This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. Giori uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.

Includes bibliographical references (p.[435]-441) and index.

Brilliantly introduced by Nezar Andary, this book is a work of creative nonfiction that approaches writing on film in a fresh and provocative way. It draws on academic, literary, and personal material to start a dialogue with the Egyptian filmmaker Shadi Abdel Salam's The Mummy (1969), tracing the many meanings of Egypt's postcolonial modernity and touching on Arab, Muslim, and ancient Egyptian identities through watching the film.

This book provides a collection of Lacanian responses to Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 from leading theorists in the field. Like Ridley Scott's original Blade Runner film, its sequel is now poised to provoke philosophical and psychoanalytic arguments, and to provide illustrations and inspiration for questions of being and the self, for belief and knowledge, the human and the post-human, amongst others. This volume forms the vanguard of responses from a Lacanian perspective, satisfying the hunger to extend the theoretical considerations of the first film in the various new directions the second film invites. Here, the contributors revisit the implications of the human-replicant relationship but move beyond this to consider issues of ideology, politics, and spectatorship. This exciting collection will appeal to an educated film going public, in addition to students and scholars of Lacanian psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic theory, cultural studies, film theory, philosophy and applied psychoanalysis.

This book uses the long and profitable career of Cecil B. DeMille to track the evolution of Classical Hollywood and its influence on emerging mass commercial culture in the US. DeMille's success rested on how well his films presumed a broad consensus in the American public-expressed through consumer hedonism, faith, and an "exceptional" national history-which merged seamlessly with the efficient production methods developed by the largest integrated studios. DeMille's sudden mid-career shift away from spectator perversity to corporate propagandist permanently tarnished the director's historical standing among scholars, yet should not overshadow the profound links between his success and the rise and fall of mid-century mass culture.

The prevailing view is that existentialism is a product of postWorld War II Europe and had no significant presence in the United States before the 1940s. Jean-Paul Sartre and associates are credited with establishing the philosophy in France, and later introducing it to Americans. But conventional wisdom about existentialism in the United States is mistaken. The United States actually developed its own unique brand of existentialism several years before Sartre and company published their first existentialist works. Film noir, and the hard-boiled fiction that served as its initial source material, represent one form of American existentialism that was produced independently of European philosophy. Hard-boiled fiction introduced the tough and savvy private detective, the duplicitous femme-fatale, the innocent victim of circumstance, and the confessing but remorseless murderer. Creators of this uniquely American crime genre engaged existential themes of isolation, anxiety, futility, and death in the thrilling context of the urban crime thriller. The film noir cycle of Hollywood cinema brought these features to the screen, and offered a distinctively dark visual style compatible with the unorthodox narrative techniques of hard-boiled fiction writers. Film noir has gained critical acceptance for its artistic merit, and the term has a ubiquitous presence in American culture. Americans have much to gain by recognizing their own contributors to the history of existentialism. Existentialism, Film Noir, and Hard-Boiled Fiction describes and celebrates a unique form of existentialism produced mostly by and for working-class people. Faisons analysis of the existentialist value of earlytwentieth-century crime stories and films illustrates that philosophical ideas are available from a rich diversity of sources. Faison examines the plight of philosophy, which occupies a small corner of the academy, and is largely ignored beyond its walls. According to the author, philosophers do themselves and the public a disservice when they restrict what is called existentialism, or philosophy, to that which the academy traditionally approves. The tendency to limit the range of sanctioned material led the professional community to miss the philosophical importance of the critically acclaimed phenomenon known as film noir, and significantly contributes to the contemporary status of philosophy. Existentialism, Film Noir, and Hard-Boiled Fiction properly identifies existentialism, not as the original creation of postWorld War II Europeans, but as a shorthand term used to describe a compelling vision of the world. The themes associated with existentialism are found in the ancient Greek tragedies, and dramatic narrative has been the preferred conveyance of the existentialist message. American and European philosophers present during the early decades of the twentieth century, agreed that the United States was not fertile soil for the existentialist message, but the popularity of hard-boiled fiction and film noir contradicts such claims. Faison examines and emphasizes the working-class origins and orientation of hard-boiled fiction to reveal the division between elites and working-class Americans that led to the ill-informed conclusion. Faison effectively challenges the frequent assertion that the intellectual and creative sources of film noir are to be found in European thinkers andmovements, and establishes film noir, like hard-boiled fiction, as a uniquely American phenomenon. Existentialism, Film Noir, and Hard-Boiled Fiction is scholarly and accessible, and will appeal to academics interested in existentialism, philosophy, and interdisciplinary studies, film enthusiasts interested in the narrative and visual techniques employed in film noir, and fans of hard-boiled mystery fiction and the work of screen legends of the Hollywood studio era.

