Films, cinema Books

Book SynopsisThe Times on Cinema explores the history of film journalism through The Times’ extensive archive of reviews and interviews

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Book SynopsisCelebrate the season with this officially licensed gift set, which includes a photo scrapbook, interactive journal, Ron Weasley's wand pen, gift cards, and more. A perfect gift for fans of the Wizarding World! Deluxe holiday set: This collection of Harry Potter items will help you record and cherish your most treasured memories of the season; includes a photo scrapbook, guided journal, Ron's wand-pen, ceramic picture frame, gift cards, and keepsake box Photo scrapbook: Includes album modeled after the one Hagrid gives to Harry Potter, highlighting Christmas scenes and inviting the reader to add their own photo memories; Book is 8-3/8 x 5-3/4 inches and includes 32 scrapbook-style heavy stock pages Festive frame: 2 x 3-inch ceramic picture frame Weasley-inspired journal: Record your year-end reflections in a journal measuring 4-1/4 x 7 inches, complete with quotes, writing prompts, and full-color images throughout; inspired by the Weasley Christmas sweaters, the exterior is flocked and fuzzy; write in it with the included pen replica of Ron's wand Gift cards: Includes a set of 5 full-color printed cards with blank interior that can be given alongside gifts or sent as thank-you notes; cards are approximately 5-3/4 x 4-1/2 inches when folded; envelopes included Keepsake box: Items packaged in a sturdy, festively designed full-color printed box measuring 10 inches long x 9 inches wide, and 3 inches high Perfect present: This one-of-a kind, ultra-deluxe, Wizarding World kit is a perfect gift or self-purchase for the Harry Potter fan or collector

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Book SynopsisRecord your own magical journey with this Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them­–themed writing journal.Forgot something? Next time write it down! The spell used to erase memories in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, “Obliviate,' features on this finely crafted journal that celebrates the exquisite art and design of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. With sturdy construction and a sewn binding, this journal lies flat, and the 192 lined, acid-free pages of high-quality, heavy stock paper take both pen and pencil nicely to encourage inspiration. The journal also features a ribbon placeholder, elastic closure, and back pocket ideal for holding small photographs and sketches.

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Book SynopsisDirected by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, and starring James Fox, Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg, Performance was filmed in 1968, but not released until 1970. When its studio backers saw the director's cut, they were so shocked by the film's sexual explicitness and formal radicalism that attempts were made to destroy the negative. In his study of the film, Colin MacCabe draws on extensive interviews with surviving participants to present the definitive history of the making of Performance, as well as a new interpretation of its consummate artistry. This edition includes an afterword reflecting on the film 50 years on, and the reasons for its continuing classic status. Performance’s extraordinary power, suggests MacCabe, comes partly from its entrancing portrayal of London in the late 1960s, but primarily from its full scale assault on any notion of normality, not simply at the level of content but also of form. The remarkable ending, when the thriller and the psychodrama merge into one, means that there is no comfortable resolution to the film’s meanings. Performance is one of those rare narrative film which takes us into the complexity of sound and image without the comforting guarantee of a safe exit.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. The Back Story 2. The Script 3. The Cast 4. The Shoot 5. The Edit 6. The Release 7. Aftermath 8. Coda: Politics and Magic 9. Afterword: Performance at 50 Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe Big Sleep: Marlowe and Vivian practising kissing; General Sternwood shivering in a hothouse full of orchids; a screenplay, co-written by Faulkner, famously mysterious and difficult to solve. Released in 1946, Howard Hawks' adaptation of Raymond Chandler reunited Bogart and Bacall and gave them two of their most famous roles. The mercurial but ever-manipulative Hawks dredged humour and happiness out of film noir. 'Give him a story about more murders than anyone can keep up with, or explain,' David Thomson writes in his compelling study of the film, 'and somehow he made a paradise.' When it was first shown to a military audience The Big Sleep was coldly received. So, as Thomson reveals, Hawks shot extra scenes, 'fun' scenes, to replace one in which the film's murders had been explained, and in so doing left the plot unresolved. Thomson argues that, if this was accidental, it also signalled a change in the nature of Hollywood cinema: 'The Big Sleep inaugurates a post-modern, camp, satirical view of movies being about other movies that extends to the New Wave and Pulp Fiction.'Table of ContentsForeword to the 2020 Edition Acknowledgements The Big Sleep Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAmy Sargeant's compelling and meticulous study of Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963) sets the film in the context of a long tradition of fictional depictions of the master-servant relationship, from Shakespeare to Cervantes, Henry James, Dorothy L. Sayers and P.G. Wodehouse. Sargeant points out that while many of these relationships are played for comic effect, that of the 'young master' Tony (James Fox) and his manservant Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) unfolds in a far more sinister manner, with Barrett coming to dominate and humiliate the hapless Tony. Sargeant's reading pays particular attention to the contribution not only of Losey and Harold Pinter, who adapted the screenplay from Robin Maugham's novella, but also of the cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, designer Richard Macdonald and costume designer Beatrice 'Bumble' Dawson. She analyses the performances of Sarah Miles as Barrett's lover Vera and Wendy Craig as Tony's fiancee Susan, as well as those of Fox and Bogarde, and gives careful consideration to how the film uses architectural form, interior design and decoration, and clothing to establish character and relationships. In the context of the collapse of the British Empire, and a beleaguered Establishment beset by spy and sex scandals, the film can be read, Sargeant argues, as a metaphor for the 'state of the nation' in the early 1960s. Finally, Sargeant considers the film's critical and commercial reception in Britain, Europe and the United States - its release, how it was received as one of a number of 'emigre' films, and Losey's surprising denial of a homoerotic intent in the Tony-Barrett relationship. In her new foreword to this edition, Amy Sargeant considers contemporary resonances of the film's depiction of a twisted master-servant relationship in recent TV and cinema including The Crown, Downton Abbey and The Trial of Christine Keeler.Table of ContentsForeword to the 2020 Edition Acknowledgements Plot Synopsis 1. Losey and Pinter 2. The House 3. Post-production: The Film in Other Houses - Cinema and Beyond Conclusion: Pushing on an Open Door? Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAn extra-terrestrial alien, capable of replicating any living form it touches, infiltrates an isolated research base in the Antarctic, and sows suspicion and terror among the men trapped there. Which of them is still human, and which a perfect alien facsimile? John Carpenter’s The Thing, the second adaptation of John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?, received overwhelmingly negative reviews on its release in 1982, but has since been acknowledged as a classic fusion of the science fiction and horror genres. Now a regular fixture in lists of the greatest movies of all time, it is acclaimed for its inspired and still shocking practical special effects, its deftly sketched characters brought to life by a superb cast, elegant widescreen cinematography, ominous score, and a uniquely tense narrative packed with appropriately ever-changing metaphors about the human condition. Anne Billson’s elegant and trenchant study, first published in 1997, was one of the first publications to give the film its due as a modern classic, hailing it as a landmark movie that brilliantly redefined horror and science fiction conventions, and combined them with sly humour, Lewis Carroll logic and disturbingly prescient metaphors for many of the sociopolitical, scientific and medical upheavals of the past three decades. In her foreword to this new edition, Anne Billson reflects upon The Thing's changing fortunes in the years since its release, its influence on film-makers including Tarantino and del Toro, and its topicality in an era of melting ice caps and with humanity besieged by a deadly organism.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Back story 2. The set-up 3. The legend 4. 'I don't know what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off.' 5. First blood 6. Breaking the rules 7. 'You've got to be fucking kidding' 8. Endgame Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisReleased in 1990, The Silence of the Lambs is one of the defining films of late twentieth century American cinema. Adapted from the Thomas Harris novel and directed by the late Jonathan Demme, its central characters are now iconic. Jodie Foster is Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee investigating ‘Buffalo Bill’, a serial killer who flays his victims. Anthony Hopkins plays Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer and former psychiatrist who assists Starling in exchange for personal details. With its pairing of a perverse, invasive anti-hero and a questing, proto-action heroine, The Silence of the Lambs unfolds as a layered narrative of pursuit. In this study, Yvonne Tasker explores the film’s weaving together of gothic, horror and thriller elements in its portrayal of insanity and crime, drawing out the centrality of ideas about gender to the storytelling. She identifies the film as a key genre reference point for tracking late twentieth century interests in police procedural, profiling and serial murder, analysing its key themes of reason and madness, identity and belonging, aspiration and transformation. A new afterword explores the legacies of The Silence of the Lambs and its figuring of crime and investigation in terms of gender disruption and spectacular violence.Table of ContentsDedication Acknowledgments 1. Birds, Lambs and Butterflies 2. The Sum and the Parts: Horror, Crime and the Woman’s Picture 3. Detection and Deduction 4. The Female Gothic 5. Under the Skin 6. Afterword to the 2021 Edition Credits

