Individual film directors Books

Book SynopsisKinoSputniks closely analyse some key films from the history of Russian and Soviet cinema. Written by international experts in the field, they are intended for film enthusiasts and students, combining scholarship with an accessible style of writing. Ira Österberg's KinoSputnik on Aleksei Balabanov's cult film Brother (1997) examines the production history, context and reception of the film, and offers a detailed reading of its key themes. Balabanov’s Brother made a mark on the new Russia’s film history as its hero Danila Bagrov quickly gained cult status and the nostalgic rock soundtrack hit the nerve of the young post-Soviet generation. This study unravels the film’s effective and ingenious mixture of genre elements, art narration and almost documentary-style realism, which would become trademarks for Balabanov’s oeuvre. Primary readership will be among film studies students and film enthusiasts, but will also be of interest to anyone researching or studying film soundtracking. A list of all books in the series is here on the Intellect website on the series page KinoSputnikTable of ContentsList of Illustrations vii Note on Transliteration ix Acknowledgements xi Production Information xiii Plot Summary xv Introduction 1 1. Cinematic Context and Production History 7 2. Film Analysis 33 3. Reception 137 Conclusion: Brother over Twenty Years Later 159 Notes 163 References 171

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Book SynopsisThe films of Andrei Tarkovsky have been revered as ranking on a par with the masterpieces of Russia's novelists and composers. His work, from films such as Ivan's "Childhood", "Andrei Rublev", "Solaris", "Mirror", "Nostalgia and Sacrifice", has had an enormous influence on the style of contemporary European film, with its open narrative structures and slow, pensive mood; yet Tarkovsky has remained an elusive subject for reflection and analysis. This book is a comprehensive, well-illustrated and much-needed account of Tarkovsky's entire film output. Robert Bird's analysis is centred around a detailed account of Tarkovsky's technique, which provides the best interpretive guide to both the director's films and his theoretical speculations. Integrating his idiosyncratic ideas with his films' irresistible sensuality, Bird highlights Tarkovsky's fascination with the elusive correlation between cinematic representation and the more primeval perception of the world. The book examines Tarkovsky's films elementally, grouping them into four sections: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.It also discusses Tarkovsky's works for the radio, theatre and opera, and how he was in addition an accomplished actor, screenwriter, film theorist and diarist. The author's claim, however, is that Tarkovsky was a filmmaker before all else, and this book examines what Tarkovsky's cinema reveals about the medium in which he worked. A thorough yet accessible study, with a wealth of images including stills from films as well as the director and crew on set, this book will be of interest to all fans of Tarkovsky, students of film studies, and readers interested in European and Russian cinema.Trade ReviewBird has benefited from extensive archival research and he illuminates Tarkovsky's career in sharp detail ... His range of references, from classical Russian literature and philosophy to contemporary video art, is wide and refreshing, often triggering new reactions to films that are in danger of passive veneration ... this is a richly argued and referenced case for Tarkovsky as heir to the symbolists' quest for spiritual enlightenment. Sight and Sound

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Book SynopsisNorfolk Summer presents the story about the making of a film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates Joseph Losey's award-winning movie The Go-Between was filmed entirely on location in Norfolk in 1970. The film charts the tragic story of a young boy's loss of innocence during a hot summer and stars Julie Christie and Alan Bates as a pair of lovers crossing class boundaries in late Victorian England. The production brought together the playwright Harold Pinter, who adapted L.P. Hartley's elegant novel for the screen, the acclaimed director Joseph Losey and a cast of international stars for ten weeks' filming in and around Melton Constable Hall in north Norfolk - a time of happy creativity, some tension and a good deal of comedy. But the idyllic summer only came about after years of bitter battling over the rights of the book, and it was to be followed by yet more intrigue and high drama, which culminated in the film's triumph at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Palme d'Or.Trade Review'A brilliant new book' - Ian Collins, Eastern Daily Press; 'Charming and generously illustrated' - Lewis Jones, The Spectator; 'Can fill you in further on the background [to the making of the film]' -Rupert Christiansen, Daily TelegraphTable of ContentsContents: Foreword 1 Summer's Day 2 Long Road 3 Norfolk Idyll 4 Release 5 Legacy Synopsis of the Film Film Credits Sources Index

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Book SynopsisThis survey of Duncan Campbell's inventive and provocative practice looks back over a number of arresting, meticulously assembled film works that this Dublin-born, Glasgow-based artist has produced during the last decade, and coincides with the launch of the latest in that series, Make it new John' (2009). The book features a new essay by Martin Herbert, and an in-conversation between the artist and critic, Melissa Gronlund.Published by Film and Video Umbrella and Tramway.