The adventures and antics of James Bond have provided the world with many of the most gripping story lines of the last half-century. Fleming's novels were best-sellers in their day, and the Bond films have been even more popular, becoming the most enduring and successful film franchise in history. By some estimates, half of the world's population--billions of people--have seen a James Bond movie, thus viewing an image of global struggle through Western eyes and obtaining a particular perception of Britain and the world. This fascinating and accessible account of the global phenomenon uses the plots and characterizations in the novels and the blockbuster films to place Bond in a historical, cultural, and political context.

Black charts and explores how the settings and the dynamics of the Bond adventures have changed over time in response to shifts in the real-world environment in which the fictional Bond operates. Sex, race, class, and violence are each important factors as 007 evolves from Cold Warrior to foe of SPECTRE and eventually to world defender pitted against megalomaniacal foes. The development of Bond, his leading ladies, and the major plots all shed light on world political attitudes and reflect elements of the real espionage history of the period. This look at Bond's world and his lasting legacy offers an intriguing glimpse into both cultural history and popular entertainment.

The animated science-fiction adventures of Rick and Morty are irreverent, shocking, and hilarious--from the cynical and rapid-fire one liners, to the grotesquely and endearing character designs. Now, take a deep trans-dimensional dive into the creation of these many insane universes with The Art of Rick and Morty!This new book is a must-have, not only for followers of the series, but for fans of animation as well! Featuring intimate commentary from the show's creators accompanying a vast collection of process, concept, and production art, this volume offers a tantalizing exploration of one of the most outlandish and beloved shows on television. Don't miss your chance to see the amazing art that goes into creating this twisted and fantastic Adult Swim series!Exclusive never before seen concept art from the making of the hit animated series, Rick and Morty! The comprehensive companion to the hit series, Rick and Morty!The art book that Rick and Morty fans have been waiting for!

This edited collection of contributions from media scholars, film practitioners and film historians connects the vibrant fields of documentary and disability studies. Documentary film has not only played an historical role in the social construction of disability but continues to be a strong force for expression, inclusion and activism. Offering essays on the interpretation and conception of a wide variety of documentary formats, Documentary and Disability reveals a rich set of resources on subjects as diverse as Thomas Quasthoff's opera performances, Tourette syndrome in the developing world, queer approaches to sexual functionality, Channel 4 disability sports broadcasting, the political meaning of cochlear implant activation, and Christoph's Schlingensief's celebrated Freakstars 3000.

This book examines representations of home in literary and visual cultures in the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection brings together scholars working on literature, film, and photography with the aim of showcasing new research in a burgeoning field focusing on representations of domesticity. The chapters span a diverse range of contexts from across the world and use a variety of approaches to exploring representations of home including studies of space, material culture, sexuality, gender, multiculturalism, diaspora, memory and archival practice. They include explorations of the Finnish Suburban home on film, home and the diasporic imagination in Chinese Canadian women's writing and the archiving practices and photographs used to document the homes of two gay writers from Australia and New Zealand. By bringing together this range of approaches and subjects, the book explores domestic imaginaries as part of a multi-faceted, mutable and amorphous conception of home in a modern, world context. This collection therefore seeks to further studies of home by investigating how the page, screen and photograph have constructed domestic imaginaries - experiencing, critiquing, reconfiguring and archiving home - in a global age.

This volume is the first book-length account of Yves Montand's controversial tour of the Soviet Union at the turn of the years 1956/57. It traces the mixed messages of this internationally visible act of cultural diplomacy in the middle of the turbulent Cold War. It also provides an account of the celebrated French singer-actor's controversial career, his dedication to music and to peace activism, as well as his widespread fandom in the USSR. The book describes the political background for the events of the year 1956, including the changing Soviet atmosphere after Stalin's death, portrays the rising transnational stardom of Montand in the 1940s and 1950s, and explores the controversies aroused by his plan to visit Moscow after the Hungarian Uprising. The book pays particular attention to Montand's reception in the USSR and his concert performances, drawing on unique archival material and oral history interviews, and analyses the documentary Yves Montand Sings (1957) released immediately after his visit.

The cinematic tale of Harrison Marks' nudist feature "Naked As Nature Intended, the iconic naturist film that brought us bare breasts on Porthcurno beach, donkey-stroking in Clovelly and Pamela Green in her birthday suit. Behind the scenes exclusives and never before seen pictures.