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Book SynopsisIn Seven Samurai (1954) a whole society is on the verge of irrevocable change. Akira Kurosawa’s celebrated film, regarded by many to be the major achievement of Japanese cinema, is an epic that evokes the cultural upheaval brought on by the collapse of Japanese militarism in the 16th century, but at the same time echoes also the sweeping cultural changes occurring in the aftermath of the American Occupation that followed Japan's defeat in the Second World War. The plot is deceptively simple. A village of farmers is beleaguered by a horde of bandits. In desperation, the farmers decide to hire itinerant samurai to protect their crops and people and defeat the bandits. There had never been a Japanese film in which peasants hired samurai, or an evocation of the social transformation that made such an idea credible. There are six samurai and one who is accepted as such. Together they reflect the ideals and values of a noble class near the point of extinction. Seven Samurai may be the greatest action film, a technical masterpiece unmatched in its depiction of movement and violence, but running beneath the sound and fury is a lament for a lost nobility, ‘a dirge for the spirit of Japan,’ writes Joan Mellen, ‘which will never again be so strong.’ Mellen's study contextualises Seven Samurai, marking its place in Japanese cinema and in Kurosawa’s film-making career. She explores the film’s roots in medieval history and, above all, the astonishing visual language in which Kurosawa created his elegiac epic.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword to the 2022 Edition Seven Samurai Credits Biography

