|
|
Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema > General
The Art of The Batman is the official behind-the-scenes illustrated
tie-in book to the highly-anticipated Matt Reeves (Cloverfield,
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes)
film, coming to theaters March 4, 2022. Set during Batman's second
year as a crimefighter, this unique, noir-inspired take on the Dark
Knight serves as a return to the character's roots in detective
fiction, crime, and horror and stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce
Wayne, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Jeffrey
Wright as Commissioner Gordon, and Colin Farrell as The Penguin.
Readers will get an insider's look at the film's production process
through character designs, vehicle and gadget designs, background
paintings, storyboards, and keyframe art done for the film,
alongside original commentary and interviews from the filmmakers,
cast, production designer, and conceptual artists.
Beginning in the 1930s, men and a handful of women came from
India's many communities-Marathi, Parsi, Goan, North Indian, and
many others--to Mumbai to work in an industry that constituted in
the words of some, "the original fusion music." They worked as
composers, arrangers, assistants, and studio performers in one of
the most distinctive popular music and popular film cultures on the
planet. Today, the songs played by Mumbai's studio musicians are
known throughout India and the Indian diaspora under the popular
name "Bollywood," but the musicians themselves remain, in their own
words, "behind the curtain"--the anonymous and unseen performers of
one of the world's most celebrated popular music genres.
Now, Gregory D. Booth offers a compelling account of the Bollywood
film music industry from the perspective of the musicians who both
experienced and shaped its history. In a rare insider's look at the
process of musical production from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s,
before the advent of digital recording technologies, Booth explains
who these unknown musicians were and how they came to join the film
music industry. On the basis of a fascinating set of first-hand
accounts from the musicians themselves, he reveals how the
day-to-day circumstances of technology and finance shaped both the
songs and the careers of their creator and performers. Booth also
unfolds the technological, cultural, and industrial developments
that led to the enormous studio orchestras of the 1960s-90s as well
as the factors which ultimately led to their demise in contemporary
India.
Featuring an extensive companion website with video interviews
with the musicians themselves, Behind the Curtain is apowerful,
ground-level view of this globally important music industry.
The language of Hollywood resonates beyond the stage and screen
because it often has inherent drama-or comedic effect. This volume
contains a combination of approximately 100 expertly researched
essays on words, phrases and idioms made famous by Hollywood along
with the stories behind 30 or so of the most iconic-and ultimately
often used-quotes from films. There are also sidebars that focus on
other ways the entertainment world has changed language. For
instance, stories behind stars whose names have been used for
drinks (hello, Shirley Temple) or roses (there are ones named after
Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland, among others). And, a sidebar on
William Shakespeare's unique contribution to the English language.
Philosophy, Myth and Epic Cinema looks at the power of cinema in
creating ideas that inspire our culture. Sylvie Magerstadt
discusses the relationship between art, illusion and reality, a
theme that has been part of philosophical debate for centuries. She
argues that with the increase in use of digital technologies in
modern cinema, this debate has entered a new phase. She discusses
the notion of illusions as a system of stories and values that
inspire a culture similar to other grand narratives, such as
mythology or religion. Cinema thus becomes the postmodern
"mythmaking machine" par excellence in a world that finds it
increasingly difficult to create unifying concepts and positive
illusions that can inspire and give hope. The author draws on the
work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Siegfried Kracauer, and Gilles Deleuze
to demonstrate the relevance of continental philosophy to a reading
of mainstream Hollywood cinema. The book argues that our longing
for illusion is particularly strong in times of crisis, illustrated
through an exploration of the recent revival of historic and epic
myths in Hollywood cinema, including films such as Troy, The Lord
of the Rings Trilogy, and Clash of the Titans.
"Soundies" were the granddaddies of music videos: single-song
musical movies that played in special jukeboxes during the 1940s.
Some of the biggest musical stars (and stars of the future)
appeared in these films: Louis Armstrong, Spike Jones, Liberace,
Fats Waller, Stan Kenton, Cab Calloway, and many others. Thanks to
Soundies, hundreds of unique musical performances were photographed
for posterity. These mini-musicals were originally nothing more
than a ten-cent novelty. Today, to film and music fans, they're a
priceless part of history. Scott MacGillivray and Ted Okuda,
authors of the landmark resource book "The Soundies Distributing
Corporation of America," now offer this revised and expanded guide
to the Soundies musicals. This all-new book picks up where the
original left off: more than 1800 titles are classified by
performer, title, and date-many with new, individual annotations
and all with new cross-references for easy reading and
consultation. There is also a historical account of the prolific
Soundies production companies, a look at Soundies' many competitors
and descendants (including telescriptions and Scopitones), a
checklist of the dozens of Soundies home-movie editions, and a
listing of alternate titles to help collectors identify the films
more easily. All in one handy volume: "The Soundies Book."
