{"product_id":"a-life-in-16-films-9781350205239","title":"A Life in 16 Films","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSteve Waters examines how the very idea of film has defined him as a playwright and a person in this book. Through the the lens of cinema, it provides a cultural and political snapshot of life in Britain from the 2nd part of the 20th century up to the present day. The films spanning almost a century, starting with \u003ci\u003eThe White Hell of Pitz Palu \u003c\/i\u003e(1929) and moving most recently to\u003ci\u003e Dark Waters \u003c\/i\u003e(2019)\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003eeach chapter examines aspects of Waters''s journey from his working-class Midlands upbringing to working in professional theatre to living through the Covid epidemic, through the prism of a particular film. From \u003ci\u003eThe Wizard of Oz\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eCode Unknown,\u003c\/i\u003e from sci-fi to documentary, from queer cinema to world cinema, this honest, comic book offers a view of film as a way of thinking about how we live. In doing so, it illuminates culture and politics in the UK over half a century and provides an intimate insight into drama and writing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlaywright Steve Waters has come up with a brilliantly simple and original idea: a memoir built round the movies that have shaped his life. The result is partly autobiography, partly social history and partly a hymn of praise to the medium that made him. A jewel of a book: informative, moving, witty and compelling.\u003c\/i\u003e -- David Edgar\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction – \u003ci\u003eDark Waters \u003c\/i\u003e(2019, Todd Haynes) Watching film in an age of Covid  \u003ci\u003eThe Wizard of Oz \u003c\/i\u003e(1939, Victor Fleming)  Working-class cinema-going in the Midlands; children and adult film; the Western; film as an embodiment of maleness  \u003ci\u003eLogan’s Run\u003c\/i\u003e (1976, Michael Anderson)  Rural England and the appeal of horror and sci-fi; rural v city; class conflict  \u003ci\u003eNosferatu The Vampyre \u003c\/i\u003e(1979, Werner Herzog)  Grammar school in the 80s; uncinematic nature of provincial Britain; discovery of art and European film  \u003ci\u003eSolaris (\u003c\/i\u003e1972, Andrei Tarkovsky)  Coming of age during Thatcher and punk; film and cycling; the rise of Channel 4 as a vector for film; second cold war; \u003ci\u003eSolaris \u003c\/i\u003ev \u003ci\u003eApocalypse Now\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003ci\u003eShoah \u003c\/i\u003e(1985, Claude Lanzmann)  Kibbutz Dalia, Israel; Film and internationalism; film and the Holocaust; travels in the Middle East; confirmation bias  \u003ci\u003eVagabond \u003c\/i\u003e(1985, Agnès Varda)  Film and intellectualism at Oxford University; feminist and queer film; making film  \u003ci\u003eComrades\u003c\/i\u003e (1986, Bill Douglas)  Film, work and radical politics; Communist and the city of Bristol; theatre and radical film-making; John Akomfrah and Julian Isaac  \u003ci\u003eThe White Hell of Pitz Palu \u003c\/i\u003e(1929, Arnold Fanck and GW Pabst)  Becoming a teacher; film history and education; falling in love through film  \u003ci\u003eReservoir Dogs \u003c\/i\u003e(1992, Quentin Tarantino)  Studying with playwrights Sarah Kane and David Edgar; \u003ci\u003eReservoir Dogs\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBlasted\u003c\/i\u003e; caught between film and theatre; influence of David Mamet, Quentin Tarantino and Sarah Kane  \u003ci\u003eWinter Light\u003c\/i\u003e (1963, Ingmar Bergman) Film, marriage and faith; Bergman and Bresson; film as ritual; becoming a theatre director; becoming a playwright  \u003ci\u003eCode Unknown\u003c\/i\u003e (2001, Michael Haneke)  Film and London; residential playwright at Hampstead Theatre; writing and multi-culturalism; Haneke's pessimism versus 'Cool Britannia'  \u003ci\u003eThe Wind Will Carry Us \u003c\/i\u003e(2000, Abbas Kiarostami)  After 9\/11; film and the War on Terror; film and having children; writing World music; influence of Iranian film  \u003ci\u003eAn Inconvenient Truth\u003c\/i\u003e (2006, Davis Guggenheim)  Film and ecology; climate change activism and writing \u003ci\u003eThe Contingency Plan; \u003c\/i\u003eadapting theatre to film  \u003ci\u003eHell or High Water\u003c\/i\u003e (2016, David Mackenzie) Film and precarity; parents' death; illness; end of cinema; growth of populism  Afterword - \u003ci\u003eGirlhood \u003c\/i\u003e(2019, Céline Sciamma)  Watching films with my daughter  Index","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48738605334871,"sku":"9781350205239","price":21.84,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781350205239.jpg?v=1720049628","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-life-in-16-films-9781350205239","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}