Performing arts Books
Ivan R Dee, Inc The Master Builder
Book SynopsisThe most gripping of Ibsen’s later, brooding self-portraits, The Master Builder explores the nature of a messianic hero pulled down from the heights to reside in the community of men, and now painfully laboring to drag himself up again. Thanks to Mr. Rudall’s fresh translation, the language of the play is no longer archaic or Victorian.
£8.79
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Reading 'CSI': Crime TV Under the Microscope
Book SynopsisThis is what we know, this is the truth: CSI is a global television phenomenon. It began in 2000 with "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation", a dark procedural drama about forensic science set within the neon escapism of Las Vegas, in which Grissom and his team search within the very vitals of the murder victims they investigate. Nearly 17 million viewers tuned in each week and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" fast became America's number one show. The success of the series moved it into franchise territory, continuing in 2002 with the body beautifuls and dismembereds of "CSI: Miami" (now the world's biggest television show) and again in 2004 extending the francise to the melancholic noir of post-9/11 New York with "CSI: NY". "Reading 'CSI'" pieces together the evidence in order to understand what the CSI shows mean to contemporary television culture, both in America and beyond. The varied, intellectually curious and often polemic responses to CSI from critics, journalists and industry professionals focus on a range of issues from the pornographic quality of the CGI effects, the relationship of characters to their narratives, and the reaction of the fans, to the semiotics of Horatio Caine's sunglasses. This in depth, compulsive read also includes a full episode guide.Trade ReviewMichael Allen (Birkbeck College) - " So Many Different Ways to Look At It: CSI as Multi-platform Storyworld." Matt Hills and Amy Luther (Cardiff School of Journalism) - "'Crime Scene - Do Not Cross': Investigating the Textual Boundaries and Paths of 'CSI Fandom'" Simone Knox (University of Reading) - "Five's Finest: The Import of CSI to British Terrestrial Television" Roberta Pearson (University of Nottingham) - "Anatomising Gilbert Grissom: the Structure and Function of the Televisual Character" Karen Lury (University of Glasgow) - "The Sound of CSI" Charlie Gere (Lancaster University) - "The Digital Trace and the Absent Body in CSI" Sue Turnbull (LaTrobe University, Australia)- "CSI and the Aesthetics of the TV Crime Series" Silke Panse (University of Kent) - 'The Bullet Confirms the Story told by the Potato': Materials without Motives in C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation" Karen Boyle & Elke Weissmann (University of Glasgow) - "Evidence of Things Unseen: The Pornographic Aesthetic and the Search for Truth in CSI" Deborah Jermyn (Roehampton University) - "Body Matters: Realism, Spectacle and the Corpse in CSI" Patrick West (Griffith University, Australia) - "Horatio Caine's Sunglasses and the Construction of Identity: 'Looking' and 'Being Looked At' in CSI: Miami" Janet McCabe (Manchester Metropolitan University) - "Mac's Melancholy: Cultural Trauma, 9/11 and Bodily Absence in CSI:NY" Lucia Rahilly - " The Quintessence of Con: the Las Vegas of CSI" David Bianculli - "The CSI Phenomenon" Dermot Moran - "RTE and the C.S.I. Franchise: Buying and Scheduling CSI on Irish Television" Anna Konig - "Who are they? Style Codes of the CSI Investigators " Shelley Robinson - "CSI on the (Real-life) Pathology Table" Andrew Anthony - "No Need to Pathologise..." (The Observer Review)
£22.29
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and
Book SynopsisModern Lebanese cinema can best be explored in the context of the Civil War, in part because almost all the Lebanese films made since its outset in 1975 have been about this war. Lina Khatib takes 1975 Beirut as her starting point, and takes us right through to today for this, the first major book on Lebanese cinema and its links with politics and national identity.She examines how Lebanon is imagined in such films as Jocelyn Saab's "Once Upon a Time, Beirut", Ghassan Salhab's "Terra Incognita", and Ziad Doueiri's "West Beirut". In so doing, she re-examines the importance of cinema to the national imagination. Also, and using interviews with the current generation of Lebanese filmmakers, she uncovers how in the Lebanese context cinema can both construct and communicate a national identity and thereby opens up new perspectives on the socio-political role of cinema in the Arab world.Table of ContentsCONTENTS Introduction: On Lebanese Cinema and National Identity 1 The Lebanese Cinema Industry in Context 2 Religion, Conflict and the Other Within 3 War as a Masculine Arena 4 Women, the Body and the City 5 The Politics of Place, Exile and Belonging 6 History and the Avoidance of History Epilogue: Imagining the Nation Notes Bibliography Filmography Index
£110.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Apu Trilogy: Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic
Book Synopsis"I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing 'Pather Panchali'", noted Akira Kurosawa. Satyajit Ray's three films about the boyhood, adolescence and manhood of Apu, 'Pather Panchali' (1955), 'Aparajito' (1956) and 'The World of Apu' (1959) - collectively known as The Apu Trilogy - are established classics of world cinema. The Trilogy was the chief reason for Satyajit Ray's receiving a Hollywood Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1992, just before his death. This book by Ray's biographer and world authority Andrew Robinson is the first full study of the Trilogy. Robinson - who came to know the director well during the last decade of his career - covers the literary and cultural background to the films, their production, their music composed by Ravi Shankar, their aesthetic value, and their complex critical reception in the East and the West, from 1955 up to the present day. Extensively and beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read, 'The Apu Trilogy' will appeal to anyone captivated by the unique world created by Satyajit Ray.Trade Review'Satyajit Ray has worked with humility and complete dedication; he has gone down on his knees in the dust. And his picture has the quality of intimate, unforgettable experience.' - Lindsay Anderson on 'Pather Panchali', 1956; 'Though he's very young still, he's the Father of Indian Cinema.' - Jean Renoir on Ray, 1967; 'Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.' - Akira Kurosawa, 1975; 'Ray's magic, the simple poetry of his images and their emotional impact, will always stay with me.' - Martin Scorsese, 1991Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations 1. Self-taught Film-maker: Satyajit Ray’s Formative Years 2. Apu in Fiction and Film: Adapting the Novels Pather Panchali and Aparajito 3. An Epic in Production: Making the Apu Trilogy 4. Working with Ravi Shankar: The Music of the Apu Trilogy 5. Pather Panchali: Critique 6. Aparajito: Critique 7. The World of Apu: Critique 8. From Calcutta to Cannes: The Reception of the Apu Trilogy 9. Apu in East and West: The Trilogy and Ray Today Appendix: Ray Talks about the Apu Trilogy References Films Directed by Satyajit Ray Select Bibliography Index
