bereichert. Durch ein gut strukturiertes Theoriekapitel, in dem die Autorin auf wichtige Theorien zum Medium Film, zum Historienfilm sowie zur Thematik der Metahistorie eingeht, werden die Betrachtungen zu den einzelnen Produktionen gut vorbereitet. Die Bezugnahme auf unterschiedliche Theorien aus den verschiedensten interdisziplinaren Bereichen an der Schnittstelle zwischen Medien- und Geschichtswissenshaften macht diese Publikation auch fur den Einsatz im didaktischen Bereich wertvoll. H-Soz-u-KultTable of Contents List of Illustrations vi Introduction 1 1 Narrative and Spectacle, Realism and Illusion, and the Historical Film 9 2 Ben-Hur: ‘Tale of the Christ’ or Tale of Rome? 30 3 Spartacus and the Politics of Story-Telling 51 4 The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Filmmaker as Historian 77 5 Gladiator: Making it New? 96 6 Fellini Satyricon: ‘Farewell to Antiquity’ or ‘Daily Life in Ancient Rome’? 122 7 Titus: Rome and the Penny Arcade 145 Conclusion 168 Notes 173 Further Reading and Viewing 186 Bibliography 190 Filmography 196 Index
£29.69
Liverpool University Press Candyman
Book SynopsisWhen Candyman was released in 1992, Roger Ebert gave it his thumbs up, remarking that the film was “scaring him with ideas and gore, rather than just gore.” Indeed, Candyman is almost unique in 1990s horror cinema in that it tackles its sociopolitical themes head on. As critic Kirsten Moana Thompson has remarked, Candyman is "the return of the repressed as national allegory": the film’s hook-handed killer of urban legend embodies a history of racism, miscegenation, lynching, and slavery, "the taboo secrets of America’s past and present."In this book, Jon Towlson considers how Candyman might be read both as a "return of the repressed" during the George H. W. Bush era, and as an example of nineties neoconservative horror. He traces the project’s development from its origins as a Clive Barker short story ("The Forbidden"); discusses the importance of its gritty real-life Cabrini-Green setting; and analyzes the film’s appropriation (and interrogation) of urban myth. The two official sequels (Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh [1995] and Candyman: Day of the Dead [1999]) are also considered, plus a number of other urban myth-inspired horror movies such as Bloody Mary (2006) and films in the Urban Legend franchise. The book features an in-depth interview with Candyman’s writer-director Bernard Rose.
£16.49
Liverpool University Press Daughters of Darkness
Book SynopsisDaughters of Darkness (1971) is a vampire film like no other. Heralded as psychological high-Gothic cinema, loved for its art-house and erotic flavors, Harry Kümel's 1971 cult classic is unwrapped in intricate detail by writer Kat Ellinger to unravel the many mysteries surrounding just what makes it so appealing. This book, as part of the Devil’s Advocates series, examines the film in the context of its peers and contemporaries, in order to argue its place an important evolutionary link in the chain of female vampire cinema. The text also explores the film's association with fairy tales, the Gothic genre, and fantastic tradition, as well as delving into aspects of the legend of Countess Bathory, traditional vampire lore, and much more. The book contains new and exclusive interviews with director Harry Kümel and actress and star Danielle Ouimet.
