Film Distribution in the Digital Age critically examines the evolution of the landscape of film distribution in recent years. In doing so, it argues that the interlocking ecosystem(s) of media dissemination must be considered holistically and culturally if we are to truly understand the transnational flows of cultural texts.

Television and movies, not libraries or scholarship, have made Charles Dickens the most important unread novelist in English. In addition to the millions of people already deploying the word "Dickensian" to describe their own and others' lives, many more who have never read Dickens are familiar with the term. They know of him because they have access to over a century of adaptations of his works for movies and television. Including an exhaustive filmography, this work will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars.

Most histories of Soviet cinema portray the 1970s as a period of stagnation with the gradual decline of the film industry. This book, however, examines Soviet film and television of the era as mature industries articulating diverse cultural values via new genre models. During the 1970s, Soviet cinema and television developed a parallel system of genres where television texts celebrated conservative consensus while films manifested symptoms of ideological and social crises. The book examines the genres of state-sponsored epic films, police procedural, comedy and melodrama, and outlines how television gradually emerged as the major form of Russo-Soviet popular culture. Through close analysis of well-known film classics of the period as well as less familiar films and television series, this groundbreaking work helps to deconstruct the myth of this era as a time of cultural and economic stagnation and also helps us to understand the persistence of this myth in the collective memory of Putin-era Russia. This monograph is the first book-length English-language study of film and television genres of the late Soviet era.

The use of film and video is commonplace in contemporary theatre, viewed by some as contaminating theatre's 'liveness', by others as inevitable and desirable. After tracing the history of current approaches back to early practitioners such as M li s, Painl v and Piscator, "Staging the Screen" explores in detail recent productions by Svoboda, the Wooster Group, Forkbeard Fantasy, Forced Entertainment, Station House Opera, and Lepage. It charts the impact of developing technologies and addresses critical issues raised by multi-media and intermedia work.

Children today are growing up in a world of global media, in which the voices of many cultures compete for attention. Increasing numbers of children are also citizens of the globe: they live in multicultural societies, many have migrated themselves and live within active diasporic and transnational networks. The authors offer a fresh perspective on the relationships between media, globalisation and contemporary childhood.

This book offers a critical analysis of the relationship between food and horror in post-1980 cinema. Evaluating the place of consumption within cinematic structures, Piatti-Farnell analyses how seemingly ordinary foods are re-evaluated in the Gothic framework of irrationality and desire. The complicated and often ambiguous relationship between food and horror draws important and inescapable connections to matters of disgust, hunger, abjection, violence, as well as the sensationalisation of transgressive corporeality and monstrous pleasures. By looking at food consumption within Gothic cinema, the book uncovers eating as a metaphorical activity of the self, where the haunting psychology of the everyday, the porous boundaries of the body, and the uncanny limits of consumer identity collide. Aimed at scholars, researchers, and students of the field, Consuming Gothic charts different manifestations of food and horror in film while identifying specific socio-political and cultural anxieties of contemporary life.

Starring Tom Cruise examines how Tom Cruise's star image moves across genres and forms as a type of commercial product that offers viewers certain pleasures and expectations. Cruise reads as an action hero and romantic lead yet finds himself in homoerotic and homosocial relationships that unsettle and undermine these heterosexual scripts. In this volume, editor Sean Redmond shows how important star studies is not just to understanding the ideological, commercial, and cultural significance of one star but to seeing how masculinity, ethnicity, sexuality, and commodity relations function in contemporary society. The volume is divided into three parts. Part 1 explores the ways that Cruise's star image and performances are built on a desiring gaze, nearly always complicated by perverse narrative arcs and liminal character relationships. This section also explores the complex and contradictory ways he embodies masculinity and heterosexuality. Part 2 places Cruise within the codes and conventions of genre filmmaking and the way they intersect with the star vehicle. Cruise becomes monomythical, heroic, authentic, and romantic, and at the same time, he struggles to hold these formulas and ideologies together. Part 3 views Cruise as both an ageless totemic figure of masculinity who does his own stunts, as well as an aging star-his body both the conduit for eternally youthful masculinity and a signifier of that which must ultimately fail. These readings are connected to wider discursive issues concerning his private and public life, including the familial/patriarchal roles he takes on.Scholars writing for this collection approach the Cruise star image through various vectors and frames, which are revelatory in nature. As such, they not only demonstrate the very best traditions of close ""star"" textual analysis but also move the approach to the star forward. Students, scholars, and readers of film, media, and celebrity studies will enjoy this deep dive into a complex Hollywood figure.

"Cinema After Fascism "considers how postwar European films glance ambivalently backward from the postwar period to the fascist era and delves into issues of gender certainties and spectatorship. In this period of film, familiar structures of epistemology and historiography reappear as ghostly imprints on postwar celluloid, and the remnants of fascist subjectivity walk the streets of postwar cities. Through new perspectives on the films of Roberto Rossellini, Billy Wilder, Carol Reed, Alain Resnais, and Marguerite Duras, this book examines the ways in which filmmakers acknowledge the fascist past. Siobhan S. Craig reveals that the attempts to reconfigure the idioms of cinema are never fully naturalized and remain highly precarious constructions.