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Book SynopsisIn 1895, the Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph. Less than a year later, 23-year-old Alice Guy, the first female filmmaker in cinema history, made The Cabbage Fairy, a 60-second movie, for Léon Gaumont, going on to direct over 300 films before 1922. Her life is a shadow history of early cinema, the chronicle of an art form coming into its own. A free and independent woman, rubbing shoulders with luminaries such as Georges Méliès and the Lumières, she was the first to define the professions of screenwriter and producer. She directed the first feminist satire, then the first sword-and-sandal epic, before crossing the Atlantic in 1907 to become the first woman to found her own production company in New Jersey. Alice Guy died in 1969, excluded from the annals of film history. In 2011, Martin Scorsese honoured this cinematic visionary, “forgotten by the industry she had helped create”, describing her as “a filmmaker of rare sensitivity, with a remarkable poetic eye and an extraordinary feel for locations”. The same can be said of Catel & Bocquet’s luminous account of her life.

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Book SynopsisBarbara Hammer (b. 1939) is an American feminist artist known as a pioneer of queer experimental and documentary film. In October 2017, Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art will present a comprehensive solo exhibition to celebrate the depth and expa nse of Hammer’s five decades of art making. Bringing together both known and previously unseen works of film and video, installations, works on paper, and material from her archive, the exhibition addresses critical themes that appear in Hammer’s work, inc luding: lesbian representation, subjectivity, and sexuality; intimacy and sensation; and conditions and maintenance of life and illness. This exhibition highlights the resonating impact of Hammer’s artistic narrative and material experimentation across dis ciplines within queer art history. Additionally, as part of this exhibition, we are putting together a publication that will touch on different aspects of Hammer’s body of wor k and practice. The material included will look at her work in relationship to experimental queer cinema; lesbian sexuality and lesbian feminist history; hapticity and wildness; viruses, medicine, and environment; to name a few. We desire for the book to f eature a wide range of responses, from academic analysis to poetic interpretation, sprinkled with personal and artistic anecdotes. More of a hybrid monograph and catalogue raisonne, we are very excited that this book will be the first of its kind that cele brates five decades of Hammer's work.

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Book SynopsisA large-format publication documenting the various elements and stages of Johan Grimonprez's project Looking for Alfred' which uses film, video and photography, as well as storyboards and other drawings by the artist, in an imaginative pursuit of the multi-faceted legacy of Alfred Hitchcock.Published in conjunction with Grimomprez's exhibition Looking for Alfred', at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, 2007, this full colour publication features essays by Patricia Allmer, Thomas Elsaesser and Tom McCarthy, with texts by Jorge L. Borges, Jeff Noon and Slavoj Zizek, alongside an interview with the artist by Chris Darke. The book retraces the themes of the lookalike and the double that recur in Grimonprez's work, and are such a feature of Hitchcock's own oeuvre, whilst providing insightful explorations into the artist's broader practice.Looking for Alfred' is published by Film and Video Umbrella, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Pinakothek der Moderne and Zapomatik, with the support of Theo Wormland Stiftung, Arts Council England, The Flemish Authorities, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and SMAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Gent. With additional support from Sean Kelly Gallery and Deitch Projects.

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Book SynopsisSpike Lee's Do The Right Thing (1989) is one of the most popular and celebrated examples of the African-American new black film wave. Set during the hottest day of a hot summer in New York City, the film's ensemble cast, including Lee himself, brilliantly play out the edgy negotiations and dramas of a racially and culturally diverse working-class Brooklyn neighborhood. Contrary to Hollywood's markedly cautious treatment of 'race' and its confinement to the South and the past, Do The Right Thing offers a nuanced portrayal of black urban life.From hip-hop fashions, Afrocentric colors and rap music, to police brutality, gentrification, non-white immigration, de-industrialization and joblessness, Do The Right Thing depicts it all, from a contemporary, African-American point of view. In his insightful study of the film, Ed Guerrero discusses how it epitomizes Spike Lee's powerful impact on the representation of race and difference in America, the progress of black film-making and the rise of multicultural voices in the media. This new edition includes a foreword by the author reflecting on Lee's subsequent film-making career and on an America in which African-Americans still contend with racial discrimination and police brutality. Guerrero emphasizes Lee's especially timely understanding of black film-making as a complex act, mixing the skills of art, politics, and business in order to fashion a creative practice that confronts institutional discrimination and power relations head on.Trade ReviewThis timely and concise exploration of Do the Right Thing is essential for any study of American cinema and its discontents. -- Isaac JulienThis is a rich and energetic exploration of a a Spike Lee ‘Classic’. Guerrero is to be congratulated on a triumphant tour of the inner world of Spike Lee’s film-making. -- Houston A. Baker, Jr., Distinguished University Professor (English and African American Diaspora Studies), Vanderbilt University, USA

