Films, cinema Books
University of Illinois Press C. Francis Jenkins Pioneer of Film and Television
Book SynopsisPresents the biography of the important American inventor Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934). This book documents the life of Jenkins from his childhood in Indiana and early life in the West to his work as a prolific inventor whose productivity was cut short by an early death.Trade Review"Almost eighty years following Jenkins’ death, the story of his life and many achievements is finally being told."--Robin Vierbuchen Sproul, Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief, ABC News "With his biography of Francis Jenkins (indeed, the first ever), Don Godfrey again demonstrates his "chops" as a historian willing to do the archival digging necessary to rescue a story worth telling. As in his earlier study of Philo Farnsworth, Godfrey sorts out the sometimes controversial pieces of a career that--for a time--seemed to show the way to widespread use of television. Especially interesting is Jenkins' creative work in both film and television at their very dawning. This is a life well worth reading."--Christopher H. Sterling, author of Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting and Sounds of Change: A History of FM Broadcasting in America"C. Francis Jenkins, Pioneer of Film and Television makes a substantial contribution to the literature on film and electronic communication. Godfrey's scholarship is exceptional and exhaustive. He left no stone unturned in compiling his resources to write this book." --Louise M. Benjamin, author of The NBC Advisory Council and Radio Programming, 1926-1945"Godfrey has produced a biography of the underappreciated inventor that excels both in its completeness and in its engaging readability. The book is an excellent example of history that is both thoroughly researched and eminently readable."--Journalism History"Media historians have not overlooked Charles Francis Jenkins, but neither have they given his story its due. Don Godfrey corrects this imbalance by probing traditional sources and cultivating evidence buried in unusual records--including Jenkins's 283 patents. C. Francis Jenkins is a much-needed improvement to existing histories and an indispensable reference for any future treatments of media technology. . . . brings an American visionary to life."--Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
£38.70
University of Illinois Press Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham is a tour-de-force brilliantly analyzing the cinematic depictions in a black Atlantic context. The full implications of the European depictions of these wonderful dancers is teased out through exhaustive attention to dancing techniques, cinematography and the two women’s autobiographical writings. A must read for all scholars of African American performance and cultural politics."--Alan Rice, author of Creating Memorials, Building Identities: The Politics of Memory in the Black Atlantic"Makes a significant contribution to the field. . . . The dance performances of these artists as recreated onscreen are interpreted and read through the lens of a dance critic who interrogates the dancing body which appropriated diasporic dance techniques over which the artist did not always control."--Charlene B. Regester, African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900–1960
£77.35
University of Illinois Press The Inquisition in Hollywood
Book SynopsisExamines the suppression of radical political activity in the film industry from the days of the Great Depression through the tumultuous House Un-American Activities Commission era to the waning days of the infamous blacklist. This book traces the history of political struggle in Hollywood back to the formation of the Screen Writers Guild in 1933.Trade ReviewAdvance Praise: "The Inquisition in Hollywood is a classic text that refuses to be outdated: it tells the inside story of Hollywood radicals and their victimization, one of the least understood and least appreciated episodes in the history of American art. The scrupulous research, the lucid commentary and hard-hitting conclusions make The Inquisition in Hollywood a major contribution." -- Paul Buhle, coauthor of Tender Comrades: A BAckstory of the Hollywood Blacklist
£19.79
University of Illinois Press Disappearing Tricks
Book Synopsis Disappearing Tricks revisits the golden age of theatrical magic and silent film to reveal how professional magicians shaped the early history of cinema. Where others have called upon magic as merely an evocative metaphor for the wonders of cinema, Matthew Solomon focuses on the work of the professional illusionists who actually made magic with moving pictures between 1895 and 1929. The first to reveal fully how powerfully magic impacted the development of cinema, the book combines film and theater history to uncover new evidence of the exchanges between magic and filmmaking in the United States and France during the silent period. Chapters detailing the stage and screen work of Harry Houdini and Georges Méliès show how each transformed theatrical magic to create innovative cinematic effects and thrilling new exploits for twentieth-century mass audiences. The book also considers the previously overlooked roles of anti-spiritualism and presentational peTrade Review Received the Best Moving Image Book Award from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, 2011. A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2011."Along with intriguing insights into the early development of film, Disappearing Tricks is a reminder that magic and movies involve playing with perceptions and making the appearance of reality seem malleable."--ExpressMilwaukee.com"Students of magic history, film history, the intersection of both, and of Houdini's film career in particular, will all find much to enlarge their insight and understanding of these subjects."--GENII "A sharp, sophisticated, and fascinating read."--Magicol "Conjuring up an amazing trick of his own with this engaged scholarship, Solomon provides a fresh, fascinating display of theory applied to film history. This is one of the most succinct, scintillating books of the year. Essential."--Choice"A truly important and impressive book, the most thoroughly researched and broadly conceived history of the interaction between magicians and cinema that anyone has offered or is likely to offer.”--Tom Gunning, author of The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and ModernityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction; 1 An Anti-Spiritualist Medium: Stage Magic and the Beginnings of Cinema; 2 The Death of Magic? Presentational Performance and Early Film; 3 Behind the Curtain: Melies at the Theatre Robert-Houdin; 4 Up-to-Date Magic: Theatrical Conjuring and the Trick Film; 5 Houdini's Actuality Magic: Escaping the "Ghost House" with Moving Pictures; 6 Lost in Transition: Sensational Fiction and the Limits of Narrative Integration Epilogue; Notes; Bibliography; Index
£19.94
University of Illinois Press Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham
Book SynopsisJosephine Baker and Katherine Dunham were the two most acclaimed and commercially successful African American dancers of their era and among the first black women to enjoy international screen careers. Both also produced fascinating memoirs that provided vital insights into their artistic philosophies and choices. However, difficulties in accessing and categorizing their works on the screen and on the page have obscured their contributions to film and literature. Hannah Durkin investigates Baker and Dunham's films and writings to shed new light on their legacies as transatlantic artists and civil rights figures. Their trailblazing dancing and choreography reflected a belief that they could use film to confront racist assumptions while also imaginingwithin significant confinesnew aesthetic possibilities for black women. Their writings, meanwhile, revealed their creative process, engagement with criticism, and the ways each mediated cultural constructions of black women's identities. DurTrade Review"Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham is a tour-de-force brilliantly analyzing the cinematic depictions in a black Atlantic context. The full implications of the European depictions of these wonderful dancers is teased out through exhaustive attention to dancing techniques, cinematography and the two women’s autobiographical writings. A must read for all scholars of African American performance and cultural politics."--Alan Rice, author of Creating Memorials, Building Identities: The Politics of Memory in the Black Atlantic"Makes a significant contribution to the field. . . . The dance performances of these artists as recreated onscreen are interpreted and read through the lens of a dance critic who interrogates the dancing body which appropriated diasporic dance techniques over which the artist did not always control."--Charlene B. Regester, African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900–1960
£19.79
Indiana University Press Global Nollywood
