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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema > Film theory & criticism
This is the first study of May 68 in fiction and in film. It looks
at the ways the events themselves were represented in narrative,
evaluates the impact these crucial times had on French cultural and
intellectual history, and offers readings of texts which were
shaped by it. The chosen texts concentrate upon important features
of May and its aftermath: the student rebellion, the workers
strikes, the question of the intellectuals, sexuality, feminism,
the political thriller, history, and textuality. Attention is paid
to the context of the social and cultural history of the Fifth
Republic, to Gaullism, and to the cultural politics of gauchisme.
The book aims to show the importance of the interplay of real and
imaginary in the text(s) of May, and the emphasis placed upon the
problematic of writing and interpretation. It argues that
re-reading the texts of May forces a reconsideration of the
existing accounts of postwar cultural history. The texts of May
reflect on social order, on rationality, logic, and modes of
representation, and are this highly relevant to contemporary
debates on modernity.
Grief is all around us. At the heart of the brightly coloured,
vividly characterised, joyful films of Studio Ghibli, they are
wracked with loss - of innocence, of love, of the connection to our
world and of that world itself. Now Go enters these emotional
waters to interrogate not only how Studio Ghibli navigates grief so
well, but how that informs our own understanding of grief's
manifold faces.
Before the Raid was a 1942 Crown Film Unit, propaganda film, made
for boosting public morale in war time. The booklet explores the
making of this film at Portmahomack in North East Scotland, and its
message about the need for free and oppressed peoples to engage in
civil resistance towards evil and, with sacrifice, in their ability
to overcome it. In support of their work in maintaining the local
history of the Tarbat Peninsula, all proceeds from the sale of this
book go to: The Tarbat Historic Trust.
The introduction of film study or analysis into the school
curriculum along with the presentation of courses on the art of
cinema at several universities and universities of technology, has
led to more and more students becoming cinema literate. Movies made
easy is a guideline for students who want to discover or rediscover
the joys of cinema, while focusing on important elements such as
editing, subtext, directing and irony in a film. This is an update
of Seeing sense - on film analysis, but provides greater balance
between classic and contemporary films, and South African films and
Hollywood blockbusters.
In Sean Baker's award-winning 2017 film The Florida Project, a
young girl, her single mother, and her friends live in rundown
motels near Disney World, the children's summer fun contrasting
with the grim conditions around them. In this book, J. J. Murphy
delves deep into the movie's development and filming while also
examining it within the wider context of Baker's career. Using
production documents, different versions of the screenplay, and
interviews with principal members of the production team, Murphy
traces the evolution of The Florida Project from initial idea
through its various stages of production. He highlights Baker's
unconventional strategies in making a film about a marginalized
subculture, including alternative scripting, guerrilla-like
filmmaking, improvisation, and the unorthodox casting of local and
first-time actors. Murphy also explores how Baker's impromptu style
sometimes rankled crew members and caused a major crisis on set,
revealing the difficulties indie filmmakers can face when working
with professional crews on larger films. A lively analysis of this
critically acclaimed movie, its director, and its production, The
Florida Project also betters our understanding of contemporary
independent cinema as a whole.
Exploring the multiple aesthetic and cultural links between French
and Japanese cinema, The Cinematic Influence is packed with vivid
examples and case studies of films by Akira Kurosawa, Jean-Luc
Godard, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Claire Denis, Naomi Kawase, Michel
Gondry and many others. It illustrates the vast array of cinematic
connections that mark a long history of mutual influence and
reverence between filmmakers in France and Japan. The book provides
new insights into the ways that national cinemas resist Hollywood
to maintain and strengthen their own cultural practices and how
these national cinemas perform the task of informing and
enlightening other cultures about what it means to be French or
Japanese. This book also deepens our understandings of film's role
as a viable cultural and economic player in individual nations.
Importantly, the reader will see that film operates as a form of
cultural exchange between France and Japan, and more broadly,
Europe and Asia. This is the first major book to investigate the
crossover between these two diverse national cinemas by tracking
their history of shared narrative and stylistic techniques.
Since the publication of his foundational work, Visionary Film, P.