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Book SynopsisSofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) brings two Americans together in Tokyo, each experiencing a personal crisis. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a recent graduate in philosophy, faces an uncertain professional future, while Bob Harris (Bill Murray), an established celebrity, questions his choices at midlife. Both are distant — emotionally and spatially — from their spouses. They are lost until they develop an intimate connection. In the film’s poignant, famously ambiguous closing scene, they find each other, only to separate. In this close look at the multi-award-winning film, Suzanne Ferriss mirrors Lost in Translation’s structuring device of travel: her analysis takes the form of a trip, from planning to departure. She details the complexities of filming (a 27-day shoot with no permits in Tokyo), explores Coppola’s allusions to fine art, subtle colour palette and use of music over words, and examines the characters’ experiences of the Park Hyatt Tokyo and excursions outside, together and alone. She also re-evaluates the film in relation to Coppola’s other features, as the product of an established director with a distinctive cinematic signature: ‘Coppolism’. Fundamentally, Ferriss argues that Lost in Translation is not only a cinema classic, but classic Coppola too.Trade ReviewFerriss finds precision amid ambiguity in her acute study of Sofia Coppola's second feature. . . . Sharp on the movie-wise banter between Bob and Charlotte, she's equally sensitive to the film's unspoken, unresolved feelings: in Ferriss' reading, Lost unfolds like a pop song, its fragments charged with lingering feeling. * Total Film *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Trip Planning 2. Arrivals 3. Accommodations 4. Sights 5. Departures 6. Reception Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis study offers a fresh approach to the remarkable German film The Lives of Others (2006), known for its compelling representation of a Stasi surveillance officer and the moral and ethical turmoil that results when he begins spying on a playwright and his actress lover. Annie Ring analyses the film's cinematography, mise-en-scène and editing, tracing connections with Hollywood movies such as Casablanca and Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain in the film's portrayal of an individual rebelling against a brutal dehumanising regime. Drawing on archival sources, including primary research from the Stasi files themselves, as well as Enlightenment philosophies of art and Brecht’s theories on theatre dating from his GDR years, she explores the film's strong but much-disputed claims to historical authenticity. She examines the way the film tracks the world-changing political shift that took place at the end of the Cold War – away from the collective dreams of socialism and towards the dreams of the private individual, arguing that this is what makes it at once widely appealing and fascinatingly problematic. In doing so, she highlights why The Lives of Others is a crucial film for thinking at the horizon between film and recent world history.Trade ReviewA considered study of the 2006 Oscar-winner. -- James Mottram * Total Film *What makes a classic film? Annie Ring offers intriguing answers to this question in an accessible and engaging volume with breath-taking range and intriguing depth. From surveillance to melodrama and from Brecht to Hitchcock, she covers the myriad facets of a modern-day classic, The Lives of Others. -- Barbara Mennel, University of Florida, USAThis original and fascinating analysis makes a compelling case for including The Lives of Others in the canon of contemporary classic cinema. Anyone who has watched von Donnersmarck’s Stasi melodrama will profit from reading Annie Ring’s well-researched and accessible book. -- Daniela Berghahn, Royal Holloway, University of London, UKTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. A Contemporary Classic - and a Conservative One? 2. The Authenticity of a Very Hollywood Film Mode 3. Depicting the Stasi's Surveillance Regime 4. The Good Spy of East Berlin: Captain Gerd Weisler 5. Brecht, Performance, and the Politics of an Aesthetic Education 6. 'Sister Art Is/Coming on Stage': Christa- Maria Sieland 7. Success? Georg Dreyman and German Unification Conclusion Notes Credits Bibliography

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Book SynopsisDavid Forrest is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK. His previous publications include New Realism: Contemporary British Cinema (2020), and Social Realism: Art, Nationhood and Politics (2013). He is co-author of Barry Hines: Kes, Threads and Beyond (with Sue Vice, 2017) and co-editor of Filmurbia: Screening the Suburbs (2017) and Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain (2017).

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Book SynopsisMikio Naruse's When A Woman Ascends The Stairs (1960) combines high melodrama with modernist film language, telling the story of Keiko, a bar hostess struggling to succeed in Tokyo's Ginza district. Catherine Russell's study of the film provides an in-depth analysis of Naruse's distinctive filmmaking, from his use of two-shots in confined spaces, unique lighting techniques, and his invisible and rhythmic editing style. She analyses the recurring motif of a woman's white-stockinged feet climbing stairs, considering how this symbolizes the social dynamics of the high-class Japanese sex industry that sustains hostess bar culture. Russell goes on to argue that the film is a late woman's film which engages with the institutional barriers to woman's success in postwar Japan. She situates the film within the trajectory of Naruse's career and analyses how his social critique is balanced with an aestheticization of a harsh and brutally gendered world, creating an affective tension that is symptomatic of Naruse's own position as an industrial worker.

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Book SynopsisBilly Wilder's classic screwball comedy Some Like it Hot (1959), starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, tells the story of two struggling Jazz musicians who accidentally witness a mob massacre in Chicago who then, disguised as women, join a female band to escape the gangsters' pursuit. Despite the film's popular reception, with Academy Award nominations for Wilder and star Jack Lemmon, the film gained notoriety for its crossdressing plot and gender-bending comedy. Steven Cohan's study of the film disentangles its production history and subsequent notoriety from the film itself, reconsidering the ways in which it playfully challenged generic and gender conventions of the 1950s. He provides an in depth analysis of the film's near perfect comedic structure, Wilder's aesthetic choices and self-reflexive star performances by Curtis, Lemmon and Monroe. He goes on to consider the film's queerness, as well as its promotion and reception in 1959. Contextualizing the film within its contemporary moment, he argues its textual richness, one that allows it to be viewed differently across generations, securing its lasting influence in popular culture.

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Book SynopsisRichard Dyer is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at King's College, London, and Professorial Fellow in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, UK. He has been honoured by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies, and Turku and Yale Universities, and is a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of BFI Film Classics on Brief Encounter (2002, 2015) and La dolce vita (2017, 2020). His many other books include Stars (1979), White (1997), The Culture of Queers (2002), Nino Rota (BFI, 2010) and In the Space of a Song (2012).

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Book SynopsisWong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000) is a film that luxuriates in the feeling of being in love without ever turning into a love story. Its central characters, Mr Chow and Mrs Chan, are tenants in next-door apartments in Hong Kong who discover that their respective spouses are having an affair. As they try to make sense of their partners' behaviour, they also struggle to control their growing feelings for each other. Hailed by the press as 'the consummate unconsummated love story of the new millennium', this film about desire repressed has become a firmly established classic of the twenty-first century. In his sharp and revealing analysis of In the Mood for Love, Tony Rayns draws on his considerable expertise in East Asian cinema and on his proximity to Wong Kar-wai and his colleagues at production company Jet Tone during the film's long and complicated genesis. He delivers a personal and highly original commentary on the film and its production, complete with insights into Wong's idiosyncratic working methods and influences. He also places the film in the context of Wong's other work, with sidelights on its place in Hong Kong cinema as a whole. This new edition features an afterword by the author, looking back on In the Mood for Love 25 years after its first release.