£999.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Best of British: Cinema and Society from 1930 to the Present
Book SynopsisThe new, revised and expanded paperback edition of this widely-used textbook for film history brings up to date its authors' demonstration of how a close study of films in their historical and cultural settings can enrich our understanding of both cinema and historical events. It introduces three new chapters, one focusing on _The Blue Lamp_ and changes in cinema's depiction of the police from that key 1949 film up to the 1960s, another on the 'British New Wave' centring on _The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner_, and a third which, starting from _Scandal_ and its recreation of the 1960s Profumo scandal, goes on to examine the 'retro' fashion for covering crimes of the 1940s, '50s and '60s in films of the 1980s like _Let Him Have It, Dance with a Stranger_ and _Chicago Joe and the Showgirl_. This edition has a new, accessible format and provides a valuable Resource Section for teachers, students and scholars.Table of ContentsFeature films and the historian; the sun never sets - "Sanders of the River"; the age of consensus - "South Riding"; why we fight - "A Canterbury Tale"; what a difference a war makes - "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"; lest we forget - "Fame is the Spur"; old school ties -"The Guinea Pig"; the thin blue line - "The Blue Lamp"; cul-de-sac England - "The Ladykillers"; vicious circles - "I'm All Right Jack"; new waves, old waves and the censors - "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"; the revolt of the young - "If..."; remembrance of times past - "Scandal"; resources.
£24.99
Luath Press Ltd Burnscripts: Dramatic Interpretations of the Life
Book SynopsisThis publication compiles actor John Cairney's theatrical interpretations of the poet Robert Burns and his life. Since 1959, he has been involved with Burns as actor, director and writer. Over the years, Cairney has taken the opportunity to investigate different aspects of Burns as they relate to performance in the theatre. For the first time he has brought all these working playscripts, which have already been tested before a live audience, together in book form. Others interested in the prismatic attraction that is Scotland's Bard can now see how one Scottish actor-writer has dealt with a national icon theatrically. The scripts, written by Cairney, look at Burns' creative work, his everyday life, and his relationships, to build a full picture of the man so important to Scotland's cultural heritage. The plays are followed by an appendix which features a selection of plays written about Burns' life since his death at the age of 37.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR JOHN CAIRNEY AS ROBERT BURNSCairney's performance is much more than a tour de force...a posture of virility under sentence of death. You can believe in such a man. THE TIMESWith no apparent effort and endless resource, a fine performance. THE GUARDIANJohn Cairney's performance of Robert Burns is a masterly rendering of marvellous material. NEW STATESMAN
£13.49
Ugly Duckling Presse Rob's Word Shop
Book Synopsis
£22.80
Ugly Duckling Presse Emergency Index: Volume 7
Book Synopsis
£23.75
Ugly Duckling Presse Awaiting
Book Synopsis
£15.20
Springer International Publishing AG Locating Nordic Noir: From Beck to The Bridge
Book SynopsisThis book is a comprehensive study of Nordic Noir television drama from the 1990’s until today. The authors introduce the history of contemporary Nordic Noir from the perspective of place, production and location studies. The chapters include readings of well-known television crime dramas such as Beck, The Killing, Trapped and The Bridge as well as a range of other important Nordic Noir cases. The authors position the development of Nordic Noir in the global market for popular television drama and place the international attention towards Nordic crime dramas within regional development of drama production in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Consequently, Nordic Noir is read as both a transnational financial and creative phenomenon and as a local possibility for community building. Offering a comprehensible, scholarly and methodologically original approach to the popularity of Nordic television crime dramas, this volume is aimed at readers with an interest in crime drama as well as scholars and students of television drama.Trade Review“An important resource for scholars in multiple disciplines, the book brings together in one place a great deal of important information. … The primary audience is those interested in television and film production: the book provides data and firsthand accounts and synthesizes that information into a persuasive narrative of development and forecast.” (Rosemary Erickson Johnsen, Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 91 (3), 2019)Table of Contents1. Introduction: Where is Nordic Noir?.- 2. Part I: Local colour and location studies - Local colour and places on screen.- 3. Location studies: a topography of Nordic noir.- 4. Four perspectives on the Nordic region.- 5. Part II: From bestsellers to blockbusters - Stieg Larsson and Scandinavian crime literature as a stepping stone.- 6. Beck and character adaptations.- 7. Funding models and increasing transnationalism.- 8. Part III: Written for the Danish screen - The Killing and DR’s Danish model.- 9. Norskov and Danish commercial public service drama.- 10. The Team, Danish transnationalism and the local colour of Europe.- 11. Part IV: Written for the Nordic screen - Blue Eyes and the rise of the Swedish original.- 12. Trapped and original Noir from Iceland and Norway.- 13. The Bridge, transnational co-productions and screen tourism.- 14. Conclusion: Nordic Noir beyond the Nordic.
