Scotland's greatest export. The world's first super spy. Voted the sexiest man on the planet. Sir Sean Connery was a titanic figure on screen and off for over half a century. Behind the son of a factory worker, growing up in near-poverty on the harsh streets of pre-war Edinburgh, lay a timeless array of motion pictures that spanned multiple decades and saw Connery work across the globe with directors as diverse as Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. And amongst them his greatest role, whether he liked it or not - Bond, James Bond. Author A. J. Black delves into Connery's life for more than mere biography, exploring not just the enormously varied pictures he made including crowd pleasing blockbusters such as The Untouchables or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, serious-minded fare in The Hill or The Offence, and his strange sojourns into eclectic fantasy with Zardoz or Time Bandits, but also the sweep of a career that crossed movie eras as well as decades. From skirmishes with the angry young men of the British New Wave, via becoming the cinematic icon of the 1960s as 007, through to a challenging reinvention as a unique older actor of stature in the 1980s, this exploration of the Cinematic Connery shows just how much his work reflected the changing movie-going tastes, political realities and cultural trends of the 20th century, and beyond . . .

During the 1980's and 1990's, Hollywood released a spate of films about schools. This text offers a study of the predominant messages about education and race that these 'school films' communicate. Films examined include The Graduate, Blackboard Jungle, The English Patient, Dead Poets Society, Pulp Fiction, Ghost, The Wizard of Oz, Top Gun and Forrest Gump, to name but a few.

Commedia all'italiana, or Comedy, Italian style, became popular at a time of great social change. This book, utilizing comedies produced in Italy from 1958-70, examines the genre's representation of gender in the everyday spaces of beaches and nightclubs, offices, cars, and kitchens, through the exploration of key spatial motifs.

1969 was Robert Redford's breakout year, when he starred with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Since that time he was continuously successful, either as an actor or director. His concern for the environment, particularly in the American West, has made him an important spokesman for conservation, often lending his name to causes and charities that help support preservation and endangered species. This comprehensive biography is based on extensive interviews with friends and colleagues, as well as assistance provided by Redford himself.

The endurance of the Frankenstein narrative as a modern cinematic myth is undeniable. Its flexibility has produced classic and contemporary horror film-most notably the Universal films of the thirties-but it has also resulted in unusual hybrids, such as musical horror-comedy ("The Rocky Horror Picture ShoW"), hyperbolic parody ("Flesh for Frankenstein"), and science fiction (the "Alien" and "Terminator" series). This sourcebook provides a complete guide to all of the story's filmic incarnations-including essential information such as cast, creative personnel, and plot summaries-and also guides the reader to relevant primary texts such as scripts, posters, production histories, and newspaper clippings. Utilizing an approach that is both popular and scholarly, and including spotlight essays that deal with contemporary academic approaches to the subject, "The Frankenstein Film Sourcebook" reveals the depth of the cinematic range of interpretations of a classic modern myth.

Comprehensive in its scope, "The Frankenstein Film Sourcebook" provides an alphabetical guide to two hundred films that incorporate the Frankenstein narrative. It also delves into both primary and secondary perspectives and includes discussions of aspects of the films, such as their depiction of women, which is relevant to current scholarly critiques.

3D Cinema: Optical Illusions and Tactile Experiences questions the common frameworks used for discussing 3D cinema, realism and spectacle, in order to fully understand the embodied and sensory dimensions of 3D cinema's unique visuality.

"Chromatic Cinema" provides the first wide-ranging historical overview of screen color, exploring the changing uses and meanings of color in moving images, from hand painting in early skirt dance films to current trends in digital color manipulation. Offers both a history and a theory of screen color in the first full-length study ever publishedProvides an in-depth yet accessible account of color's spread through and ultimate effacement of black-and-white cinema, exploring the technological, cultural, economic, and artistic factors that have defined this evolving symbiosisEngages with film studies, art history, visual culture and technology studies in a truly interdisciplinary mannerIncludes 65 full-color illustrations of films ranging from Expressionist animation to Hollywood and Bollywood musicals, from the US 'indie' boom to1980s neo-noir, Hong Kong cinema, and recent comic-book films

Though unjustly neglected by English-language audiences, Spanish film and television not only represent a remarkably influential and vibrant cultural industry; they are also a fertile site of innovation in the production of "transmedia" works that bridge narrative forms. In Spanish Lessons, Paul Julian Smith provides an engaging exploration of visual culture in an era of collapsing genre boundaries, accelerating technological change, and political-economic tumult. Whether generating new insights into the work of key figures like Pedro Almodovar, comparing media depictions of Spain's economic woes, or giving long-overdue critical attention to quality television series, Smith's book is a consistently lively and accessible cultural investigation.

The national cinemas of Czechoslovakia and East Germany were two of the most vital sites of filmmaking in the Eastern Bloc, and over the course of two decades, they contributed to and were shaped by such significant developments as Sovietization, de-Stalinization, and the conservative retrenchment of the late 1950s. This volume comprehensively explores the postwar film cultures of both nations, using a "stereoscopic" approach that traces their similarities and divergences to form a richly contextualized portrait. Ranging from features to children's cinema to film festivals, the studies gathered here provide new insights into the ideological, political, and economic dimensions of Cold War cultural production.

