New Nonfiction Film: Art, Poetics and Documentary Theory is the first book to offer a lengthy examination of the relationship between fiction and documentary from the perspective of art and poetics. The premise of the book is to propose a new category of nonfiction film that is distinguished from - as opposed to being conflated with - the documentary film in its multiple historical guises; a premise explored in case-studies of films by distinguished artists and filmmakers (Abbas Kiarostami, Ben Rivers, Chantal Akerman, Ben Russell Pat Collins and Gideon Koppel). The book builds a case for this new category of film, calling it the 'new nonfiction film,' and argues, in the process, that this kind of film works to dismantle the old distinctions between fiction and documentary film and therefore the axioms of Film and Cinema Studies as a discipline of study.

From early twentieth-century stag films to 1960s sexploitation pictures to the boom in 1970s "porno chic," adult cinema's vintage forms are now being reappraised by a new generation of historians, fans, preservationists, and home video entrepreneurs-all of whom depend on and help shape the archive of film history. But what is the present-day allure of these artifacts that have since become eroticized more for their "pastness" than the explicit acts they show? And what are the political implications of recovering these rare but still-visceral films from a less "enlightened," pre-feminist past? Drawing on media industry analysis, archival theory, and interviews with adult video personnel, David Church argues that vintage pornography retains its retrospective fascination precisely because these culturally denigrated texts have been so poorly preserved on political and aesthetic grounds. Through these films' ongoing moves from cultural emergence to concealment to rediscovery, the archive itself performs a "striptease," permitting tangible contact with these corporeally stimulating forms at a moment when the overall physicality of media objects is undergoing rapid transformation. Disposable Passions explores the historiographic lessons that vintage pornography can teach us about which materials our society chooses to keep, and how a long-neglected genre is primed for serious rediscovery as more than mere autoerotic fodder.

Citizen Kane is arguably the most admired and significant film since the advent of talking pictures. No other film is quite so interesting from both artistic and political points of view. To study it even briefly is to learn a great deal about American history, motion-picture style, and the literary aspects of motion-picture scripts. Rather than a sterile display of critical methodologies, James Naremore has gathered a set of essays that represent the essential writings on the film. It gives the reader a lively set of critical interpretations, together with the necessary production information, historical background, and technical understanding to comprehend the film's larger cultural significance. Selections range from the anecdotal --Peter Bogdanovich's interview with Orson Welles--to the critical, with discussions on the scripts and sound track, and a discussion of what accounts for the film's enduring popularity. Contributors include James Naremore, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Robert L. Carringer, Francois Thomas, Michael Denning, Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen, and Paul Arthur.

This book examines the treatment of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his work in twentieth and twenty-first century fiction, drama, music, and film, specifically since 1950. The author uses these genres to examine how text, music, performance, and visual images work as a system of representation. In this book, the author strives to clarify the many Dante Gabriel Rossettis, using thirteen of the thirty easily identifiable roles in this system of representation which the author has identified herself-roles by which Rossetti is described and portrayed. The identified portrayals of Rossetti fall easily into five groupings: first, the Italian-English man who is a brother and a loyal friend; second, the poet who is a painter and co-founder of an art movement which afforded him the chance to be a mentor; third, the lover, seducer, husband, oppressor; fourth, the murderer; and fifth, the tortured artist and addict who was mentally ill. These are the portrayals are used throughout this work. Several have chronological boundaries and are discrete representations while others reoccur across the time period covered. Using these categories, the author examines seven works of prose fiction, a feature-length film, two television series, a stage play, and the songs and lyrics of a contemporary band.

Al Brodax was the producer of and with Erich Segal and others a co-author of the screenplay for The Beatles 'Yellow Submarine'. In this book he recalls a frenzied, madcap escapade that came to be reflected in an enduring piece of screen history. In addition to John, Ringo, Paul and George, and Al, the "cast" included more than a dozen animators, platoons of inkers, background artists, soundmen, cameramen, and various essential expediters. Recruited from the U.S., Europe, Australia and all over the U.K., they produced, aside from the film, more than a dozen pregnancies and one or two marriages. This story has been culled by the author from a rich jumble of late-night, early-morning scribblings during production. His generously illustrated book is a special gift to fans of the Beatles, of 'Yellow Submarine' and of spirited, flavourful writing about movies.