£89.99
Springer International Publishing AG Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience: Space,
Book SynopsisThis book is the first full-length monograph to focus on Punchdrunk, the internationally-renowned theatre company known for its pioneering approach to immersive theatre. With its promises of empowerment, freedom and experiential joy, immersive theatre continues to gain popularity - this study brings necessary critical analysis to this rapidly developing field. What exactly do we mean by audience “immersion”? How might immersion in a Punchdrunk production be described, theorised, situated or politicised? What is valued in immersive experience - and are these values explicit or implied? Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience draws on rehearsals, performances and archival access to Punchdrunk, providing new critical perspectives from cognitive studies, philosophical aesthetics, narrative theory and computer games. Its discussion of immersion is structured around three themes: interactivity and game; story and narrative; environment and space. Providing a rigorous theoretical toolkit to think further about the form’s capabilities, and offering a unique set of approaches, this book will be of significance to scholars, students, artists and spectators.Table of Contents1. Immersive theatre, immersive experience.- 2. Interactivity and immersion: theoretical approaches.- 3. Interactivity and immersion in The Drowned Man.- 4. Fan interactivity: communicating immersive experience.- 5. Follow the story: narrative and immersion.- 6. Exploring multi-stories: narrative, immersion and chronology.- 7. Play the story: an approach to narrative in immersive theatre.- 8. Environment and site-specificity: space, place and immersion.- 9. Conclusion.
£104.49
Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden Filmanalyse
Book SynopsisDieses Lehrbuch vermittelt in kompakter Weise die Grundlagenterminologie zur Analyse filmischer Inszenierung. Ausgehend von den zentralen Gestaltungsebenen des Films - der visuellen Organisation des Bildfeldes durch die Kamera, der auditiven Gestaltung auf der Tonspur und der Synthese des Materials im Schnitt - wird Schritt für Schritt ein Vokabular zur Erfassung und Beschreibung der Filmform entwickelt. Dabei werden zentrale Gestaltungsmittel wie Kameraarbeit, Lichtsetzung und Bildgestaltung ebenso berücksichtigt wie Sounddesign und Filmmusik, Schnitt und Montage, Raumgestaltung und Filmarchitektur. Darauf aufbauend wird dieses Grundgerüst in einem abschließenden Teil mit dramaturgischen Organisationsmustern und narrativen Strategien des filmischen Erzählens verknüpft und um grundlegende Kategorien zur Beschreibung von Schauspielstilen und filmischen Gattungen ergänzt.Table of ContentsVisuelle Analyse.- Auditive Analyse.- Schnitt und Montage.- Narrative Analyse.- Schauspiel und Körperinszenierung.- Makroanalyse der formalen Gestaltungsstrategien.
£29.99
Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG Alte Musik heute: Geschichte und Perspektiven der
Book SynopsisDas Handbuch zeichnet die Tendenzen des Umgangs mit „Alter Musik“ heute und in der Vergangenheit nach und informiert konkret und detailreich über die verschiedenen Richtungen der Historischen Aufführungspraxis. Es betrachtet typische Erscheinungsformen der Szene, analysiert das Verhältnis zwischen Musikforschung und Musikbetrieb und nimmt die sozialen Bedingungen von Musikern in den Blick. Ergänzt werden die von renommierten internationalen Autorinnen und Autoren verfassten Sachkapitel durch 14 Interviews mit Leitfiguren der Alte Musik-Szene u.a. Jordi Savall, Katharina Bäuml, Christophe Rousset, René Jacobs oder Dorothee Oberlinger. Anfangs eine Sache weniger Spezialisten, wurde das Musizieren auf historischen Instrumenten und mit historischen Spielweisen in den 1970er- und 1980er-Jahren zu einer Bewegung mit kulturpolitischen Implikationen und ist heute selbstverständlicher Bestandteil des Musiklebens. Die Szene ist mittlerweile auch durch Pragmatismus, vor allem aber durch die Suche nach künstlerischen Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten der ganz überwiegend freien Ensembles geprägt. So hat die Historische Aufführungspraxis z. B. zu einer Renaissance der Barockoper an den Bühnen geführt, eine neue Kultur des Improvisierens und Arrangierens befördert, das Ziel einer Erweiterung des Repertoires für Alte Musik bis ins 19. Jahrhundert hinein verfolgt, Techniken der Rekonstruktion nicht schriftlich überlieferter Musik erarbeitet und Grenzüberschreitungen zu andern Musikgenres betrieben. All dies kommt in diesem Handbuch anschaulich zur Sprache.Table of ContentsKapitel I: Interpretationsgeschichte.- Zeitgeist und Zeitstil.- Geschichte der Aufführungspraxis Alter Musik: Ein Überblick.- Spiegelbild einer lebendigen Szene: Das Forum Alte Musik Köln.- Eine Interpretationsgeschichte der Alten Musik: Die »Brandenburgischen Konzerte^- KAPITEL III: Historische Instrumente heute: Annäherungen aus der Praxis.- Besaitete historische Tasteninstrumente.- Holz- und Blechblasinstrumente.- Historische Geigen.- KAPITEL IV: Musikwissenschaft, Editionspraxis, künstlerische Forschung.- Von Musikeditionen, »authentischer« Aufführungspraxis und Bedeutungszuschreibungen.- Künstlerische Forschung in der Alten Musik.- KAPITEL V: Alte Musik im Musikleben.- Wirtschaftliche und soziale Herausforderungen der freien Ensembles.- Modellfall Alte Musik? Aktuelle Fragestellungen in der Hochschulausbildung.- Neue Konzertformate.- INTERVIEWS.- »Die Komposition ist kein Besitz des Musikers. Er soll ihr mit Respekt, Ehrfurcht und Liebe begegnen.« Der Cembalist, Organist und Dirigent Gustav Leonhardt im Gespräch mit Richard Lorber.- »Ich spiele nach meinem inneren Gesang.« Der Gambist, Dirigent und Musikforscher Jordi Savall im Gespräch mit Kirsten Betke.- »Ich mache eigentlich nur das, was man damals von einem Kapellmeister erwartete.« Der Dirigent Rene Jacobs im Gespräch mit Richard Lorber.- »Ich werde ganz sicher nie sagen: Wie wir das machen, so muss es sein!« Der Dirigent und Chorleiter Philippe Herreweghe im Gespräch mit Helga Heyder-Späth.- Eine Art Avantgarde. Der Sänger, Harfenspieler und Ensembleleiter Benjamin Bagby im Gespräch mit Richard Lorber.- Kreativität aus dem Wissen der Zeit. Der Geiger, Dirigent, Musikwissenschaftler und Dozent Reinhard Goebel im Gespräch mit Sabine Radermacher.- »Mich interessiert der Klang mehr als die Rhetorik.« Der Dirigent und Leiter der Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips im Gespräch mit Bernd Heyder.- Wenn er Bach spielt, dann klingt das französisch. Der Cembalist und Dirigent Christophe Rousset im Gespräch mit Richard Lorber.- »Als Interpreten sollten wir Musik wie ein Gemälde sehen und hören.« Der Cembalist, Organist und Dirigent Andrea Marcon im Gespräch mit Sabine Radermacher.