Wherever vampires existed in the imaginations of different peoples, they adapted themselves to the customs of the local culture. As a result, vampire lore is extremely diverse. So too, representations of the vampire in creative works have been marked by much originality. In "The Vampyre" (1819), John Polidori introduced Lord Ruthven and established the vampire craze of the 19th century that resulted in a flood of German vampire poetry, French vampire drama, and British vampire fiction. This tradition culminated in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), which fixed the character of the Transylvanian nobleman as the archetypal vampire firmly in the public imagination. Numerous films drew from Stoker's novel to varying degrees, with each emphasizing different elements of his vampire character. And more recent writers have created works in which vampirism is used to explore contemporary social concerns.

The contributors to this volume discuss representations of the vampire in fiction, folklore, film, and popular culture. The first section includes chapters on Stoker and his works, with attention to such figures as Oscar Wilde and Edvard Munch. The second section explores the vampire in film and popular culture from Bela Lugosi to "Blacula." The volume then looks at such modern writers as Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro who have adapted the vampire legend to meet their artistic needs. A final section studies contemporary issues, such as vampirism as a metaphor for AIDS in ""Killing Zoe."

To ask about the nature of practice-based film education as it has emerged around the globe and exists today, is to begin to understand how filmmakers become filmmakers of a particular kind, with specific commitments and values. Ranging well beyond well-established film schools and onto the terrain of studios, clubs, film festivals, NGOs, peripatetic workshops, and alternative film schools, The Education of the Filmmaker in Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas asks probing questions about the goals of different kinds of film training and about the nature of their contributions, not only to the world of film, but to society. Looking at filmmaking in countries such as Nigeria, Qatar, the United States, the West Indies, and others, the contributors examine aspects such as audience response, film education for children, and the impact on crime.

Immerse yourself in the thrilling world of Star Wars: The High Republic with this incredibly illustrated guide to the golden age of the Jedi! Set centuries before the Skywalker Saga, this book is the ultimate in-universe guide to the Jedi Knights of Star Wars: The High Republic, providing fascinating insight into a time of valiant heroes, terrifying monsters, and daring exploration. You will also uncover the mysteries of the Force and learn about the technology of the Jedi Order, including its starfighters and the unique lightsaber designs of this incredible era. Featuring stunning original illustrations and exclusive new revelations, this striking book is an essential collectible that will transport you to the galaxy's gilded age.

The twenty-first-century's turn away from fidelity-based adaptations toward more innovative approaches has allowed adapters from Spain, Argentina, and the United States to draw upon Spain's rich body of nineteenth-century classics to address contemporary concerns about gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, celebrity, immigration, identity, social justice, and domestic violence. This book provides a snapshot of visual adaptations in the first two decades of the new millennium, examining how novelistic material from the past has been remediated for today's viewers through film, television, theater, opera, and the graphic novel. Its theoretical approach refines the binary view of adapters as either honoring or opposing their source texts by positing three types of adaptation strategies: salvaging (which preserves old stories by giving them renewed life for modern audiences), utilizing (which draws upon a pre-existing text for an alternative purpose, building upon the story and creating a shift in emphasis without devaluing the source material), and appropriation (which involves a critique of the source text, often with an attempt to dismantle its authority). Special attention is given to how adapters address audiences that are familiar with the source novels, and those that are not. This examination of the vibrant afterlife of classic literature will be of interest to scholars and educators in the fields of adaptation, media, Spanish literature, cultural studies, performance, and the graphic arts.

Examining 40 cycles or themes and more than 1,000 silent films, the author attempts to discern how the screen reflected contemporary social, political, and national trends during the silent years. The period has been divided into the early silent years (1900-1919), with films of one or two reels dominating for the first 15 years, and the later silent period (1920-1929), known as the Golden Age of the Silents, in which feature-length films dominated. One of the author's goals is to establish the success, and sometimes the failure, of these films to capture the social and political times of their release. Other film books approach the dramas and comedies by genre, not by specific cycles, which makes this work unique.

The book focuses on both short works and feature-length films that are generally arranged chronologically under specific chapters. Each entry lists the title, year of release, director, and original source, if provided by the film. The major players are often included within the plot summary and analysis. Remakes and films with alternate titles are noted.

"World Cinema's 'Dialogues' with Hollywood" looks at the way Hollywood has interacted with a range of national and transnational cinemas, from German Expressionism to Bollywood and Chinese film. While Hollywood has had a profound impact upon the history of the medium - suggesting that if there is 'dialogue' to be identified it is one where Hollywood has done all the talking - it is impossible to understand this history without examining the impact of World Cinema's economic, aesthetic and political relationship with Hollywood.

The ultimate film reference (and trivia) book, Hollywood Winners and Losers features almost 900 separate entries for every actor and actress ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. From icons to would-be superstars and the forgotten faces that had only a moment in the sun, every personality is listed here along with their best-known films, real names, bios, and little-known facts. More than just a reference guide or "bet-settler," this is a perennial coffee-table read, perfect for film fans of all ages. It simply cannot be beat.

This is the first comprehensive study of Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett's innovative work for the screen. "Samuel Beckett's Plays on Film and Television "provides meticulous analysis of every play Beckett wrote, directed, or adapted for the screen. Herren studies Beckett's use of "memory machines"--technological media for channeling personal, cultural, philosophical, and artistic ghosts from the past. Having conjured these ghosts, Beckett "decomposes" them in order to recompose them for distinctly innovative use. Herren traces this countraditional approach to tradition as Beckett's signature style for film and television. The book concludes with a consideration of the "Beckett on Film" project, where Herren defends the vital need for creative freedom in future productions of Beckett's plays. With this publication, the film and television plays can now assume their rightful place alongside Beckett's remarkable fiction and stage plays, collectively constituting one of the most innovative artistic achievements of the twentieth century.