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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema > Film theory & criticism
An eye-opening exploration of the toxic masculinity and sexism that
pervades the superhero genre. Superheroes have been exciting and
inspirational cultural icons for decades, dating back to the debut
of Superman in the 1930s. The earliest tales have been held up as
cornerstones of the genre, looked upon with nostalgic reverence.
However, enshrining these tales also enshrines many outdated values
that have allowed sexist gender dynamics to thrive. In Not All
Supermen: Sexism, Toxic Masculinity, and the Complex History of
Superheroes, Tim Hanley examines how anger, aggression, and
violence became the norm in superhero comics, paired with a disdain
for women that the industry has yet to fully move beyond. The
sporadic addition of new female heroes over the years proved
largely ineffective, the characters often underused and
objectified. Hanley also reveals how the genre's sexism has had
real-world implications, with many creators being outed as sexual
harassers and bigots, while intolerant fan movements are awash with
misogynistic hate speech. Superheroes can be a force for good,
representing truth, justice, and courage, but the industry is laden
with excessive baggage. The future of the genre depends on what
elements of its past are celebrated and what is left behind. Not
All Supermen unravels this complex history and shows how
superheroes can become more relevant and inspiring for everyone.
More than a century after its emergence, classical Hollywood cinema
remains popular today with cinephiles and scholars alike. Resetting
the Scene: Classical Hollywood Revisited, edited by Philippa Gates
and Katherine Spring, showcases cutting-edge work by renowned
researchers of Hollywood filmmaking of the studio era and proposes
new directions for classical Hollywood studies in the twenty-first
century. Resetting the Scene includes twenty-six accessible
chapters and an extensive bibliography. In Part 1, Katherine
Spring's introduction and David Bordwell's chapter reflect on the
newest methods, technological resources, and archival discoveries
that have galvanized recent research of studio filmmaking. Part 2
brings together close analyses of film style both visual and sonic
with case studies of shot composition, cinematography, and film
music. Part 3 offers new approaches to genre, specifically the film
musical, the backstudio picture, and the B-film. Part 4 focuses on
industry operations, including the origins of Hollywood,
cross-promotion, production planning, and talent management. Part 5
offers novel perspectives on the representation of race, in regard
to censorship, musicals, film noir, and science fiction. Part 6
illuminates forgotten histories of women's labor in terms of
wartime propaganda, below-the-line work, and the evolution of star
persona. Part 7 explores the demise of the studio system but also
the endurance of classical norms in auteur cinema and screenwriting
in the post-classical era. Part 8 highlights new methods for
studying Hollywood cinema, including digital resources as tools for
writing history and analyzing films, and the intersection of film
studies with emergent fields like media industry studies. Intended
for scholars and students of Hollywood film history, Resetting the
Scene intersects with numerous fields consonant with film studies,
including star studies, media industry studies, and critical race
theory.
This open access study of the film Grendel Grendel Grendel,
directed by Alexander Stitt, presents it as a masterpiece of
animation and design which has attained a national and
international cult status since its release in 1981. The film,
based on the novel, Grendel, by John Gardner, is a loose adaptation
of the Beowulf legend, but told from the point of view of the
monster, Grendel. Grendel Grendel Grendel is a mature, intelligent,
irreverent and quite unique animated film - it is a movie, both in
terms of content and of an aesthetic that was well ahead of its
time. Along with a brief overview of Australian animation and a
contextualization of where this animated feature fits within the
broader continuum of Australian (and global) film history, Dan
Torre and Lienors Torre provide an intriguing analysis of this
significant Australian animated feature. The ebook editions of this
book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on
bloomsburycollections.com.