- »Die Arbeit mit Sangern ist für mich eine grosse Inspirationsquelle.« Die Blockflötistin, Hochschullehrerin, Ensembleleiterin und Dirigentin Dorothee Oberlinger im Gespräch mit Thomas Daun.- »Meine Programme sollen Geschichten erzählen.« Die Schalmeispielerin und Ensembleleiterin Katharina Bäuml im Gespräch mit Helga Heyder-Spath.- »Alles, was ich in der Musik ausdrücken will, konnte ich allein mit Bach ausdrücken.« Die Sopranistin Dorothee Mields im Gespräch mit Kirsten Betke.- Historisch informiert jeder Art von Musik näherkommen. Die Geigerin Chouchane Siranossian im Gespräch mit Bernd Heyder.- Von der Barockoper bis zum Crossover. Der Countertenor Valer Sabadus im Gespräch mit Gela Birckenstaedt.- ANHANG.- Alte Musik heute: Ein gemeinsames Projekt von vier Kölner Institutionen.- Forum Alte Musik Köln.- Historische Musik im Fokus der Musikforschung und Aufführungspraxis an der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.- Alte Musik im Westdeutschen Rundfunk.- zamus: Zentrum fur Alte Musik Köln. Abbildungsnachweis.- Register
£31.34
Harwood-Academic Publishers Edward Bond Letters: Volume 5
Book SynopsisFirst Published in 1994. Edward Bond Letters, Volume V, contains over thirty letters and papers covering Bond's controversial views on violence and justice, plays, writers and directors, and a postscript that is Bond's discussion of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The explosive content of these letters applies to Bond's plays and society as a whole; Bond believes that all violence is the manifestation of an unbalanced and dangerous society. As with the four preceding volumes in this collection, Edward Bond is critical of present theatre, but at the same time his observations are useful in indicating how theatre can be changed. Bond's illustrations provide accompaniment to the letters.Table of ContentsPart 1 Acting and directing: letter to - Michael Fuller, Mark Ellis, Nigel Jamieson, Oleg Yefremov, Calum Mac Crimmon, Patricia Bond. Part 2 Theatre events: letter to - Moshen Baraket, John Clemo, Benjamin May, Peter Smith. Part 3 Politics: letter to - Ria Julian, Gulsen Sayin, Roberta Galeotti, Ahmed Elhag, Geoff Gillham, Hilde Klein, Benjamin May. Part 4 Productions: letter to - Ian Stuart, Adrian Noble, David Jansen, Max Stafford-Clark, Ruby Cohn.
£24.99
Books on Demand think dance!
£14.91
Skira Painting the Stage Limited edition: William
Book Synopsis
£999.99
The University of Chicago Press The Oresteia
Book Synopsis
£21.00
The University of Chicago Press This Wide and Universal Theater Shakespeare in
Book SynopsisExplores how Shakespeare's plays were produced both in his own time and in succeeding centuries. This book explains how the Elizabethan playhouse conveyed a sense of place using minimal scenery, from the Forest of Arden in As You Like It to the tavern in Henry IV, Part I.Trade Review"An eminent Shakespeare scholar and author, Bevington offers a concise, lucid, and unique overview of the history of Shakespeare in various modes of performance, from stage to film to television." - Choice "Bevington makes interesting, nuanced and original points about staging and interpretation that reveal the dynamism and complexity of Shakespeare's canon." - Financial Times "Even veteran Shakespeareans will profit from the varied reminders of how important performance and staging have always been to the interpretation of the plays." - Renaissance Quarterly"
£24.00
The University of Chicago Press Contesting Tears The Hollywood Melodrama of the
Book SynopsisStanley Cavell explores a genre, which he calls "the melodrama of the unknown woman," through close readings of four melodramas he finds definitive of the genre: "Letter from an Unknown Woman", "Gaslight", "Now Voyager", and "Stella Dallas".
£23.00
The University of Chicago Press Before Mickey The Animated Film 18981928
Book SynopsisAn in-depth history of animation from 1898-1928 that includes accounts of mechanical ingenuity, marketing and art. The text explains techniques of sketching and camera work, and discusses the styles of such animators as Winsor McCay and Ladislas Starevitch, placing work in its social and economic context.
£24.75
The University of Chicago Press Fire and Desire MixedRace Movies in the Silent
Book SynopsisThis work looks at the black independent film movement during the silent period. It traces the profound influence that D.W. Griffith's racist epic The Birth of a Nation exerted on black filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux, the director of the newly recovered Within Our Gates.
£30.40
University of Chicago Press The Adventure of the Real Jean Rouch and the
Book SynopsisThough relatively unsung in the English-speaking world, Jean Rouch (1917-2004) was a towering figure of ethnographic cinema. This book analyses his practical filmmaking methods.Trade Review"This is a splendid book - well researched, original, and lucidly written. I have no doubt it will become a classic: the single indispensable book on Rouch and his work. Henley provides a vast amount of information, detailed analyses of many of Rouch's films, and above all a subtle and probing discussion of Rouch's 'praxis.' The book is particularly illuminating as to Rouch's working methods, which only a practicing filmmaker with a gift for analysis and a fund of personal experience could have carried off - a rare combination." - David MacDougall, Australian National University"
£96.90
The University of Chicago Press The Adventure of the Real
Book SynopsisThough relatively unsung in the English-speaking world, Jean Rouch (1917-2004) was a towering figure of ethnographic cinema. This book analyses his practical filmmaking methods.Trade Review"This is a splendid book - well researched, original, and lucidly written. I have no doubt it will become a classic: the single indispensable book on Rouch and his work. Henley provides a vast amount of information, detailed analyses of many of Rouch's films, and above all a subtle and probing discussion of Rouch's 'praxis.' The book is particularly illuminating as to Rouch's working methods, which only a practicing filmmaker with a gift for analysis and a fund of personal experience could have carried off - a rare combination." - David MacDougall, Australian National University"
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press When Movies Mattered
Book Synopsis
£21.00
The University of Chicago Press Mother Camp Female Impersonators in America
Book SynopsisThe second edition of "The Comic Mind" treats the comic developments of the 1970s in terms of the traditions of film comedy set forth in the first edition, including a discussion of the evolution of Jacques Tati and the emergence of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen as the two greatest American comic stylists of the seventies.