Adams Sitney has been considered one of our most eloquent and
insightful interlocutors on the relationship between American film
and poetry. His latest study, The Cinema of Poetry, emphasizes the
vibrant world of European cinema in addition to incorporating the
author's long abiding concerns on American avant-garde cinema. The
work is divided into two principal parts, the first dealing with
poetry and a trio of films by Dimitri Kirsanoff, Ingmar Bergman,
and Andrei Tarkovsky; the second part explores selected American
verse with American avant-garde films by Stan Brakhage, Ken Jacobs,
and others. Both parts are linked by Pier Paolo Pasolini's
theoretical 1965 essay "Il cinema di poesia" where the
writer/director describes the use of the literary device of "free
indirect discourse," which accentuates the subjective point-of view
as well as the illusion of functioning as if without a camera. In
other words, the camera is absent, and the experience of the
spectator is to plunge into the dreams and consciousness of the
characters and images presented in film. Amplifying and applying
the concepts advanced by Pasolini, Sitney offers extended readings
of works by T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, and Charles Olson to
demonstrate how modernist verse strives for the "camera-less"
illusion achieved in a range of films that includes Fanny and
Alexander, Stalker, Lawrence Jordan's Magic, and several short
works by Joseph Cornell.
The introduction of film study or analysis into the school
curriculum, along with the presentation of courses on the art of
cinema at technikons, universities and film and television schools,
has led to more and more students becoming cinema literate at an
early age. It is not intended as a text on film criticism, film
theory or communication studies. Instead it sets out to provide
practical answers to questions confronted by newcomers to courses
on film analysis and appreciation. The contemporary examples, case
studies and many photographs enhance the student-driven approach of
this interesting publication.
The rare woman director working in second-wave exploitation,
Stephanie Rothman (b. 1936) directed seven successful feature
films, served as the vice president of an independent film company,
and was the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America's
student filmmaking prize. Despite these career accomplishments,
Rothman retired into relative obscurity. In The Cinema of Stephanie
Rothman: Radical Acts in Filmmaking, author Alicia Kozma uses
Rothman's career as an in-depth case study, intertwining
historical, archival, industrial, and filmic analysis to grapple
with the past, present, and future of women's filmmaking labor in
Hollywood. Understanding second wave exploitation filmmaking as a
transitory space for the industrial development of contemporary
Hollywood that also opened up opportunities for women
practitioners, Kozma argues that understudied film production
cycles provide untapped spaces for discovering women's directorial
work. The professional career and filmography of Rothman exemplify
this claim. Rothman also serves as an apt example for connecting
the structure of film histories to the persistent strictures of
rhetorical language used to mark women filmmakers and their labor.
Kozma traces these imbrications across historical archives.
Adopting a diverse methodological approach, The Cinema of Stephanie
Rothman shines a needed spotlight on the problems and successes of
the memorialization of women's directorial labor, connecting
historical and contemporary patterns of gendered labor disparity in
the film industry. This book is simultaneously the first in-depth
scholarly consideration of Rothman, the debut of the most
substantive archival materials collected on Rothman, and a feminist
political intervention into the construction of film histories.
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a theatre director, writer of graphic
novels and comics, novelist, poet, and an expert in the Tarot. He
is also an auteur filmmaker who garnered attention with his
breakthrough film El Topo in 1970. He has been called a "cult"
filmmaker, whose films are surreal, hallucinatory, and provocative.
The Transformative Cinema of Alejandro Jodorowsky explores the ways
in which Jodorowsky's films are transformative in a psychologically
therapeutic way. It also examines his signature style, which
includes the symbolic meaning of various colors in which he clothes
his actors, the use of his own family members in the films, and his
casting of himself in leading roles. This total involvement of
himself and his family in his auteur films led to his
psycho-therapeutic theories and practices: metagenealogy and
psychomagic. This book is the only the second book in the English
language in print that deals with all of Jodorowsky's films,
beginning with his earliest mime film in 1957 and ending with his
2019 film on psychomagic. It also connects his work as a writer and
therapist to his films, which themselves attempt to obliterate the
line between fantasy and reality.