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Book SynopsisMatthew Solomon's study of Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925) provides an in-depth discussion of the film's production and reception history, placing it in the context of the turn-of-the-century Alaska Klondike gold rush, and analyses the film's narrative and formal features, particularly its references to music-hall performance styles and tropes.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments.- 1. A Film in Flux.- 2. An Unstable Text.- 3. The Total Film-Maker.- 4. Origins and Originality.- 5. The Work of the Artist and His Lawyers in an Age of Technological Reproducibility.- 6. 'The Lucky Strike'.- 7. A Northern Comedy.- 8. Historical Referents.- 9. Making by Halves; Two Premieres.- 10. Revising and Reviving.- 11. Second-Best Ever.- 12. Un/Authorised Versions.- 13. Memorable Sequences.- 14. Outtakes, Parallel Takes and a Triple Take.- Notes.- Credits.- Select Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisThe War of the Worlds was one of a handful of high-prestige science fiction productions in a low-budget era, and initiated modern cinema's reliance on screen-filling special effects. Barry Forshaw analyses and celebrates this key science fiction film of the 1950s, exploring its literary origins and numerous film progeny.Trade ReviewGeorge Pal's adaptation of H D Wells seminal science fiction novel is more of a cult movie than a classic, notable for its special effects and model work. However, Forshaw makes a compelling case for its reassesment... by the end he has rekindled the reader's desire to see it again, and that is surely the primary purpose of such a book.' - Good Book GuideTable of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. End of the World: The Original Novel.- 3. Wells by Welles: The Broadcast That Panicked America.- 4. The Invasions That Never Happened.- 5. Wells Refashioned: The George Pal Movie.- 6. Spawn of Mars: Offspring, offshoots, other versions.- 7. Remnants of Wells.- Bibliography.- Cast and Crew.- Index.

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Book SynopsisFUN FOR BOND FANS OF ALL AGES – the whole family will love this high-stakes game featuring 64 characters, gadgets and locations from all the James Bond movies PLAY AND LEARN – this board game comes with a leaflet packed with 007 trivia. Learn about Bond''s most memorable nemeses, Q''s craziest gadgets and more! GREAT GIFT – perfect for dedicated James Bond fans, lovers of cinema and families who enjoy spending quality time together SOMETHING TO TREASURE – this is a quality product made to last, with photography from the Bond archives and sleek and stylish packaging EXPLORE THE ENTIRE SERIES – this game is part of the bestselling bingo series, a collection of games for nature lovers and enthusiastic board gamers. Other games in the series include Bug Bingo, Cat Bingo, Dog Bingo, Monkey Bingo, Ocean Bingo and Royal BingoThe name''s Bond. James Bond.Grab Q''s gadgets, buckle up in the Aston Martin DB

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Book SynopsisChion analyzes imaginative uses of the human voice by directors like Lang, Hitchcock, Ophuls, Duras, and de Palma.Trade Review[A] creative look at sound in the cinema. -- R. Blackwood ChoiceTable of ContentsI. Mabuse: Magic and Powers of Acousmetre1. The Acousmetre2. The Silences of Mabuse3. The I-VoiceII. Tamaki: Tales of the Voice4. The Voice Connection5. The Screaming Point6. The Master of Voices7. The Mute Character's Final Words8. The Siren's SongIII. Norman; Or The Impossible Anacousmetre9. The Voice that Seeks a Body10. The ConfessionEpilogue: Cinema's Voices of the 80's and 90's

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Book SynopsisExplores the shifting perceptions and conceptions of historical time that have emerged over the past two centuries. This book argues that the past and the future have become 'relocated' in relation to each other, and that 'history' has emerged as a kind of temporality with distinct characteristics and ways of assimilating experience.Trade Review"Koselleck turns the procedures of 'conceptual historiography' to the study of the concept of history itself, (providing) original, erudite, and illuminating insights into concepts that have informed the modern idea of historical being: event, chance, progress, revolution, modernity... Koselleck's work augurs a new era in the conceptualization not only of what 'history' means to Western culture but also of what Western culture means for 'history.'" -- Hayden White American Historical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction, by Keith Tribe Part I. On the Relation of Past and Future in Modern History 1. Modernity and the Planes of Historicity 2. Historia Magistra Vitae: The Dissolution of the Topos Into the Perspective of a Modernized Historical Process 3. Historical Criteria of the Modern Concept of Revolution 4. Historical Prognosis in Lorenz von Stein's Essay on the Prussian Constitution Part II. Theory and Method of the Historical Determination of Time 5. Begriffsgeschichte and Social History 6. History, Histories, and Formal Time Structures 7. Representation, Event, and Structure 8. Chance as Motivational Trace in Historical Writing 9. Perspective and Temporality: A Contribution to the Historiographical Exposure of the Historical World Part III. Semantic Remarks on the Mutation of Historical Experience 10. The Historical-Political Semantics of Asymmetric Counterconcepts 11. On the Disposability of History 12. Terror and Dream: Methodological Remarks on the Experience of Time During the Third Reich 13. Neuzeit: Remarks on the Semantics of Modern Concepts of Movement 15. Space of Experience and Horizon of Expectation: Two Historical Categories Notes