£31.35
University of Chicago Press Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance
Book SynopsisThis text explores the perceived discrepancy between outward appearance and inward disposition which, it argues, influenced the work of many English Renaissance dramatists and poets. The author examines various connections between religious, legal, sexual and theatrical ideas of inward truth.
£26.00
University of Chicago Press Screening Out the Past The Birth of Mass Culture
Book Synopsis
£23.00
The University of Chicago Press DAlbuquerques Children Performing Tradition in
Book SynopsisThis work examines the musical influences of a Malaysia's Portuguese community, whose roots lie in the conquest of Malacca in 1511 by the Portuguese seafarer Afonse D'Albuquerque.
£30.00
The University of Chicago Press Its So French
Book SynopsisExplores the affinity between the French and American film industries, breaking down myths of American imperialism and French cultural protectionism. This book illuminates the vital role that cinema has played in the globalization of culture. It also probes the profitable influences that Hollywood and Paris exerted on each other.Trade Review"It is difficult to say whether Vanessa Schwartz's work provides more brilliant analyses and stimulating perspectives to the history of culture or to the history of the cinema. Undoubtedly to both, since the connections she makes between filmmaking and the creation of urban imaginaires are original and convincing. Neither Hollywood, obviously, nor Paris, as well, would exist without films, at least in our thoughts and desires, and Vanessa Schwartz shows this masterfully. 'So French!' - perhaps, but so well done - absolutely!" - Antoine de Baecque, coauthor of Truffaut: A Biography"
£31.00
The University of Chicago Press Early Cinema in Russia and Its Cultural Reception
Book SynopsisThis text chronicles a great lost period in cinema history, that of pre-Revolutionary Russia. In contrast to standard film histories, this book focuses on reflected images: it features the historical filmgoer and early writings on film, as well as examining the physical elements of performance.
£30.40
The University of Chicago Press An Amorous History of the Silver Screen Shanghai
Book SynopsisIllustrates the cultural significance of film and its power as a vehicle for social change. This book reveals the intricacies of the cultural movement and explores its connections to other art forms such as photography, drama, and literature. It looks at the cultural history of Chinese through the lens of this seminal moment in Shanghai cinema.Trade Review"An Amorous History of the Silver Screen will be an instant classic. This lively yet rigorous work of original scholarship reconfigures the field of Chinese silent cinema. It constitutes an exciting new work at the cutting edge of the emergent transnational field of Chinese cinema studies." - Chris Berry, editor of Chinese Films in Focus"
£38.00
Columbia University Press Narrative Apparatus Ideology A Film Theory
Book SynopsisThis book includes many seminal articles by film scholars such as Christian Metz, Jean-Louis Baudry, Stephen Heath, Peter Wollen, Laura Mulvey, and Noe l Burch. Also included are articles by the era's leading cultural thinkers: Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, and Jean-Franccois Lyotard, to name a few.Trade ReviewIntoxicating analyses of films dance alongside the most far-reaching theories of signification and history. Yet through it all Philip Rosen maintains a sober eye, pointing out the backgrounds of these performers and the consequences of their gestures. Under his measured gaze this dizzying flight of ideas takes on a pattern, or rather multiple patterns, that will keep us thinking and talking for a long time to come. Read either for the careful continuity of these introductions or for the dramatic intensity of the individual pieces, the anthology must reward the student, the initiated, and the merely curious. -- Dudley Andrew, Yale University, author of What Cinema Is! Exceptionally well-crafted... Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology achieves a substantial contextual horizon, through Philip Rosen's impeccable positioning of essays within an intellectual history. In addition to this, his collection successfully strives for representativeness on such a number of significant fronts that it promises to provide a very engrossing forum for the introduction and discussion of contemporary film theory in the classroom. -- Barbara Klinger Journal of Film and Video A much sought-after resource. Choice Rosen's collection continues to be a classic and irreplaceable guide to contemporary film theory. This essential anthology includes key texts by Roland Barthes, Raymond Bellour, Christian Metz, David Bordwell, and others, as well as superb contextual essays by Rosen for each section of the book. -- David Rodowick Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsPart 1. Structures of Filmic Narrative Introduction: The Saussurian Impulse and Cinema Semiotics 1. Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narrational Principles and Procedures, by David Bordwell 2. Problems of Denotation in the Fiction Film, by Christian Metz 3. Segmenting/Analyzing, by Raymond Bellour 4. The Obvious and the Code, by Raymond Bellour 5. The Spectator-in-the-Text: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach, by Nick Browne 6. Godard and Counter-Cinema: Vent d' Est, by Peter Wollen 7. The Concept of Cinematic Excess, by Kristin Thompson 8. Uncoded Images in the Heterogeneous Text, by Deborah Linderman Part 2: Subject, Narrative, Cinema Introduction: Text and Subject 9. Diderot, Brecht, Eisenstein, by Roland Barthes 10. Theory and Film: Principles of Realism and Pleasure, by Colin MacCabe 11. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, by Laura Mulvey 12. Voyeurism, The Look, and Dwoskin, by Paul Willemen 13. Suture (excerpts), by Kaja Silverman 14. Ellipsis on Dread and the Specular Seduction, by Julia Kristeva 15. The Imaginary Signifier (excerpts), by Christian Metz Part 3: Apparatus Introduction 16. Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus, by Jean-Louis Baudry 17. The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema, by Jean-Louis Baudry 18. The Silences of the Voice, by Pascal Bonitzer 19. The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space, by Mary Ann Doane 20. Acinema, by Jean Francois Lyotard 21. Through the Looking-Glass, by Teresa de Lauretis Part 4: Textuality as Ideology Introduction 22. Narrative Space, by Stephen Heath 23. Technique and Ideology: Camera, Perspective, Depth of Field (Parts 3 and 4), by Jean-Louis Comolli 24. John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln, by Editors of Cahiers du cinema 25. Primitivism and the Avant-Gardes: A Dialectical Approach, by Noel Burch 26. Film Body: An Implantation of Perversions, by Linda Williams 27. Primary Identification and the Historical Subject: Fassbinder and Germany, by Thomas Elsaesser