A remarkable exploration of Wonder Woman's creation, mysterious
identity, and evolution-and her extraordinary impact on her legions
of fans. For generations, Wonder Woman has been a symbol of
equality and female empowerment, her complex saga deeply rooted
within the feminist movement. A staple of the comic book industry,
she is arguably the best-known female superhero of all time. In
Wonder Woman: Warrior, Disruptor, Feminist Icon, Regina Luttrell
details this legendary superhero's origins, history, and evolution,
from an ambassador of peace and love to the fiercest warrior in the
DC Universe. Luttrell reveals how Wonder Woman's journeys are a
reflection of each wave within the feminist movement and how her
impact on culture and society continues to be felt today. Wonder
Woman has become the epitome of technological sophistication,
globalization, and modern-day feminism. She is truly a warrior, a
disrupter, and a feminist icon. Luttrell's fascinating history
includes the perspectives of famed feminist Gloria Steinem in her
essay "Be the Wonder Woman You Can Be," as well as personal
interviews with creator William Moulton Marson's surviving family
members. Featuring a captivating examination of the oft-overlooked
contributions of Marston's life partners and inspirations Elizabeth
Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne, Wonder Woman is an incredible,
in-depth exploration of this iconic feminist superhero.
From Eugene Delacroix's interpretation of the 1830 French
revolution to Uli Edel's version of the Baader-Meinhof Gang,
artistic representations of historical subjects are appealing and
pervasive. Movies often adapt imagery from art history, including
paintings of historical events. Films and art shape the past for us
and continue to affect our interpretation of history. While
historical films are often argued over for their adherence to "the
facts," their real problem is realism: how can the past be
convincingly depicted? Realism in the historical film genre is
often nourished and given credibility by its use of painterly
references. This book examines how art-historical images affect
historical films by going beyond period detail and surface design
to look at how profound ideas about history are communicated
through pictures. Art and the Historical Film: Between Realism and
the Sublime is based on case studies that explore the links between
art and cinema, including American independent Western Meek's
Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010), British heritage film Belle (Amma
Asante, 2013), and Dutch national epic Admiral (Roel Reine, 2014).
The chapters create immersive worlds that communicate distinct
ideas about the past through cinematography, production design, and
direction, as the films adapt, reference, and transpose paintings
by artists such as Rubens, Albert Bierstadt, and Jacques-Louis
David.
Complete with behind-the-scenes diary entries from the set of Vachon's best-known fillms, Shooting to Kill offers all the satisfaction of an intimate memoir from the frontlines of independent filmmakins, from one of its most successful agent provocateurs -- and survivors. Hailed by the New York Times as the "godmother to the politically committed film" and by Interview as a true "auteur producer," Christine Vachon has made her name with such bold, controversial, and commercially successful films as "Poison," "Swoon," Kids," "Safe," "I Shot Andy Warhol," and "Velvet Goldmine." Over the last decade, she has become a driving force behind the most daring and strikingly original independent filmmakers-from Todd Haynes to Tom Kalin and Mary Harron-and helped put them on the map. So what do producers do? "What don't they do?" she responds. In this savagely witty and straight-shooting guide, Vachon reveals trheguts of the filmmaking process--rom developing a script, nurturing a director's vision, getting financed, and drafting talent to holding hands, stoking egos, stretching every resource to the limit and pushing that limit. Along the way, she offers shrewd practical insights and troubleshooting tips on handling everything from hysterical actors and disgruntled teamsters to obtuse marketing executives. Complete with behind-the-scenes diary entries from the sets of Vachon's best-known films, Shooting To Kill offers all the satisfactions of an intimate memoir from the frontlines of independent filmmaking, from one of its most successful agent provocateurs-and survivors.