Book SynopsisGives sustained attention to Nollywood as a uniquely African cultural productionTrade ReviewThe book compiles a range of pieces of high-quality academic work, dealing with Nollywood's transnational production, its uptake in different places in the world, and the various needs it serves of its many different audience groups in Africa and the diaspora. It also unveils a fascinating variety of the ways in which Nollywood cinema is viewed and interpreted, culturally remediated in new contexts, and its stories reproduced with a twist to cater to religious and cultural sensitivities. * Research in African Literatures *This is a wonderful collection, bringing together a bounty of new information, descriptions and ideas. . . . Overall, the book brings together a set of highly original contributions that advance knowl- edge of Nigerian video production. * Africa *Krings and Okome have successfully produced a volume that is simultaneously delightfully entertaining yet appropriately erudite. It is a welcome addition to the fields of film, media, African, and cultural studies. The volume is extremely accessible to both the general informed public and academic audiences and, as a research tool, can be quickly or conveniently accessed for specific information.Winter 2015 * Cinema Journal *Highly recommended. * Choice *[T]he cumulative effect of [these] studies is to provide invaluable information for those wishing to keep up with where African cinema is today. * Journal of African History *Global Nollywood represents the most up-to-date research on Nollywood as a transnational cultural practice and is a must-read for scholars and students of African screen media. * African Studies Review *[T]he book is ground-breaking in its exploration of unchartered territories. . . . It proves that, in spite of appearing to be a niche market, Nollywood, which has reconfigured the canonized theory of African cinema and inspired other African countries, can no longer be excluded from the canon of African cinema in the field of film studies. * African Affairs *Kring's and Okome's edited volume represents a new and important stage in an ongoing conversation about Nollywood's transnational dimensions. . . This volume is highly recommended reading . . . . * African Arts *Table of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsNollywood and Its Diaspora: An Introduction \ Matthias Krings and Onookome OkomePart 1. Mapping the Terrain 1. From Nollywood to Nollyworld: Processes of Transnationalization in the Nigerian Video Film Industry \ Alessandro Jedlowski 2. Nollywood's Transportability: The Politics and Economics of Video Films as Cultural Products \ Jyoti Mistry and Jordache A. EllapenPart 2. Transnational Nollywood 3. The Nollywood Diaspora: A Nigerian Video Genre \ Jonathan Haynes 4. Nollywood Made in Europe \ Sophie Samyn 5. Made in America: Urban Immigrant Spaces in Transnational Nollywood Films \ Claudia Hoffmann 6. Reversing the Filmic Gaze: Comedy and the Critique of the Postcolony in Osuofia in London \ Onookome Okome 7. Nollywood and Postcolonial Predicaments: Transnationalism, Gender, and the Commoditization of Desire in Glamour Girls \ Paul UgorPart 3. Nollywood and Its Audiences 8. Nollywood in Urban Southern Africa: Nigerian Video Films and Their Audiences in Cape Town and Windhoek \ Heike Becker 9. Religion, Migration, and Media Aesthetics: Notes on the Circulation and Reception of Nigerian Films in Kinshasa \ Katrien Pype 10. "African Movies" in Barbados: Proximate Experiences of Fear and Desire \ Jane Bryce 11. Consuming Nollywood in Turin, Italy \ Giovanna Santanera 12. Nigerian Videos and Their Imagined Western Audiences: The Limits of Nollywood's Transnationality \ Babson AjibadePart 4. Appropriations of Nollywood 13. Transgressing Boundaries: Reinterpretation of Nollywood Films in Muslim Northern Nigeria \ Abdalla Uba Adamu 14. Karishika with Kiswahili Flavor: A Nollywood Film Retold by a Tanzanian Video Narrator \ Matthias Krings 15. Bloody Bricolages: Traces of Nollywood in Tanzanian Video Films \ Claudia BöhmeList of ContributorsIndex
£21.59
Indiana University Press The Years Work at the Zombie Research Center
Book SynopsisThey have stalked the horizons of our culture, wreaked havoc on moribund concepts of dead and not dead, threatened our sense of identity, and endangered our personal safety. This book deals with this topic.Trade ReviewThere are so many great things to discuss about this awesome science fiction/horror genre, and the The Year's Work team of Commentate and Jaffe tackle it admirably. There are a number of home runs in this collection. * boing boing *Variously playful and (un)deadly serious. . . * Times Literary Supplement *Provides a study of zombies in popular literature, it also becomes a kind of critique of zombie scholarship itself, and by extension, a critique of humanities scholarship more generally. * Journal of Modern Literature *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe1. Zombie Psychology / Stephen Watt2. Zombie Demographics / Aaron Jaffe3. Zombie Spaces / Dan Hassler-Forest4. Zombie Media / Erik Bohman5. Zombie Health Care / Stephen Shapiro6. Zombie Physiology / Jack Raglin7. Zombie Performance / Atia Sattar8. Zombie Race / Edward P. Comentale9. Zombie Politics / Seth Morton10. Zombie Post-Feminism / Andrea Ruthven11. Zombie Linguistics / Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe12. Zombie Arts and Letters / Jonathan Eburne13. Zombie Philosophy / John Gibson14. Zombie Cocktails / Stephen SchneiderZombie Afterword / Jeffrey T. NealonIndex
£52.70
Indiana University Press The Years Work at the Zombie Research Center
Book SynopsisThey have stalked the horizons of our culture, wreaked havoc on moribund concepts of dead and not dead, threatened our sense of identity, and endangered our personal safety. This book deals with this topic.Trade ReviewThere are so many great things to discuss about this awesome science fiction/horror genre, and the The Year's Work team of Commentate and Jaffe tackle it admirably. There are a number of home runs in this collection. * boing boing *Variously playful and (un)deadly serious. . . * Times Literary Supplement *Provides a study of zombies in popular literature, it also becomes a kind of critique of zombie scholarship itself, and by extension, a critique of humanities scholarship more generally. * Journal of Modern Literature *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe1. Zombie Psychology / Stephen Watt2. Zombie Demographics / Aaron Jaffe3. Zombie Spaces / Dan Hassler-Forest4. Zombie Media / Erik Bohman5. Zombie Health Care / Stephen Shapiro6. Zombie Physiology / Jack Raglin7. Zombie Performance / Atia Sattar8. Zombie Race / Edward P. Comentale9. Zombie Politics / Seth Morton10. Zombie Post-Feminism / Andrea Ruthven11. Zombie Linguistics / Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe12. Zombie Arts and Letters / Jonathan Eburne13. Zombie Philosophy / John Gibson14. Zombie Cocktails / Stephen SchneiderZombie Afterword / Jeffrey T. NealonIndex
£11.39
Indiana University Press Nollywood Stars
Book SynopsisIn this comprehensive study of Nollywood stardom around the world, Noah A. Tsika explores how the industry's top on-screen talents have helped Nollywood to expand beyond West Africa and into the diaspora to become one of the globe's most prolific and diverse media producers. Carrying VHS tapes and DVDs onto airplanes and publicizing new methods of film distribution, the stars are active agents in the global circulation of Nollywood film. From Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde's cameo role on VH1's popular seriesHit the Floorto Oge Okoye's startling impersonation of Lady Gaga, this book follows Nollywood stars from Lagos to London, Ouagadougou, Cannes, Paris, Porto-Novo, Sekondi-Takoradi, Dakar, Accra, Atlanta, Houston, New York, and Los Angeles. Tsika tracks their efforts to integrate into various entertainment cultures, but never to the point of effacing their African roots.Trade ReviewThere is no doubt that this is a pioneering book, one that raises important questions about the transnational and transmedial dimensions of an emergent, corporate culture of stardom and models an entirely new approach to the study of African movies and media. * African Studies Review *Nollywood Stars is a revelation. It will introduce readers to one of the most significant global centers of film production, Nigeria, and to a film culture that is significantly different from that of Hollywood . . . This is an important work. Essential. * Choice *Noah Tsika's Nollywood Stars is a pioneering book that makes a significant contribution to the growing body of scholarship on African screen media and the critical emergent field of Nollywood studies. * Velvet Light Trap *Table of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsA Note on Orthography and TaxonomyIntroduction: Global Stars in Nigeria's Postindependence Firmament: From Ossie Davis to Doctor Bello1. From Yorùbá to YouTube: Studying Nollywood's Star System2. Glittering Video: Format, Fashion, and the Materiality of Nollywood Stardom3. A Mobile Glow: Nollywood Stardom and Corporate Globalism4. When Stars Collide: Lady Gaga and the Pirating of a Globalized Persona5. Nollywood's Progeny: Stardom and the Politics of Youth Empowerment6. Professionalizing Childhood: Nollywood and the New Youth TransnationalismAfterword: Honoring Nollywood StarsFilmographyNotesBibliographyIndex
£22.49
Indiana University Press The Maciste Films of Italian Silent Cinema
Book SynopsisItalian film star Bartolomeo Pagano's Maciste played a key role in his nation's narratives of identity during World War I and after. Jacqueline Reich traces the racial, class, and national transformations undergone by this Italian strongman from African slave in Cabiria (1914), his first film, to bourgeois gentleman, to Alpine soldier of the Great War, to colonial officer in Italy's African adventures. Reich reveals Maciste as a figure who both reflected classical ideals of masculine beauty and virility (later taken up by Mussolini and used for political purposes) and embodied the model Italian citizen. The 12 films at the center of the book, recently restored and newly accessible to a wider public, together with relevant extra-cinematic materials, provide a rich resource for understanding the spread of discourses on masculinity, and national and racial identities during a turbulent period in Italian history. The volume includes an illustrated appendix documenting the restoration and pTrade Review The Maciste Films of Italian Silent Cinema is udnoubtedly a major contribution fo film scholarship. * Gender/Sexuality/Italy *In this path-breaking book, Reich . . . provides an interdisciplinary study of the Maciste films released in Italy between 1914 and 1926, films featuring actor Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste, the strong man of Italian silent cinema. . . . Recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Why Maciste?1. The Birth of the Strongman: Italian Silent Cinema, Stardom, and Genre2. From Slave to Master: Cabiria (1914) and Maciste (1915)3. Maciste Goes to War: Maciste alpino (1916)4. Over There: The Maciste Series, World War I, and American Film Culture5. Love, Labor and Leadership: The Modernity of the Maciste Series, 1919-19226. Muscling the Nation: Benito Mussolini and the Maciste Films of the 1920sConclusion: The Giant of the Dolomites and BeyondAppendix: Claudia Gianetto and Stella DagnaPart I: The Restoration of the Maciste SeriesPart II: In Focus: Scene AnalysesPart III: FilmographyNotesBibliographyIndex
£21.59