The World of The Dark Crystal invites fans to delve into the creation and lore of the Jim Henson classic through the evocative illustrations of Brian Froud, concept designer on the original film. Since its original release in 1982, Jim Henson's brilliant film The Dark Crystal has gone on to become a beloved cult classic. The World of Dark Crystal--the original companion art book to the film--was created by Henson and internationally renowned artist Brian Froud to showcase the gorgeous conceptual artwork created for the film and delve deeper into the lore that underpins Thra, the magical world at the heart of the film. Now, for the first time in over a decade, The World of Dark Crystal is back in print, featuring an abundance of striking art and all of the bonus material from the 2003 Collector's Edition. Also included in this exclusive volume is a fascinating essay by Froud on the creative process behind the making of the film and a facsimile of a booklet presented to the film's early backers--a gorgeous overview of the story so rare only a few original copies exist. Beautiful, imaginative, and powerful, The World of The Dark Crystal celebrates the landmark fantasy film that continues to win new fans more than three decades after its release.

This insightful account analyzes and provides context for the films and careers of directors who have made Latin American film an important force in Hollywood and in world cinema. In this insightful account, R. Hernandez-Rodriguez analyzes some of the most important, fascinating, and popular films to come out of Latin America in the last three decades, connecting them to a long tradition of filmmaking that goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. Directors Alejandro Inarritu, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, and Lucretia Martel and director/screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga have given cause for critics and public alike to praise a new golden age of Latin American cinema. Splendors of Latin Cinema probes deeply into their films, but also looks back at the two most important previous moments of this cinema: the experimental films of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the stage-setting movies from the 1940s and 1950s. It discusses films, directors, and stars from Spain (as a continuing influence), Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile that have contributed to one of the most interesting aspects of world cinema.

Aristocrat and Marxist, master equally of harsh realism and sublime melodrama, Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) was without question one of the greatest European film directors. His career as a film-maker began in the 1930s when he escaped the stifling culture of Fascist Italy to work with Jean Renoir in the France of the Popular Front. Back in his native country in the 40s he was one of the founders of the neo-realist movement. In 1954, with Senso, he turned his hand to a historical spectacular. The result was both glorious to look at and a profound reinterpretation of history. In "Rocco and His Brothers" (1960) he returned to his neo-realist roots and in "The Leopard" (1963), with Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon, he made the first truly international film. He scored a further success with "Death in Venice" (1971), a sensitive adaptation of Thomas Mann's story about a writer (in the film, a musician) whose world is devastated when he falls in love with a young boy. A similar homo-erotic theme haunts "Ludwig" (1973), a bio-pic about the King of Bavaria who prefers art to politics and the company of stableboys to the princess he is supposed to marry.
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's classic study of the director was first published in 1967 and revised in 1973. It is now updated to include the last three films that Visconti made before his death, together with some reflections on the "auteur" theory of which the original edition was a key example.

Comprising 91 A-Z entries, this encyclopedia provides a broad and comprehensive introduction to the topic of religion within film. Technology has enabled films to reach much wider audiences, enabling today's viewers to access a dizzying number of films that employ diverse symbolism and communicate a vast array of viewpoints. Encyclopedia of Religion and Film will provide such an audience with the tools to begin their own exploration of the deeper meanings of these films and grasp the religious significance within. Organized alphabetically, this encyclopedia provides more than 90 entries on the larger religious traditions, the major film-producing regions of the globe, the films that have stirred controversy, the most significant religious symbols, and the more important filmmakers. The included topics provide substantially more information on the intersection of religion and film than any of the similar volumes currently available. While the emphasis is on the English-speaking world and the films produced therein, there is also substantial representation of non-English, non-Western film and filmmakers, providing significant intercultural coverage to the topic. Presents 91 A-Z entries that illuminate topics of geographic and regional interest, biographic data, categories common in the study of religion, and examinations of specific films or film-related events Contains contributions from a remarkable group of distinguished, well-published authorities and younger scholars, all with relevant backgrounds in religion, film, culture, or multiple areas of expertise Includes images of important film directors as well as film stills Provides selected bibliographic information regarding the intersection of religion and film that supplements the "for further reading" section of each entry Offers an indexed filmography of works noted throughout the encyclopedia, providing significant information about each film, such as year released, director, and major actors