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Book SynopsisJames Naremore's study of Max Ophuls' classic 1948 melodrama, Letter from an Unknown Woman, not only pays tribute to Ophuls but also discusses the backgrounds and typical styles of the film’s many contributors--among them Viennese author Stephan Zweig, whose 1922 novella was the source of the picture; producer John Houseman, an ally of Ophuls who nevertheless made questionable changes to what Ophuls had shot; screenwriter Howard Koch; music composer Daniéle Amfitheatrof; designers Alexander Golitzen and Travis Banton; and leading actors Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan, whose performances were central to the film’s emotional effect. Naremore also traces the film's reception history, from its middling box office success and mixed early reviews, exploring why it has been a work of exceptional interest to subsequent generations of both aesthetic critics and feminist theorists. Lastly, Naremore provides an in-depth critical appreciation of the film, offering nuanced appreciation of specific details of mise-en-scene, camera movement, design, sound, and performances, integrating this close analyses into an overarching analysis of Letter’s “recognition plot;” a trope in which the recognition of a character’s identity creates dramatic intensity or crisis. Naremore argues that Letter's use of recognition is one of the most powerful in Hollywood cinema, and contrasts it with what we find in Zweig's novella.Trade ReviewJames Naremore’s BFI Classic… [is] guaranteed a rewatch off the back of this succinct breakdown of its novella roots, feminist-theory legacy and ‘wheels within wheels’ aesthetic. * Total Film *[A] fine addition to the BFI Film Classics series … Naremore, an expert in adaptation and film noir, is well placed to capture the various elements that elevate this film beyond the stock conventions of Hollywood. -- Keith Hopper * Times Literary Supplement *James Naremore’s style and insights are as elegant as a Max Ophuls tracking shot. In this generous, nuanced, and impeccable work, a perfect film has found the ideal film scholar. -- Eric Smoodin, Professor, American Studies, UC Davis, USAWith a balanced approach and lucid prose, James Naremore does more than any other writer on Letter From an Unknown Woman to situate the film historically, technically, and aesthetically, in this way accounting for its intellectual and emotional importance to a broad range of critics and viewers -- Susan White, Professor, Film and Comparative Literature, University of Arizona, USATable of Contents1. Acknowledgements 2. Introduction 3. Production 4. Reception 5. Critical Appreciation 6. Notes 7. Credits 8. Bibliography

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Book SynopsisDuring the 1920s and '30s, Mexico attracted an international roster of artists and intellectuals - including Orson Welles, Katherine Anne Porter, and Leon Trotsky. This book covers the years that the renowned Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein spent in the country to work on his controversial film Que Viva Mexico!

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Book SynopsisNOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES, featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Guillermo del ToroBefore the Second World War the Hollywood box office was booming, but the business was accused of being too foreign, too Jewish, too 'un-American'. Then the war changed everything. With Pearl Harbor came the opportunity for Hollywood to prove its critics wrong.America's most legendary directors played a huge role in the war effort: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Between them they shaped the public perception of almost every major moment of the war. With characteristic insight and expert knowledge Harris tells the untold story of how Hollywood changed World War II, and how World War II changed Hollywood.Trade ReviewThe bombs fall on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and Hollywood rolls up its sleeves and swaps the diplomatic velvet glove for the patriotic steel fist . . . A story well worth telling * * Observer * *A captivating history . . . makes you want to revisit many of the films * * Daily Telegraph * *Mark Harris conducts a fastidious investigation into the five top filmmakers who put their careers on hold to help the war effort . . . Fascinating * * Total Film * *Harris deftly threads the story of each man into the wider canvases of Hollywood and the war * * Scotland on Sunday * *Gripping . . . reveals how an elite squad of Hollywood's greatest directors recorded the bravest - and bloodiest - actions of World War II * * Mail on Sunday * *Tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable * * New York Times * *Can't-put-it-down history of the World War II propaganda film * * San Francisco Chronicle * *Harris has a huge story to tell, and he does so brilliantly . . . an inspirational, if cautionary, tale of the triumph of the individual over the collective, of personal vision over groupthink, and ultimately of art over propaganda * * Wall Street Journal * *Harris is a lively commentator, and a master weaver of multifarious threads * * Empire * *Impeccably researched and irresistibly entertaining * * Belfast Telegraph * *Full of colourful anecdotes about the golden age of Hollywood as well as unflinching descriptions of what the directors faced on the frontline, the 500-plus pages just fly by. This would make a great movie... * * Aberdeen Evening Express * *This is as epic an undertaking as those historical Hollywood sagas of the '30s and '40s, including anecdotes from this golden age of film * * Good Book Guide * *I enjoyed the honesty of this book. It opened my eyes * * The Truth About Lies * *A startling account of how five exemplary film-makers (John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, Frank Capra) enlisted in every branch of the US forces, only to return, deeply moved and changed, to approach cinema in new ways * * Financial Times * *