£21.84
Liverpool University Press Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Book SynopsisWhen David Lynch’s film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a prequel to the television series Twin Peaks, premiered at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival it was met with met with outright hostility. Subsequent reviews from critics were almost unanimously negative, and many fans of the show felt betrayed, as their beloved town was suddenly revealed as a personal hell. Yet in the years since the film’s release, there has begun to be a gradual wave of reappraisal and appreciation, one that accelerated with the broadcast of Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. What has been central to this reevaluation is the realization that what Lynch had created was not a parody of soap opera and detective television but a horror movie.In this Devil’s Advocate, Lindsay Hallam argues that the horror genre aids Lynch’s purpose in presenting the protagonist Laura Palmer’s subjective experience leading to her death as the incorporation of horror tropes actually leads to a more accurate representation of a victim’s suffering and confusion. She goes on to explore how the film was an attempt by Lynch to take back ownership of the material and to examine the initial reaction and subsequent reevaluation of the film, as well as the paratexts that link to it and the influence that Fire Walk with Me now has on contemporary film and across popular culture.Trade ReviewHallam’s analysis of Peaks is spectacularly insightful, particularly her investigation of the film as a study of deep trauma. * Film Stages *
£16.49
Liverpool University Press Blood and Black Lace
Book SynopsisMario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace (1964) is a legendary title, and is commonly considered as the archetypal giallo. A murder mystery about a faceless and menacing killer stalking the premises of a luxurious fashion house in Rome, Blood and Black Lace set the rules for the genre: a masked, black-gloved killer, an emphasis on graphic violence, elaborate and suspenseful murder sequences. But Blood and Black Lace is first and foremost an exquisitely stylish film, full of gorgeous color schemes, elegant camerawork, and surrealistic imagery, testimony of Bava’s mastery and his status as an innovator within popular cinema. This book recollects Blood and Black Lace’s production history, putting it within the context of the Italian film industry of the period and includes plenty of previously unheard-of data. It analyzes its main narrative and stylistic aspects, including the groundbreaking prominence of violence and sadism and its use of color and lighting, as well as Bava’s irreverent approach to genre filmmaking and clever handling of the audience’s expectations by way of irony and pitch-black humor. The book also analyzes Blood and Black Lace’s place within Bava’s oeuvre, its historical impact on the giallo genre, and its influential status on future filmmakers.Trade Review'Curti’s long and wide experience as a historian and analyst of Italian film, in particular horror film, is evident in this well structured, print monograph... Curti’s monograph makes a more concise starting point for both the enthusiast and the academic.'Tina Stockman, Media Education Journal
£16.49
Liverpool University Press Ex Machina
Book SynopsisEx Machina (2014) impressed critics and audiences alike with its bold ideas and all-too-realistic depiction of the unexpected consequences of constructing a sentient being. In his feature directorial debut, Alex Garland uses efficient storytelling, a compelling narrative, and heady concepts to create a modern science fiction masterpiece that explores gender, scientific advancement, and the very concept of humanity, all in a compelling, suspenseful film. Artificial intelligence has long been a sci-fi staple, but here, Garland posits what would happen if, for once, humans, rather than AI, were the real villains. In exploring Ex Machina’s ideas about consciousness, embodiment, and masculinity, all through the lens of a misogynist mad scientist, Joshua Grimm argues the result is a fascinating, truly unique film that immediately established Garland as a breakout voice in the landscape of science fiction film.
£21.84
Liverpool University Press Brainstorm
Book SynopsisThe makers of Brainstorm (1983) spent more than a decade transferring the revolutionary concept of an “empathy machine” from page to screen, only for the famously troubled production to be met with critical and commercial indifference on release. But since 1984 the film has continued to inspire viewers to imagine possibilities for the future. As a result, Brainstorm now seems less like a fixed piece of film history than an idea in evolution. The screen story embodies the ambitions of sci-fi cinema going back to the 1950s, as well as the turbulent culture of the western world in the 1960s and 1970s. It also foreshadows technological breakthroughs around the turn of the twenty-first century, making the film startlingly relevant to our digitally-enhanced information age. To fully appreciate the film’s “ultimate experience,” it helps to understand exactly how the film evolved. This book aims to provide context for such an understanding, beginning with a brief history of science fiction cinema and setting up a careful consideration of multiple drafts of the Brainstorm screenplay by three different screenwriters: Bruce Joel Rubin, Philip F. Messina, and Robert Stitzel. It will also briefly examine the production history of the film (including the tragic death of star Natalie Wood), the career of the director and special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull, the particulars of the completed film, and the film’s influence on future storytellers like James Cameron.
