Search results for ""Author Reynold Humphries""
Johns Hopkins University Press Fritz Lang: Genre and Representation in His American Films
Challenging the myth that Fritz Lang's best work ended when he reached Hollywood, Reynold Humphries takes a new look at seventeen of the director's twenty-two American films. Made between 1936 and 1956, these films- Fury, You Only Live Once, You and Me, Man Hunt, Hangmen Also Die, The Ministry of Fear, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, Cloak and Dagger, Secret beyond the Door, House by the River, Rancho Notorious, The Blue Gardenia, The Big Heat, Moonfleet, While the City Sleeps, and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt-broadly validate the insights of auteur theory while emphasizing the importance of the narrative and representational codes peculiar to a given genre. Humphries examines these films in light of semiotics and psychoanalysis, drawing on Freud's "Wolfman" case and Lacan's theories of "the subject" and "the look" to bring novel solutions to crucial theoretical problems in such areas as the spectator, classical film narrative, and genre. In applying critical theory to Lang's Hollywood-made film noirs, melodramas, Westerns, and spy films, Humphries provocatively complicates auteur theory and revitalizes an unjustly neglected phase in the career of one of cinema's boldest visionaries.
£29.00
Edinburgh University Press The American Horror Film: An Introduction
The American Horror Film is the first overview of this popular genre. It moves from Dracula in 1931 to contemporary films such as Scream and The Sixth Sense. The various characters that recur in horror films - Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll, the Mummy, the Werewolf - are discussed, as are repeated themes such as the mad scientist, nuclear anxiety, psychological 'monsters', the living dead, and 'slasher' movies. Key directors including Jacques Tourneur, David Cronenberg, Roger Corman and Joe Dante are covered. The emphasis is on accessibility: while theory is included through reference to gender and politics, women's studies and psychoanalysis, it is introduced carefully and in direct relation to the films being discussed. No prior knowledge of the subject area is assumed. An extensive Filmography is included and reference is made at the appropriate point to the most pertinent writing on horror. Overall, this is an ideal introduction to the area for all students and general readers interested in the American horror film. Key Features: *Includes 10 film stills *Covers major films such as King Kong, Little Shop of Horrors, Psycho, The Exorcist, The Omen and I Know What You Did Last Summer *Only up-to-date textbook on the subject.
£29.99