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Book SynopsisIn a comprehensively revised and updated new edition, James Naremore provides an illuminating critical account of the films of Stanley Kubrick, from his earliest feature, Fear and Desire (1953), to the posthumously-produced A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001). Naremore offers provocative analyses of each of Kubrick's films, considering his emphasis on the absurdity of combat, as in Paths of Glory (1957) and Full Metal Jacket (1987), the failure of scientific reasoning, as in 2001 (1968), and the fascistic impulses in masculine sexuality, as in Dr Strangelove (1964) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). He argues that while Kubrick was a voracious intellectual and a life-long autodidact, the fascination of his work has less to do with the ideas it espouses than with the emotions it evokes. Combining close readings with new insights into the production histories and cultural contexts of key films, Naremore provides a concise yet thorough discussion that will be useful to students of Kubrick's filmmaking and cinephiles who seek a deeper insight into the work of this perfectionist genius. Revised throughout, this new edition also includes a fully updated bibliography of critical writings on Kubrick's cinema.Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements for the Revised Edition Acknowledgements for the First Edition Introduction to the New Edition: Kubrick’s Cold Modernism and Major Themes PART I Prologue 1. Portrait of the Late Modernist as a Young Photographer 2. Silence, Exile and Cunning 3. Grotesque Aesthetics PART II Early Kubrick 1. No Other Country but the Mind 2. Dream City PART III Kubrick, Harris, Douglas 1. The Criminal and the Artist 2. Ant Hill 3. Dolores, Lady of Pain PART IV Stanley Kubrick Presents 1. Wargasm 2. Beyond the Stars 3. A Professional Piece of Sinny 4. Duelist 5. Horrorshow PART V Late Kubrick 1. Warriors 2. Lovers PART VI Epilogue 1. Summation 2. Some Unproduced Films 3. Love and Death in A. I. Artificial Intelligence Filmography Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAlfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father''s shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century?As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press''s portrait of himself, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films. Grace Kelly, Carey Grant and James Stewart despair of his detached directing style, and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endTrade ReviewSuperb, insightful short life... Deft and moving -- Bee Wilson * The Guardian *Irresistible -- Louise Jury * The Independent *An elegant and hugely enjoyable read -- Alexander Larman * Sunday Express *[A] nutritious, compact and superb critical biography -- Roger Lewis * Daily Mail *Shelves of serious biographies have been written on Alfred Hitchcock, but perhaps none as pleasurable as Peter Ackroyd’s -- Kate Muir * The Times *

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface INTRODUCTION Culture-Free TV? CHAPTER 1 Domestic Origins: The Workshop's Business Model CHAPTER 2 Ensuring Early Success: Strategies to Conquer the International Market CHAPTER 3 Ban and Bother: The Workshop's troubles in the UK CHAPTER 4 Negotiating Local Needs: Sesame Street in West Germany CHAPTER 5 Other Childhoods: Sesame Street in Scandinavia CONCLUSION Narrow Vision: Looking Back at a Global Success Consulted Archival Material Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsForeword Robert Kolker 1. Introduction Nathan Abrams and Gregory Frame 2. Boundaries of Viscerality: A sense of abjection regarding

