The musical scores of Stanley Kubrick's films are often praised as being innovative and forward-looking. Despite playing such an important part in his productions, however, the ways in which Kubrick used music to great effect is still somewhat mysterious to many viewers. Although some viewers may know a little about the music in 2001 or A Clockwork Orange, few are aware of the particulars behind the music in Kubrick's other films. In Listening to Stanley Kubrick: The Music in His Films, Christine Lee Gengaro provides an in-depth exploration of the music that was composed for Kubrick's films and places the pre-existent music he utilized into historical context. Gengaro discusses the music in every single work, from Kubrick's first films, including the documentary shorts The Flying Padre and Day of the Fight, through all of his feature films, from Fear and Desire to Eyes Wide Shut. No film is left out; no cue is ignored. Besides closely examining the scores composed by Gerald Fried for Kubrick's early works, Gengaro pays particular attention to five of the director's most provocative and acclaimed films-2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut. For each film, she engages the reader by explaining how the music was excerpted (and changed, in some cases), and how the historical facts about a musical piece add layers of meaning-sometimes unintended-to the films. Meant for film lovers, music lovers, and scholars, Listening to Stanley Kubrick is a thoroughly researched examination into the musical elements of one of cinema's most brilliant artists. Appropriate for a cinema studies or music classroom, this volume will also appeal to any fan of Kubrick's films.

This provocative book reveals how Hollywood films reflect our deepest fears and anxieties as a country, often recording our political beliefs and cultural conditions while underscoring the darker side of the American way of life. Long before the war in Iraq and the economic crises of the early 21st century, Hollywood has depicted a grim view of life in the United States, one that belies the prosperity and abundance of the so-called American Dream. While the country emerged from World War II as a world power, collectively our sense of security had been threatened. The result is a cinematic body of work that has America's decline and ruin as a central theme. The author draws from popular films across all genres and six decades to illustrate how the political climate of the times influenced their creation. Projecting the End of the American Dream: Hollywood's Visions of U.S. Decline combines film history, social history, and political history to reveal important themes in the unfolding American narrative. Discussions focus on a wide variety of films, including Rambo, Planet of the Apes, and Easy Rider.

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

Ninety-nine years ago, a new form of storytelling emerged from the ruins of World War I. Different in scope and power from theater or literature, and unlike any film that had come before, F. W. Murnau's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari addressed a direct challenge to its audience, demanding to be viewed as something other than what was immediately presented. Unfortunately, criticism has not risen to the challenge. Relegating the film condescendingly to the horror genre, or treating it merely as a case study in style, critics have failed to look at it with due seriousness. On the other hand, the film's ambiguity, structural devices, and psychological depth gave cinema a number of tools that other filmmakers were quick to start using. This book examines a spectrum of narrative films that can be seen in new ways with methods derived and evolved from the techniques of Caligari. The intention is not only to offer new interpretations of classic and neglected films, but to open further discussion and exploration. It is written with optimism that movie lovers will see more in the movies they love, that critics will find new paths of investigation, and that filmmakers will benefit from greater awareness of what movies can do. Secrets of Cinema began in 1994, in discussions among friends after weekly movie nights hosted by the late Lawrence N. Fox on the 73rd floor of the John Hancock Center in Chicago. The movies selected are not necessarily the greatest ever made (although some of them surely are), but rather movies that offer new and useful lessons in how movies work. Among the secrets of cinema revealed in this book are at least three movies that are stealth remakes of The Wizard of Oz, hidden meanings behind films made under political repression, and why Hitchcock's Psycho is a remake of his Vertigo. Persistent enigmas are clarified, including the logic of Persona, the riddle of Last Year at Marienbad, and the endings of Blow-Up and The Shining. More importantly, by showing how much there is to discover in movies, the book encourages its readers to continue in their own ways the quest to see movies whole.

America has always attempted to define itself through a network of invented myths and national narratives. Historically, this national mythmaking has focused on the building of the nation itself as a sort of grand adventure, as in the notion of manifest destiny, or the taming of the western frontier. This project has also naturally led to a focus on individual heroes, often playing the role of savior and redeemer in ways with clear religious resonances: Christ and "Shane" and Superman, for instance, all share key characteristics. At the same time, these superheroes have often been adolescents, designed to appeal to younger audiences as well. Other hero myths have been more down-to-earth, focusing on heroes who fight against evil, but in a more modest way, as in the case of the hardboiled detective. "Red, White, and Spooked" details the development of our national myths in an effort to try and see what these fantasies can reveal about what it means to be American today, and what we want it to mean.

Beginning with John Winthrop's city upon a hill sermon in 1630, American culture has been informed by a sense of its own exceptional nature. The notion of the Western hemisphere as a new world, a place filled with possibility and even magic, goes back to the initial voyages of Columbus, while the American Revolution gave even more impetus to the idea that the United States was a special place with a unique mission. As a result, America has always attempted to define itself through a network of invented myths and national narratives. "Red, White, and Spooked" details the development of our national myths which can be seen underlying the genres of country and film noir, the characters of Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, television hits like "Deadwood" and "NYPD Blue," and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Lord of the Rings" franchises as well.

This culture-spanning investigation begins with a historical survey of supernatural and superhuman themes in American culture, concluding with the recent upsurge that began in the 1990s. It then turns to a number of thematic chapters that discuss various works of recent popular culture with supernatural and superhuman themes - such as "The X-Files, Smallville, The 4400, Medium, Heroes, Lost," and "The Dead Zone" - organized according to the desires to which these works commonly respond. The object here is to try and see what these fantasies can reveal about what it means to be American today, and what we still want it to mean.