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Book SynopsisA progressive reading of the history of the unknown that projects a hopeful future.Trade ReviewA sizzling, citable line on every page, this is Catherine Keller at her poetic, theopoetic, theological best. She meditates not the fire of the apocalypse, nor the water of the deep, but the cloud-of the impossible which precipitates the possible itself, the entanglement of knowing and nonknowing, of the relational and what overflows relation, of the enfolding and the unfolding. For her, the name of God is not the name of a cause or a guarantee but the lure of something that needs to be made and done. From philosophy and theology to physics and ecology-a sensational tour de force from a major theological voice. -- John D. Caputo, Syracuse University and Villanova University At last! A negative theology that plies the complex requirements of planetary life. Long intent on crafting ways of thinking theologically that resist common and oversimplified oppositions between divine and fleshy things, Catherine Keller leads us via ancient, medieval, and recent traditions of unsaying certainties into a rich understanding of divine entanglement as a basis for communal thriving and just democracy. This is a monumental contribution to Christian theology, especially regarding its foundational claims of divine embodiment and love. -- Laurel C. Schneider, Vanderbilt University Catherine Keller is our most creative and profound theologian today, and this book is her richest to date, tracking the enfolding and unfolding relation of everything to everything with theopoetic brilliance. -- Gary Dorrien, author of Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit: The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology Catherine Keller's nuanced consideration of the apophatic cloud is both true to its subject and marvelously lucid. Tracing unexpected connections in the thought of medieval theologians, process philosophers, environmental activists, quantum physicists, and more, the book enfolds and unfolds, each line of thought traced with delicate precision, each intersection marked. Out of impossibility itself, enfolded in each and every relation, a new and open possible emerges. Through folds and mirrors, holograms and entanglements, poetry and theology, trauma and joy, this possible-impossible, this luminous darkness, entice us to follow-and to be glad that we did. -- Karmen MacKendrick, Le Moyne College Facing the complex majesty of Cloud of the Impossible, one cannot help but feel like some Moses-manque before a literary Sinai. The prose is finely wrought, tracing the inter- and indeterminacies of a provisionally named 'apophatic entanglement.' This is a beautiful and important book, which traces the contours of a transfigured, queerly-theological discourse and practice--precisely where such a thing might seem impossible. -- Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Wesleyan University With this work, Catherine Keller has produced a masterpiece on the level of her Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. There is something of James Joyce in these pages. Readers are taken through core Hebrew and Greek debates, the emergence of infinity in Patristic theology, Christian and non-Christian mysticism, quantum physics, contemporary poststructuralist philosophy, the plight of theology today, nineteenth-century poetry, the environmental crisis... and that is only a start. Many critics will say that this is her best book yet. -- Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology Keller's bewildering and creatively beautiful body of work is often more poetry than prose... It is always worth the effort. Christian Century An impressive and astonishing work. Syndicate Theology This is an extraordinary book... Readers will engage an astounding sweep of resources and conversation partners in this book. InterpretationTable of ContentsBefore Part 1: Complications 1. The Dark Nuance of Beginning 2. Cloud-Writing: A Genealogy of the Luminous Dark 3. Enfolding and Unfolding God: Cusanic Complicatio Part 2: Explications 4. Spooky Entanglements: The Physics of Nonseparability 5. The Fold in Process: Deleuze and Whitehead 6. "Unfolded Out of the Folds": Walt Whitman and the Apophatic Sex of the Earth 7. Unsaying and Undoing: Judith Butler and the Ethics of Relational Ontology Part 3: Implications 8. Crusade, Capital, and Cosmopolis: Ambiguous Entanglements 9. Broken Touch: Ecology of the Im/possible 10. In Questionable Love After: Theopoetics of the Cloud Notes Acknowledments Index