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Book SynopsisSince the 1960s, documentary films have moved closer to the mainstream, thanks to the popularity of rockumentaries, association with the independent film movement, support from public and cable television, and the rise of streaming video services. Documentary films have become reliable earners at the U.S. box office and ubiquitous on streaming platforms, while historically they existed on the margins of mainstream media. How do we explain the growing commercialization of documentary films and the conditions that fueled their transformation?The growing commercialization of documentary film has not gone unnoticed, but it has not been sufficiently explained. Streaming and the growing interest in reality TV are usually offered as initial explanations whenever a documentary enters the cultural conversation or breaks a box-office record, but neither of those causes grapple with the overlapping causal mechanisms that commercialized documentary film. How Documentaries Went Mainstream provides a more comprehensive and meaningful periodization of the commercialization of documentary film. Although the commercial ascension of documentary films might seem meteoric, it is the culmination of decades-long efforts that have developed and fortified the audience for documentary features. Author Nora Stone refines rough explanations of these efforts through a robust synoptic history of the market for documentary films, using knowledge of film economics and the norms of industry discourse to tell a richer story. This periodization will allow scholars to compare the commercialization of documentary film with other genres. Drawing on archival documents, industry trade journals and popular press, and interviews with filmmakers and film distributors, Stone illuminates how documentary features have become more plentiful, popular, and profitable than ever before.Trade ReviewStone's history of post-vérité U.S. documentary is, simply put, the book I've been waiting for. For too long, documentary histories have focused primarily on makers and movements, but Stone weaves an account of the film markets, documentary institutions, and shifts in film culture driving documentary's increased public visibility. Whether discussing canonical works, box office flops, public television broadcasts, or popular documentary hits, this book provides a narrative that reframes and illuminates the major changes in the documentary landscape over the last half century. * Chris Cagle, Associate Professor, Temple University, Film and Media Arts *How Documentaries Went Mainstream explores the tension between public service and commodity exchange in the documentary film market by tracing the shifting industrial trends in documentary distribution and exhibition between the 1960s and today. Deftly researched and incisively written, Stone's book offers an important intervention in the history of documentary by focusing on the mode's industrial concerns. Essential reading for anyone interested in how and why documentary has come to occupy such a prolific and lucrative corner of the media market in recent years. * Kristen Fuhs, Professor of Media Studies, Woodbury University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: How Documentaries Went Mainstream Chapter 1: 1960 to 1977, Direct Cinema Blossoms, But Little Support for Documentary Films in Theaters Chapter 2: 1978 to 1989, A Rising Tide: How the Independent Film Movement Boosted Documentaries Chapter 3: 1978 to 1990, Fighting For A Place On Public Television: Independent Filmmakers Lobby Chapter 4: 1990 to 1999, Television or Cinema? Redefining Documentary for Prestige and Profit Chapter 5: 2000 to 2007, The Docbuster Era Chapter 6: 2008 to 2022, Streaming Video Drives Documentary Production Trends and Private Investment Conclusion: Documentary Film Inches Closer to the Center, But Core Tensions Remain Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFilmmaker Alexander Medvedkin (1900 89), a contemporary of Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Dovzhenko, is celebrated today for his unique form of total documentary cinema, which aimed to bridge the distance between film and life, and for his use of satire during a period when the Soviet authorities preferred that laughter be confined to narrowly prescribed channels. This collection of selected writings by Medvedkin is the first of its kind and reveals how his work is a crucial link in the history of documentary film. Although he was a dedicated communist, Medvedkin's satirical approach and social critiques ultimately led to his suppression by the Soviet regime. State institutions held back or marginalized his work, and for many years, his films were assumed to have been lost or destroyed. These texts, many assembled for this volume by Medvedkin himself, document for the first time his considerable achievements, experiments in film and theater, and attempts to develop satire as a major S

