Craziness and Carnival in Neo-Noir Chinese Cinema offers an in-depth discussion of the "stone phenomenon" in Chinese film production and cinematic discourses triggered by the extraordinary success of the 2006 low-budget film, Crazy Stone. Surveying the nuanced implications of the film noir genre, Harry Kuoshu argues that global neo noir maintains a mediascape of references, borrowings, and re-workings and explores various social and cultural issues that constitute this Chinese episode of neo noir. Combining literary explorations of carnival, postmodernism, and post-socialism, Kuoshu advocates for neo noir as a cultural phenomenon that connects filmmakers, film critics, and film audiences rather than an industrial genre.

Roberta Piazza's book is a linguistic investigation of the dialogue of Italian cinema covering a selection of films from the 1950s to the present day. It looks at how speech is dealt with in studies of the cinema and tackles the lack of engagement with dialogue in film studies. It explores the representation of discourse in cinema -- the way particular manifestations of verbal interaction are reproduced in film. Whereas representation generally refers to the language used in texts to assign meaning to a group and its social practices, here discourse representation more directly refers to the relationship between real-life and cinematic discourse. Piazza analyses how fictional dialogue reinterprets authentic interaction in order to construe particular meanings. Beginning by exploring the relationship between discourse and genre, the second half of the book takes a topic-based approach and reflects on the themes of narrative and identity. The analysis carried out takes on board the multi-semiotic and multimodal components of film discourse. The book uses also uses concepts and methodologies from pragmatics, conversation analysis and discourse analysis.

The Dark Crystal Bestiary is the definitive in-depth exploration of the flora and fauna found in the world of Thra. Created by Jim Henson for his 1982 puppet masterpiece, Thra is a remarkable realm in which all living things are connected and the lines between animal, vegetable, and mineral are blurred-rocks can sing and trees can walk! For the first time, this deluxe volume delves into the many creatures, plants, and beings created for the Dark Crystal universe, from the original film through to the expanded universe of novels and comics, and Netflix's TV series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Filled with beautiful illustrations of the many specimens, each accompanied by in-world commentary on their unique biology, The Dark Crystal Bestiary is the ultimate guide to the world of Thra and its inhabitants.

This book examines the crucial role of psychoanalysis in understanding what AI means for us as speaking, sexed subjects. Drawing on Lacanian theory and recent clinical developments it explores what philosophy and critical theory of AI has hitherto neglected: enjoyment. Through the reconceptualization of Intelligence, the Artificial Object and the Sexual Abyss the book outlines the Sexbot as a figure who exists on the boundary of psychoanalysis and AI. Through this figure and the medium of film, the author subverts Kant's three Enlightenment questions and guides readers to transition from asking 'Does it think?' to 'Can it enjoy?' The book will appeal in particular to students and scholars of psychoanalysis, philosophy, film and media studies, critical theory, feminist theory and AI research.

L.A. Confidential was released in 1997 to huge critical acclaim and it went on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards. Its reputation has since grown to the point that the film is now widely seen as a key Hollywood movie of the 1990s. But it fared poorly at the box-office, having neither big-name stars nor the sop of a comforting moral universe. With characters so bad they were irresistible, the film harked back to an older, darker Hollywood at a time when audiences would soon be flocking to "Titanic". Directed by Curtis Hanson from the best-selling novel by James Ellroy, "L.A. Confidential" stars Kim Basinger alongside Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and, to the surprise of many industry watchers, two then relative unknowns, New Zealander Russell Crowe and Australian Guy Pearce. The film is a consummate thriller which takes in - without once losing sight of the human cost - police corruption, organized crime, the sleaze press, high-class prostitution, murder and the ways movies and life twist together. Manohla Dargis explores the careers of Hanson and Ellroy, based on interviews with both men, to dig deep into the film's obsession with the twinned, equally troubled histories of the Hollywood studio system and the city of Los Angeles. She untangles the paradox of "L.A. Confidential", a film that paints a jet black, melancholy picture of a city and an industry even as it also testifies to - and exemplifies beautifully - their seductive glamour.

Fred Schepisi is one of the crucial names associated with the revival of the Australian film industry in the 1970s. The Films of Fred Schepisi traces the lead-up to his critical successes in feature filmmaking, via his earlier award-winning success as a producer in advertising commercials in the 1960s and the setting up of his own company. Unlike some directors, he derived from this experience a sure sense of the commercial aspects of filmmaking, as well as its aesthetic considerations. The volume also considers stories of his early education in a Catholic seminary, which he drew on in his semiautobiographical film, The Devil's Playground, the success of which launched him as an exciting new feature director. The volume expands on Schepisi's success story to chart his development as a director in demand in other countries, notably in the US and the UK, as well as continuing to make major films in Australia. Brian McFarlane argues that Schepisi's career is symptomatic of Australian directors who have made their presences felt on the international stage. Whereas other key directors of the Australian film revival, such as Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford, have been the subject of book-length critical studies, Schepisi's career has not to-date been so explored. McFarlane takes a critical account of Schepisi's film output-including such standouts as The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Plenty, Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation, Mr. Baseball, and Last Orders-and he augments analysis with interviews with the director. By discussing the production histories and both critical and popular receptions, McFarlane's study shines a new light on Schepisi's work and his rise to prominence in the global film industry.

The official novelization of a forthcoming crime film, featuring movie stills and an introduction by producer Jonathan Sothcott George never meant to kill the thief, he was just defending his shop from the jacked up kids who were trying to rob him. Arrested for murder, his world is turned upside down. The next night the doorbell rings, and before George has even opened the door the gang have swarmed into his house--they beat him senseless, rape his wife, and tie them up and set fire to them. Thoughtless, feral Jimmy, George's son, has been dishonorably discharged from the Royal Marines in Afghanistan and is on his way back to London when he gets the news. It isn't long before he's on the trail of the gang who murdered his parents, exacting his own kind of chillingly brutal justice. With the police closing in and his old regiment determined to stop him from airing their dirty laundry on trial, Jimmy goes underground. His actions have created a media frenzy, London's first vigilante of the 21st century. But will his devastating course of action spell the end of the woman he loves?

Margarethe von Trotta (b. 1942) entered the film industry in the only way she could in the 1960s-as an actress. Throughout her career, von Trotta added thirty-two acting credits to her name; however, these credits came to a halt in 1975. Her ambition had always been to be a movie director. Though she viewed acting as a detour, it allowed her to be in the right place at the right time, and through her line of work she met such important directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schloendorff. The latter would eventually provide her with the opportunity to codirect her first film, Die Verlohrene Ehre der Katharina Blum (The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum) in 1975. The debut's success ensured von Trotta's future in the film industry and launched her accomplished film directing career. In Margarethe von Trotta: Interviews, volume editor Monika Raesch furnishes twenty-four illuminating interviews with the auteur. Spanning three decades, from the mid-1980s until today, the interviews reveal not only von Trotta's life in the film industry, but also evolving roles of and opportunities provided to women over that time period. This collection of interviews presents the different dimensions of von Trotta through the lenses of film critics, scholars, and journalists. The volume offers essential reading for anyone seeking a better understanding of an iconic female movie director at a time when this possibility for women just emerged.