Softcover edition contains all-new hand-drawn cover artwork by
HagCult! As featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone,
Entertainment Weekly, MovieMaker, SYFY, Fangoria, Yahoo's "It
List", SFX, Mental Floss, Total Film, Mashable, and more! How did a
low-budget British movie about Londoners battling zombies in a pub
become a beloved global pop culture phenomenon? You've Got Red on
You details the previously untold story of 2004's Shaun of the
Dead, the hilarious, terrifying horror-comedy whose fan base
continues to grow and grow. After speaking with dozens of people
involved in the creation of the film, author Clark Collis reveals
how a group of friends overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to
make a movie that would take bites out of both the UK and the US
box office before ascending to the status of bona fide comedy
classic. Featuring in-depth interviews with director Edgar Wright,
producer Nira Park, and cast members Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate
Ashfield, Bill Nighy, Lucy Davis, and Coldplay singer Chris Martin,
the book also boasts a treasure trove of storyboards, rare
behind-the-scenes photos, and commentary from famous fans of the
movie, including filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth, Walking
Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero, and World War Z author Max
Brooks. As Pegg's zombie-fighting hero Shaun would say, "How's that
for a slice of fried gold?"
This book traces the history of 'girls' aesthetics,' where adult
Japanese women create art works about 'girls' that resist
motherhood, from the modern to the contemporary period and their
manifestation in Japanese women's theatrical and dance performance
and visual arts including manga, film, and installation arts.
How do we identify the "queer auteur" and their queer imaginings?
Is it possible to account for such a figure when the very terms
"queer" and "auteur" invoke aesthetic surprises and
disorientations, disconcerting ironies and paradoxes, and
biographical deceits and ambiguities? In eighteen eloquent
chapters, David A. Gerstner traces a history of ideas that
spotlight an ever-shifting terrain associated with auteur theory
and, in particular, queer-auteur theory. Engaging with the likes of
Oscar Wilde, Walter Benjamin, James Baldwin, Jean Louis Baudry,
Linda Nochlin, Jane Gallop, Cael Keegan, Luce Irigaray, and other
prominent critical thinkers, Gerstner contemplates how the queer
auteur in film theory might open us to the work of desire. Queer
Imaginings argues for a queer-auteur in which critical theory is
reenabled to reconceptualize the auteur in relation to race,
gender, sexuality, and desire. Gerstner succinctly defines the
contours of a history and the ongoing discussions that situate
queer and auteur theories in film studies. Ultimately, Queer
Imaginings is a journey in shared pleasures in which writing for
and about cinema makes way for unanticipated cinematic friendships.
Reprojecting the City takes a radical new look at the cinematic
city through a queer perspective from the global south. Placing
centre-stage the intersection of dissident sexuality with
capitalism, globalisation and urban development, it shows how
recent Latin American films rework our understandings of urban
space and disrupt 'Western' imaginations of city life and sexuality
in the majority world. Fusing a queer perspective with a range of
other critical approaches, Hoff takes current debates beyond the
now well-trodden narratives of dependency and subalternity to a new
space in which the so-called 'periphery' is relocated back to the
centre of things. Latin American cinematic cities, emerge not
merely as marginal spaces of prejudice, discrimination, exclusion
and violence also ones of hope, empowerment and productive
possibility firmly implicated in the global (re)production of
sexualities and sexual discourses.
With films such as "Muriel's Wedding" and "The Adventures of
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" finding recent success in American
theaters, Australian cinema has never been as popular in North
America as it is today. This new study argues that post-1970
Australian film is best described not as exhibiting phenomenal
variety but as focused on a conception of heroism characterized by
the love of freedom, the resentment of authority, and attachment to
the land, along with anti-intellectualism, fatalism, and occasional
sexism. Tracing these themes through one hundred films, Scheckels
explores the ways in which they are reflected through depictions of
men, women, aboriginals, and youth, with each demographic group
posing its own unique generic and cultural questions.
