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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema
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 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.
Exam Board: AQA, Edexcel & Eduqas Level: AS/A-level Subject:
Modern Languages First Teaching: September 2017 First Exam: June
2018 Film analysis made easy. Build your students' confidence in
their language abilities and help them develop the skills needed to
critique their chosen work: putting it into context, understanding
the themes and director's technique, as well as specialist
terminology. Breaking down each scene, character and theme in El
laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth), this accessible guide will
enable your students to understand the historical and social
context of the film and give them the critical and language skills
needed to write a successful essay. - Strengthen language skills
with relevant grammar, vocab and writing exercises throughout - Aim
for top marks by building a bank of textual examples and quotes to
enhance exam response - Build confidence with knowledge-check
questions at the end of every chapter - Revise effectively with
pages of essential vocabulary and key mind maps throughout - Feel
prepared for exams with advice on how to write an essay, plus
sample essay questions, two levels of model answers and examiner
commentary
This book tells the story of German-language literature on film,
beginning with pioneering motion picture adaptations of Faust in
1897 and early debates focused on high art as mass culture. It
explores, analyzes and contextualizes the so-called 'golden age' of
silent cinema in the 1920s, the impact of sound on adaptation
practices, the abuse of literary heritage by Nazi filmmakers, and
traces the role of German-language literature in exile and postwar
films, across ideological boundaries in divided Germany, in New
German Cinema, and in remakes and movies for cinema as well as
television and streaming services in the 21st century. Having
provided the narrative core to thousands of films since the late
19th century, many of German cinema's most influential masterpieces
were inspired by canonical texts, popular plays, and even
children's literature. Not being restricted to German adaptations,
however, this book also traces the role of literature originally
written in German in international film productions, which sheds
light on the interrelation between cinema and key historical
events. It outlines how processes of adaptation are shaped by
global catastrophes and the emergence of nations, by materialist
conditions, liberal economies and capitalist imperatives, political
agendas, the mobility of individuals, and sometimes by the desire
to create reflective surfaces and, perhaps, even art. Commercial
cinema's adaptation practices have foregrounded economic interest,
but numerous filmmakers throughout cinema history have turned to
German-language literature not simply to entertain, but as a
creative contribution to the public sphere, marking adaptation
practice, at least potentially, as a form of active citizenship.
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.
John Thornton Caldwell's landmark Specworld demonstrates how
twenty-first-century media industries monetize and industrialize
creative labor at all levels of production. Through illuminating
case studies and rich ethnography of colliding social-media and
filmmaking practices, Caldwell takes readers into the world of
production workshopping and trade mentoring to show media
production as an untidy social construct rather than a unified,
stable practice. This messy complex system, he argues, is full of
discrete yet interconnected parts that include legacy production
companies, marketers and influencers, aspirant online producers,
data miners, financiers, talent agencies, and more. Caldwell peels
away the layers of these embedded production systems to examine the
folds, fault lines, and fractures that underlie a risky,
high-pressure, and often exploitative industry. With insights on
the ethical and human predicament faced by industry hopefuls and
crossover creators seeking professional careers, Caldwell offers
new interpretive frames and research methods that allow readers to
better see the hidden and multifaceted financial logics and forms
of labor embedded in contemporary media production industries.
Structure is Character. Characters are what they do. Story events
impact the characters and the characters impact events. Actions and
reactions create revelation and insight, opening the door to a
meaningful emotional experience for the audience. Story is what
elevates a film, a novel, a play, or teleplay, transforming a good
work into a great one. Movie-making in particular is a
collaborative endeavour - requiring great skill and talent by the
entire cast, crew and creative team - but the screenwriter is the
only original artist on a film. Everyone else - the actors,
directors, cameramen, production designers, editors, special
effects wizards and so on - are interpretive artists, trying to
bring alive the world, the events and the characters that the
writer has invented and created. Robert McKee's STORY is a
comprehensive and superbly organized exploration of all elements,
from the basics to advanced concepts. It is a practical course,
presenting new perspectives on the craft of storytelling, not just
for the screenwriter but for the novelist, playwright, journalist
and non-fiction writers of all types.
Completely revised, expanded & updated, The Dead Walk is a
highly informative and entertaining study of the diverse zombie
film phenomenon. Included are a visual feast of wide-ranging and
often shocking films - from the monochrome epics of the 1930's
& 1940's, the science-fiction orientated zombie films of the
1950's, the graphic splatter films & so-called "video nasties"
of the 1980's before coming bang up to date to reflect the
re-emergence of the zombie genre again, only now racing rather than
shuffling towards box office domination anew. The Dead Walk
provides a fascinating insight into films from across the globe as
well as devoting proper attention to individual filmmakers such as
George A. Romero & Lucio Fulci who have made the zombie genre
their own. As well as detailing the historical origins of zombie
lore rooted within Haitian voodoo rites, films as diverse as Sam
Raimi's The Evil Dead series to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork
Orange are featured, together with a separate chap
The cinephile community knows Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) as one
of the most important filmmakers of the previous decades. This
volume illustrates why the Iranian filmmaker achieved critical
acclaim around the globe and details his many contributions to the
art of filmmaking. Kiarostami began his illustrious career in his
native Iran in the 1970s, although European and American audiences
did not begin to take notice until he released his 1987 feature
Where's the Friend's House? His films defy established conventions,
placing audiences as active viewers who must make decisions about
actions and characters while watching the narratives unfold. He
asks viewers to question the genre construct (Close-Up) and
challenges them to determine how to watch and imagine a narrative
(Ten and Shirin). In recognition for his approach to the craft,
Kiarostami was awarded many honors during his lifetime, including
the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for Taste of
Cherry. In Abbas Kiarostami: Interviews, editor Monika Raesch
collects eighteen interviews (several translated into English for
the first time), lectures, and other materials that span
Kiarostami's career in the film industry. In addition to exploring
his expertise, the texts provide insight into his life philosophy.
This volume offers a well-rounded picture of the filmmaker through
his conversations with journalists, film scholars, critics,
students, and audience members.
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.
This collection of forty new essays, written by the leading
scholars in adaptation studies and distinguished contributors from
outside the field, is the most comprehensive volume on adaptation
ever published. Written to appeal alike to specialists in
adaptation, scholars in allied fields, and general readers, it
hearkens back to the foundations of adaptation studies a century
and more ago, surveys its ferment of activity over the past twenty
years, and looks forward to the future. It considers the very
different problems in adapting the classics, from the Bible to
Frankenstein to Philip Roth, and the commons, from online mashups
and remixes to adult movies. It surveys a dizzying range of
adaptations around the world, from Latin American telenovelas to
Czech cinema, from Hong Kong comics to Classics Illustrated, from
Bollywood to zombies, and explores the ways media as different as
radio, opera, popular song, and videogames have handled adaptation.
Going still further, it examines the relations between adaptation
and such intertextual practices as translation, illustration,
prequels, sequels, remakes, intermediality, and transmediality. The
volume's contributors consider the similarities and differences
between adaptation and history, adaptation and performance,
adaptation and revision, and textual and biological adaptation,
casting an appreciative but critical eye on the theory and practice
of adaptation scholars-and, occasionally, each other. The Oxford
Handbook of Adaptation Studies offers specific suggestions for how
to read, teach, create, and write about adaptations in order to
prepare for a world in which adaptation, already ubiquitous, is
likely to become ever more important.
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