By exploring a range of films about American women, this book
offers readers an opportunity to engage in both history and film in
a new way, embracing representation, diversity, and historical
context. Throughout film history, stories of women achieving in
American history appear few and far between compared to the many
epic tales of male achievement. This book focuses largely on films
written by women and about women who tackled the humanist issues of
their day and mostly won. Films about women are important for all
viewers of all genders because they remind us that the American
Experience is not just male and white. This book examines 10 films,
featuring diverse depictions of women and women's history, and
encourages readers to discern how and where these films deviate
from historical accuracy. Covering films from the 1950s all the way
to the 2010s, this text is invaluable for students and general
readers who wish to interrogate the way women's history appears on
the big screen. Focuses on 10 films with an emphasis on racial and
class diversity Explores where storytelling and historical accuracy
diverge and clarifies the historical record around the events of
the films Organized chronologically, emphasizing the progression of
women's history as portrayed on film Accessible for general readers
as well as students
Stars and Silhouettes traces the history of the cameo as it emerged
in twentieth-century cinema. Although the cameo has existed in film
culture for over a century, Joceline Andersen explains that this
role cannot be strictly defined because it exists as a
constellation of interactions between duration and recognition,
dependent on who is watching and when. Even audiences of the
twenty-first century who are inundated by the lives of movie stars
and habituated to images of their personal friends on screens
continue to find cameos surprising and engaging. Cameos reveal the
links between our obsession with celebrity and our desire to
participate in the powerful cultural industries within contemporary
society. Chapter 1 begins with the cameo's precedents in visual
culture and the portrait in particular-from the Vitagraph
executives in the 1910s to the emergence of actors as movie stars
shortly after. Chapter 2 explores the fan-centric desire for
behind-the-scenes visions of Hollywood that accounted for the
success of cameo-laden, Hollywood-set films that autocratic studios
used to make their glamorous line-up of stars as visible as
possible. Chapter 3 traces the development of the cameo in comedy,
where cameos began to show not only glimpses of celebrities at
their best but also of celebrities at their worst. Chapter 4
examines how the television guest spot became an important way for
stars and studios to market both their films and stars from other
media in trades that reflected an increasingly integrated
mediascape. In Chapter 5, Andersen examines auteur cameos and the
cameo as a sign of authorship. Director cameos reaffirm the fan's
interest in the film not just as a stage for actors but as a forum
for the visibility of the director. Cameos create a participatory
space for viewers, where recognizing those singled out among extras
and small roles allows fans to demonstrate their knowledge. Stars
and Silhouettes belongs on the shelf of every scholar, student, and
reader interested in film history and star studies.
Whether you judge by box office receipts, industry awards, or
critical accolades, science fiction films are the most popular
movies now being produced and distributed around the world. Nor is
this phenomenon new. Sci-fi filmmakers and audiences have been
exploring fantastic planets, forbidden zones, and lost continents
ever since George Melies' 1902 film A Trip to the Moon. In this
highly entertaining and knowledgeable book, film historian and pop
culture expert Douglas Brode picks the one hundred greatest sci-fi
films of all time. Brode's list ranges from today's blockbusters to
forgotten gems, with surprises for even the most informed fans and
scholars. He presents the movies in chronological order, which
effectively makes this book a concise history of the sci-fi film
genre. A striking (and in many cases rare) photograph accompanies
each entry, for which Brode provides a numerical rating, key
credits and cast members, brief plot summary, background on the
film's creation, elements of the moviemaking process, analysis of
the major theme(s), and trivia. He also includes fun outtakes,
including his top ten lists of Fifties sci-fi movies, cult sci-fi,
least necessary movie remakes, and "so bad they're great"
classics-as well as the ten worst sci-fi movies ("those highly
ambitious films that promised much and delivered nil"). So climb
aboard spaceship Brode and journey to strange new worlds from
Metropolis (1927) to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
American Film Noir Genres, Characters, and Settings argues that
film noir style evolved out of American literature prior to the
1930s and continues to evolve long after the classic films that
defined its presence in cinema. While many critics suggest that the
film noir tradition ceased after the mid-1950s, labeling similar
films produced later as 'neo-noir', Harold Hellwig contends that
film noir itself has continued to evolve beyond cinema to include
television series such as CSI, Have Gun Will Travel, and Seinfeld,
among others. Hellwig posits that, rather than being a single genre
in and of itself, film noir comprises several genres, including
detective procedurals, science fiction, the Western, and even
comedy. This book examines different elements of American film noir
- including the characters and settings it is often defined by -
and its contexts within different adaptations in both film and
television. Scholars of film studies, American literature, and
media studies will find this book of particular interest.
Beyond the Silver Screen tells the history of women's engagement
with filmmaking and film culture in twentieth-century Australia. In
doing so, it explores an array of often hidden ways women in
Australia have creatively worked with film. Beyond the Silver
Screen examines film in a broad sense, considering feature
filmmaking alongside government documentaries and political films.