£21.84
Rutgers University Press Documenting the American Student Abroad: The
Book Synopsis1 in 10 undergraduates in the US will study abroad. Extoled by students as personally transformative and celebrated in academia for fostering cross-cultural understanding, study abroad is also promoted by the US government as a form of cultural diplomacy and a bridge to future participation in the global marketplace. In Documenting the American Student Abroad, Kelly Hankin explores the documentary media cultures that shape these beliefs, drawing our attention to the broad range of stakeholders and documentary modes involved in defining the core values and practices of study abroad. From study abroad video contests and a F.B.I. produced docudrama about student espionage to reality television inspired educational documentaries and docudramas about Amanda Knox, Hankin shows how the institutional values of "global citizenship," "intercultural communication," and "cultural immersion" emerge in contradictory ways through their representation. By bringing study abroad and media studies into conversation with one another, Documenting the American Student Abroad: The Media Cultures of International Education offers a much needed humanist contribution to the field of international education, as well as a unique approach to the growing scholarship on the intersection of media and institutions. As study abroad practitioners and students increase their engagement with moving images and digital environments, the insights of media scholars are essential for helping the field understand how the mediation of study abroad rhetoric shapes rather than reflects the field's central institutional idealsTrade Review"Documenting the American Student Abroad is a cutting account of exactly how far off the study abroad industry is from forging a media culture, or what Hankin would call a collective visual grammar, that is ethically aligned with the many noble goals the educational field purports to promote. By placing study abroad practices under the scrutiny of analytical tools from media and cultural studies, Hankin renders the familiar unfamiliar: student-made youtube clips become avenues for fresh analysis of gender and race, and rote study abroad safety precautions become texts for questioning just how comfortable Americans really are with the ideals of global citizenship. For those with an interest in media studies, Documenting the American Student Abroad models the importance of close-reading visual texts as easily dismissed and as 'low brow' as an undergraduate's 'Vlog' sent home from abroad. For those concerned with improving the quality of international education, Hankin will provoke a full-on reckoning. Where institutions of study abroad typically see absence, Hankin finds voice. Where study abroad practitioners see accepted everyday communications strategies, Hankin finds troubling pedagogies and ideological presumptions that undermine the very premise of intercultural education. Documenting the American Student Abroad helps us to understand how it is that an educational practice that has been celebrated for an entire century as America's pathway to global redemption has ultimately done so little to shift some of the most stubborn imperialist ideals that underpin our nation's relationship to the world. "— Talya Zemach-Bersin, Education Studies Senior Capstone Coordinator and a Lecturer, Yale University The American Minute podcast: Kelly Hankin, University of Redlands – The Personal is Professional: The Study Abroad Video Contest— The American Minute podcast “This book offers an original and critical account of an influential domain of media practice—the “study abroad media culture” through which Americans learn about, experience, and document educational travel abroad. Through deft analysis of diverse types of travel media, including study abroad video contests, “homestay movies,” and student vlogs, Kelly Hankin traces how visions of the “globally engaged student” have emerged from a web of media histories, technologies, institutions, and stakeholders. Media, Hankin convincingly shows us, are central to understanding the fraught politics and transformative potential of international education.”— Katie Day Good, author of Bring The World to the Child: Technologies of Global Citizenship in American Education “Kelly Hankin’s wide-ranging and deftly argued analysis of the ‘study abroad gaze’ is a welcome addition to current debates about tourism, travel, and intercultural exchange. She expertly guides us through such diverse topics as theories of mediated travel, reality television and vlogs, the foreign homestay, and the risks and rewards of overseas experiences. The result is an innovative reading of how this formative, multi-layered educational experience for contemporary American students is continually reframed through film and television.”— Ben McCann, University of Adelaide, Australia "NAB Podcast: Kelly Hankin on Media Cultures of Study Abroad in Higher Education"— The New American Baccalaureate ProjectTable of ContentsContents Introduction: The Media Cultures of Study Abroad The Personal is Professional: First-Person Travelogues and The Study Abroad Video Contest Intercultural Communication Among “Intimate Strangers”: Reality Television and Documentary Study Abroad House Hunters International: Homestay Movies in the Digital Era Study Abroad’s Diversity Problem: Vlogs as Necessary Media Spy Kids: The Consequences of Global Citizenship in Game of Pawns Study Abroad and The Female Traveler in the “Amanda Knoxudramas” Acknowledgments Bibliography