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Book SynopsisDeparting from the conventional association of modernism with the city, this book reveals the beach as a surprisingly generative setting for twentieth-century literature and art. Interweaving environmental humanities, queer and feminist theory, and cultural history, Hannah Freed-Thall offers new ways of understanding modernism.Trade ReviewField-changing books are ones that offer a new mode of thinking, way of seeing, or practice of reading—a clearly original or powerfully reimagined method. Modernism at the Beach does just that, shifting the ground of our critical assumptions and perspectives by encouraging us to encounter the modernist beach much like William Blake might: "To see a world in a grain of sand." -- Diana Fuss, author of Dying Modern: A Meditation on ElegyHannah Freed-Thall has written an exquisite book about the modernist beach, a liminal space where queer ecology guides literary history. An itinerary featuring Virginia Woolf, Rachel Carson, Claude McKay, and Samuel Beckett recreates on a structural level the “offbeat intimacies” and wayward encounters that each of Freed-Thall’s close readings so vividly illuminates. You’ll feel the ocean breeze, but you won’t think of beach-reading the same way again. -- Aarthi Vadde, author of Chimeras of Form: Modernist Internationalism Beyond Europe, 1914-2014By spotlighting a common yet neglected setting of twentieth-century literature, this revelatory book lights up modernism anew. The seashore, Freed-Thall shows us, is at once a cultural fantasy of commodified leisure, an emblem of ecological violence, and an experimental site of nonnormative modes of being. To the country and the city we must now add the beach. -- Dora Zhang, author of Strange Likeness: Description and the Modernist NovelModernism at the Beach offers a marvelous, tenacious, imaginative, revelatory discussion of the place of the beach in modern culture. In its energetic, all-encompassing writing, its wide erudition, its advocacy and sensitivity, the book is gorgeous to read. It changes how the shoreline is felt and known. -- Emma Wilson, author of Love, Mortality, and the Moving ImageNeither home nor away, land nor water, city nor countryside, war-torn nor peaceful, private nor public, the beach is a territory where a different kind of sunlight falls on social, corporeal, and emotional realities. Freed-Thall shows us how and why modernists were drawn to the in-between realm of the beach, a place where they could, perhaps more than anywhere else, fully interrogate and reimagine the world in all its aspects. -- Barry McCrea, author of Languages of the Night: Minor Languages and the Literary Imagination in Twentieth-Century Ireland and EuropeModernism at the Beach is an outstanding book. Freed-Thall covers expansive ground - and coast - yet chooses her critical texts carefully and concisely, weaving a range of literature, art, culture, and critical theory together effortlessly. Timely and original, creative and profound, Modernism at the Beach is essential reading for modernists and ecocritics alike. -- Annie Williams * The British Society for Literature and Science *This exceptionally lucid, elegantly written book elaborates an innovative argument about the role of the beach in modernist literary and artistic works. Drawing on and interrelating queer studies, ecocriticism, aesthetic theory, and modernist criticism, Freed-Thall’s luminous and incisive readings move gracefully across scales and between aesthetic objects to produce a kaleidoscopic, shifting portrait of shores and beaches. -- Margaret Ronda, author of Remainders: American Poetry at Nature's End Welding queer theory to ecological philosophy, and drawing on a unique archive of modernist art and literature . . . Freed-Thall argues convincingly for a timely reconceptualization of the modernist beach as a multitudinous ‘stage’ for reimagining non-hierarchical social structures, for inventing new modes of sexuality and gender identity, and for attuning oneself to more-than-human and multi-scalar environmental forces. -- James Reath * Modernist Cultures *This gorgeously written book, interspersed with arresting photographs, has much to offer those interested in modernism, oceanic studies, queer studies, and ecocriticism. -- Sari Edelstein * H-Environment, H-Net Reviews *These works provide a timely reminder that we all remain at the mercy of the riptide currents rising inexorably around us. -- Ian Ellison * Times Literary Supplement *Modernism at the Beach creates important inroads between modernist studies and environmental humanities. It offers a rich archive that documents beaches’ many, often contradictory faces and histories. Perhaps its greatest strength lies in the difficult, sometimes unresolved questions it raises about queer ecologies and environmental commons; such questions are a gift to scholars seeking new ground in these blossoming fields. -- Austin Lillywhite * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Beach Effect1. Proust’s Leap 2. Intertidal Woolf3. Carson’s Quiet Bower4. McKay’s Dream Port5. Tidewrack, Beckett to SundeNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisApplying lessons from the success of community banks, Kirk S. Bowman and Jon R. Wilcox develop and implement a new model that significantly raises philanthropic efficacy. Their straightforward and rigorously tested approach calls for community members to take the lead while outside partners play a supporting role.Trade ReviewReimagining Global Philanthropy takes a tried-and-true model—one based on the industry I work in every day—and brings the lessons of community banking to the global stage of international philanthropy. Now, more than ever, philanthropy must maximize returns on investment. A trailblazing book that provides a formula that really works. -- John DeCero, president and CEO, Mechanics BankThis book offers a highly original take on global philanthropy and the high failure rate of many of its projects, accompanied by compelling advocacy for a new model that relies on local leadership and insists on cost-effectiveness. The authors build on evidence from failures big and small and on their own decades-long experience with both failures and successes. They present their lucid analyses in highly accessible language. I cannot remember having seen a serious book with an important policy message that is such a pleasure to read. -- Evelyne Huber, Morehead Alumni Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillBowman and Wilcox's core thesis is that philanthropists should avoid casting themselves as the heroes and instead serve as supportive sidekicks to effective neighborhood leaders. At once, they pinpoint the problem with so much global philanthropy and offer a meaningful solution. -- Kentaro Toyama, W. K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information, University of Michigan, and author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of TechnologyThis is an eye-opening and pathbreaking book offering concrete advice for those of us who want to do good in the developing world. Instead of yet another “new” twist on the usual humanitarian colonialism in which we of the West put ourselves in the driving seat of the civilized, educated know-it-alls that should plan for the poor primitives in the South how to become rich and developed like us, Reimagining Global Philanthropy offers a new model, where we are just the sidekick, playing the important but secondary role of allowing local activists and social entrepreneurs to scale-up successful programs they and their community built, tested, and preerected. Bowman and Wilcox put forward a bold new model and present it in a crisp engaging way. A must read. -- Dan Breznitz, codirector of the Innovation Policy Lab and Munk Chair of Innovation Studies, University of TorontoBowman and Wilcox turn their expertise in international affairs and banking to reforming international philanthropy, giving important advice to those who want to help in the most efficient way. Anyone who wants to participate in making a difference for the better in the world would be wise to read this book. -- Jon-Claude Zucconi, managing director, investment bankReimagining Global Philanthropy provides the critical analysis we have needed for decades, but not had until now, explaining why global philanthropy so often fails, and why dropping the ego and instead identifying and supporting grassroots actors will always be the most impactful, empowering and cost-effective way to make change. If our goal is really a world where everyone is able to lead a healthy and fulfilling life, ensuring our collective well-being in ways that preserve diversity and that promote belonging and care for our communities and ecosystems, not only reimagining, but actually realizing, a decolonial approach to philanthropy is imperative. Everyone interested in making change should read this book. -- Theresa Williamson, executive director, Catalytic CommunitiesI often think about how different my own life might have been if I had not grown up with heroes. Young people need outstanding role models – so does “global philanthropy” assert Kirk Bowman and Jon Wilcox in Reimagining Global Philanthropy. They prove their point with powerful examples of local role models and “super heroes” who lead in the most challenging neighborhoods. How do we identify them, replicate and scale their work, and combine powerful economic lessons from community banking to increase the efficiency and impact of global philanthropy? Read on if you want to be both informed and inspired by the heroes and the windows and doors they open for effective philanthropy. -- Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, co-chair, Nuclear Threat InitiativeTable of ContentsPreface1. Reassessing the Philanthropist’s Burden2. Everybody Wants to Change the World: The Boom in International Philanthropy3. Lessons from the Contemporary Global Philanthropy Practice4. The Community Bank Model of International Philanthropy5. Rise Up and Care: The Demonstration Project6. Reimagining Impact Assessment7. Actors of Resistance8. A Call to ActionNotesBibliographyIndex