Indiana University Press Charlie Chaplins Own Story
Book SynopsisCharlie Chaplin's Own Story covers Chaplin's earliest life through his first brushes with fame and depicts Chaplin as he wished to be seen in 1916, when he was on top of the world.Table of ContentsIntroductionCharlie Chaplin's Own StoryNotesAppendix: Chaplin's Birthplace
£13.29
Indiana University Press Provocauteurs and Provocations Screening Sex in
Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the book's most notable contributions to the field is its emphasis on the portrayal of sexuality in films by women artists, many of whom have been discussed in this arena but not in this kind of depth and with this level of insight."—Michele Schreiber, author of Indie Reframed and American Postfeminist Cinema"This is one of the best and the most engrossing book I've read in my field in quite some time."—Carol Siegel, author of Sex Radical Cinema, Goth's Dark Empire, and New Millennial Sexstyles"Provocauteurs and Provocations delivers incredibly nuanced and deeply contextualized readings of a wide range of sexually provocative media texts. Reflecting the best work being done at the intersection of film/media studies and feminist/LGBTQ scholarship, it will be invaluable for helping us think through the ethical implications of screen media's current engagement with the pleasures and politics of sex."—Ron Becker, author of Gay TV and Straight AmericaTable of ContentsPrologue: Tangled Up in BluePart I: Provocations1. Selling Sex: Scandalous Marketing Campaigns and the Millennial Watercooler Movie2. Full-Frontal Provocation: Male Nudity as Non-Phallic MasculinityPart II: Provocauteurs3. Art Porn Provocauteurs: Feminist Critique through Corporeality in the Work of Catherine Breillat and Lena Dunham4. Inbetweener (In)Appropriations: "Bad Queer" Provocauteurs Lisa Cholodenko and Desiree AkhavanEpilogue: Still Taboo? Provocative Acts, Vulnerable ViewingBibliographyAcknowledgmentsIndex
£71.10
Indiana University Press Provocauteurs and Provocations Screening Sex in
Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the book's most notable contributions to the field is its emphasis on the portrayal of sexuality in films by women artists, many of whom have been discussed in this arena but not in this kind of depth and with this level of insight."—Michele Schreiber, author of Indie Reframed and American Postfeminist Cinema"This is one of the best and the most engrossing book I've read in my field in quite some time."—Carol Siegel, author of Sex Radical Cinema, Goth's Dark Empire, and New Millennial Sexstyles"Provocauteurs and Provocations delivers incredibly nuanced and deeply contextualized readings of a wide range of sexually provocative media texts. Reflecting the best work being done at the intersection of film/media studies and feminist/LGBTQ scholarship, it will be invaluable for helping us think through the ethical implications of screen media's current engagement with the pleasures and politics of sex."—Ron Becker, author of Gay TV and Straight AmericaTable of ContentsPrologue: Tangled Up in BluePart I: Provocations1. Selling Sex: Scandalous Marketing Campaigns and the Millennial Watercooler Movie2. Full-Frontal Provocation: Male Nudity as Non-Phallic MasculinityPart II: Provocauteurs3. Art Porn Provocauteurs: Feminist Critique through Corporeality in the Work of Catherine Breillat and Lena Dunham4. Inbetweener (In)Appropriations: "Bad Queer" Provocauteurs Lisa Cholodenko and Desiree AkhavanEpilogue: Still Taboo? Provocative Acts, Vulnerable ViewingBibliographyAcknowledgmentsIndex
£28.80
Indiana University Press The Cinema of Sara Gómez
Book SynopsisFeaturing striking images, this anthology reorients how we tell Cuban cinema history and how we think about the intersections of race, gender, and revolution. By addressing Gómez's entire body of work, The Cinema of Sara Gómez unpacks her complex life and gives weight to her groundbreaking cinema.Trade ReviewThe release of this important critical anthology, alongside the release of the restorations, reinstates the work of Sara Gomez in the living archive of women film-makers and allwos her reintroduction into archives and counterarchives of Latin American cinema. -- Juana Suarez - NYU MAP * Film Quarterly *A must-read for those researching and teaching feminist documentaries, decolonial ethnography, and the histories of Latin American Cinema. -- Leticia Berrizbeitia Añez * Jump Cut *Table of ContentsIntroduction: New Women, Old Worlds, by Susan Lord1. We have a vast public . . . .": Interview for Pensamiento Critico by Sara Gómez Yera2. "Sara is so very Sara!": Inés María Martiatu Terry Interviewed by Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal, by Inés María Martiatu Terry and Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal3. Inquisitive Gazes: Sara Gómez's Perspectives on Social Marginality from and within the Cuban Revolution, by Odette Casamayor-Cisneros4. Sergio Giral Interviewed by María Caridad Cumaná, by Sergio Giral and María Caridad Cumaná5. "Neither Farms nor Coffee Plantations . . .": Urban Spaces and Cultural Contours in the Script and on the Screen, by Víctor Fowler Calzada6. Residential Miraflores: (Script for De cierta manera/One way or another), by Sara Gómez Yera and Tomás Gonzalez7. Luis García Mesa Interviewed by Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal and María Caridad Cumaná, by Luis García Mesa, Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal, and María Caridad Cumaná8. Sara Gómez: AfroCubana (Afro-Cuban Women's) Activism after 1961, by Devyn Spence Benson9. Racial Identity and Collisions: Gómez and Guillén Landrián, by María Caridad Cumaná10. Rigoberto López Interviewed by Victor Fowler Calzada, by Rigoberto López and Víctor Fowler Calzada11. Information and Education: Sara Gómez and Nonfiction Film Culture of the 1960s, by Joshua Malitsky12. Virtual Heroes in the Midst of Shortage: Sara Gómez Confronts the New Man, by Ana Serra13. Iván Arocha Montes de Oca Interviewed by Ricardo Acosta, by Iván Arocha Montes de Oca and Ricardo Acosta14. Sabor and Punctum: Music in Sara Gómez's Films, by Alan West-Durán15. The Santiago of Two Pilgrims: F. G. Lorca and Sara Gómez in Search of Eastern Cuba, by Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal16. Her Contribution, by Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez17. Conclusion: Transculturation, Gender, and Documentary, by Susan LordEpilogue: "As time goes by, we are less of a polite, aesthetic, static, sexual, and passive object . . .": Sara Gómez Yera Interviewed by Marguerite DurasFilmographyIndex
£67.15
Indiana University Press Soundies and the Changing Image of Black
Book SynopsisPerfect for readers interested in film, American history, and Black entertainment history, Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen and its companion video website (susandelson.com) bring the important contributions of these Black artists into the spotlight once again.Trade ReviewEssential. In this comprehensive work, Delson locates soundies within cinema history. The book provides a fascinating exploration of performers, musicians, and filmmakers who contributed to these productions. Most revealing is Delson's assessment that soundies created images "that boldly contradicted Hollywood's usual depictions of Black people, in images of success, competence, and style" (p. 5)—a direct contrast to studio productions. According to Delson, soundies were historically significant because they impacted the social and cultural fabric of a racially divided America; they played a role in advancing the country's racial politics even when the country seemed reluctant to do so. This definitive study includes rarely seen photos and lists of performers, filmmakers, and titles. A fascinating resource for those interested in film, jazz, performance, WW II, race, Black film history, and socio-cultural history broadly. -- C. B. Regester, Univ. of North Carolina—Chapel Hill * Choice *Table of ContentsPart 1: Follow the MoneyIntroduction: Turning on a Dime1. Circa 1940: Race and the Pop-Culture Landscape2. Risky Business3. Starting in Hollywood, Heading to HarlemPart 2: Follow the Music4. Going to War 5. Encounter and Improvisation: Reimagining the City6. Rural Reverb7. Romance, Relationships, Legs8. One Performer, Ten Soundies: Another Look at Dorothy Dandridge9. Visual Music: Big Bands, Combos, Solo Musicians10. Backing into Integration11. Unplugged, with an AfterlifeAcknowledgmentsPart 3: Following UpAppendix 1: Directory of Black-Cast SoundiesAppendix 2: Performers and Their FilmsAppendix 3: Makers and Their FilmsBibliographyIndex
£59.50
Indiana University Press Profit Margins The American Silent Cinema and
Book SynopsisAn important read for film studies and the history of marketing, Profit Margins exposes the fascinating truth surrounding the invention of cinema advertising techniques and the resulting rhetoric of class division.Trade Review"Groskopf's book turns existing literature on its head by showing that advertising actually was in and all around cinema long before radio. . . . The author has collected a wealth of archival materials that enable him to carefully study the spread of advertising-related ideas and their adoption in terms of methods, devices, and business models."—Patrick Vonderau, author of Films that Sell: Moving Pictures and Advertising"In this meticulously researched, detailed and lively account, Groskopf unearths the lost connections between consumer advertising and the earliest American movie theaters. His fascinating illustrations and archival finds demonstrate that many current efforts to market to media audiences have long roots."—Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, author of Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy"In Profit Margins, Jeremy Groskopf uncovers intriguing connections between the film and advertising industries in the early 20th century. Convincingly argued, fluidly written, and supported by an impressive range of archival sources, Groskopf sheds light on the formative struggles that defined the early theatrical experience and its business model. From this we see how today's digital advertising practices date back to innovations made during the early years of cinema."—Alisa Perren, Associate Professor, University of Texas at AustinTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Advertising Looks at Cinema1. The Front Cover Medium: Lantern Slides, Temporality, and the Commercial Break2. Screen Sugar Pills: The Advertising Trailer and the Commercialized Intermission3. Watch This Space: Peripheral Advertising Through Technologies4. The Cinema Wants to Be Free: Parks, Tickets, and Advertiser-Funded CinemaConclusion: Intemperate ProclamationsBibliographyIndex
