The Language and Style of Film Criticism brings together original essays from an international range of academics and film critics highlighting the achievements, complexities and potential of film criticism.

In recent years, in contrast to the theoretical, historical and cultural study of film, film criticism has been relatively marginalised, especially within the academy. This book highlights the distinctiveness of film criticism and addresses ways in which it can take a more central place within the academy and develop in dynamic ways outside it.

The Language and Style of Film Criticism is essential reading for academics, teachers, students and journalists who wish to understand and appreciate the language and style of film criticism.

Seeing is an act of relating. Being in relation, according to much of feminist theology, can be an ethical activity. This book is based on the assumption that seeing can be an ethical way of relating to the other. Through looking, on the one hand, at films that describe women artists who see another person, and, on the other, at feminist theology, this book puts forward an original view of the act of seeing as a gesture of respect for and belief in another person's visible and invisible sides, which guarantees the safekeeping of the other's memory.

1) This book analyses the role of cosmopolitan ideals in the science fiction cinemas of twenty-first century. 2) It deals with diverse topics like economic precarity, climate change, kinship, romance, networks, and colonialism through films like Elysium and Cloud Atlas, among others. 3) This book will be of interest to departments of film & media studies and cultural studies across UK.

A timely exploration of Oscar-nominated Black actors and the complicated legacy of the Academy Awards. In Black Oscars: From Mammy to Minny, What the Academy Awards Tell Us about African Americans, Frederick W. Gooding Jr. draws on American, African American, and film history to reflect on how the Oscars have recognized Black actors from the award's inception to the present. Starting in the 1920s, the chapters provide a thorough overview and analysis of Black actors nominated for their Hollywood roles during each decade, with special attention paid to the winners. Historical patterns are scrutinized to reveal racial trends and open the question of whether race relations have truly changed substantively or only superficially over time. Given the Oscars' presence and popularity, it begs the question of what these awards reflect and reinforce about larger society. In the meticulously-researched Black Oscars, we see how the Academy Awards are an indispensable guide to understanding race in mainstream Hollywood and beyond.

- Seeks to bridge the divide between scholarly work on critical aesthetics vs. audience expectations in relation to film and television studies. - Draws on a comprehensive and original data-set from a national survey that examined audience perceptions of film genres and television formats, associated viewing patterns, and the current usage of streaming and other newer moving image adjuncts. - Reflects on how the pandemic has impacted viewing patterns and genre and format expectations moving forward.

It is a common assertion that the history of America is written in its Westerns, but how true is this?

In this guidebook John White discusses the evolution of the Western through history and looks at theoretical and critical approaches to Westerns such as genre analysis, semiotics, representation, ideology, discourse analysis, narrative, realism, auteur and star theory, psychoanalytical theory, postmodernism and audience response. The book includes case studies of 8 key westerns:

• Stagecoach
• My Darling Clementine
• Shane
• The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
• McCabe and Mrs Miller
• Unforgiven
• Brokeback Mountain
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Including a chronology of significant events for the Western genre, a glossary and further reading, this introduction to an important genre in film studies is a great guide for students.

During more than two decades (1932-1954), William Faulkner worked on approximately fifty screenplays for studios, including MGM, 20th Century-Fox, and Warner Bros., and was credited on such classic films as The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not. The scripts that Faulkner wrote for film and, later on, television constitute an extensive and, until now, thoroughly underexplored archival source. Stefan Solomon not only analyzes the majority of these scripts but compares them to the novels and short stories Faulkner was writing at the same time. Solomon's aim is to reconcile two aspects of a career that were not as distinct as they first might seem: Faulkner as a screenwriter and Faulkner as a high modernist, Nobel Prize-winning author. Faulkner's Hollywood sojourns took place during a period roughly bounded by the publication of Light in August (1932) and A Fable (1954) and that also saw the publication of Absalom, Absalom!; Go Down, Moses; and Intruder in the Dust. As Solomon shows Faulkner attuning himself to the idiosyncrasies of the screen writing process (a craft he never favored or admired), he offers insights into Faulkner's compositional practice, thematic preoccupations, and understanding of both classic cinema and the emerging medium of television. In the midst of this complex exchange of media and genres, much of Faulkner's fiction of the 1930s and 1940s was directly influenced by his protracted engagement with the film industry. Solomon helps us to see a corpus integrating two vastly different modes of writing and a restless author, sensitive to the different demands of each. Faulkner was never simply the southern novelist or the West Coast "hack writer" but always both at once. Solomon's study shows that Faulkner's screenplays are crucial in any consideration of his far more esteemed fiction and that the two forms of writing are more porous and intertwined than the author himself would have us believe. Here is a major American writer seen in a remarkably new way.

"New Takes in Film-Philosophy" offers a space for the advancement of the film-philosophy debate by some of its major figures. Fifteen leading academics from Philosophy and Film Studies develop new approaches to film-philosophy, broaden theoretical analyses of the topic and map out problems and possibilities for its future.
The collection examines theoretical issues about the relationship between film and philosophy; looks at the relationships film-philosophy has to other media such as photography and literature; and applies theoretical approaches to particular films and directors.
Written in a clear style that assumes no previous knowledge of any particular philosopher, this collection will appeal to advanced students and scholars in philosophy, film studies, cultural studies, media studies and the arts.