£29.75
Columbia University Press Primitive Passions
Book SynopsisChow situates contemporary Chinese film within the broad context of Chinese history and culture, giving readers a glimpse of the unique shared identity that characterizes the current crop of outstanding filmmakers, such as Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou.Trade ReviewA rich and powerful work that provides both a dazzling synthesis of contemporary cultural theory and at the same time an exemplary critique of Chinese cinema. It is a book to be read and re-read and is thus highly recommended because it is more than a film book. It engages directly with the problems Chinese culture faces in a changing world. China Information
£25.20
Columbia University Press What Made Pistachio Nuts Early Sound Comedy the
Book SynopsisThis study celebrates the "anarchistic" film comedies made in the USA in the 1930s, which mocked the creativity and impulsiveness of their protagonists in a form of clowning that ultimately re-established the status quo. Films discussed include "Duck Soup" and W.C. Fields's "It's a Gift".
£25.20
Columbia University Press Brazilian Cinema
Book SynopsisFrom the documentary to the cinema novo and cannibalism, from Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Vidas Secas to music in the films of Glauber Rocha, this third, revised edition is a century-spanning introduction to the story of a medium that flourished in one of the most developed of 'underdeveloped' nations.
£31.50
Columbia University Press From Peepshow to Palace The Birth of American
Book SynopsisRobinson chronicles the early use of film as vaudeville sideshow; as sheer spectacle of moving images precluding any notion of plot development or drama; and as a fledgling dramatic effort, ranging from prizefights to Passion plays.Trade ReviewA diligent overview from the moment cinema was just a flicker in a magic lantern to the golden years between 1893 and 1913, when scientists and technicians laboriously fitted together the 'pieces in a puzzle' and created feature films. New York Times Book Review This concise history takes us from footage of an Edison employee sneezing to multireel features with a sophistication appropriate to the lavish theaters in which they were shown New Yorker
£27.00
Columbia University Press The Sounds of Commerce
Book SynopsisA detailed historical analysis of popular music in American film, from the era of sheet music sales, to that of orchestrated pop records by Henry Mancini and Ennio Morricone in the 1960s, to the MTV-ready pop songs that occupy soundtrack CDs of today.Trade Review[A] fascinating exploration of Hollywood film music since the 1960s. -- R. D. Cohen, Indiana University Northwest ChoiceTable of ContentsDid They Mention the Music? Banking on Film Music Sharps, Flats, and Dollar Signs My Huckleberry Friend The Midas Touch Every Gun Makes its Own Tune The Sounds of Commerce Pretty Women and Dead Presidents
£27.00
Columbia University Press Masculine Interests Homoerotics in Hollywood
Book SynopsisThis title considers how Hollywood articulates the eroticism that is intrinsic to identification between men. It also examines how Hollywood has both reflected and helped to shape the concept of masculinity.Trade ReviewArticulates the big screen's dedication to eroticism between men, especially in movies that now belong to the film canon. Gay & Lesbian ReviewTable of ContentsPreface 1. Masculine Interests 2. Oedipus in Africa: The Lion King 3. To "Have Known Ecstasy": Hunting Men in The Most Dangerous Game 4, Friendship and Its Discontents: The Outlaw 5. Looking for the "Great Whatsit": Kiss Me Deadly and Film Noir 6. Midnight Cowboy's Backstory 7. Innerspace: A Spectacular Voyage to the Heart of Identity 8. Batman and Robin: A Family Romance 9. My Own Private Idaho and the New Queer Road Movies 10. "The Things We Think and Do Not Say": Jerry Maguire and the Business of Personal Relationships Concerning Happiness: An Afterword Notes Bibliography Index
£27.00
Columbia University Press Sound Technology and the American Cinema
Book SynopsisRepresentational technologies including photography, phonography, and the cinema have helped define modernity itself. This text seeks to examine these technologies, arguing that they allow us to track the relations between capital, science, and cultural practice.Table of Contents1. Inscriptions and Simulations: The Imagination of Technology 2. Performance, Inscription, Diegesis: The Technological Transformation of Representational Causality 3. Everything But the Kitchen Sync: Sound and Image Before the Talkies 4. Sound Theory 5. Standards and Practices: Aesthetic Norm and Technological Innovation in the American Cinema 6. Sound Space and Classical Narrative
£25.20
Columbia University Press George Gallup in Hollywood
Book SynopsisGeorge Gallup's polling techniques achieved fame when he predicted that Franklin D Roosevelt would be reelected president in 1936. This work traces Gallup's intellectual and methodological developments, examining his comprehensive approach to market research. It takes a look at the film industry's use of opinion polling in the 1930s and '40s.Trade ReviewA well-detailed account of this obscure chapter in cinema history... Recommended. Library Journal A fascinating and exciting book. -- Frank Louis Rusciano Public Opinion Quarterly An extremely valuable portrait of the shifting field in which Hollywood operated in the 1940s and an excellent study of t he ambivalent relationship between... moviemaking and marketing. -- Sarah E. Igo Business History Review Ohmer's book is a major achievement, and it will be a significant reference. -- Anne Morey Film Quarterly An innovative and fascinating study about the construction of discourse, power and control in the field of mass culture. -- Nolwenn Mingant CerclesTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. What Do Audiences Want? 2. Guesswork Eliminated 3. The Laws That Determine Interest 4. America Speaks 5. Piggybacking on the Past 6. Singles and Doubles 7. Boy Meets Facts at RKO 8. David O. Selznick Presents: Audience Research and the Independent Producer 9. Gallup Meets Goofy: Audience Research and the Walt Disney Studio 10. Like, Dislike, Like Very Much Abbreviations Used and Collections Consulted Notes Index