£107.20
Rutgers University Press Star Wars Multiverse
Book SynopsisStar Wars may have started out as a film about a Manichean battle between good and evil, but as countless filmmakers, novelists, animators, fan artists and even cosplayers have taken the opportunity to play in the fictional world George Lucas created, it has expanded into something far greater, resulting in a richly layered and diverse Star Wars multiverse. Drawing from a full range of Star Wars media, including comics, children’s books, fan films, and television shows like Clone Wars and The Mandalorian, Carmelo Esterrich explores how these stories set in a galaxy far far away reflect issues that hit closer to home. He examines what they have to say about political oppression, authoritarianism, colonialism, discrimination, xenophobia, and perpetual war. Yet he also investigates subtler ways in which the personal is political within the multiverse, including its articulations of gender and sexuality, its cultural hierarchies of language use, and its complex relationships between humans, droids and myriad species. This book demonstrates that the Star Wars multiverse is not just a stage for thrilling interstellar battles, but also an exciting space for interpretation and discovery.Trade ReviewE2K: Eager to Know podcast, "Seriously Star Wars" episode interview with Carmelo Esterrich— Eager to Know podcast (e2K) "Things are never as simple as they seem. While the stories of Star Wars span multiple media forms, the universes of the franchise are vast and uncharted. In this insightful volume, Carmelo Esterrich mines the unique and multifaceted Star Wars multiverse in all its complexities, delving deeply into discussions of diversity, war, fandom, and gender across the galaxy. Whether discussing the Canon and the Legend, the Fan and the Creator, or the human and the alien (and the droid!), Esterrich proves that the force is strong with Star Wars. Don’t be a nerf herder – get this book now!" — Paul Booth, author of Board Games as Media "Alumnus authors book, a 'conversation starter,' about all things Star Wars"— Penn State News "Associate Professor Carmelo Esterrich to publish Star Wars Multiverse in 2021"— Columbia College ChicagoTable of ContentsPreface: Seriously, Star Wars 1 Navigating a Multiverse: Watching, Reading, Wearing Star Wars 2 Humans and Creatures + Droids: Hierarchies of Life 3 Imperial Desires: War, Order, Colonialism 4 Beyond Princesses and Flyboys: Gender and Sexuality in Star Wars Conclusion: Star Wars, Seriously Acknowledgments Further Reading Works Cited Filmography Index
£16.19
Rutgers University Press Star Wars Multiverse
Book SynopsisStar Wars may have started out as a film about a Manichean battle between good and evil, but as countless filmmakers, novelists, animators, fan artists and even cosplayers have taken the opportunity to play in the fictional world George Lucas created, it has expanded into something far greater, resulting in a richly layered and diverse Star Wars multiverse. Drawing from a full range of Star Wars media, including comics, children’s books, fan films, and television shows like Clone Wars and The Mandalorian, Carmelo Esterrich explores how these stories set in a galaxy far far away reflect issues that hit closer to home. He examines what they have to say about political oppression, authoritarianism, colonialism, discrimination, xenophobia, and perpetual war. Yet he also investigates subtler ways in which the personal is political within the multiverse, including its articulations of gender and sexuality, its cultural hierarchies of language use, and its complex relationships between humans, droids and myriad species. This book demonstrates that the Star Wars multiverse is not just a stage for thrilling interstellar battles, but also an exciting space for interpretation and discovery.Trade ReviewE2K: Eager to Know podcast, "Seriously Star Wars" episode interview with Carmelo Esterrich— Eager to Know podcast (e2K) "Things are never as simple as they seem. While the stories of Star Wars span multiple media forms, the universes of the franchise are vast and uncharted. In this insightful volume, Carmelo Esterrich mines the unique and multifaceted Star Wars multiverse in all its complexities, delving deeply into discussions of diversity, war, fandom, and gender across the galaxy. Whether discussing the Canon and the Legend, the Fan and the Creator, or the human and the alien (and the droid!), Esterrich proves that the force is strong with Star Wars. Don’t be a nerf herder – get this book now!" — Paul Booth, author of Board Games as Media "Alumnus authors book, a 'conversation starter,' about all things Star Wars"— Penn State News "Associate Professor Carmelo Esterrich to publish Star Wars Multiverse in 2021"— Columbia College ChicagoTable of ContentsPreface: Seriously, Star Wars 1 Navigating a Multiverse: Watching, Reading, Wearing Star Wars 2 Humans and Creatures + Droids: Hierarchies of Life 3 Imperial Desires: War, Order, Colonialism 4 Beyond Princesses and Flyboys: Gender and Sexuality in Star Wars Conclusion: Star Wars, Seriously Acknowledgments Further Reading Works Cited Filmography Index