£21.59
Indiana University Press Israeli Bourekas Films
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Israeli Bourekas Films offers much needed analysis of the phenomenon popularly called 'Bourekas films' and how they draw on representations of shtetl life from Yiddish literature."—Deborah Starr, author of Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt: Literature, Culture, and Empire"Highly Recommended."—Igeret: The Newsletter of the National Association of Professors of HebrewTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionBirth of the Bourekas: Sallah and Its InnovationsA Thematic Analysis of BourekasMizrahi Self Representation FilmsBourekas and Classical Yiddish LiteratureThe Dynamics of Continuity between Two Disparate CulturesBourekas Legacy: Post-Bourekas and Neo-BourekasBibliographyIndex
£59.50
Indiana University Press Reorienting the Middle East Film and Digital
Book SynopsisStories of desert landscapes, cutting-edge production facilities, and lavish festivals often dominate narratives about film and digital media on the Arabian Peninsula. However, there is a more complicated history that reflects long-standing interconnections between the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean. Just as these waters are fluid spaces, so too is the flow of film and digital media between cultures in East Africa, Europe, North Africa, South Asia, Southwest Asia, and Southeast Asia. Reorienting the Middle East examines past and contemporary aspects of film and digital media in the Gulf that might not otherwise be apparent in dominant frameworks. Contributors consider oil companies that brought film exhibition to this area in the 1930s, the first Indian film produced on the Arabian Peninsula in the late 1970s, blackness in Iranian films, the role of Western funding in reshaping stories, Dubai's emergence in global film production, uses of online platforms for performanceTrade Review"I find this collection a much needed and timely post-colonial re-mapping of film histories and cinematic practices around the Persian Gulf, aptly shifting the focus from land to water, from national borders to arenas, contact zones, from hegemonic historiography to transcultural stories and identities."—Viola Shafik, author of Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity"In de-essentialising the Gulf and presenting it to us as a critical method, this collection achieves two key things: it contributes to the decolonisation of knowledge production about the Gulf, its peoples, cultures and societies and invites us, at the same time, to rethink the fields of Arab and Middle Eastern media and cultural studies beyond static, colonial configurations of geography. This wide-ranging collection recognizes the Gulf as a complex transcultural space; a conduit to relational histories and cultural encounters that transcend the limiting and teleological imaginations of nations and regions in film and area studies. This is a terrific and a much-needed book. I strongly recommend it to scholars of Middle Eastern media and cultural studies and also to those researching media practices and uses in the global South and beyond."—Tarik Sabry, author of Cultural Encounters in the Arab World: On Media the Modern and the Everyday"A cornucopia of information and insight, Reorienting the Middle East manages to do what the title promises. It reorients discussion of Gulf Media by expanding the corpus and scope in multiple ways, first of all by counterpointing portrayals of the Gulf with portrayals from the Gulf. Rather than approach the region as a static place, it uses the Gulf as an epicentric prism to reveal the fluid movement of ideas, images and films across borders. The book treats transnationality not as a mere inventory of nation-states involvement but rather as an intricate cross-border process embedded in the transnational imaginary of and about the Gulf. Reorienting the Gul describes a constantly morphing transcultural arena of interconnected histories, migrating cultures, of uncanny resemblances, subterranean affinities. Rather than a simple binary of metropole and colony, we find palimpsestic formations where a nation can at once be indigenous, postcolonial, para-colonial and colonial in the sense of exploiting migrant labor from the Global South, in situations where multicultures intersect and interfecundate in hybrid formations. The book also addresses the various forms of transnational projections, as in the case of South-South stereotyping (Egyptian films mocking rich Gulf State Arabs, and Bollywood films portraying the Gulf as corrupting the innocent Indian nationals, Replete with intriguing surprises, the book engages such topics as entrepot film culture in Dubai, romanticized narratives about ruling families, American corporations extracting oil while injecting stereotypes and segregation into Saudi Arabia, the transoceanic aurality of love and yearning, blackness in Iran, and the filmic imagining of the lives of domestic workers. Admirably transmediatic, the book expands the corpus beyond fiction features to include documentaries, TV shows, tourism commercials, YouTube videos, and digital activist videos. It is hard to imagine the reader who would not learn from this book."—Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, authors of Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media
£62.90
Pennsylvania State University Press Imagining the Kibbutz Visions of Utopia in
Book SynopsisAn exploration of the literary and cinematic representations of the kibbutz movement in Israel. Authors discussed include Amos Oz, Savyon Liebrecht, Nathan Shaham, Avraham Balaban, Atallah Mansour, Eli Amir, and Batya Gur. Directors discussed include Yitzhak Yeshurun, Akiva Tevet, Dror Shaul, and Jonathan Paz.Trade Review“Thanks to the extensive outlook and the copious collection of texts, Imagining the Kibbutz is a valuable resource and a welcome contribution to the field of kibbutz studies.”—Lior Libman Israel Studies Review“In a brilliant analysis that is both comprehensive and penetrating, Ranen Omer-Sherman illuminates the vast spectrum of literary and cinematic narratives that emerged from one of the most radical and thrilling social experiments of our time: the Israeli kibbutz. Omer-Sherman writes with authority and passion, in prose that will excite the scholar and layperson alike. Part literary critique, part social history, Omer-Sherman’s book sheds light not only on the narratives of the kibbutz but also on the utopian enterprise itself, from its heady idealism to its bitter contentiousness. I was, quite honestly, unable to put it down. Anyone interested in Israel, literature, film, or the myriad ways in which artistic expression reflects and shapes the birth and growth of a modern nation would do well to read this book.”—Joan Leegant,author of An Hour in Paradise and Wherever You Go“The kibbutz is an extraordinary human, social, and economic accomplishment, widely recognized as one of the most impressive achievements of Zionism. The impact of the kibbutz has always far exceeded its numerical size, and Imagining the Kibbutz makes us realize that this is also the case with the visions of the kibbutz in Hebrew literature and in films made in or on Israel. Ranen Omer-Sherman very skillfully combines the particularity of the local scene with universal human experience transcending space and time, such as the clash between individual desires and unyielding national imperatives. Combining the critical outlook of the academic outsider with deep, loving insight acquired through his own personal experience, the author portrays the kibbutz as a crucial microcosm for understanding Israeli values and identity. The book proves that the reports of the kibbutz’s death are greatly exaggerated; it is still a vibrant society making an inspiring imprint both on Israeli reality and Hebrew literature and film. Imagining the Kibbutz is a very relevant and up-to-date book, enhancing our understanding of contemporary Israel at large.”—Aviva Halamish,The Open University of Israel “Imagining the Kibbutz is not only a masterful study of literary representations of the kibbutz, but also a portrait of a country—Israel—through the lens of its most radical experiment. Tracing the evolution of the kibbutz from its utopian beginnings through economic crisis and ideological disillusionment to its current hybrid forms, Ranen Omer-Sherman illuminates the tensions between individualism and collectivism, capitalism and socialism, diaspora and national identity that lie at the heart of Israeli society. A probing analysis of a wide array of imaginative renderings of the kibbutz experience, this important book should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding Israel’s individual diversity and collective soul.”—Margot Singer,author of The Pale of Settlement“What makes Imagining the Kibbutz particularly compelling is its emphasis on the affective power that the kibbutz exercises upon the individual. Ranen Omer-Sherman guides us through a diverse array of literary and cinematic texts with sensitivity and astuteness, urging us to bear in mind culture’s humanizing function even in its representation of the most intensely politicized situations. A deeply engaged and delightfully engaging writer, Omer-Sherman balances his experiences with the kibbutz with a discerning and rigorous critical eye, confronting its complexities and contradictions in order to suggest that in many ways these reflect paradoxes that continue to inhabit the core of Israeli identity itself.”