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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema > General
In 1936, Samuel Beckett wrote a letter to the Soviet film director
Sergei Eisenstein expressing a desire to work in the lost tradition
of silent film. The production of Beckett's Film in 1964, on the
cusp of his work as a director for stage and screen, coincides with
a widespread revival of silent film in the period of cinema's
modernist second wave. Drawing on recently published letters,
archival material and production notebooks, Samuel Beckett and
Cinema is the first book to examine comprehensively the full extent
of Beckett's engagement with cinema and its influence on his work
for stage and screen. The book situates Beckett within the context
of first and second wave modernist filmmaking, including the work
of figures such as Vertov, Keaton, Lang, Epstein, Flaherty, Dreyer,
Godard, Bresson, Resnais, Duras, Rogosin and Hitchcock. By
examining the parallels between Beckett's methods, as a
writer-director, and particular techniques, such as the embodied
presence of the camera, the use of asynchronous sound, and the
cross-pollination of theatricality and cinema, as well as the
connections between his collaborators and the nouvelle vague, the
book reveals how Beckett's aesthetic is fundamentally altered by
his work for the screen, and his formative encounters with
modernist film culture.
The Bosnian war of 1992-1995 was one of the most brutal conflicts
to have erupted since the end of the Second World War. But although
the war occurred in 'Europe's backyard' and received significant
media coverage in the West, relatively little scholarly attention
has been devoted to cultural representations of the conflict.
Stephen Harper analyses how the war has been depicted in global
cinema and television over the past quarter of a century. Focusing
on the representation of some of the war's major themes, including
humanitarian intervention, the roles of NATO and the UN, genocide,
rape and ethnic cleansing, Harper explores the role of popular
media culture in reflecting, reinforcing -- and sometimes
contesting -- nationalist ideologies.
Through an engaging and enlightening selection of readings and
articles, The Light in the Dark: The Evolution, Mechanics, and
Purpose of Cinema investigates cinema from a variety of diverse
perspectives. The anthology explores the technical aspects of the
filmmaking process, the ways in which certain elements of cinema
are creatively combined toward emotional and intellectual effect,
and the myriad ways cinema both interacts with and reflects
culture. The opening chapter is comprised of readings that examine
the nature and origin of cinematic technique, speaking to its early
development as both a commercial and artistic endeavor. The second
chapter reviews the core components of filmmaking, including
mise-en-scene, editing, sound design, acting, and shot composition.
In the final chapter, students explore film in cultural context.
The readings examine particular stages in cinema's evolution, the
role and implications of complex gender constructs, and the manner
in which race and racial tensions have manifested themselves in
filmic narratives. A highly contemporary and accessible anthology,
The Light in the Dark is an excellent resource for courses in
filmmaking and film studies.
Global Horror: Hybridity and Alterity in Transnational Horror Film
is an anthology textbook that challenges students to reconsider
horror films through the lenses of transnational cinema, evolving
technologies, and decolonial approaches to the genre. As such, the
book aims to increase our awareness of horror film histories across
vast geographies while examining existential questions about
difference, war, and the future of life on this planet. This
textbook is divided into two parts, organized by theme and
geographic range. Part One includes six reprinted essays speaking
on established subjects-German Expressionism, vampires, zombies,
science fiction, and more-from established modes of horror film
scholarship, including feminist scholarship and critique of
Blaxploitation horror. Part Two includes two reprinted essays on
J-horror and Korean horror film and six chapters of original
writing that explore understudied areas of the genre, including
Middle Eastern horror film, Indian horror film, Latin American
horror film, and Indigenous (North American) horror film. A timely
and complex exploration of the genre through the lens of
contemporary social issues, Global Horror is an ideal textbook for
courses and programs in film and cinema studies.
The acute processes of globalisation at the turn of the century
have generated an increased interest in exploring the interactions
between the so-called global cultural products or trends and their
specific local manifestations. Even though cross-cultural
connections are becoming more patent in filmic productions in the
last decades, cinema per se has always been characterized by its
hybrid, transnational, border-crossing nature. From its own
inception, Spanish film production was soon tied to the Hollywood
film industry for its subsistence, but other film traditions such
as those in the Soviet Union, France, Germany and, in particular,
Italy also determined either directly or indirectly the development
of Spanish cinema. Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational
Dimension of Spanish Cinema reaches beyond the limits of the film
text and analyses and contextualizes the impact of global film
trends and genres on Spanish cinema in order to study how they
helped articulate specific national challenges from the conflict
between liberalism and tradition in the first decades of the 20th
century to the management of the contemporary financial crisis.
This collection provides the first comprehensive picture of the
complex national and supranational forces that have shaped Spanish
films, revealing the tensions and the intricate dialogue between
cross-cultural aesthetic and narrative models on the one hand, and
indigenous traditions on the other, as well as the political and
historical contingencies these different expressions responded to.
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