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

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

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Book SynopsisA collection of essays analyzing ecohorror motifs in literature, manga, film, and television, illuminating ambiguities that arise from human encounters with nonhuman nature and examining the scale and effect of ecohorror in, and of, the Anthropocene.Trade Review“Fear and Nature expansively defines eco-horror as not only a sub-genre of literature but as a cohesive mode operating across genres and media. Whether talking about Algernon Blackwood or Algernon Swinburne, Bong Joon Ho or Junji Ito, this volume explores the rhizomatic connections that make eco-criticism something that transcends genre, and makes a convincing case for its relevance not only today but as a way of reconsidering what has come before.”—Brian Evenson,author of Song for the Unraveling of the World “Fear and Nature straddles popular culture studies, horror and gothic studies, film and literary studies, and cultural studies. It is an expansive, ambitious, and exploratory book that is working to move the field beyond earlier works of ecohorror criticism by considering fresh approaches to the subject.”—Bernice Murphy,author of The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture: Backwoods Horror and Terror in the Wilderness“This foundational text is an optimistic thrust of possible reimagination, one that does not “foreclose the future or discourage activism.””—ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment“This representative and symbolic book is highly recommended to readers as it can offer them the ethics and responsibilities towards nature.”—Tohidur Rahaman Journal of Ecohumanism“This book is definitely going to be one of the more authoritative texts in the field for a while, due to its sharp, language-building introduction, the chapters’ wide applications of ecohorror theory, and the scholars’ tendency to use their work to open up conversations rather than simply proving a statement and walking away.”—Jonathan W. Thurston-Torres SFRA ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Ecohorror in the AnthropoceneChristy Tidwell and Carter SolesPart 1: Expanding Horror1. Tentacular Ecohorror and the Agency of Trees in Algernon Blackwood’s “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” and Lorcan Finnegan’s Without NameDawn Keetley2. Spiraling Inward and Outward: Junji Ito’s Uzumaki and the Scope of EcohorrorChristy Tidwell3. “The Hand of Deadly Decay”: The Rotting Corpse, America’s Religious Tradition, and the Ethics of Green Burial in Poe’s “The Colloquy of Monos and Una”Ashley KnissPart 2: Haunted and Unhaunted Landscapes4. The Death of Birdsong, the Birdsong of Death: Algernon Charles Swinburne and the Horror of ErosionKeri Stevenson5. An Unhaunted Landscape: The Anti-Gothic Impulse in Ambrose Bierce’s “A Tough Tussle”Chelsea Davis6. The Extinction-Haunted Salton Sea in The Monster That Challenged the WorldBridgitte BarclayPart 3: The Ecohorror of Intimacy7. From the Bedroom to the Bathroom: Stephen King’s Scatology and the Emergence of an Urban Environmental GothicMarisol Cortez8. “This Bird Made an Art of Being Vile”: Ontological Difference and Uncomfortable Intimacies in Stephen Gregory’s The CormorantBrittany R. Roberts9. The Shape of Water and Post-pastoral EcohorrorRobin L. Murray and Joseph K. HeumannPart 4: Being Prey, Being Food10. Superpig Blues: Agribusiness Ecohorror in Bong Joon-ho’s OkjaKristen Angierski11. Zoo: Television Ecohorror On and Off the ScreenSharon Sharp12. Naturalizing White Supremacy in The ShallowsCarter SolesContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisMost people know that Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) was a Hollywood movie star and world famous fashion icon. What, perhaps, they don't know is that she is one of a few select people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony; that she could speak five different languages; that she owned a pet deer named Pippin; and that she broke her back after being thrown off her horse during the filming of Unforgiven. Biographic: Audrey presents an instant impression of her life, work and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the actor behind the movies.

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Book SynopsisWilfully Blind is an unforgettable account of what has gone wrong in the art world, and of what can be done to change it.

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Book SynopsisThe iconic Star Trek characters' lifestories told for the first time in their own words; perfect for fans of the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Words. James T. Kirk chronicles the greatest Starfleet captain's life (2233-2293), in his own words. From his youth spent on Tarsus IV, his time in the Starfleet Academy, his meteoric raise through the ranks of Starfleet, and his illustrious career at the helm of the Enterprise, this in-world memoir uncovers Captain Kirk in a way Star Trek fans have never seen. Jean-Luc Picard tells the story of one of the most celebrated names in Starfleet history. His extraordinary life and career makes for dramatic reading: court martials, unrequited love, his capture and torture at the hand of the Cardassians, his assimilation with the Borg and countless other encounters as captain of the celebrated starship Enterprise. Kathryn Janeway reveals her career in Starfleet, from her first command to her epic journey through the Delta Quadrant leading to her rise to the top as vice-admiral in Starfleet Command. The woman who travelled further than any human ever had before, stranded decades from home, encountering new worlds and species and overcoming one of Starfleet's greatest threats - the Borg - on their own remote and hostile territory.

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Book Synopsis1001 MOVIE POSTERS: DESIGNS OF THE TIMES is the most comprehensive collection of movie posters ever published, from world authority on the art form, Tony Nourmand. This 640-page tome spans more than a century of global imagery, from the colourful Parisian lithographs heralding the Lumiere brothers'' first public film screening in 1896 to innovative posters for recent blockbusters such as Parasite and Barbie. This book is a must for film lovers and anyone interested in the power of advertising and design. Iconic posters for films such as Metropolis, King Kong, La Dolce Vita, The Man with the Golden Arm, Breakfast at Tiffany''s, A Clockwork Orange, Goldfinger, Jaws, Trainspotting and Get Out sit alongside more unexpected artwork for films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, The Birds and Judas and the Black Messiah, creating a time capsule of the creativity and inventiveness of past and present eras. There has always been a raw immediacy to film posters: provoking and