Just as punk created a space for bands such as the Slits and Poly
Styrene to challenge 1970s norms of femininity, through a
transgressive, strident new female-ness, it also provoked
experimental feminist film makers to initiate a parallel,
lens-based challenge to patriarchal modes of film making. In this
book, Rachel Garfield breaks new ground in exploring the
rebellious, feminist Punk audio-visual culture of the 1970s,
tracing its roots and its legacies. In their filmmaking and their
performed personae, film and video artists such as Vivienne Dick,
Sandra Lahire, Betzy Bromberg, Ruth Novaczek, Sadie Benning, Leslie
Thornton, Abigail Child and Anne Robinson offered a powerful,
deliberately awkward alternative to hegemonic conformist
femininity, creating a new "Punk audio visual aesthetic". A vital
aspect of our vibrant contemporary digital audio visual culture,
Garfield argues, can be traced back to the techniques and forms of
these feminist pioneers, who like their musical contemporaries
worked in a pre-digital, analogue modality that nevertheless
influenced the emergent digital audio visual culture of the 1990s
and 2000s.
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Strangers Within
- Documentary as Encounter
(Paperback)
Therese Henningsen & Juliette Joffe; Contributions by Khalik Allah, Ruth Beckermann, Jon Bang Carlsen, Adam Christensen, Annie Ernaux, Gareth Evans, Jane Fawcett, Xiaolu Guo, Umama Hamido, Therese Henningsen, Marc Isaacs, Mary Jimenez Freeman-Morris, Juliette Joffe, Andrew and Eden Koetting, David MacDougall, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Toni Morrison, Bruno de Wachter and Andrea Luka Zimmerman.
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The years following the signing of the Armistice saw a
transformation of traditional attitudes regarding military conflict
as America attempted to digest the enormity and futility of the
First World War. During these years popular film culture in the
United States created new ways of addressing the impact of the war
on both individuals and society. Filmmakers with direct experience
of combat created works that promoted their own ideas about the
depiction of wartime service-ideas that frequently conflicted with
established, heroic tropes for the portrayal of warfare on film.
Those filmmakers spent years modifying existing standards and
working through a variety of storytelling options before achieving
a consensus regarding the fitting method for rendering war on
screen. That consensus incorporated facets of the experience of
Great War veterans, and these countered and undermined previously
accepted narrative strategies. This process reached its peak during
the Pre-Code Era of the early 1930s when the initially prevailing
narrative would be briefly supplanted by an entirely new approach
that questioned the very premises of wartime service. Even more
significantly, the rhetoric of these films argued strongly for an
antiwar stance that questioned every aspect of the wartime
experience. For No Reason at All: The Changing Narrative of the
First World War in American Film discusses a variety of Great
War-themed films made from 1915 to the present, tracing the
changing approaches to the conflict over time. Individual chapters
focus on movie antecedents, animated films and comedies, the
influence of literary precursors, the African American film
industry, women-centered films, and the effect of the Second World
War on depictions of the First. Films discussed include Hearts of
the World, The Cradle of Courage, Birthright, The Big Parade, She
Goes to War, Doughboys, Young Eagles, The Last Flight, Broken
Lullaby, Lafayette Escadrille, and Wonder Woman, among many others.
Rewatching on the Point of the Cinematic Index offers a
reassessment of the cinematic index as it sits at the intersection
of film studies, trauma studies, and adaptation studies. Author
Allen H. Redmon argues that far too often scholars imagine the
cinematic index to be nothing more than an acknowledgment that the
lens-based camera captures and brings to the screen a reality that
existed before the camera. When cinema's indexicality is so
narrowly defined, the entire nature of film is called into question
the moment film no longer relies on a lens-based camera. The
presence of digital technologies seemingly strips cinema of its
indexical standing. This volume pushes for a broader understanding
of the cinematic index by returning to the early discussions of the
index in film studies and the more recent discussions of the index
in other digital arts. Bolstered by the insights these discussions
can offer, the volume looks to replace what might be best deemed a
diminished concept of the cinematic index with a series of more
complex cinematic indices, the impoverished index, the indefinite
index, the intertextual index, and the imaginative index. The
central argument of this book is that these more complex indices
encourage spectators to enter a process of ongoing adaptation of
the reality they see on the screen, and that it is on the point of
these indices that the most significant instances of rewatching
movies occur. Examining such films as John Lee Hancock's Saving Mr.
Banks (2013); Richard Linklater's oeuvre; Paul Greengrass's United
93 (2006); Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (2006); Stephen
Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011); and
Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk (2017), Inception (2010), and Memento
(2000), Redmon demonstrates that the cinematic index invites
spectators to enter a process of ongoing adaptation.
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