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Book SynopsisIn Crooked, but Never Common, Stuart Klawans combines a critic's insight and a fan's enthusiasm to offer deeper ways to think about and enjoy Preston Sturges's work. He provides an in-depth appreciation of all ten of the writer-director's major movies.Trade ReviewFrom one of our finest critics, an elegant and deftly argued contribution to our appreciation of the great and glorious Preston Sturges. Stuart Klawans teases out inspired connections in the culture surrounding the director—the books, paintings, and legends that fed the artistry of a man who refused to call himself an artist. The kind of book that makes you want to dive back into the films for fresh stimulation and delight. -- Molly Haskell, film critic and authorStuart Klawans has extended and upended the field with takes that are as witty and audacious as his subject. One has only to read his wry unpacking of the contradictions in Sullivan’s Travels or his sympathetic dissections of my own favorites, The Lady Eve and Unfaithfully Yours. Klawans really knows these films, has a nuanced understanding of cinema in general, writes beautifully, and is the best, most trustworthy guide imaginable to the genius of Preston Sturges. A triumph. -- Phillip Lopate, author of Totally, Tenderly, TragicallyStuart Klawans’s deep dive into the films of Preston Sturges is a gift for cinephiles. Whether providing context or close analysis, his tone is witty and accessible as well as erudite and profound. -- Annette Insdorf, author of Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening ScenesNobody wrote better screenplays than Preston Sturges, whose dialogue remains among the most sparkling ever committed to the screen. Yet, until now, his achievements as a visual artist have been overlooked. Klawans’s wonderful new study has finally remedied that, demonstrating that Sturges was an artist as skilled with the camera as he was with a typewriter. -- Richard Peña, director emeritus, New York Film Festival, and professor of film and media studies, Columbia University[A] portrait of a director with a gift for character development and 'head-spinning dialogue executed at high speed' by an author with a keen critical eye and plenty of flair in his own writing. Film buffs will relish this. * Publishers Weekly *It’s obvious Klawans has pored over Sturges’s films. After reading his thoughtful analyses, film buffs will want to rewatch them, armed with new insights. * Library Journal, starred review *[Klawans] carefully shows how these complicated comedies work, exploring what one might call Sturges’s ‘moral universe,’ which can be more unforgiving toward 1940s America than the surface froth suggests. . . The author deserves admiration for taking Sturges’s comedy seriously. * Wall Street Journal *A perceptive, exceptionally well-composed and earnest evaluation. * Film International *[An] incisive, compelling, and spirited analysis of the screwball maestro’s life and oeuvre. * The Arts Fuse *The book is both a compelling biography of Sturges and a close read of his films, and Klawans writes with great wit and insight. * The Film Stage *An invaluable, in-depth examination of the style and substance of 10 of Sturges' finest films. * Pop Culture Classics *Crooked, but Never Common brings new perspective to old movies that are in many minds better remembered for their motley assortments of expertly deployed character actors—among them William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Jimmy Conlin, and Eugene Pallette—than for their depth and magnificent construction. * Air Mail *A well-argued read for Sturges connoisseurs. * Total Film *A fine book by one of the best critics in the country. -- Antonio Monda * La Repubblica *[Klawans's] prose positively sizzles at every turn, in what is sure to be a defining study of Sturges’s films. * Times Literary Supplement *Klawans is a virtuoso writer and a savvy political thinker . . . Sturges's personal dilemmas flicker within an entertainment that becomes even more complex and stylish when we detect their traces. * Cineaste *Table of Contents1. Instead of an Introduction: A Rhetoric of Preston Sturges2. Ya Can’t Get Away from Arithmetic: The Great McGinty3. He Thinks He Has Ideas: Christmas in July4. I’m Not a Poet, I’m an Ophiologist: The Lady Eve5. As You Are, So Shall You Remain: Sullivan’s Travels6. Topic A: The Palm Beach Story7. Homo Sapiens, the Wise Guy: Triumph Over Pain8. Psycholology: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek9. That’s All You Know How to Hurt: Hail the Conquering Hero10. You Arouse the Artist in Me: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock11. Every Emotion Was Exaggerated: Unfaithfully Yours 12. Instead of a Conclusion: A Genealogy of Preston SturgesAcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisNicole Brenez argues for Abel Ferrara’s place in a line of grand inventors who have blurred distinctions between industry and avant-garde film, including Orson Welles, Monte Hellman, and Nicholas Ray. Rather than merely reworking genre film, Brenez understands Ferrara’s oeuvre as formulating new archetypes that depict the evil of the modern world. Focusing as much on the human figure as on elements of storytelling, she argues that films such asBad Lieutenantexpress this evil through visionary characters struggling against the inadmissible (inadmissible behavior, morality, images, and narratives).Trade Review"Brenez argues that provocateur Abel Ferrara invents new forms for his optimistic filmic studies of contemporary political and psychic evil. Brenez conveys her challenging argument in chewable sections. Each point draws from across Ferarra's large canon, and she makes convincing connections to other works. Recommended."--Choice"This is a provocative book. It is also a work of great originality. Brenez's energetic intellect and passion for her subject are evident on every page. . . . It makes you want to go back to the films, to see them as Brenez has seen them. In fact, this was the very first thing that I did when I finished reading this book. I started watching the films of Abel Ferrara again."--Screening The Past"[Brenez's] book illuminates a director whom American critics have too often overlooked. Its mixture of fannish enthusiasm and academic erudition is a new, welcome voice."--Cineaste“Passionate. . . . Devotees of Ferrara who are comfortable with theoretical language will find this a fascinating performance of high critical intensity.”--Film International“Brenez does the best job to date in defending an underappreciated American director not only in terms of aesthetics, but also for his ethical reflections on the crimes and abuses of the past century. A truly remarkable achievement.”--Jonathan RosenbaumTable of ContentsAcknowledgments | xi A CINEMA OF NEGATION | 1 Some Ethical Stakes in Ferrara's Cinema 1 What Is Passion? Central Figures of Hypermorality 22 "Going to the End of Being" 68 Self-Consciousness: The Visionaries 110 Cinema and Symbolic Reparation 150 INTERVIEW: ABEL FERRARA | 165Filmography | 173Bibliography | 193Index | 199