£51.85
Liverpool University Press 12 Monkeys
Book SynopsisTerry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys (1995) was a commercial and critical success, but it is Gilliam’s least understood film, even on the basic plot level. Aside from recognizable debts to specific films such as La Jetée (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964), 12 Monkeys plays with a number of genres: apocalypse and postapocalypse movies, sci-fi, nuclear noir, and what is becoming known as “geek dystopia.” This volume in the Constellations series examines Gilliam’s film—and briefly the TV series based on it—in the context of post-apocalypse movies and with an eye to the film’s major themes, including mental illness, conspiracy theories, the impossibility of human closeness, and the nature of reality. It is the first to read 12 Monkeys’s portrayal of time travel in light of Einstein’s ideas about time and to ask what answers these ideas suggest to the film’s most basic philosophical predicament: the problem of free will versus determinism.Trade Review'One of the most admirable aspects of this book is Kord’s clear, engaging writing. This book is not only insightful but also a pleasure simply to read for the vividness and elegance of its prose. Kord is adept at communicating complex scholarly ideas in understandable language... This book makes an important contribution to Gilliam scholarship and should be read by anyone interested in the study of his films, but it is also eminently readable by a general audience.'Dominick Grace, SFRA Review
£16.49
Liverpool University Press Stalker
Book SynopsisFew filmmakers could even attempt the fearlessness of Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinema and his most ambitious work, Stalker (1977), is arguably the most thoughtful science-fiction film ever made. Stalker parallels its speculative elements with a harrowing narrative of human fragility and philosophy. It is as much a movie about the complexity of its characters as it is the mysteriousness of its labyrinthine landscape, the ambiguous Zone and its heart, the Room of Desire. It is at once a darkly nihilistic film, ominous and threatening, and yet also profoundly hopeful and at its core a story of true faith. This book attempts to unravel the film’s complexities, from its difficult production and through its many cinematic elements: its composition and cinematography, the many philosophies it engages with, its poetic and literary influences, along with the cultural and historical landscapes that cultivated it, and the enormity of its influence across the following generations. Stalker challenges us to engage with film in a different way: a poetic cinema that asks much more of you as a viewer than most. Most of all, to explore why this film—even forty years since its original release—still affects us as an audience as profoundly as ever.
£21.84
Springer International Publishing AG The Aesthetic and Political Practices of Trans
Book Synopsis
£104.49
Palgrave Macmillan The Palgrave Handbook of Experimental Cinema
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Palgrave Macmillan Essay Cinema in the Digital Era
Book SynopsisChapter 1.- Introduction.-Chapter 2.- Essay Cinema and Technological Innovation.-Chapter 3.- Interactivity and Dialogical Exchange in Chris Marker's Immemory and Ouvroir.-Chapter 4.-Jean-Luc Godard, Intertextuality, and Digital Remix Culture.-Chapter 5.-Capturing the Domestic Space in an Era of Ubiquitous Digital Media: Chantal Akerman's No Home Movie.-Chapter 6.-Simulation, Gameplay, and the Non-Indexical Image in Harun Farocki's Serious Games I-IV and Parallel I-IV.-Chapter 7.-Conclusion: Essaying the Future.-Index.
£104.49
Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden Mensch, Maschine, Maschinenmenschen:
Book SynopsisDieses Buch setzt sich mit der viel diskutierten HBO-Serie Westworld auseinander. Aus multidisziplinären Perspektiven fragen die Autor*innen danach, wie die Science-Fiction/Western-Serie als Erzählung funktioniert und dabei Aspekte des Posthumanismus, Fragen künstlicher Intelligenz und das Verhältnis von Mensch und Maschine problematisiert.Table of ContentsEinführung: Westworld, Maschinen/menschen und das amerikanische ‚Qualitätsfernsehen‘.- Westworld und die Frage nach der Menschwerdung in Erinnerungsschleifen.- Dolores und Maeve: eine erste Annäherung an die Bildung von Maschinen zu besseren Übermenschen.- Westworld: die Musikalische DNA des Posthumanismus.- Westworld an der Schnittstelle von Narrativ und Spiel.- Wozu braucht Westworld den Weste(r)n?- Unterhaltung als Hedonismus und Eudaimonie – und Westworld als ihre Dekonstruktion.