—Karen Grumberg,University of Texas at Austin“The kibbutz has always played an outsized role in images of Israel, representing in microcosm the ideals upon which the nation was founded. The kibbutz embodied, in its purest form, the inherent tension between common goals and individual interests. As Ranen Omer-Sherman gracefully demonstrates in this penetrating analysis, the literature growing out of the kibbutz experience is also an outsized component of Israeli culture. From the outset, the kibbutz was ‘always in crisis,’ portrayed sensitively in the many novels, short stories, essays, and films inspired by the tension between ideology and reality. This landmark study also puts the recent ‘normalization’ of the kibbutz into clearer perspective, making it clear that its role in the broader society remains central. Anyone with an interest in Israeli culture and society will find this book indispensable in highlighting a critical dimension of the Israeli experience, past and present.”—Alan Dowty,University of Notre Dame“From its emergence in pre-war Palestine until its privatization in the mid-1980s, the kibbutz was an iconic symbol of the settlement of Jews in their historic land. The lived experience of that utopian experiment was sometimes too controversial to deal with in nonfiction, but found expression in literature and film. Ranen Omer-Sherman has produced a valuable survey of such representations, which he considers wistfully, yet hopefully, at a time when kibbutzim are succumbing to privatization, even as some cling to their erstwhile promise of communalism.”—Aviva Ben-Ur,University of Massachusetts Amherst“A volume whose sharp insights and wide-ranging analyses (some of them appearing here for the first time in English) contribute greatly to our understanding of the histories of and shifting perceptions surrounding one of modernity’s most fascinating ideological movements. Informative for the specialist reader as well as accessible for students and a general lay audience, Imagining the Kibbutz promises to shape the ways in which historiographers, ethnographers, literary and cultural critics, and even authors and artists themselves discuss portrayals of the kibbutz phenomenon in the decades to come.”—Nathan P. Devir Studies in American Jewish Literature“Just as some new religions changed and structured themselves in innovative routines, while others failed and declined, the kibbutzim have gone through a similar process of triumph, fall, decline, and change. Imagining the Kibbutz offers an excellent opportunity to review these transformations.”—Motti Inbari Nova ReligioTable of ContentsContentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction1. Trepidation and Exultation in Early Kibbutz Fiction2. “With a Zealot’s Fervor”: Individuals Facing the Fissures of Ideology in Oz, Shaham, and Balaban3. The Kibbutz and Its Others at Midcentury: Palestinian and Mizrahi Interlopers in Utopia4. Late Disillusionments and Village Crimes: The Kibbutz Mysteries of Batya Gur and Savyon Liebrecht5. From the 1980s to 2010: Nostalgia and the Revisionist Lens in Kibbutz FilmAfterword: Between Hope and Despair: The Legacy of the Kibbutz Dream in the Twenty-First Century AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex
£35.06
University of Texas Press Sound Design and Science Fiction
Book SynopsisA contemporary study of the rise of sound design and its relationship to science fiction cinema.Trade Review"Sound Design is a major achievement in film studies that should be widely read as a general introduction to the underappreciated art and practice of sound. Whittington makes a compelling case for the centrality of sound to the modern Hollywood aesthetic. While surveying the evolution of sound technology, post-production practices and design in seminal science-fiction films of the last forty years, he concurrently provides a comprehensive introduction to the various components of the soundtrack and how they create meaning. He carefully defines terms such as Foley and source music not just in a glossary but as they arise, in such a way that the book can serve as a textbook on sound design in general, not just on the one genre...given the brilliant research that has been devoted to the transition to sound, I am particularly excited that Whittington has chosen to focus on more recent developments." Elisabeth Weis, Screen 2008, issue 49Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. The Dawn of Sound Design Chapter 1. Sound Design: Origins and Influences Chapter 2. Music and Speculation in 2001: A Space Odyssey Part II. Sound Montage Chapter 3. The Convergence of Hollywood and New Wave Science Fiction Chapter 4. Suggestive Fragments in THX 1138 Part III. Sound Designing Chapter 5. From Sound Capture to Construction: Building the Lexicon of Sound Designs for Star Wars Chapter 6. Surround Sound and Science Fiction Part IV. Sound Effects Chapter 7. Genre Splicing: Horror and Science Fiction Chapter 8. Alien: Audio-biomechanics Part V. Voice Design Chapter 9. Blade Runners: A Crisis in Voicing Authority, Identity, and Spectacle Part VI. Final Design Chapter 10. Sound Mixing and Sound Design in Science Fiction Cinema: A Mixed Paradox Chapter 11. Mixing Man and Machine in Terminator 2: Judgment Day Part VII. Conclusion: A Sounding of the Future Chapter 12. What is The Matrix? Sound Design in a Digital World Appendix: Overview of the General Processes of Sound Design Notes Glossary Bibliography Filmography Index
£20.69
University of Texas Press Generation Multiplex
Book SynopsisNow updated and expanded to cover developments in teen films since 2002, Generation Multiplex remains the most comprehensive study of the representation of teenagers in American cinema from Fast Times at Ridgemont High to The Hunger Games.Table of Contents Foreword by Stephen Tropiano Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Introduction: The Cinematic Image of Youth Social Representation and Genre Theory The Study of Youth, In and Out of Movies Chapter 2. Youth in School: Academics and Attitude Contexts and Trends in the Subgenre School Kids Transforming the Nerd Delinquents and Their Avenues of Anger Resisting Rebels The Labor of Being Popular The Sensitive Athlete Conclusion Chapter 3. Delinquent Youth: Having Fun, on the Loose, in Trouble Contexts and Trends in the Subgenre Delinquent Styles Deviant Dancing Natural Encounters Tough Girls Crime Until 1999 Crime after Columbine Conclusion Chapter 4. The Youth Horror Film: Slashers and the Supernatural Contexts and Trends in the Subgenre Horror Stories The Slasher/Stalker Film Supernatural Movies Conclusion Chapter 5. Youth Romance: Falling in Love and the Fallout of Sex Contexts and Trends in the Subgenre From Adolescent Ardor to Juggling Gender Family Matters Proms Losing Virginity Being Queer Pregnancy Conclusion Chapter 6. Conclusion: Youth Cinema into a New Century Afterword: Imagine Becoming Someone Catherine Driscoll Appendix A. Filmography of Youth Films, 1980–2013 Appendix B. Subjective Superlative Lists Notes Bibliography Index
£21.59
University of Texas Press Pretty Pictures
Book SynopsisA designer and filmmaker shows how production design can support or contradict narrative structure, or exist in an entirely parallel realm of meaning.Trade Review"The book is extremely original and demonstrates the author's deep understanding of many of the theoretical issues related to production design. Tashiro asks all of the hard questions and is not timid about supplying answers. Those answers will certainly stimulate discussion... To my knowledge, no one covers the subject the way Tashiro does." Charles Affron, author of Sets in Motion: Art Direction and Film NarrativeTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Design 1. What Is Production Design? 2. Circles of Feeling 3. Imaging Part II. History 4. Historical Design 5. Realist History 6. Designer History 7. Didactic History Part III. The Perfect Image 8. A Few Words about a Hat 9. The Politics of Consumption 10. Productionism Notes Film List Bibliography Index
£17.99
University of Washington Press Menacing Environments
Book Synopsis
£31.38
MP-WIS Uni of Wisconsin The American Film Industry
Book SynopsisA collection of essays which seeks to explain the evolution of cinema from a novelty sideline into an industry fought over by corporate empires. The book contains work on the commercial strategies which promoted and sustained this process and on the effect it has had on American society.
£22.46
Yale University Press The Power of Pictures
Book SynopsisA fascinating account of the avant-garde photo-based arts from the early Soviet Union, featuring many previously unpublished imagesTrade ReviewFinalist for the 2015 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Visual Arts. -- National Jewish Book Award * The Jewish Museum *
£33.25
WW Norton & Co Brandos Smile His Life Thought and Work
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking work that reveals how Marlon Brando shaped his legacy in art and life.Trade Review"Brimming with colorful anecdotes and details... a wonderfully cohesive work about Brando, both as an actor and a man." "[Mizruchi is] the first to have access to Brando's private archives, including his extensive library, film archives and research materials... Fascinating." -- Tom Shone "To understand the complete Brando...any future biographer will now have to take account of Mizruchi's Brando as well-to somehow square the lover and the sensualist with the critical thinker." -- Julia M. Klein "Renowned cultural scholar Susan L. Mizruchi explores the Brando that was not visible to the world in order to better understand the one that was-a Brando that was independent of the public persona and often at odds with it." "The most amazing restoration work on an artist's image that I've ever seen." -- Greg Carpenter
£20.89
WW Norton & Co Brandos Smile
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking work that reveals how Marlon Brando shaped his legacy in art and life.Trade Review"Biographers have often highlighted Marlon Brando’s eccentricities. But in this sympathetic portrait, Mizruchi plays up his intellectualism: Brando was an autodidact with a library of 4,000 books, not to mention a great editor of his own lines." -- Rebecca Rose, Best Books of 2014 - Financial Times"...there is much to enjoy here for the confirmed Brando fan." -- Mail on Sunday"... this exhilarating new biography homes in on the kind of details that any serious Brando fan will devour like a starving man in the desert." -- Antonio Quirke, Summer Reading - Financial Times"Engrossing biography...Some great photos, too." -- The Bookseller"...this always interesting, addictive book..." -- Financial Times
£12.34
WW Norton & Co Reel Music
Book SynopsisThe #1 film music text, now with more attention to international films.
