Throughout most of history, deep male bonds anchored a man's life. Why, then, are male friendships so impoverished in America today? Mamet's plays and films dramatize the conflicts, contradictions, and covert affection between men. No other American playwright has explored the war zone we call male friendship with as sharp a scalpel as Mamet's. His work shows both the necessity of and the difficulty in male friendships. Using insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the history of sexuality, Holmberg explores the ambiguity that drives male bonding. Personal interviews with Mamet and with the actors who have interpreted his major roles shed new light on how and why men bond with each other and complement - in an unexpected and unique way - Holmberg's close analysis of Mamet's texts.

One of Hollywood's great leading men, James Garner boasts a career that spans six decades. Whether known as Bret Maverick, Jim Rockford, or Noah Calhoun, Garner's mass appeal transcends generations, but few know the true story of his life, now told in his intimate memoir of growing up in Oklahoma and making it in Hollywood. After suffering physical abuse at the hands of his stepmother, Garner left home at fourteen. He went on to become Oklahoma's first draftee of the Korean War and was honoured for his bravery with two Purple Hearts. Garner eventually returned to Los Angeles where his acting career took off. Working alongside some of the most renowned celebrities - among them Julie Andrews, Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood - Garner became a star in his own right.

The essays which appear in this book for the most part originated as papers delivered at a conference on Britain and the cinema in the Second World War held in London in May 1985.

This volume of essays by scholars of German film and culture examines the relatively neglected German films of the immediate post-World War II period, the so-called "rubble films." Often seen merely as symptoms of a particular German malady--the supposed inability to confront the sins of its immediate past--these films have rarely been examined for their aesthetic qualities and for what they actually depict about postwar German life, attitudes, and fears. Placed within the context of German film history of the postwar period and Allied censorship, the essays examine both well-known and nearly forgotten films for their narrative structure, aesthetic strategies, political ideologies, psychological portraits of damaged adults and orphaned youth, and the nuances of the history they reveal.

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From the earliest days of the cinema to the present, Shakespeare has offered a tempting bank of source material than the film industry has been happy to plunder. Shakespeare on Film deftly examines an extensive range of films that have emerged from the curious union of an iconic dramatist with a medium of mass appeal. The many films Buchanan studies are shown to be telling indicators of trends in Shakespearean performance interpretation, illuminating markers of developments in the film industry and culturally revealing about broader influences in the world beyond the movie theatre. ' How did Shakespeare make the movies? How did the movies make Shakespeare? And how do the movies keep remaking him? Shakespeare on Film answers these questions. It looks at Shakespeare on the silent screen; in the art-house and the multiplex; from Asta Nielsen to Julie Taymor; in the hands of auteurs like Kurosawa, Jarman, Branagh ...

An auteur and the creator of multiple cinematic universes, James Wan has become one of the most successful directors in history, his films breaking box office records worldwide. Yet there is little scholarship on Wan's work. This collection of new essays fills the gap with contributions from around the globe offering analysis of his film and television productions, including Saw (2004), Aquaman (2018) and The Conjuring Universe franchise, along with less well-known works like Death Sentence (2007), Dead Silence (2007) and his pilot for the new MacGyver series. For the first time, Wan's films are explored in-depth from wide range of critical perspectives.

The medieval film genre is not, in general, concerned with constructing a historically accurate past, but much analysis nonetheless centers on highlighting anachronisms. This book aims to help scholars and aficionados of medieval film think about how the re-creation of an often mythical past performs important cultural work for modern directors and viewers. The essays in this collection demonstrate that directors intentionally insert modern preoccupations into a setting that would normally be considered incompatible with these concepts. The Middle Ages provide an imaginary space far enough removed from the present day to explore modern preoccupations with human identity.