..".contains useful and nuanced readings of the best-known films dealing with themes related to unification, as well as highlighting some equally interesting lesser-known works, in order to provide a rounded picture of German cinema's engagement with these issues in the past 17 years. I am not aware of any other publication that covers such a range of material and this in itself makes the book a valuable contribution to the field." . David Clarke, University of Bath

"This is an extremely rich study of the representation of east German identity and the former GDR in post-unification cinema. The author clearly has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the films of this period ... Hodgin's book breaks genuinely new ground." . Sean Allan, University of Warwick

"The book reveals an excellent knowledge of German culture and cinema, and combines methodological soundness with an ability to talk about films in a lively way free of jargon. Screening the East should not be missed by anybody interested in German cinema and culture, as well as cinema as discourse on history and space." . Ewa Mazierska, University of Central Lancashire

"Screening the East provides insightful readings of contemporary classics such as Good Bye, Lenin and The Lives of Others alongside films which complement these popular memories of life on the other side of the Wall by an eastern and, arguably, more authentic perspective. Surveying the post-Wall cinematic landscape from a number of different critical vantage points, Hodgin proposes that DEFA's legacy has not been obliterated but has evolved into a surprisingly diverse film culture. This is an engaging and important contribution to German cinema and cultural studies, providing a wealth of contextual detail." . Daniela Berghahn, Reader in Film Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London

Screening the East considers German filmmakers' responses to unification. In particular, it traces the representation of the East German community in films made since 1989 and considers whether these narratives challenge or reinforce the notion of a separate East German identity. The book identifies and analyses a large number of films, from internationally successful box-office hits, to lesser-known productions, many of which are discussed here for the first time. Providing an insight into the films' historical and political context, it considers related issues such as stereotyping, racism, regional particularism and the Germans' confrontation with the past."

The phenomenon of so-called 'snuff movies' (films that allegedly document real acts of murder, specifically designed to 'entertain' and sexually arouse the spectator) represents a fascinating socio-cultural paradox. At once unproven, yet accepted by many, as emblematic of the very worst extremes of pornography and horror, moral detractors have argued that the mere idea of snuff constitutes the logical (and terminal) extension of generic forms that are dependent primarily upon the excitement, stimulation and, ultimately, corruption of the senses. Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media brings together scholars from film and media studies to assess the longevity of one of screen media's most enduring cultural myths. Thorough, provocative, and well argued, the contributions to this volume address areas ranging from exploitation movies, the video industry, trends in contemporary horror cinema, pornography and Web 2.0.

Adopting a textual, chronological approach, "Studying German Cinema" is for students of German and film studies and the general reader with an interest in German cinema. Each of the fourteen chapters focuses on one key film, from the groundbreaking horror "Nosferatu" (1922) to the Oscar-winning "The Lives of Others" (2007), and explores industrial practices both in West and East Germany; aesthetic approaches; auteurist traditions (including films by Fassbinder, Wenders, and Herzog); and ideology. Each film is embedded in its cultural and political context, and together they provide an overview of German history from the end of World War I to the present.

In the contemporary fascination with images of crime, violence gets under our skin and keeps us enthralled. The Scene of Violence explores the spectator's encounter with the cinematic scene of violence - rape and revenge, homicide and serial killing, torture and terrorism. Providing a detailed reading of both classical and contemporary films - for example, Kill Bill, Blue Velvet, Reservoir Dogs, The Matrix, Psycho, The Accused, Elephant, Seven, Thelma & Louise, United 93, Zodiac, and No Country for Old Men - Alison Young returns the affective processes of the cinematic image to the study of law, crime and violence. Engaging with legal theory, cultural criminology and film studies, the book unfolds both our attachment to the authority of law and our identification with the illicit. Its original contribution is to bring together the cultural fascination of crime with a nuanced account of what it means to watch cinema. The Scene of Violence shows how the spectator is bound by the laws of film to the judgment of the crime-image.

Cinematic depictions of real U.S. presidents from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush explore how Hollywood movies represent American history and politics on screen. Morgan and his contributors show how films blend myth and reality to present a positive message about presidents as the epitome of America's values and idealism until unpopular foreign wars in Vietnam and Iraq led to a darker portrayal of the imperial presidency, operated by Richard Nixon and Bush 43. This exciting new collection further considers how Hollywood has continually reinterpreted historically significant presidents, notably Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, to fit the times in which movies about them were made.

Bilton's study of early 20th Century American Culture interprets the anarchic absurdity of slapstick movies as a form of collective anxiety dream, their fantastical images and illogical gags bypassing rational thought to express the unconscious fears, wishes and concerns of the modern age. Silent film comedy, with its childlike love of the illogical, the destructive and the anti-social, seems to suggest a form of comic revolt against the mechanisation and the uniformity of the machine age, but the book also charts how a new consumer culture sought simultaneously to tame and contain these energies, redirecting them in the service of a newly emergent mass culture. Not just a film history of the silent era, Bilton also provides a provocative and lively engagement with the origins of mass culture, tracing the origins of Hollywood's dream factory and alongside it the roots of our own irrational, childlike, celebrity-obsessed consumer culture.