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Book SynopsisRooted in the classic graphic novel series, Valerian and Laureline- visionary writer/director Luc Besson advances this iconic source material into a contemporary, unique and epic science fiction saga. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives for the government of the human territories charged with maintaining order throughout the universe. Under directive from their Commander (Clive Owen), Valerian and Laureline embark on a mission to the breathtaking intergalactic city of Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis comprised of thousands of different species from all four corners of the universe. Alpha's seventeen million inhabitants have converged over time- uniting their talents, technology and resources for the betterment of all. Unfortunately, not everyone on Alpha shares in these same objectives; in fact, unseen forces are at work, placing our race in great danger.Trade Review“The artwork is absolutely amazing with stunning visuals” Latino Review“a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Besson’s film...an inspiring book loaded with fantastic art” SciFi Movie Page“beautifully written and illustrated” - Gamers Sphere“if you’re a person interested in how these creators essentially created the movie, then you won’t be disappointed” - Black Girl Nerds“If you’re someone like me who wants to pause and zoom on so many of a film’s details, this book will easily cover just about anything and everything you want to know about the movie” Geek Dad“one heck of an incredible art book” - Fangirl Nation“The concept art is a delight” - The Film Stage“All the beauty of the movie, with none of the shortcomings” - Cinema Sentries

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Book SynopsisMichel Chion’s landmark Audio-Vision has exerted significant influence on our understanding of sound-image relations since its original publication in 1994. In this updated and expanded edition, Chion considers many additional examples from recent world cinema and formulates new questions for the contemporary media environment.Trade ReviewAn original and useful model for the audiovisual analysis of film. * Production Expert *Updated and expanded, with additional material from recent film production, the 2019 edition of Audio-Vision will soon take its place as a valuable textbook for those interested in literary research and practice of cinematic soundtrack. -- Dr. Nick Poulakis * CINEJ Cinema Journal *Without a shadow of a doubt one of the best books I have ever read, Audio-Vision’s reprinting is a cause for great celebration. After a quarter of a century, it remains the first port of call for scholars and students of audiovisual culture, offering a cornucopia of theories that conceptualize sound's relationship with the moving image. Never less than enthralling, its acuity has not been dulled by more recent theory and scholarship. -- K. J. Donnelly, author of Occult Aesthetics: Synchronization in Sound FilmWhen Audio-Vision first appeared in 1994, it became a lifeline for the burgeoning field of sound/media studies, providing a veritable roadmap to a discourse just beginning to crystallize. The second edition is no less momentous; Chion seamlessly brings current cinematic offerings into his theoretical purview, showing that his understanding of the filmic soundspace is as insightful to historians, theorists, and students as ever. A fundamental text for soundtrack studies. -- Daniel Goldmark, author of Tunes for 'Toons: Music and the Hollywood CartoonMichel Chion’s work is a thrilling exploration of film sound in all its forms: real and symbolic, technical and conceptual, dimensional and suggestive. He gives us all the tools we need for describing what films allow us to hear. Chion’s many neologisms are like notes that can reverberate infinitely for every filmgoer, and through innumerable films. This revised edition of Audio-Vision is a new benchmark for any film scholar. -- Elsie Walker, author of Understanding Sound Tracks Through Film TheoryTable of ContentsForeword (1994), by Walter MurchPrefacePart I. The Audiovisual Contract1. Projections of Sound on Image2. The Three Listening Modes3. Lines and Points: Horizontal and Vertical Perspectives on Audiovisual Relations4. The Audiovisual Scene5. The Real and the Rendered6. Phantom Audio-Vision; or, The Audio-DivisualPart II. Beyond Sounds and Images7. Sound Film Worthy of the Name8. Toward an Audio-Logo-Visual Poetics9. An Introduction to Audiovisual AnalysisGlossaryChronology: Landmarks of the Sound FilmNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisFor the first time ever, immerse yourself in the action-packed thrills of DC at the movies in one spectacular book.From the trailblazing 1940s movie serials that first put Batman and Superman on the silver screen to the Caped Crusader''s swinging 1960s escapades and the iconic 1970s Superman, to the state-of-the-art 21st century reinventions of the Dark Knight, the Man of Steel, and Wonder Woman, this book provides an indispensable guided tour of DC cinema history.See how DC''s characters, locations, costumes, and weapons have been adapted from page to screen and evolved over the decades. Witness some of the world''s finest actors, such as Academy-Award winners Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Christian Bale, Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix, Viola Davis, and others transform into the Super Heroes, Super-Villains, and supporting cast for their times.Go behind the scenes and discover little known facts while poring over stunning movie stills, character and set designs, and storyboards. All this, alongside engaging text that provides insights into DC''s rich cinematic legacy, makes this the book that every DC film fan has been waiting for! & DC. (s24)

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Book SynopsisWhether you are a working professional, a performance student or just interested in the techniques behind the effects, Secrets of Hollywood Special Effects provides the insights you've been looking for. This text is the comprehensive guide to special effects. Many different kinds of effects are covered, including chemicals, pyrotechnics, weapons, levitation and weather. Written by a recognized expert in the field, this book contains over 200 illustrations and diagrams providing in depth coverage of every detail. Case studies and a behind the scenes look at the 'The Fisher King' are included.Table of ContentsRain and water; Snow; Steam; Smoke; Fire; Chemical effects; Wire flying and levitation; Weapons; Non-pyrotechnic projectiles; Pyrotechnics; Fireworks; Special effects and stunts; The Gleason Years; The Fisher King; Appendix; Glossary.

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Book SynopsisDelve into the making of Godzilla vs. Kong, and experience cinema's most colossal clash like never before. Featuring exclusive concept art and insights from the filmmakers, The Art of Godzilla vs. Kong is the ultimate guide to an iconic movie showdown. From creature design to on-set photography, The Art of Godzilla vs. Kong captures every stage of the filmmaking process, giving you unprecedented access to the creation of a titanic movie event. *Exclusive concept art lets you experience the epic showdown in a whole new way. *Interviews with filmmakers give you an inside look at the making of the movie. *A deluxe format makes this book a must-have collector's item.

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