Go behind the scenes with an insightful look at horror filmsand the directors who create them The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades examines the work of several of the genre's most influential directors and investigates how traditional themes of isolation, alienation, death, and transformation have helped build the foundation of horror cinema. Authors Carl and Diana Royer examine the techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock that place his work squarely in the horror (rather than suspense) genre, discuss avant-garde cinema's contributions to mainstream horror, explore films that use the apartment setting as the cell of horror, and analyze how angels and aliens function as the supernatural Other. A unique resource for film students and film buffs alike, the book also examines Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy and the fusion of science, technology, and quasi-religious themes in David Cronenberg's films. Instead of presenting a general overview of the horror genre or an analysis of a specific sub-genre, actor, or director, The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films offers an imaginative look at classic and contemporary horror cinema. The book examines Surrealist films such as Un Chien Andalou and Freaks, the connections among the concepts of voyeurism, paranoia, and alienation in films like Rear Window, Rosemary's Baby, Blue Velvet, and The Blair Witch Project; the use of otherworldly creatures in films such as The Prophecy, Dogma, and The Day The Earth Stood Still; and the films of directors George Romero, John Waters, and Darren Aronofsky, to name just a few. This unique book also includes an extensive A-to-Z filmography and a bibliography of writings on, and about, horror cinema from filmmakers, film critics, and film historians. The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films examines: Body Doubles and Severed Handsthe common ancestry of avant-garde art films and exploitation horror B-movies And I Brought You Nightmaresrecurring themes of psychological terror in Alfred Hitchcock's films Horror, Humor, PoetrySam Raimi's transformation of drive-in horror cinema Atheism and 'The Death of Affect'David Cronenberg's obsessions, interests, and cautionary messages in films ranging from Videodrome to Dead Ringers to eXistenZ and much more! The Spectacle of Isolation in Horror Films: Dark Parades is a unique resource of critical analysis for academics working in film and popular culture, film historians, and anyone interested in horror cinema.

The Formation of Chinese Art Cinema: 1990-2003 examines the development of Chinese art film in the People's Republic of China from 1990, when the first Sixth Generation film Mama was released, to 2003, when authorities acknowledged the legitimacy of underground filmmakers. Through an exploration of the production and consecration mechanisms of the new art wave and its representative styles, this book argues that the art wave of the 1990s fundamentally defined Chinese art cinema. In particular, this vital art wave was not enabled by democratic liberalism, but by the specific industrial development, in which the film system transitioned from Socialist propaganda into a commercialized entity. Allowing Chinese art film to grow but at the same time denying its legitimacy, this paradoxical transition process shaped Chinese art film's institutional and aesthetical alternative positioning, which eventually helped consolidate the art wave into art cinema. Ultimately, this book is a history of the Chinese portion of global art cinema, which also reveals the complex Chinese cultural experiences during the Reform Era.

LAPD's best Blade Runner and detective, Aahna 'Ash' Ashina, has been assigned to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Isobel and Cleo Selwyn, the wife and daughter of business tycoon, Alexander Selwyn, a close personal friend of Eldon Tyrell. Ash's search will take her on a journey from the crime-ridden underbelly of Los Angeles to the promised land of the Off-World Colonies and back home again as she uncovers a terrible secret and a desperate conspiracy that forces her to confront her own hatred for Replicants - the synthetic humans that she hunts with such vengeance. Collects Blade Runner 2019: Los Angeles/Off-World/Home Again, Home Again.

The chapters contained in this handbook address key issues concerning the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of violence in film and media. In addition to providing analyses of representations of violence, they also critically discuss the phenomenology of the spectator, images of atrocity in international cinema, affect and documentary, violent video games, digital infrastructures, cruelty in art cinema, and media and state violence, among many other relevant topics. The Palgrave Handbook of Violence in Film and Media updates existing studies dealing with media and violence while vastly expanding the scope of the field. Representations of violence in film and media are ubiquitous but remain relatively understudied. Too often they are relegated to questions of morality, taste, or aesthetics while judgments about violence can themselves be subjected to moral judgment. Some may question whether objectionable images are worthy of serious scholarly attention at all. While investigating key examples, the chapters in this handbook consider both popular and academic discourses to understand how representations of violence are interpreted and discussed. They propose new approaches and raise novel questions for how we might critically think about this urgent issue within contemporary culture.

Sue Short examines how fairy tale tropes have been reworked in contemporary film, identifying familiar themes in a range of genres - including rom coms, crime films and horror - and noting key similarities and differences between the source narratives and their offspring.

This ancient training manual, crafted by early Jedi Masters, has educated and enlightened generations of Jedi. It explains the history and hierarchy of the Jedi Order, and what Jedi must know to take their place as defenders of the peace in the galaxy - from mastery of the Force to the nuances of lightsaber combat. A single copy of this manual has survived. It is now passed on to you...