£58.90
John Wiley & Sons Inc Iron Man and Philosophy
Book SynopsisThe first look at the philosophy behind the Iron Man comics and movies, timed for the release of Iron Man 2 in March 2010 On the surface, Iron Man appears to be a straightforward superhero, another rich guy fighting crime with fancy gadgets. But beneath the shiny armor and flashy technology lies Tony Stark, brilliant inventor and eccentric playboy, struggling to balance his desires, addictions, and relationships with his duties as the Armored Avenger. Iron Man and Philosophy explores the many philosophical issues that emerge from the essential conflicts found in the decades of Iron Man stories in comics and movies. What kind of moral compass does Tony Stark have? Is Iron Man responsible for the death of Captain America after the Marvel Universe Civil War? Should people like Stark run the world? How does Tony's alcoholism impact his performance as Iron Man, and what does it say about moral character? Ultimately, what can Iron Man teach us about the role of technTable of ContentsIron Introductions and Armored Acknowledgments. Part One The Nuts and Bolts of Tony Stark. 1 The Stark Madness of Technology (George A. Dunn). 2 The Technological Subversion of Technology: Tony Stark, Heidegger and the Subject of Resistance (Rocco Gangle). 3 The Literal Making of a Superhero (Travis N. Rieder). Part Two Wearing the Armor Responsibly. 4 Can Iron Man Atone for Tony Stark’s Wrongs? (Christopher Robichaud). 5 Did Iron Man Kill Captain America? (Mark D. White). 6 Fate at the Bottom of a Bottle: Alcohol and Tony Stark (Ron Novy). Part Three The Iron Age: Tony Stark’s Role in Society. 7 Tony Stark and "The Gospel of Wealth" (Andrew Terjesen). 8 ™ and © Stark Industries: Iron Man and Property Rights (Daniel P. Malloy). 9 Tony Stark, Philosopher King of the Future? (Tony Spanakos). Part Four The Mind Inside the Iron Man. 10 Iron Man in a Chinese Room: Does Living Armor Think? (Ron Novy). 11 Flexing His Intelligence: Tony Stark’s Brainy Brawn (Phillip S. Seng). 12 Does Tony Stark Have an Iron Will? (Mark D. White). Part Five The Virtue of an Avenger. 13. Does Tony Stark Use a Moral Compass? (Sarah K. Donovan and Nicholas P. Richardson). 14 Flawed Heroes and Courageous Villains: Plato, Aristotle, and Iron Man on the Unity of the Virtues (Carsten Fogh Nielsen). 15 "I Have a Good Life": Iron Man and the Avenger School of Virtue (Stephanie Patterson and Brett Patterson). Part Six What It Means to Be an Iron Man. 16 Iron Man and the Problem of Progress (David Valleau Curtis). 17 Engendering Justice in Iron Man (Rebecca Housel and Gary Housel). 18 Iron Man’s Transcendent Challenge (Stephen Faller). Contributor: Avengers Assembled. Index: Topics from the S.H.I.E.L.D. File on Tony Stark/Iron Man.
£15.50
LUP - University of Michigan Press Listening with a Feminist Ear Soundwork in
Book SynopsisOffers a study of the cultural politics of sound in Bollywood cinema. Taking as its subject the expansive domain of the aural in cinema, this book identifies singing, listening, and speaking in cinema as key sites in which notions of identity and difference take form.Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Listening With a Feminist Ear Listening as Habit and Hermeneutic Soundwork Inter-Aurality Politics of Nation Singing, Listening, Speaking Chapter One: Singing From Singing to Musicking: Women’s Voices, Bodies, and the Audiovisual Contract Conjoining Sound and Image Playback Singing and the “Old” Audiovisual Contract Singing on Television The “Ethnic” Voice and the Aural Lag Millennial Soundwork Women’s Musicking and the Somatic Clause Chapter Two: Listening Re-Sounding the Islamicate: The Cinematic Qawwali and its Listening Publics Qawwalis’ Classic Features 5 Ishq Ishq! Romance in Classic Qawwalis World Music and Post-Liberalization De-Islamicization and Irrelationality In Sufipop Pious Listening in Dargah Qawwalis Spectacular Dancing in Item Number-Esque Qawwalis Chapter Three: Speaking Speaking of the Xenophone: Language as Sound in Satya From Cinematic Language to Dialogue-baazi Language, Politics, and Cinema Hindi Film Languages Accenting Bambaiyya Language, Violence, and Marginality Dhichkiaoon! And Other Cinematic Sounds Coda Listening, Loving, Longing Textual and Aural Pleasures Translation and Temporality Seditious Touching in Soundwork Bibliography Index
£23.70
LUP - University of Michigan Press Reframing Screen Performance
Book SynopsisA study of film acting that challenges the belief that great cinematic performances are created in the editing room. Surveying the changing attitudes and practices of film acting, it argues that screen acting is a vital component of film and that it can be understood in the same way as theatrical performance.Trade ReviewA significant contribution to the literature on screen performance studies, Reframing Screen Performance brings the study of film acting up to date. It should be of interest to those within cinema studies as well as general readers. - Frank P. Tomasulo, Florida State University
£23.70
LUP - University of Michigan Press Framed
Book SynopsisExamines literary and cinematic culture of the fin de siecle era - roughly 1880 to 1914 - to shed light on an otherwise overlooked social and cultural type: the conspicuously glamorous New Woman criminal. This title argues that the New Woman Criminal exploited iconic elements of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commodity culture.Trade ReviewGiven the intellectual adventurousness of these chapters, the rich material that the author has brought to bear, and its combination of archival depth and disciplinary range, any reader of this remarkable book will be amply rewarded. - Jonathan Freedman, Professor of English and American Culture, University of Michigan
£23.70
The University of Michigan Press Slayers and Their Vampires
Book SynopsisExploring how the vampire slayer began, this book goes further to ask why the true history of the vampire slayer has been so long ignored. It is of interest to fans of Dracula, vampire, Buffy, Anne Rice, and Anita Blake lore, and to students of anthropology, sociology, European religious history, Slavistics, and cinematic and literary history.
£19.90
The University of Michigan Press Listening with a Feminist Ear
Book SynopsisOffers a study of the cultural politics of sound in Bollywood cinema. Taking as its subject the expansive domain of the aural in cinema, this book identifies singing, listening, and speaking in cinema as key sites in which notions of identity and difference take form.Trade Review“Sundar brings to the study of Bombay cinema the methods and insights of sound studies and feminism to produce a thoroughly original monograph that provides a model for how sound might be studied in cinema with an eye to historical and industrial specificity.”—Sangita Gopal, University of Oregon“Listening with a Feminist Ear is a tour de force. Using a robust theoretical framework, Sundar carefully illuminates the historical, technological, and ideological factors sustaining paradigms of sonic representation, effects, and modes of listening across seven decades of Hindi cinema. Superbly written and researched, this study foregrounds the importance of gender and sexuality in cinematic and cultural soundwork. Highly recommended.”—Caryl Flinn, University of Michigan“Pavitra Sundar has made an important contribution to sound studies and film studies with this rigorous and insightful analysis of the singing, listening, and speaking of popular Bombay cinema. Sundar’s clear prose and compelling case studies work to update the historical narrative and help us to listen more deeply, more broadly, and more sensitively to an influential tradition of soundwork.”—Jacob Smith, Northwestern University“Listening with a Feminist Ear lives up to the promise of listening to sound differently and not just using sound to register difference. Sundar offers an elegant analysis of the power of listening and the generative potential of soundwork.”—Sujata Moorti, Middlebury CollegeTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Listening With a Feminist Ear Listening as Habit and Hermeneutic Soundwork Inter-Aurality Politics of Nation Singing, Listening, Speaking Chapter One: Singing From Singing to Musicking: Women’s Voices, Bodies, and the Audiovisual Contract Conjoining Sound and Image Playback Singing and the “Old” Audiovisual Contract Singing on Television The “Ethnic” Voice and the Aural Lag Millennial Soundwork Women’s Musicking and the Somatic Clause Chapter Two: Listening Re-Sounding the Islamicate: The Cinematic Qawwali and its Listening Publics Qawwalis’ Classic Features 5 Ishq Ishq! Romance in Classic Qawwalis World Music and Post-Liberalization De-Islamicization and Irrelationality In Sufipop Pious Listening in Dargah Qawwalis Spectacular Dancing in Item Number-Esque Qawwalis Chapter Three: Speaking Speaking of the Xenophone: Language as Sound in Satya From Cinematic Language to Dialogue-baazi Language, Politics, and Cinema Hindi Film Languages Accenting Bambaiyya Language, Violence, and Marginality Dhichkiaoon! And Other Cinematic Sounds Coda Listening, Loving, Longing Textual and Aural Pleasures Translation and Temporality Seditious Touching in Soundwork Bibliography Index
£60.95