It also focuses on women's work regulating films and supporting
film culture through organising film societies and workshops to
encourage female filmmakers. As such, it tells a new narrative of
Australian film history. Beyond the Silver Screen reveals the
variety of roles film has in Australian society. It presents film
as a medium of creative and political expression, which women have
engaged with in diverse ways throughout the twentieth century.
Gender roles and gendered ideologies operating within society at
large have influenced women's opportunities to work with film and
how their filmwork is recognised. Beyond the Silver Screen shows
women's sustained involvement with film is best understood as
political and cultural action.
This book examines American screen culture and its power to create
and sustain values. Looking specifically at the ways in which
nostalgia colors the visions of American life, essays explore
contemporary American ideology as it is created and sustained by
the screen. Nostalgia is omnipresent, selling a version of America
that arguably never existed. Current socio-cultural challenges are
played out onscreen and placed within the historical milieu through
a nostalgic lens which is tempered by contemporary conservatism.
Essays reveal not only the visual catalog of recognizable motifs
but also how these are used to temper the uncertainty of
contemporary crises. Media covered spans from 1939's Gone with the
Wind, to Stranger Things, The Americans, Twin Peaks, the Fallout
franchise and more.
Reality, Magic, and Other Lies: Fairy-Tale Film Truths explores
connections and discontinuities between lies and truths in
fairy-tale films to directly address the current politics of fairy
tale and reality. Since the Enlightenment, notions of magic and
wonder have been relegated to the realm of the fanciful, with
science and reality understood as objective and true. But the
skepticism associated with postmodern thought and critiques from
diverse perspectives - including but not limited to anti-racist,
decolonial, disability, and feminist theorizing - renders this
binary distinction questionable. Further, the precise content of
magic and science has shifted through history and across location.
Pauline Greenhill offers the idea that fairy tales, particularly
through the medium of film, often address those distinctions by
making magic real and reality magical. Reality, Magic, and Other
Lies consists of an introduction, two sections, and a conclusion,
with the first section, "Studio, Director, and Writer Oeuvres",
addressing how fairy-tale films engage with and challenge
scientific or factual approaches to truth and reality, drawing on
films from the stop-motion animation company LAIKA, the independent
filmmaker Tarsem, and the storyteller and writer Fred Pellerin. The
second section, "Themes and Issues from Three Fairy Tales", shows
fairy-tale film magic exploring real-life issues and experiences
using the stories of "Hansel and Gretel", "The Juniper Tree\2, and
"Cinderella". The concluding section, "Moving Forward?" suggests
that the key to facing the reality of contemporary issues is to
invest in fairy tales as a guide, rather than a means of escape, by
gathering your community and never forgetting to believe. Reality,
Magic, and Other Lies-which will be of interest to film and
fairy-tale scholars and students-considers the ways in which fairy
tales in their mediated forms deconstruct the world and offer
alternative views for peaceful, appropriate, just, and
intersectionally multifaceted encounters with humans, non-human
animals, and the rest of the environment.
Focusing on films from Chile since 2000 and bringing together
scholars from South and North America, Chilean Cinema in the
Twenty-First-Century World is the first English-language book since
the 1970s to explore this small, yet significant, Latin American
cinema. The volume questions the concept of "national cinemas" by
examining how Chilean film dialogues with trends in genre-based,
political, and art-house cinema around the world, while remaining
true to local identities. Contributors place current Chilean cinema
in a historical context and expand the debate concerning the
artistic representation of recent political and economic
transformations in contemporary Chile. Chilean Cinema in the
Twenty-First-Century World opens up points of comparison between
Chile and the ways in which other national cinemas are negotiating
their place on the world stage. The book is divided into five
parts. "Mapping Theories of Chilean Cinema in the Worl"" examines
Chilean filmmakers at international film festivals, and political
and affective shifts in the contemporary Chilean documentary. "On
the Margins of Hollywood: Chilean Genre Flicks" explores on the
emergence of Chilean horror cinema and the performance of martial
arts in Chilean films. "Other Texts and Other Lands: Intermediality
and Adaptation Beyond Chile(an Cinema)" covers the intermedial
transfer from Chilean literature to transnational film and from
music video to film. "Migrations of Gender and Genre" contrasts
films depicting transgender people in Chile and beyond.