£28.49
Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden Mysterium Twin Peaks: Zeichen – Welten –
Book SynopsisDer Sammelband bringt verschiedene Zugänge und Kontexte zu Twin Peaks zusammen und greift dabei auch die besonderen produktions- und rezeptionsästhetischen Spezifika der Serie auf. Das Spektrum der Beiträge umfasst ganz unterschiedliche Themenbereiche: Genremix, Transaktualität, komplexe narrative Strukturen, Traum und Traumhaftigkeit, Geschlechts- und Identitätskonzepte, extremer Fankult, visuelle Ästhetik, akustische Dimensionen, postmoderne Verweiskultur und nicht zuletzt die Frage danach, welche anderen Quality TV-Serien durch Twin Peaks erst möglich wurden.Table of ContentsEinleitung(en).- Zeichen.- Welten.- Referenzen.- Anhang.
£42.74
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Stranger Things. Mundos al revés / Stranger
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£25.58
Ma Non Troppo Los Lugares del Terror: La Muerte Acecha En Cada
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£24.70
REDBOOK Elvis
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£22.61
Editorial Fundamentos Imaginación
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Editorial Fundamentos Ideología en el cine estadounidense 19902003
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£18.71
Taylor & Francis Ltd Genre Filmmaking
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Indian Horror Cinema
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Chinese Martial Arts Film and the Philosophy of Action Media Culture and Social Change in Asia
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£128.25
Taylor & Francis Melodrama Self and Nation in PostWar British Popular Film
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Film and Modern American Art
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Chinese Martial Arts Film and the Philosophy of Action
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Taylor & Francis The Unnameable Monster in Literature and Film
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Taylor & Francis Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction Routledge Key Guides
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Rapanui
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Westerns
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Westerns
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Taylor & Francis The Unnameable Monster in Literature and Film
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Imagining Ancient Cities in Film
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Comedy Films 18941954
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1954, this was the first factual history of comedy films and the men and women who had since 1894 kept us laughing in the cinema. It traces the beginning of comic motion pictures and the pioneer work of Paul, Gaumont, Hepworth, Pathe and Zecca. Then comes the picture palace craze and the success of the early Italian and French comedies and trick films. The work of Al Christie and Mack Sennett in America, and the rise of American films, is fully described, as knockabout gives way to slapstick, and salaries and box-office receipts soar.Now come Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and all the other bright figures of the Roaring Twenties, with favourites like Buster Keaton and Will Rogers to the fore. The development of sound and its effect on the comedians is explained, and the story comes up to date through the thirties and forties to 1954.Some of the hundreds of names to whom tribute is paid include Mabel Normand, Larry Semon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Monty Banks, MaxTrade ReviewReviews for the original 1954 edition:"Loaded with facts, names, titles, biographies and anecdotes, but trotting along easily enough to make reading comfortable, I can’t think of any other book devoted to the cheerful screen which bundles together not only the internationally famous English-speaking comics, but also the great army of good comedians, the multitude of players and the multitude of films too." Dilys Powell wrote in The Sunday Times"Highly informative and interesting and, for the middle-aged, almost unbearably nostalgic," said the New Statesman"A little monument to painstaking research made readable by unswerving love," wrote Paul Dehn"A valuable and fascinating book," said Maryvonne Butcher in The TabletTable of ContentsPreface by Norman Wisdom. Foreword. 1. The First Comedies 2. The Hepworth Story 3. The Fun Continues 4. Early Film Studios 5. The Rise of the American Film 6. The Keystone Touch 7. Chaplin – The Perfect Clown 8. Harold Lloyd 9. The Roaring Twenties 10. The End of Visual Comedy 11. All Talking! 12. The Thirties 13. The British Quota Boom 14. Crosby and Company 15. Walt Disney 16. The Eccentrics 17. The Forties 18. The Summing Up 19. Flashback. Acknowledgements. Index of Names.
£114.00