Otto Preminger (1905-1986), whose Hollywood career spanned the 1930s through the 1970s, is popularly remembered for the acclaimed films he directed, among which are the classic film noir Laura, the social-realist melodrama The Man with the Golden Arm, the CinemaScope musical Carmen Jones, and the riveting courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. As a screen actor, he forged an indelible impression as a sadistic Nazi in Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 and as the diabolical Mr. Freeze in television's Batman. He is remembered, too, for drastically transforming Hollywood's industrial practices. With Exodus, Preminger broke the Hollywood blacklist, controversially granting screen credit to Dalton Trumbo, one of the exiled "Hollywood Ten." Preminger, a committed liberal, consistently shattered Hollywood's conventions. He routinely tackled socially progressive yet risque subject matter, pressing the Production Code's limits of permissibility. He mounted Black-cast musicals at a period of intense racial unrest. And he embraced a string of other taboo topics-heroin addiction, rape, incest, homosexuality-that established his reputation as a trailblazer of adult-centered storytelling, an enemy of Hollywood puritanism, and a crusader against censorship. Otto Preminger: Interviews compiles nineteen interviews from across Preminger's career, providing fascinating insights into the methods and mindset of a wildly polarizing filmmaker. With remarkable candor, Preminger discusses his filmmaking practices, his distinctive film style, his battles against censorship and the Hollywood blacklist, his clashes with film critics, and his turbulent relationships with a host of well-known stars, from Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra to Jane Fonda and John Wayne.

aBlending cinematic, literary, historical, and political analyses, Watching Rape demonstrates that filmic representations of rape are never only about gender and sexual violence, but are narrative devices that also attempt to regulate such conflicts and boundaries of power as race, nationality, and social class. Projansky makes good on her bold claim that representations of rape are ubiquitous, versatile, and utterly central to the history of cinema itself. A scholarly tour de force, a feminist triumph. Two thumbs up!a
--Judith Stacey, University of Southern California

aExciting and original. Sarah Projanskyas work on rape and postfeminism is an important contribution to scholarship in film and cultural studies, as well as womenas studies.a
--Richard Slotkin, author of "Gunfighter Nation"

a"Watching Rape" is a compelling account of the role of the rape in making meaning and re-inscribing inequalities within visual media, and as such it is a necessary and valuable research contribution. a
--Leslie Kern, School of Womenas Studies, York University

aSarah Projanskyas work is distinctive for its theoretical clarity and interdisciplinary feminist framework. She urges us to think deeply about the ways in which media shape our understandings of sexual violence. Watching Rape is a powerful, historically grounded, incisive analysis of the representation of sexual violence.a
--Rosa Linda Fregoso, University of California-Santa Cruz

Looking at popular culture from 1980 to the present, feminism appears to be "over": that is, according to popular critics we are in an era of "postfeminism" in which feminism has supposedly already achieved equality for women.

Not so, saysSarah Projansky. In Watching Rape, Projansky undermines this complacent view in her fascinating and thorough analysis of depictions of rape in U.S. film, television, and independent video. Through a cultural studies analysis of such films as Thelma and Louise, Daughters of the Dust, and She's Gotta Have It, and television shows like ER, Ally McBeal, Beverly Hills 90210, and various made-for-tv movies, Projansky challenges us to see popular culture as a part of our everyday lives and practices, and to view that culture critically. How have media defined rape and feminism differently over time? How do popular narratives about rape also communicate ideas about gender, race, class, nationality, and sexuality? And, what is the future of feminist politics, theory, and criticism with regard to issues of sexual violence, postfeminism, and popular media?

The first study to address the relationship between rape and postfeminism, and one of the most detailed and thorough analyses of rape in 25 years, Watching Rape is a crucial contribution to contemporary feminism.

With reference to traditional film theory and frameworks drawn from fields such as screenwriting studies and anthropology, this book explores the challenges and opportunities for both practitioners and viewers offered by the 360-degree storytelling form. It focuses on cinematic virtual reality (CVR), a format that involves immersive, high quality, live action or computer-generated imagery (CGI) that can be viewed through head mounted display (HMD) goggles or via online platforms such as YouTube. This format has surged in popularity in recent years due to the release of affordable high quality omnidirectional (360-degree) cameras and consumer grade HMDs. The book interrogates four key concepts for this emerging medium: immersion, presence, embodiment and proximity through an analysis of innovative case studies and with reference to practitioner interviews. In doing so, it highlights the specificity of the format and provides a critical account of practitioner approaches to the concept development, writing and realisation of short narrative CVR works. The book concludes with an account of the author's practice-led research into the form, providing a valuable example of creative practice in the field of immersive media.