Including films both elite and popular, excellent and flawed,
"Celluloid Heroes Down Under" offers film-by-film discussions in
seven chapters, making the volume both a highly readable study of a
particular cinema and superb reference guide for its readers.
Unlike previous studies of the nation's film output, Sheckels's
work presents its subject not as a miscellaneous collection but as
a focused endeavor, a cohesive and undervalued component of world
cinema.
Will we ever get tired of watching Cher navigate Beverly Hills high
school and discover true love in the movie Clueless? As if! Written
by Amy Heckerling and starring Alicia Silverstone, Clueless is an
enduring comedy classic that remains one of the most streamed
movies on Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes even twenty years after its
release. Inspired by Jane Austen's Emma, Cluelessis an everlasting
pop culture staple. In the first book of its kind, Jen Chaney has
compiled an oral history of the making of this iconic film using
recollections and insights collected from key cast and crew members
involved in the making of this endlessly quotable,
ahead-of-its-time production. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how
Emma influenced Heckerling to write the script, how the stars were
cast into each of their roles, what was involved in creating the
costumes, sets, and soundtrack, and much more. This wonderful
twentieth anniversary commemoration includes never-before-seen
photos, original call sheets, casting notes, and production diary
extracts. With supplemental critical insights by the author and
other notable movie experts about why Clueless continues to impact
pop culture, As If!will leave fans new and old totally buggin' as
they understand why this beloved film is timeless.
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.
This book explores the use of Blockchain and smart contract
technologies to develop new ways to finance independent films and
digital media worldwide. Using case studies of Alibaba and
in-depth, on-set observation of a Sino-US coproduction, as well as
research collected from urban China, Hong Kong, Europe, and the
USA, Online Film Production in China Using Blockchain and Smart
Contracts explores new digital platforms and what this means for
the international production of creative works. This research
assesses the change in media consciousness from young urban
audiences, their emergence as a potential participative and
creative community within dis-intermediated, decentralised and
distributed crowdfunding and crowdsourcing models. This research
proposes solutions on how these young emerging local creative
talents can be identified and nurtured early on, particularly those
who now produce creative and artistic audiovisual content whether
these works are related to film, Virtual Reality (VR), video game,
graphic novels, or music. Ultimately, a new media content finance
and production platform implementing blockchain is proposed to
bring transparency in the film sector and open doors to emerging
artists in digital media. Appropriate for both professionals and
academics in the film industry as well as computer science.
As the popularity of the genre increases and special effects are
pushed to greater extremes of terror and cruelty, more and more
people have begun to wonder, what is the attraction of horror
films? Do they have any socially redeeming features? Rockett offers
some surprising and provocative answers to these questions in his
analysis of the cinema of cruelty. First commenting on our
fascination with experiences that transcend the world of ordinary
reality, he looks at film as a means of expressing the dark side of
human nature. Next, he examines the essential ingredients that go
into the making of a horror film, the variations that are found
within the genre, and the links between the best horror cinema and
Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. Echoing Artaud, Rockett argues that
human beings are attracted to horror in films because of an
unconscious craving for a reality in which the demonic supernatural
acts as a living whirlwind, devouring the darkness and bringing
viewers closer to the transcendence they are actually seeking. The
final chapter shows how the finest works in the horror genre
achieve this underlying aim. He discusses filmmakers such as Roman
Polanski, who have been able to provide the realism and artistic
quality that contemporary audiences demand while preserving the
ambiguity and terror necessary to experience the power of
transcendent force. Rockett's skillful and imaginative exploration
of the subject will be appreciated by scholars and general readers
concerned with popular culture, film, literature, drama, and
contemporary social issues.
This book explores the aesthetic and ethical ways in which history
and daily life are filmically represented and witnessed in
Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's movies. From the era of the
Japanese Occupation to the White Horror and then to the lifting of
martial law, the author shows how Hou Hsiao-hsien uses visual media
to evoke the rhythms of daily life through the emotional memory of
the characters and communities he explores. In particular, the book
focuses on the ways in which Hou Hsiao-hsien seeks to reflect the
strong dilemmas of identity and the traumatic emotions associated
with witnessing history. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it
investigates the concepts of daily life, representation and
historical trauma in order to focus on how these films represent
history and political trauma through the nature of daily life and
personal memories, and the resulting historical responsibility and
ethics. This is the first academic monography about Hou
Hsiao-hsien's films.
|
|