"Politicized Intimacies, Transnational Affects: Debating
(Post)memory and History" analyzes representations of Chile's
traumatic past in contemporary documentary and approaches mourning
as a politicized act in postdictatorship cultural production.
Intended for scholars, students, and researchers of film and Latin
American studies, Chilean Cinema in the Twenty-First-Century World
evaluates an active and emergent film movement that has yet to
receive sufficient attention in global cinema studies.
When adapting Shakespeare's comedies, cinema and television have to
address the differences and incompatibilities between early modern
gender constructs and contemporary cultural, social, and political
contexts. Screening Gender in Shakespeare's Comedies: Film and
Television Adaptations in the Twenty-First Century analyzes methods
employed by cinema and television in approaching those aspects of
Shakespeare's comedies, indicating a range of ways in which
adaptations made in the twenty-first century approach the problems
of cultural and social normativity, gender politics, stereotypes of
femininity and masculinity, the dynamic of power relations between
men and women, and social roles of men and women. This book
discusses both mainstream cinematic productions, such as Michael
Radford's The Merchant of Venice or Julie Taymor's The Tempest, and
more low-key adaptations, such as Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It
and Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, as well as the three
comedies of BBC ShakespeaRe-Told miniseries: Much Ado About
Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
This book examines how the analyzed films deal with elements of
Shakespeare's comedies that appear subversive, challenging, or
offensive to today's culture, and how they interpret or update
gender issues to reconcile Shakespeare with contemporary cultural
norms. By exploring tensions and negotiations between early modern
and present-day gender politics, the book defines the prevailing
attitudes of recent adaptations in relation to those issues, and
identifies the most popular strategies of accommodating early
modern constructs for contemporary audiences.
When the head of Columbia Pictures, David Begelman, got caught forging Cliff Robertson's name on a $10,000 check, it seemed, at first, like a simple case of embezzlement. It wasn't. The incident was the tip of the iceberg, the first hint of a scandal that shook Hollywood and rattled Wall Street. Soon powerful studio executives were engulfed in controversy; careers derailed; reputations died; and a ruthless, take-no-prisoners corporate power struggle for the world-famous Hollywood dream factory began. First published in 1982, this now classic story of greed and lies in Tinseltown appears here with a stunning final chapter on Begelman's post-Columbia career as he continued to dazzle and defraud...until his last hours in a Hollywood hotel room, where his story dramatically and poignantly would end.
A Critical Companion to Christopher Nolan provides a wide-ranging
exploration of Christopher Nolan's films, practices, and
collaborations. From a range of critical perspectives, this volume
examines Nolan's body of work, explores its industrial and economic
contexts, and interrogates the director's auteur status. This
volume contributes to the scholarly debates on Nolan and includes
original essays that examine all his films including his short
films. It is structured into three sections that deal broadly with
themes of narrative and time; collaborations and relationships; and
ideology, politics, and genre. The authors of the sixteen chapters
include established Nolan scholars as well as academics with
expertise in approaches and perspectives germane to the study of
Nolan's body of work. To these ends, the chapters employ
intersectional, feminist, political, ideological, narrative,
economic, aesthetic, genre, and auteur analysis in addition to
perspectives from star theory, short film theory, performance
studies, fan studies, adaptation studies, musicology, and media
industry studies.
[This book] explores the changing role of screens, new media
objects, and social media in Japanese horror films from the 2010s
to present day. Lindsay Nelson places these films and their
paratexts in the context of changes in the new media landscape that
have occurred since J-horror's peak in the early 2000s; in
particular, the rise of social media and the ease of user
remediation through platforms like YouTube and Niconico. This book
demonstrates how Japanese horror film narratives have shifted their
focus from old media-video cassettes, TV, and cell phones-to new
media-social media, online video sharing, and smart phones. In
these films, media devices and new media objects exist both inside
and outside the frame: they are central to the films' narratives,
but they are also the means through which the films are consumed
and disseminated. Across a multitude of screens, platforms,
devices, and perspectives, Nelson argues, contemporary Japanese
horror films are circulated as an ever-shifting series of images
and fragments, creating a sense of "fractured reality" in the
films' narratives and the media landscape that surrounds them.
Scholars of film studies, horror studies, media studies, and
Japanese studies will find this book particularly useful.
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