University of California Press The Magnificent Ambersons
Book SynopsisThis is a painstaking reconstruction of the original version of Orson Welles's film, which was drastically recut by RKO Studios in 1942 before its release. It examines all surviving evidence, including rare studio documents and the recollections of Welles and other participants in the film.Trade Review"Robert Carringer has done as much as is humanly possible to clear up myths and to correct misconceptions about Welles' flawed second film. Simultaneously, his book provides a model for preparing a textual edition of an important film which has existed in variable forms. For both reasons, The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction constitutes an important contribution to film history." * Film Quarterly *"The most complete scholarly work on the movie, The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction painstakingly details the movie as Welles envisioned it." * Vanity Fair *
£45.05
University of California Press A Critical Cinema 2
Book SynopsisA collection of interviews with independent filmmakers. It reveals the sophisticated thinking of these artists regarding film, politics, and contemporary gender issues. It explores the careers of Robert Breer, Trinh T Minh-ha, James Benning, Su Friedrich, and Godfrey Reggio.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Robert Breer Michael Snow Jonas Mekas Bruce Baillie Yoko Ono Anthony McCall Andrew Noren Anne Robertson James Benning Lizzie Borden Ross McElwee Su Friedrich Anne Severson (on Near the Big Chakra) Laura Mulvey (on Riddles of the Sphinx) Yvonne Rainer (on Privilege) Trinh T. Minh-ha Godfrey Reggio Peter Watkins Filmography Bibliography Index
£27.90
University of California Press Overtones and Undertones
Book SynopsisDraws on film, music, and narrative theory to present a comprehensive aesthetics of film music. This book traces the history of film music from its beginnings, covering both American and European cinema. It features readings of several of the best film/score interactions, including Psycho, Laura, The Sea Hawk, and Double Indemnity.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1 Narrative/Film/Music 2 Actions/Interactions: "Classical" Music 3 Actions/Interactions: Historical Overview 4 Actions/Interactions: The Source Beyond the Source 5 Styles and Interactions: Beyond the Diegesis Interlude I: Erich Wolfgang Komgold: The Sea Hawk (1940) Interlude II: Miklos Rozsa: Double Indemnity (1944) Interlude III: The Eisenstein/Prokofiev Phenomenon 6 Herrmann, Hitchcock, and the Music of the Irrational 7 New Styles, New Genres, New Interactions Interlude IV: Jean-Luc Godard: Vivre sa vie (1962) Interlude V: Jean-Luc Godard: Pierrot lefou (1965) 8 Music as Image as Music: A Postmodern Perspective A Brief (Postmodern) Conclusion lnterviews Miklos Rozsa David Raksin Bernard Herrmann Henry Mancini Maurice Jarre Lalo Schifrin John Barry Howard Shore Appendix: How to Hear a Movie: An Outline Notes Discography Bibliography Index
£28.80
University of California Press Window Shopping
Book SynopsisThis account of the cinema's role in postmodern culture explores the way in which 19th-century visual experiences, such as photography and diorama entertainments, anticipated contemporary pleasures provided by film.Table of ContentsPREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION LOOKING BACKWARD-AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CONCEPT OF "POST" The Past, the Present, the Virtual Method The "P" Word A Road Map 1 THE MOBILIZED AND VIRTUAL GAZE IN MODERNITY: FLANEURIFLANEUSE Modernity and the "Panoptic" Gaze Modernity and the "Virtual" Gaze The Baudelairean Observer: The "Mobilized" Gaze of the Flaneur The Gender of the Observer: The Flaneuse The "Mobilized" and "Virtual" Gaze PASSAGE I The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola 2 THE PASSAGE FROM ARCADE TO CINEMA The Commodity-Experience RE: Construction-The Public Interior/The Private Exterior The Mobilized Gaze: T award the Virtual From the Arcade to the Cinema PASSAGE II A Short Film Is More of a ''Rest Cure'' The Cinema as Time Machine Window-Shopping Through Time 3 LES Fi.ANEURS/FLANEUSE DU MALL The Mall Temporality and Cinema Spectatorship Spectatorial Flanerie Cybertechnology: From Observer to Participant Postmodern Flanerie: To Spatialize Temporality PASSAGE Ill Architecture: Looking Foward, Looking Backward 4 THE END OF MODERNITY: WHERE IS YOUR RUPTURE? The Architectural Model The Cinema and Modernity/Modernism: The "Avant-Garde" as a Troubling Third Term Jameson and the Cinematic "Postmodern" Cinema and Postmodernity Postmodernity Without the Word CONCLUSION: SPENDING TIME POST-SCRIPT: THE FATE OF FEMINISM IN POSTMODERNITY Warnings at the Post Postfeminism? Beyond Indifference Neither or Both: An Epilogue to the Period of the Plural NOTES INDEX
£24.30
University of California Press The Wages of Sin Censorship and the Fallen Woman
Book SynopsisIn this text, Lea Jacobs uses the fallen woman film, which served as a focal point for public criticism of the film industry, to explore Hollywood's system of self-censorship and the evolution of the rules governing representations of sexuality.Table of ContentsPreface 1. The Fallen Woman Film and the Impetus for Censorship 2. The Studio Relations Committee's Policies and Procedures 3. Glamour and Gold Diggers 4. Something Other than a Sob Story 5. The Production Code Administration's Policies and Procedures 6. Class and Glamour in the Films of the Late Thirties 7. Afterword Appendix: Censorship Cases Reviewed Notes Bibliography Index
£24.30
University of California Press The Promise of Cinema Film Theory in Germany 19071933
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£100.00
University of California Press The Talkies American Cinemas Transition to Sound
Book SynopsisOffers readers a look at the time when sound was a vexing challenge for filmmakers and the source of contentious debate for audiences and critics. Donald Crafton presents a panoramic view of the talkies' reception as well as an in-depth look at sound design in selected films, amongst other issues.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1 Introduction: The Uncertainty of Sound PART 1: A NEW ERA IN ELECTRICAL ENTERTAINMENT 2 Electric Affinities 3 Virtual Broadway, Virtual Orchestra: De Forest and Vitaphone 4 Fox-Case, Movietone, and the Talking Newsreel 5 Enticing the Audience: Warner Bros. and Vitaphone 6 Battle of the Giants: ERPI and RCA Consolidate Sound 7 The Big Hedge: Hollywood's Defensive Strategies 8 Boom to Bust 9 Labor Troubles 10 Inaudible Technology 11 Exhibition: Talkies Change the Bijou PART 2: THREE SEASONS: THE FILMS OF 1928-1931 12 The New Entertainment Vitamin: 1928-1929 13 Taming the Talkies: 1929-1930 14 The Well-Tempered Sound Track: 1930-1931 15 The Sound of Custard: Shorts, Travelogues, and Animated Cartoons 16 Outside the Mainstream 17 Foreign Affairs PART 3: HEARING THE AUDIENCE 18 The Voice Squad 19 Constructive Criticism: The Fans' Perspective 20 Buying Broadway: THE JAZZ SINGER's Reception 21 "The Great Ninety Per Cent" Appendix 1: Selected Box Office Grosses, 1928-1931 Appendix 2: Academy Awards Related to Sound, 1927-1931 List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Picture Sources General Index Index of Films
£35.10
University of California Press Writing the CharacterCentered Screenplay Updated
Book SynopsisCovering American, international, mainstream, and 'off-Hollywood' films, as well as television, this book offers creative strategies and useful practical information. It places screenwriting in the context of the storytelling tradition, arguing through literary and cultural analysis that all great stories revolve around a strong central character.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: CHARACTER Chapter One: The Feast of Becoming: Carnival and Character Chapter Two: Varieties of Voices Within Character Chapter Three: Five Not-So-Easy Pieces: Analysis of Character-Centered Scripts PART II: NARRATIVE AND STRUCTURE Chapter Four: Beyond the Classical Hollywood Structure Chapter Five: Developing a Character-Centered Narrative Chapter Six: Pitching PART III: WRITING Chapter Seven: Prelude to a Screenplay Chapter Eight: The Fourteen-Week Character Developing Schedule Chapter Nine: The Fourteen-Week Feature Screenplay PART IV: LAUNCHING YOUR SCRIPT Chapter Ten: From Rewrite to Screen: An Overview of Options Chapter Eleven: Live Writers Talking: Screenwriting 2000 and Beyond Appendix A: Coverage Appendex B: Self-Critiques Appendix C: Your Personal Screenwriting and Video Library Appendix D: At Long Last the Recipe for a Screenwriter's Gumbo with Character! Index
£22.50
University of California Press Maya Deren the American Avant Garde