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIt is beyond time that we recognize that any discussion of Birth as cinematic art must be grounded in an understanding of Birth as racist propaganda. This is the major contribution of Martin's collection. * H-Slavery *Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Revisiting [As it Were] the "Negro Problem" in The Birth of a Nation: Looking Back and in the Present / Michael T. MartinPart I: National/Transnational in Historical Time1. Birth of a Nation's Long Century / Cara Caddoo2. Great Moments From The Birth of a Nation: Collecting and Privately Screening Small Gauge Versions / Andy Uhrich3. D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation: Transnational and Historical Perspectives / Melvyn Stokes4. Defining National Identity: The Birth of a Nation From America to South Africa / Peter Davis5. Is Birth of a Nation a Western? / Alex LichtensteinPart II: Representational and Rhetorical Strategies6. Serial Melodramas of Black and White: The Birth of a Nation and Within Our Gates / Linda Williams7. The Rhetoric of Historical Representation in Griffith's The Birth of a Nation / Lawrence HowePart III: Cinematic Iterations in the Present8. Something Else Besides a Western: Django Unchained's Generic Miscegenations / Paula Massood9. 12 Years a Slave and The Birth of a Nation: Two Moments in Representing Race / Julia Lesage10. Engineering Different Equations in the Wake of Birth of a Nation: Blackface and Racial Politics in Bamboozled and Dear White People / Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris11. Race, Space, Sexuality, and Suffering in The Birth of a Nation and Get Hard / David C. Wall12. Anger or Laughter? The Dialectics of Response in The Birth of a Nation / Chuck KleinhansIndex

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Book SynopsisFeaturing a host of unpublished interviews, this is the first book to explore the greatest year in Hollywood's history - 1971

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Book SynopsisThe New York Times BestsellerONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, NPR, The RootA moving, unflinching memoir of hard-won success, struggles with addiction, and a lifelong mission to give back.When Michael K. Williams died on 6 September 2021, he left behind a career as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. From his star turn as Omar Little in The Wire to Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire to Emmy-nominated roles in HBO’s The Night Of and Lovecraft Country, Williams inhabited a slew of indelible roles that he portrayed with a rawness and vulnerability that leapt off the screen. Beyond the nominations and acclaim, Williams played characters who connected, whose humanity couldn’t be denied, whose stories were too often left out of the main narrative.At the time of his death, Williams had nearly finished a memoir that tells the story of his past whilTrade ReviewSoul-baring * The Washington Post *Immensely inspiring and candid . . . This bittersweet and poignant work will leave readers in awe * Publishers Weekly *Williams’s cool rasp leaps off every page, his story told in the direct yet impassioned language that defined his greatest characters * Vulture *A bittersweet memento of a generational talent gone too soon * Kirkus Review *A gripping, revelatory memoir * NPR *

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Book SynopsisGeoffrey Macnab writes regularly on film for The Independent. He is also a senior correspondent at Screen International. His books include Dennis Davidson: A Life in Cinema (2020), Stairways to Heaven: Rebuilding the British Film Industry (I.B. Tauris, 2018), Ingmar Bergman: The Life and Films of the Last Great European Director (I.B. Tauris 2009), Delivering Dreams: A Century of British Film Distribution (I.B. Tauris 2015), The Making of Taxi Driver, Searching for Stars: Stardom and Screen Acting in British Cinema (I.B. Tauris 2000), Screen Epiphanies (BFI Publishing 2009) and J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry(1993). He lives in London, UK.Trade ReviewThis collection succeeds admirably in providing profiles of many individuals who are ‘generally overlooked in conventional histories of British cinema’, thereby making a very useful contribution to that history, illuminating some of its obscurities but also its complexity and variety. * Journal of British Cinema and Television *I grew up devouring books about the business and the people who work in it. They opened my eyes to so many moving parts of the industry and I have always found the career journeys of filmmakers and studio pioneers, VFX wizards, props masters, distributors and publicists as extraordinary as the films they have brought to the big screen. The British Film Industry in 25 Careers is a must-read for anyone planning to work in this industry, revealing the risk-taking decisions, business and creative instincts, entrepreneurial spirit, and passion for film of so many of my heroes and peers. The UK film industry has much to offer the next generation coming into the business and as documentary specialist distributor Andy Whittaker aptly quotes Mancunian broadcaster and music pioneer Tony Wilson in the book, 'We are on this planet for 50 to 100 years - so just do things. Don't let barriers get in your way'. * Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive *Geoffrey Macnab’s book is enlightening about many figures we don’t know about who are working in or have worked in cinema. I found the chapter about Betty Box particularly enriching, a trailblazing woman who got equal pay with men from the Rank Organisation in 1954. Read and be amazed! * Jeremy Thomas, film producer, founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company *Table of ContentsForeword by Andy Leyshon, Chief Executive, Film Distributors Association Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Michael Balcon 2. Richard Attenborough 3. David Puttnam 4. Betty Box 5. John Maxwell 6. Muriel Box 7. Efe Cakarel 8. Mickey Pugh 9. Isaac Julien 10. Adrienne Fancey 11. Poppa Day 12. Alma Reville 13. Val Guest 14. Liz Wrenn 15. Karel Reisz 16. Constance Smith 17. Anthony MInghella 18. Hanif Kureishi 19. Julian Fellowes 20. Eve Gabereau 21. Andy Whittaker 22. Maxine Leonard 23. Amma Asante 24. Julian Richards 25. Tim Webber Conclusion Index