£25.20
Columbia University Press Designing Women
Book SynopsisGrand, sensational, and exotic, Art Deco design was above all modern, exemplifying the majesty and boundless potential of an industrialized world. This title documents the ubiquity of Art Deco in mainstream consumerism and its connection to the emergence of the "New Woman" in American society.Trade ReviewLucy Fischer's book is fueled by love... and enlivened by her zest for finding and analyzing the presence of Art Deco in unlikely places. Her research is meticulous... This book is a very entertaining investigation of a style still much loved today. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Friendly to the general reader...It's hard not to be charmed...It's an extremely stimulating red. The SophisticateTable of ContentsIntroduction: A Method to My Madness 1.The Art Deco Style: Modernity and the Feminine 2.Counter Culture: Art Deco, Consumerism, and the Department Store 3.Design for Living: Marketing Art Deco to Women 4.Film Melodrama: Greta Garbo as Art Deco Icon 5.Art Deco and the Movie Musical 6.Strangers in Paradise: South Seas Films of the Art Deco Era 7.Architectural Exoticism and the Art Deco Picture Palace 8.Madame Satan: Fantasy, Art Deco, and the Femme Fatale Afterword Bibliography Index
£29.75
Columbia University Press Shocking Representation
Book SynopsisExplores the ways in which a group of groundbreaking horror films engaged the haunting social conflicts left in the wake of World War II, Hiroshima, and the Vietnam War. This book shows that through allegorical representations these directors' films confronted and challenged comforting historical narratives and notions of national identity.Trade Review[Lowenstein] has placed the study of cinematic horror on a whole new level. -- Scott Preston The Communication Review An attentive and careful reading of various films that straddle the borders of the horror and art genres... -- Eyal Tamir Kritikon Litterarum
£82.80
Columbia University Press Speaking in Images Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmakers
Book SynopsisOffers a collection of interviews with the directors who have changed the face of Chinese and international cinema. This book includes discussions with such directors as Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger", "Hidden Dragon"), Zhang Yimou ("Hero"), Chen Kaige ("Farewell My Concubine"), Stanley Kwan ("Lan Yu"), and Tsai Ming-Liang ("Vive l'Amour").Trade ReviewSpeaking in Images, by Michael Berry, is engaging... It is refreshing to read artists talk about their work and medium. -- Malcom Parker Pots.com Berry's questions are intelligent... they illicit intelligent, detailed answers...useful to anyone seriously interested in world cinema...Essential. Choice [Speaking in Images] should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities and power of contemporary Chinese Film. -- Mingwei Song China Review International Speaking in Images is an excellent, even essential resource for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of these three important Chinese film industries. -- Ethan de Seife Film InternationalTable of ContentsForeword by Martin Scorsese Acknowledgments Author's Note Introduction: Speaking in Images I. Voices from China Xie Jin: Six Decades of Cinematic Innovation Tian Zhuangzhuang: Stealing Horses and Flying Kites Chen Kaige: Historical Revolution and Cinematic Rebellion Zhang Yimou: Flying Colors Zhang Yuan: Working up a Sweat in a Celluloid Sauna Wang Xiaoshuai: Banned in China Jia Zhangke: Capturing a Transforming Reality Li Yang: The Future of Chinese Cinema? II. Voices from Taiwan Hou Hsiao-hsien with Chu Tien-wen: Words and Images Edward Yang: Luckily Unlucky Wu Nien-jen: Writing Taiwan in the Shadows of Cultural Colonialism Ang Lee: Freedom in Film Tsai Ming-liang: Trapped in the Past Chang Tso-chi: Shooting from the Margins III. Voices from Hong Kong Ann Hui: Living Through Films Stanley Kwan: From Spectral Nostalgia to Corporeal Desire Fruit Chan: Hong Kong Independent Peter Ho-sun Chan: Pioneering Pan-Asian Cinema Evans Chan: The Last of the Chinese Notes Bibliography
£28.50
Columbia University Press Sentimental Fabulations Contemporary Chinese
Book SynopsisWhat is the sentimental? How can we understand it by way of the visual and narrative modes of signification specific to cinema and through the manners of social interaction and collective imagining specific to a particular culture in transition? This book explores these questions through contemporary Chinese directors.Trade Reviewa thought-inspiring work of scholarship Journal of Film and Video [Chow] captivates us with her challenging and refreshing arguments. Highly recommended. Library Journal A thoughtful discussion of nine contemporary Chinese directors and their cinematic accomplishments. -- James A. Cox The Midwest Book Review Through Chow's perspective, the sentimental thus becomes a productive and promising concept for understanding national cinema. -- Kristi McKim Film Quarterly Chow's scholarship is consistently superior in its provocative arguments for humanistic concerns and its impressive coverage of secondary sources. -- Howard Y. F. Choy, Wittenberg University The China Journal Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films is a thought-inspiring work of scholarship. -- Jie Li Journal of Film and VideoTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Note on Transcriptions Introduction Part I: Remembrance of Things Past 1 The Seductions of Homecoming: Temptress Moon and the Question of Origins 2 Nostalgia of the New Wave: Romance, Domesticity,a nd the Longing for Oneness in Happy Together 3 The Everyday in The Road Home and In the Mood for Love: From the Legacy of Socialism to the Potency of Yuan Part II: Migrants' Lore, Women's Options 4 Autumn Hearts: Filming Feminine "Psychic Interiority" in Song of the Exile 5 By Way of Mass Commodities: Love in Comrades, Almost a Love Story 6 All Chinese Families are Alike: Biopolitics in Eat a Bowl of Tea and The Wedding Banquet Part III: Picturing the Life to Come... 7
£25.20