This lively and accessible collection explores film culture's obsession with the past, offering searching and provocative analyses of a wide range of titles from" Mildred Pierce" and "Brief Encounter "to "Raging Bull "and "In the Mood for Love," It engages with current debates about the role of cinema in mediating history through memory and nostalgia, suggesting that many films use strategies of memory to produce diverse forms of knowledge which challenge established ideas of history, and the traditional role of historians. The work of contemporary directors such as Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow, Todd Haynes and Wong Kar-wai is used to examine the different ways they deploy creative processes of memory, arguing that these movies can tell us much about our complex relationship to the past, and about history and identity. Pam Cook also investigates the recent history of film studies, re-viewing the developments that have culminated in the exciting, if daunting, present moment. Classic essays sit side by side with new research, contextualized by introductions which bring them up-to-date, and provide suggestions for further reading. The result is a rich and stimulating volume that will appeal to anyone with an interest in cinema, memory and identity.

A Critique of Judgment in Film and Television is a response to a significant increase of judgment and judgmentalism in contemporary television, film, and social media by investigating the changing relations between the aesthetics and ethics of judgment.

Production studies has developed into an interdisciplinary field of inquiry of film and television "production cultures," going beyond traditional examinations of authorship and industry structure. Studying production as culture involves gathering empirical data about the lived realities of people involved in media production - about collaboration and conflicts, routines and rituals, lay theories and performative actions. This volume broadens the scope of production studies by analyzing geographic and historical alternatives to contemporary Hollywood. At the same time, it invites disciplines such as ethnography, aesthetics, or sociology of art to reconsider established concepts of film and media studies like creative agency, genesis of a film work, or transnational production.

Explore the epic art of Pacific Rim Uprising, the highly anticipated follow-up to the 2013 monster hit. The Art and Making of Pacific Rim Uprising takes readers behind the scenes and back into the heart of the epic battle between Kaiju and Jaegers. Showcasing the brilliant concept art behind the film and immersing fans in the creation of a true sci-fi epic, this book will be the ultimate exploration of one of the most anticipated films of 2018. Directed by Steven S. DeKnight, (Angel, Smallville, Daredevil), Pacific Rim Uprising stars John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Scott Eastwood (The Fate of the Furious), and newcomer Cailee Spaeny.

This book introduces a new form of documentary film: the Geo-Doc, designed to maximize the influential power of the documentary film as an agent of social change. By combining the proven methods and approaches as evidenced through historical, theoretical, digital, and ecocritical investigations with the unique affordances of Geographic Information System technology, a dynamic new documentary form emerges, one tested in the field with the United Nations. This book begins with an overview of the history of the documentary film with attention given to how it evolved as an instrument of social change. It examines theories surrounding mobilizing the documentary film as a communication tool between filmmakers and policymakers. Ecocinema and its semiotic storytelling techniques are also explored for their unique approaches in audience engagement. The proven methods identified throughout the book are combined with the spatial and temporal affordances provided by GIS technology to create the Geo-Doc, a new tool for the activist documentarian.

Undertaking a thorough and timely investigation of the relationship between television and cinema in Britain since 1990, Hannah Andrews explores the convergence between the two forms, at industrial, cultural and intermedial levels, and the ways in which the media have also been distinguished from one another through discourse and presentation.

While Israel has seemingly been a minor presence in Hollywood cinema, Reimagining the Promised Land argues that there is a long history of Hollywood deploying images of Israel as a means of articulating an idealized notion of American national identity. This argument is developed through readings of The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (William Wyler, 1959), Exodus (Otto Preminger, 1960), Cast a Giant Shadow (Melville Shavelson, 1966), Black Sunday (John Frankenheimer, 1977), The Delta Force (Menahem Golan, 1986), and Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005). The mobilization of Israel that pervades this eclectic group of films effectively demonstrates one of the more surreptitious ways in which Hollywood has historically constructed and circulated dominant notions of American national identity. Moreover, in examining the most notable Hollywood representations of the Jewish state, the book offers an informed historical overview of the cultural forces that have contributed to popular understandings within the United States of the state of Israel, Israel's Arab neighbours, and also the Arab-Israeli conflict.