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Film maker Nuri Bilge Ceylan''s meditative, visually stunning contributions to the ''New Turkish Cinema'' have marked him out as a pioneer of his medium. Reaping success from his prize-winning, breakout film Uzak (2002), and from later festival favourites Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) and Winter Sleep (2014), he has quickly established himself as an original and provocative writer, director and producer of 21st century cinema. In an age where Turkey''s modernisation has created societal tensions and departures from past tradition, Ceylan''s films present a cinema of dislocation and a vision of ''nostalgia'' understood as homesickness: sick of being away from home; sick of being at home. This book offers an overdue study of Ceylan''s work and a critical examination of the principle themes therein. In particular, chapters focus on time and space, melancholy and loneliness, absence, rural and urban experience, and notions of paradox, as explored through films which are often slow

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Book SynopsisSue Vice is Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield, UK. Her books include the BFI Film Classics volume on Shoah (2011), Representing Perpetrators in Holocaust Literature and Film (co-edited with Jenni Adams, 2013), Textual Deceptions: False Memoirs and Literary Hoaxes in the Contemporary Era (2014) and Barry Hines: Kes', Threads' and Beyond (2017, with David Forrest).Trade ReviewClaude Lanzmann’s Shoah is notorious not only for its length but for the huge quantity of its outtakes. Vice’s book not only demonstrates that the daunting outtake material demands to be viewed, but also provides a model of how to read it. -- Dominic Williams, Northumbria University, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction: Reacting to Genocide 1. Abba Kovner: ‘Like Sheep to the Slaughter’ 2. Hansi Brand: ‘Selling One’s Soul’ 3. Indirect Testimony: Rabbi Michael Weissmandl 4. Ghetto Rescue and Resistance: Tadeusz Pankiewicz, Hersh Smolar and Leib Garfunkel 5. Communal Testimony and the War Refugee Board: Peter Bergson, Roswell McClelland, John Pehle and Robert Reams 6. Leadership, Responsibility and Resistance: Yehuda Bauer, Richard Rubenstein, Ya’akov Arnon 7. Allied Responses: Henry Feingold in New York, Shmuel Zygielboim in London Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisUncovers the life and work of a key figure in British cinema, Adrian BrunelTrade Review"A welcome addition to the growing scholarship on late silent British cinema. Josephine Botting's meticulous archival research and expert synthesis of sources does full justice to Adrian Brunel's career. Botting challenges received wisdoms about this period of British cinema and demonstrates how Brunel navigated a shifting industrial and economic landscape." -James Chapman, University of Leicester

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Book SynopsisExamines the film practice of the Chilean-French filmmaker and artist Alejandro Jodorowsky

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Book SynopsisExamines the film practice of the Chilean-French filmmaker and artist Alejandro Jodorowsky.

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

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Book SynopsisExplores British director Steve McQueen's diverse output, from video installations to independent cinema to Hollywood to the BBC

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

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Book SynopsisDutch director Marleen Gorris is known chiefly for two films: A Question of Silence (1982), her fiercely feminist first film, in which three women meet by chance in a women?s clothing boutique and ritually murder its male owner; and Antonia?s Line (1995), her fourth film and winner of the 1996 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, which traces four generations of Antonia?s female ?line? in the matriarchal community she establishes in postwar rural Holland. Both have been extensively discussed, though rarely together, and appear on university syllabuses. Her second Dutch language film, Broken Mirrors (1984), and her five films in English, however, have received far less, and in some cases no critical attention. Using feminist reformulations of ideas of vulnerability and resistance, this first book-length study of her films examines their revisionings of narrative, time and space, and the possibilities they present of other narratives, other subjectivities and other relationships.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive study of Channel 4's film production, distribution and broadcasting activates from 1982 to 1998

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Book SynopsisProposing a relationship between Levinasian ethics and film style, and bringing it into a productive dialogue with theories of performativity, this book explores this influence through three directorial bodies of work: those of Barbet Schroeder, Paul Schrader and the Dardenne Brothers.

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Book SynopsisExploring Mamardashvili's extensive philosophical output, as well as a range of recent Russian films, Alyssa DeBlasio reveals the intellectual affinities amongst directors of the Mamardashvili generation including Alexander Sokurov, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Alexei Balabanov.

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

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Book SynopsisExamines an under-analysed period of Robert Altman's career.

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