Columbia University Press Hollywood and the Culture Elite
Book SynopsisHollywood and cultural institutions worked together to insure their own survival and profitability and to provide a coherent, though shifting, American identity. This book explores how their needs coalesced and led to the development of a symbiotic relationship between the film industry and America's stewards of high culture.Trade ReviewIt is in the author's discussion of these Cold War happenings that the narrative becomes almost cloak-and-dagger. Publishers Weekly A clearly written and well-researched historical work that makes a strong contribution to film scholarship. -- Heidi Kenaga The Moving Image A frequently profound ethical query into the costs of patronage. -- Kevin Hagopian Film Quarterly Thought-provoking. The American Historical Review Decherney does an excellent job exploring the individual players... and exposing how our current cinematic institutions and assumptions regarding film were founded. -- Erin Hills-Parks Film & History A very significant work that demands attentive and critical engagement. -- Tom Crosbie Screening the PastTable of ContentsIntroduction: How Film Became Art 1. Vachel Lindsay and the Universal Film Collection 2. Overlapping Publics: Hollywood and Columbia University, 1915 3. Mandarins and Marxists: Harvard and the Rise of Film Experts 4. Iris Barry, Hollywood Imperialism, and the Gender of the Nation 5. The Museum of Modern Art and the Roots of the Cultural Cold War 6. The Politics of Patronage: How the NEA (Accidentally) Created American Avant-Garde Film Conclusion: The End of the Studio System
£83.60
Columbia University Press Counter Archive Film the Everyday and Albert
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewCounter-Archive is a groundbreaking, original and scholarly book, which is indispensable to a full understanding of the early and present history of the cinema and its relationship to the archive and the everyday. -- Barbara Creed H-France an ambitious and compelling book which elegantly ties meticulous archival detail to astute theoretical challenges, and its conceptual hook may well inspire further critical attention. -- Tara Blake Wilson New Formations A work of exceptional scholarly merit. -- Jan Baetens Biography ...rich and endearing study... -- Lisabeth During and Deborah Levitt Years Work in Critical and Cultural TheoryTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. World Souvenir: "Mr. K" and the Archives de la Planete 2. "Keep your eyes open": From Pre-documentary to Documentary Film in the Kahn Archive 3. The Counter-Archive of Cinematic Memory: Bergsonism, la duree, and the Everyday 4. "No more written archives, only films": Early Discourses and Practices of the Film Archive 5. The "anecdotal side of history": Temporality, Film, and Annales Historiography 6. Seeing "for the first time": The Rediscovery of the Everyday in Early French Film Theory 7. Illuminations from the Darkened "Sanctuary": Reception of the Kahn Films 8. The Aerial View: Human Geography, Cosmopolitanism, and Colonialism Conclusion: Toute la Memoire du monde: The Counter-Archive Beyond Kahn Appendix: Photographers and Cameramen of the Archives de la Planete Notes Bibliography Index
£999.99
Columbia University Press Hitchcocks Romantic Irony
Book SynopsisArgues that Hitchcock orchestrates the narrative and stylistic idioms of popular cinema to at once celebrate and subvert the ideal of romance. The author describes how Hitchcock's characteristic tone is achieved through a titillating combination of suspense and black humor that subverts the moral framework of the romantic thriller.Trade ReviewTough but rewarding. Empire (four star review) In-depth, insightful... Highly recommended. CHOICE Comprehensive and gracefully conceived. -- Michael Richardson Cineaste [Allen's] knowledge of Hitchcock's films is impressive. Times Literary Supplement Carefully researched and artfully written... critics will be tracing the ramifications of Hitchcock's romantic irony for a long time to come. -- David Sterritt Film QuarterlyTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Part I: Narrative Form 1 Romantic Irony 2 Suspense 3 Knowledge and Sexual Difference Part II: Visual Style 4 Sexuality and Style 5 Expressionism 6 Color Design Conclusion Notes Index
£25.20
Columbia University Press Intelligence Work
Book SynopsisDemonstrates how documentary serves as a cultural laboratory in the thought and practice of American democracy. This book places iconic images and the work of celebrated filmmakers next to overlooked and rediscovered productions and proves the pliability of documentary's function for American popular intelligence.Trade Review[A] sobering reappraisal of documentary film. -- Lyell Davies AfterImage [Kahana] illuminates many documentaries that deserve to be much better known... Recommended. Choice the author's impressive grasp of documentary history and insightful discussion of cinematic form make Intelligence Work a significant contribution to the literature on documentary. -- Susan Ryan Cineaste Kahana's approach navigates what might be called the interstices of political critique, revealing documentary's multiplicity while marking its relative successes and limits. -- Jeffrey Geiger New Formations [Kahana provides] a much-needed survey of a century-long development in cultural history that is nonetheless tightly focused on the crucial political issue of how art enables the production of publics. -- Jeff Allred American Literature Kahana is often intensely insightful about form and style in the films he considers, such as a sophisticated analysis of sound particularly in radical documentaries of the 60s on. -- Chuck Kleinhans Jump CutTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction. The Intelligence Work of Documentary: Publics, Politics, Intellectuals Part I. The Sentiment of Trust: The Documentary Front and the New Deal 1. National Fabric: Authorship, Textuality, and the Documentary Front 2. Voice-Over, Allegory, and the Pastoral in New Deal Documentary Part II. Lyrical Tirades: New Documentary and the New Left 3. Revolutionary Sounds: Listening to Radical Documentary 4. Documentary Counterpublics: Filming Prison Part III. The Public Sphere of Suspicion: Documentary in the New Obscurity 5. The Vision Thing: Documentary, Television, and the Accidental Power of the President 6. Tense Times: Documentary Aporias; Or, the Public Sphere of Suspicion Notes Filmography Index
£26.60