This book analyses and describes a segment of Woody Allen's cinematic discourse, focusing specifically on the performed (or diegetic) interactions between actors in various roles in some of his films. It is a case study of Woody Allen's cinematic discourse, encompassing the on-screen, performed interaction in the films at the level of the story-world. The analysis focuses on speech (film dialogues), in both its verbal and prosodic forms, as well as non-verbal types of interaction including gaze and gesture, taking a social interactional approach and using multimodal conversation analysis as a theoretical framework and analytical tool. The 'texts' under study are segments from five films by Woody Allen, and the analysed interactions take place between male and female interactants, which allows further examination of on-screen interactions via a gender lens. The book aims to bridge the gap between the disciplines of applied linguistics and cinema studies and offer linguistic insights into performed interactions from a multimodal point of view. It will be equally relevant to linguists who are interested in how verbal and non-verbal language is used in cinematic discourse, as well as to film workers, especially actors, directors and screenwriters.

"Dietrich's Ghosts "is the first major English-language study to look at the star system under the Third Reich. Erica Carter argues that after the Weimar period, the German star system was reorganized to foster an anti-modernist mode of spectatorship geared to an appreciation of the beautiful and the sublime.
Carter discusses the reconfiguring of film production and exhibition around idealist aesthetic principles and offers case studies of three stars. Emil Jannings figures as an exemplar of what Carter terms the "volkisch "sublime, while Marlene Dietrich emerges as a figure at the crossroads of modernist and idealist conceptions of beauty. A provocative chapter on Zarah Leander in the feature films of the early war years portrays this star as a post-Dietrich emblem of the supposed sublimity of a fascist war.
This unprecedented new study reassesses existing paradigms in German film history debates and throws suggestive new light on the icons and popular culture of the Third Reich.

Pleasures of Horror is a stimulating and insightful exploration of horror fictions--literary, cinematic and televisual--and the emotions they engender in their audiences. The text is divided into three sections. The first examines how horror is valued and devalued in different cultural fields; the second investigates the cultural politics of the contemporary horror film; while the final part considers horror fandom in relation to its embodied practices (film festivals), its "reading formations" (commercial fan magazines and fanzines) and the role of special effects. Pleasures of Horror combines a wide range of media and textual examples with highly detailed and closely focused exposition of theory. It is a fascinating and engaging look at responses to a hugely popular genre and an invaluable resource for students of media, cultural and film, studies and fans of horror.

The first films were shorts. Most leading filmmakers made shorts, including Chaplin, Keaton, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Lindsay Anderson, and--more recently--Lynne Ramsey and Damian O' Donnell. Though a standard and much-loved part of the cinemagoing experience for decades, short films are now rarely seen, even though more are made than ever. Hundreds of student films are made annually and television stations use shorts as fillers. Dotcom companies fight to secure rights and short film festivals take place all over the world. There is even the beginning of a comeback for the cinema short.
This book traces the history of the short film and its current role. Focusing on short-film producers and directors, it looks at the short film as a training opportunity for new talent. It covers issues of distribution, funding (including the lottery boom), exhibition, festivals, training, and publications.

Surveys Quentin Tarantino's enthralling career at the heart of cult filmmaking, from Reservoir Dogs to his latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most influential and distinctive filmmakers at work in the world today. His films are so admired that nearly every one he makes becomes an instant cult classic. Here, Tom Shone presents in-depth commentaries on each of the ten films Tarantino has directed, from Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as well as looking at his early life, acting career, and his indisputable talent for scriptwriting. Illustrated with more than two hundred film stills and behind-the-scenes images, Tarantino: A Retrospective is a fitting tribute to the great auteur’s unique talent.