Masculinity and Irish Popular Culture is an interdisciplinary collection of essays by established and emerging scholars, analysing the shifting representations of Irish men across a range of popular culture forms in the period of the Celtic Tiger and beyond. From the self-stylings of GAA star Paul Galvin to theatrical depictions of an Irish masculinity in crisis, the essays firmly situate these diverse images of Irish manhood within the social and cultural contexts that produced them. Taking as its overall context the social changes instigated by the economic boom of the 1990s, the book traces the effects of these changes into popular understandings of what it is to be an Irish male. Through insightful analyses of film, theatre, literature and more, the essays in this collection argue that Irish masculinity has become a more heterogeneous concept within this period while critiquing the gender binaries that continue to structure Irish society and culture.

Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia-no longer on the map. East Europe of the socialist period may seem like a historical oddity, apparently so different from everything before and after. Yet the masterpieces of literature and cinema from this largely forgotten "Second World," as well as by the authors formed in it and working in its aftermath, surprise and delight with their contemporary resonance. This book introduces and illuminates a number of these works. It explores how their aesthetic ingenuity discovers ways of engaging existential and universal predicaments, such as how one may survive in the world of victimizations, or imagine a good city, or broach the human boundaries to live as a plant. Like true classics of world art, these novels, stories, and films-to rephrase Bohumil Hrabal-keep "telling us things about ourselves we don't know." In lively and jargon-free prose, Gordana P. Crnkovic builds on her rich teaching experience to create paths to these works and reveal how they changed lives.

This book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of film in the context of the Anthropocene: the new geological era in which human beings have collectively become a force of nature. Daniel White draws on perspectives in philosophy, ecology, and cybernetics (the science of communication and control in animals and machines) to explore human self-understanding through film in the new era. The classical figure of Janus, looking both to the future and the past, serves as a guide throughout the study. Both feature and documentary films are considered.

This book explores the evolution of audience receptions of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy (2012-14) as an exemplar of the contemporary blockbuster event film franchise. Drawing on findings from a unique cross-cultural and longitudinal study, the authors argue that processes and imperatives associated with Hollywood 'blockbusterisation' shaped the trilogy's conditions of production, format, content, and visual aesthetic in ways that left many viewers progressively disenchanted. The chapters address public and private prefigurations of the Hobbit trilogy, modes of reception, new cinematic technologies and the Hobbit hyperreality paradox, gender representations, adaptation and the transformation of cinematic desire, and the role of social and cultural location in shaping audience engagement and response. This book will appeal to audience researchers, Q methodologists, scholars and students in film and media studies, Tolkien scholars, and Hobbit fans and critics alike.

Focusing on "dark" or black comedy films in the US and the UK, Wheeler Winston Dixon provides a comprehensive overview of a variety of films and filmmakers (Vanishing Point, Marcel Hanoun), whose work has largely been ignored, but whose influence and importance is clearly present.

The Films of Mira Nair: Diaspora Verite presents the first, full-length scholarly study of her cinema. Mira Nair has broken new ground as both a feminist filmmaker and an Indian filmmaker. Several of her works, especially those related to the South Asian diaspora, have been influential around the globe. Amardeep Singh delves into the complexities of Nair's films from 1981 to 2016, offering critical commentary on all of Nair's major works, including her early documentary projects as well as shorts. The subtitle, ""diaspora verite,"" alludes to Singh's primary theme: Nair's filmmaking project is driven aesthetically by her background in the documentary realist tradition (cinema verite) and thematically by her interest in the lives of migrants and diasporic populations. Mainly, Nair's filmmaking intends to document imaginatively the experiences of diasporic communities. Nair's focus on the diasporic appears in the long list of her films that have explored the subject, such as Mississippi Masala, So Far from India, Monsoon Wedding, The Perez Family, My Own Country, The Namesake, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. However, a version of the diasporic sensibility also emerges even in films with an apparently different scope, such as Nair's adaptation of Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Nair began her career as a documentary filmmaker in the early 1980s. While Nair now has largely moved away from the documentary format in favor of making fictional feature films, Singh shows that a documentary realist style remains active in her subsequent fictional cinema.

This book explores how minds at the movies understand minds in the movies and introduces readers to some fundamental principles of Cognitive Studies-namely conceptual blending, Theory of Mind, and empathy/perspective-taking-through their application to film analysis. A cognitive approach to recent popular historical films demonstrates cinema's potential to stimulate viewers' critical thinking about crucial events of the past century. Diverging from the focus on narrative processing in traditional cognitivist theory, this book examines film reception and production in the context of the latest developments in cognitive and social psychology. Turning to German cinema as a case study for this interdisciplinary partnership, Jennifer Marston William offers a fresh look at some internationally successful films of the twenty-first century, including Nowhere in Africa, Goodbye, Lenin!, Sophie Scholl, Downfall, The Lives of Others, and The Baader-Meinhof Complex.