An unconventional biography that explores Mostel's life from the Orthodox Jewish homes of his immigrant parents to the underground night-clubs where he began his career doing stand-up comedy and on to theatre, film, and television.

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.

How do we understand types of cinema that offer experiences of discomfort, awkwardness or disquieting uncertainty? This book examines a number of examples of such work at the heart of contemporary art and indie film. While the commercial mainstream tends to offer comforting viewing experiences - or moments of discomfort that exist largely to be overcome - The Cinema of Discomfort analyses films in which discomfort is offered in a sustained manner. Cinema of this kind confronts us with material such as distinctly uncomfortable sexual encounters. It invites us into uncertain relationships with awkward and sometimes unlikable characters. It presents us with challenging behaviour or what are presented as uncomfortable realities. It often refuses information on which to base judgments. More discomfortingly, cinema of this kind tends to provoke uncertainty at the level of what emotional responses we are encouraged to have towards difficult, sometimes controversial, characters or events. The Cinema of Discomfort examines a number of case-studies, including Palindromes by Todd Solondz (US) and Dogtooth from Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece), along with other examples from Austria, Sweden, the UK, the US and Germany. Offering close textual analysis of the manner in which discomfort is generated, it also asks how we should understand the appeal of such work to certain viewers and how the existence of films of this kind can be explained, as products of both their socio-cultural context and the more particular institutional realms of art and indie film.

Elia Kazan's varied life and career is related here in his autobiography. He reveals his working relationships with his many collabourators, including Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, James Dean, John Steinbeck and Darryl Zanuck, and describes his directing "style" as he sees it, in terms of position, movement, pace, rhythm and his own limitations. Kazan also retraces his own decision to inform for the House Un-American Activities Committee, illuminating much of what may be obscured in McCarthy literature.

Fans of cult films don't just watch the movies they love-they frequently engage with them in other, more creative ways as well. Making European Cult Cinema explores the ways in which that fandom could be understood as an alternative economy of fan enterprise, through a close look at how fans produce and distribute artifacts and commodities related to cult films. Built around interviews and ethnographic observations-and even the author's own fan enterprise-the book creates an innovative theoretical framework that draws in ideas from cultural studies and political economy to introduce the concept of an 'alternative economy' as a way to understand fan productions.

Peter Jackson is one of the most acclaimed and influential contemporary film-makers. This is the first book to combine the examination of Jackson's career with an in-depth critical analysis of his films, thus providing readers with the most comprehensive study of the New Zealand film-maker's body of work. The first section of the book concentrates on Jackson's biography, surveying the evolution of his career from the director of cult slapstick movies such as Meet the Feebles (1989) and Braindead (1992) to an entrepreneur responsible for the foundation of companies such as Wingnut Films and Weta Workshop, and finally to producer and director of mega blockbuster projects such as The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and The Hobbit (2012-2013). The book further examines Jackson's work at the level of production, reception and textuality, along with key collaborative relationships and significant themes associated with Jackson's films. The examination of Peter Jackson's work and career ties into significant academic debates, including the relationship between national cinema and global Hollywood; the global dispersal of film production; the relationship between film authorship and industrial modes of production; the impact of the creative industries on the construction of national identity; and new developments in film technology.

In this study of fandom at its most intense, Will Brooker examines the "Star Wars" phenomenon from the audience's perspective, and discovers that the saga exerts a powerful influence over the social, cultural and spiritual lives of those drawn into its myth. From a Boba Fett-loving police officer in Indiana to the webmistress of the "Star Wars chicks" site; from an 11-year-old boy in south London to a Baptist Church in South Carolina; from the director of "George Lucas in Love" to the custodians of the Jedi Hurtaholics Archive - Brooker unearths a seemingly endless array of fans who use and interpret the saga in a number of creative ways This book explores what it means to be a fan, examining the role of gender and generation in creating sub-communities within the larger group of Star Wars devotees. It discusses the films and stories created by thousands of fans around the world, and asks whether this apparently unstoppable creativity can be controlled by an organization that has - completely unintentionally - positioned itself in the role of the Empire and turned loyal fans into Rebels. Ultimately, the book serves as a testament to the extraordinary power of the "Star Wars" films

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, transnational European cinema has risen, not only in terms of production but also in terms of a growing focus on multiethnic themes within the European context. This shift from national to trans-European filmmaking has been profoundly influenced by such historical developments as the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the subsequent ongoing enlargement of the European Union. In European Cinema after the Wall: Screening East-West Mobility, Leen Engelen and Kris Van Heuckelom have brought together essays that critically examine representations of post-1989 migration from the former Eastern Bloc to Western Europe, uncovering an array of common tropes and narrative devices that characterize the influences and portrayals of immigration. Featuring essays by contributors from backgrounds as divergent as film studies, Slavic and Russian studies, comparative literature, sociology, contemporary history, and communication and media studies, this volume will appeal to scholars of film, European history, and those interested in the impact of migration, diaspora, and the global flow of cinematic culture.

This is the first book to examine the various uses of the Arthurian legend in Hollywood film, covering films from the 1920s to the present. The authors use five representational categories: intertextual collage (or "cult" film); melodrama, which focuses on the love triangle; conservative propaganda, pervasive during the Cold War; the Hollywood epic; and the postmodern quest, which commonly employs the grail portion of the legend. Arguing that filmmakers rely on the audience's rudimentary familiarity with the legend, the authors show that only certain features of the legend are activated at any particular time. This fascinating study shows us how the legend has been adapted and how through the popular medium of Hollywood films, the Arthurian legend has survived and flourished.