Book SynopsisRegarded as one of the founders of the postwar American independent cinema, the legendary Maya Deren was a poet, photographer, ethnographer, filmmaker and impresario. This work examines Maya Deren's writings, films, and legacy from a variety of perspectives.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Introduction, Bill Nichols A. Deren's Work and the Arts B. Deren's Writings and Film Theory C. Deren's Films and Their Form 1. The Historical Lens Poetics and Savage Thought: About Anagram, Annette Michelson The Modernist Poetics of Maya Deren, Renata Jackson Aesthetic Agencies in Flux: Talley Beatty, Maya Deren, and the Modern Dance Tradition in Study in Choreography for Camera, Mark Franko "The Eye for Magic" Maya and Melies, Lucy Fischer 2. In the Eyes of Her Contemporaries The Ethics of Form: Structure and Gender in Maya Deren's Challenge to the Cinema, Maureen Turim Moving the Dancers' Souls, Ute Holl Maya Deren's Ethnographic Representation of Ritual and Myth in Haiti, Moira Sullivan 3. The Terms of Her Legend and Legacy Maya Deren Herself, Catherine M. Soussloff Maya Deren, Jane Brakhage Wodening Seeing Double(s): Reading Deren Bisexually, Maria Pramaggiore Maya Deren and Me, Barbara Hammer Appendix: An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film Maya Deren List of Contributors Index
£999.99
University of California Press A New Pot of Gold
Book SynopsisFacing an economic crisis in the 1980s, the Hollywood moved to control the ancillary markets of videotape, video disk and pay-cable. The studios found themselves targeted for acquisition by global media and communications companies. This book examines the transformation that took Hollywood from the production of theatrical film to media software.Trade Review"Prince's book pushes us to reconceptualize the interactions of economics and ideology.... It evokes and invokes the richness of filmmaking practices-both mainstream and alternative-even as it gives a harsh and perhaps tragic image of a cultural form, the cinema, losing its specificity and even identity in the vast synergistic networks of control at the end of the twentieth century."-Dana Polan, Film Quarterly; "Stephen Prince's A New Pot of Gold is good at sustaining a coherent historical narrative and critical commentary on the 1980s-a period when video and film grew closer together, and when Hollywood came under the control of global capitalism."-James O. Naremore, author of Acting in the CinemaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Contents 1 The Industry at the Dawn of the Decade 2 Merger Mania 3 The Brave New Ancillary World 4 Independents, Packaging, and Inflationary:Pressure in 1980s Hollywood Justin Wyatt 5 The Talent Oligopoly 6 The Filmmakers 7 Genres and Production Cycles 8 Movies and Morality 9 American Documentary in the 1980s Carl Plantinga 10 Experimental Cinema in the 1980s Scott MacDonald Appendices: APPENDIX 1 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS APPENDIX 2 TOP BOX-OFFICE FILMS OF THE 1980s APPENDIX :3 MAJOR ACADEMY AWARDS, 1980-1988 APPENDIX 4 THE NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY 45:3 Notes Bibliography Picture Sources General Index Index of Films
£32.30
University of California Press Hollywood 1938
Book SynopsisDrawing on the records of studio personnel, independent exhibitors, moviegoers, and the motion pictures themselves, this title analyzes what was wrong - and right - with Hollywood at the end of a heralded decade, and how the industry's troubles changed the making and marketing of films in 1938 and beyond.Trade Review"A fascinating and substantial contribution to the cultural history of Hollywood film... Highly recommended." -- S. C. Dillon, Bates College ChoiceTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Hollywood Looks at Its Audience Part One: The Campaign 1. Annus Horribilis Goldwyn's Folly Such a Thing as Bad Publicity The Moviegoing Habit 2. Exhibitors, the Movie Quiz Contest, and a Divided Industry The Minds of Exhibitors The Carrot and the Stick The Quiz Contest on the Ground What the Contest Did for Me Independents Rebel 3. The Campaign and the Press The Film Industry Speaks Its Mind Marginal Moviegoers The Gossip Columnists The Dailies Have Their Say Part Two: The Films 4. "The Finest Array of Productions" Ninety-Four Films The Death of Glamour Human Films The Human Side of Screwball You Can't Take It with You Four Daughters Boys Town Marie Antoinette That's Entertainment The Fourth Estate Conclusion: Motion Pictures' Worst Year Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Notes Index
£50.40
University of California Press Lillian Gish Her Legend Her Life
Book SynopsisAt the time of her death in 1993, Lillian Gish was universally recognized as a film legend. This title uncovers a life that was cast in the shadow of self-generated myth. It shows how the actress carefully shaped her public identity while keeping much of her life private.Trade Review"To the very end, she did her part in raising awareness about the endangered legacy of silent film. But her insistence on going to any means to guard and sugarcoat Griffith's legacy distorts the reality of the silent film era. The truth, plain and simple, would serve a greater purpose today in bolstering awareness of the great work done by silent film artists. With this book, Affron takes a step in that direction by demystifying the actress and the world in which she worked."-Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times; "Gish, born in 1893, lived for 99 years. She spent the first quarter of a century becoming a legend and the last three-quarters of it acting as shaper and custodian of that legend.... Though most of Gish's story is known, we've never had it told with such balance and completeness. Affron completes the picture by restoring details Gish resolutely omitted."-Jay Carr, Boston Globe; "Well written, ambitious and intelligent, this biography is an essential addition to the work on Gish and on American film and theater."-Publishers Weekly; "Affron unearths the less edifying facts airbrushed out of his subject's memories yet retains his respect for her pioneering artistry. Gish emerges here as a stronger, savvier woman than we have met in previous accounts."-Wendy Smith, Variety; "[Affron] politely, consistently refutes Gish's line, remaining unfailingly generous to his subject's art and indomitability, all the while fastidiously and expertly devastating the fairy tale in which she wrapped herself. If we are ever to rescue silent film from its status as a dwindling cult's enthusiasm and restore it as a vital part of our cultural heritage, we need more work of this balanced and balancing kind."-Richard Schickel, New York Times Book Review; "[A] deeply honest book.... Granted unprecedented access to Gish's private letters and journals, [Affron] has used his privilege well. Stripping away Gish's own layers of selective memory and self-invention, and eclipsing earlier 'authorized' biographies, he challenges many assumptions.... A balanced and detailed portrait."-Jeanine Basinger, Washington PostTable of ContentsAuthor's Note Introduction: Just to Make a Movie 1 An American Family 2 The Wicked Stage 3 "I Don't Know Why I Ever Left Massillon" 4 The "Flickers" and D. W. Griffith 5 Becoming a Movie Actress 6 The Mothering Heart 7 Dorothy Gish' s Sister 8 A Role for Movie History 9 "Griffith's Girls" 10 Becoming a Movie Star 11 The Movies and the Great War 12 "You Can Photograph Her Upside Down, Because It's All Even" 13 From Melodrama to Tragedy 14 In the Director's Chair 15 "The Most Superlatively Exquisite and Poignantly Enchaining Thing I Have Ever Seen in My Life" 16 Good-bye Mr. Griffith 17 "A Wistful April Moon" 18 Inspiration Pictures 19 Charles Holland Duell Jr. 20 George Jean Nathan 21 Kisses for Mimi 22 The Perils of The Wind 23 The Master of Schloss Leopoldskron 24 Interlude 25 GishSpeaks 26 "The Most Interesting Actress on Our Stage" 27 "Dreadful Man" 28 Sinners, Saints, and Shakespeare 29 America First 30 "Oldtime Cinemactress" 31 "Asking Nothing of the Role for Herself" 32 The Small Screen 33 Acting American 34 "Will Come Running at Any Time" 35 "My Blessed Sister" 36 Oscar 37 Final Close-Ups 38 The Girl and the Rose Notes Selected Bibliography Chronological Record of Lillian Gish's Dramatic Performances Acknowledgments Index
£27.00
University of California Press A Very Dangerous Citizen
Book SynopsisLawyer, educator, novelist, radio and television scriptwriter, film director and screenwriter, wartime intelligence operative, and full-time radical romantic, Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was blacklisted in Hollywood for refusing to be an informer. This biography helps us understand the relationship between art and politics in American culture.Trade Review"Covers enormous ground and effectively reflects the vastness of Polonsky's career and personal life."-Variety "Abe Polonsky was fascinating, brilliant, mercurial, a giant of our time. He held the line against McCarthyism in all its forms and phases all his life. He did it with vigor and the joy of fighting for right. His history is the best of the left. As a man he was charming, amusing, concerned-a great listener and a greater raconteur, and an even better friend. This much needed book is a tribute to him."-Lee Grant, Oscar-winning director/actressTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Adventures of the Artist as Intellectual 2. The Good War and After 3. The Politics and Mythology of Film Art: Polonsky's Noir Era 4. Polonsky's Fifties 5. Triumph and Retrospect Appendix Notes Bibliographical Note Index
£27.00
University of California Press Twilight of the Idols
Book SynopsisRevisits some of the sensational scandals of early Hollywood to evaluate their importance for our contemporary understanding of human deviance.
£64.00