The People's Front in Defense of Land of Atenco (the ""Frente"") is an emblematic force in contemporary Mexican politics and in anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal activist networks throughout the world. Best known for years of resistance against the encroachment of a government airport project on communal farmland, the Frente also became international news when its members were subject to state violence, rape, and intimidation in a brutal government crackdown in 2006. Through it all, documentary filmmaking has been one aspect of the Frente and its allies' efforts. The contradictions and difficulties of this moral and political project emerge in the day-to-day experiences of local, national, and international filmmakers and film distributors seeking to participate in the social movement. Stone highlights the importance of how the circulation of the physical videos, and not just their content, promotes the social movement. More broadly she shows how videographers perform their activism, navigating the tensions between neoliberal personhood or ego and an ethos of companerismo that privileges community. Grounded in the lived experiences of Atenco's activists and allied filmmakers, Atenco Lives! documents the making and circulating of films as an ethical and political practice purposefully used to transform human relationships.

Film technology developments in the early 20th century opened up a new world of possibilities for the motion picture industry, and opera, relying as it did on the melodramatic storyline and grand pantomime acting, was an ideal subject for early silent film. Even deprived of their principal glory-their voices-opera singers were among the first prominent screen stars. This book examines the relationship between the established operatic stars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the newly developing motion picture industry. It concentrates primarily on developments between 1895 and 1926, from the invention of the commercially exploitable motion picture to the coming of viable sound on film. Early chapters discuss the changing role of the opera star prior to and during the development of film as a popular commercial medium, and explore the technological innovations that eventually enabled opera to move out of the strict confines of the opera house and to be viewed by a global audience. Later chapters expose the fragile relationship between art and the entertainment industry in the early decades of the motion picture, and show how the opera helped establish a balance between film as a new art form and its commercial exploitation. Also discussed is the extent to which the inclusion of opera in early motion pictures contributed to the broader democratization of art. The book concludes with four detailed case studies that examine the experiences of operatic performers who made the transition to the silent screen and who made a notable impact on the early movie industry. An extensive filmography is included to provide the reader with full details of films cited and archival locations of surviving materials.

This comprehensive film guide lists the screen credits and provides synopses of more than 5,400 silent western features, documentaries, shorts and serials released from the 1890s through 1930. Numerous one-, two- and three-reelers are included in this guide. These westerns came from both the major and lesser known American film studios, many long defunct. The term "western" is hard to define; someone once commented that a western had to have a horse in it. The genre generally applies to that post-Civil War period beginning with the great cattle drives and ending around 1890. But the author has included tales about early California, Mexico, various Indian tribes along the Eastern seaboard, the building of the railroad, the gold rush of 1849 and the search for gold in the Yukon. Other films which seem to have less in common with the genre, such as northern westerns, are listed in a separate appendix.

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.

In Cinematic Political Thought, Michael J. Shapiro investigates aspects of contemporary politics and articulates a critical philosophical perspective with politically disposed treatments of contemporary cinema. Reading such films as "Hoop Dreams, Lone Star, Father of the Bride II "and "To Live and Die in LA "through the lens of Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault and Lyotard, Shapiro demonstrates what it can mean to think the political both in terms of cinema studies and in wider aesthetic and social contexts.

Cinematic Political Thought is a polemical work, aimed at encouraging critical, ethical and political thinking. Its breadth of theoretical scope and empirical reference, and the innovative style of presentation will make it vital reading for anyone with an interest in the conjunction of culture and politics.

An examination of how screen texts embrace, refute, and reinvent the cultural heritage of antiquity, this volume looks at specific story-patterns and archetypes from Greco-Roman culture. The contributors offer a variety of perspectives, highlighting key cultural relay points at which a myth is received and reformulated for a particular audience.

The beginning of filmmaking in the German colonies coincided with colonialism itself coming to a standstill. Scandals and economic stagnation in the colonies demanded a new and positive image of their value for Germany. By promoting business and establishing a new genre within the fast growing film industry, films of the colonies were welcomed by organizations such as the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (German Colonial Society). The films triggered patriotic feelings but also addressed the audience as travelers, explorers, wildlife protectionists, and participants in unique cultural events. This book is the first in-depth analysis of colonial filmmaking in the Wilhelmine Era.

The park is open! Celebrate one of the most thrilling movie sagas of all time with this in-depth look at the making of the Jurassic World trilogy. Following the release of director Colin Trevorrow's smash hit Jurassic World in 2015, the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar once again dominate the public imagination. This book delivers a comprehensive look at the making of the first hit film, as well as its thrilling sequels Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion. Through rare and never-before-seen imagery and exclusive interviews with key creatives, this deluxe volume explores the entire creative process, from the films' stunning dinosaur designs to the epic location shoots and the creation of the films' incredible visual effects. Fans will also discover a fascinating look at the wider world of the saga, including the Netflix animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, video games, toys, comics, theme park attractions, and more. Unearth the story behind the making of the Jurassic World trilogy with this definitive collector's book, a must-have for fans of the action-packed saga.

Filmic constructions of war heroism have a profound impact on public perceptions of conflicts. Here, contributors examine the ways motifs of gender and heroism in war films are used to justify ideological positions, shape the understanding of the military conflicts, support political agendas and institutions, and influence collective memory.

Explore the Dark Arts of the Harry Potter films, with more than a dozen collectible stickers, cards, patches, prints, and more! Open the sturdy portfolio to discover the secrets behind Voldemort, Death Eaters, Horcruxes, and more in this exclusive collection of over a dozen authentic prop facsimiles, artifacts, stickers, and stationery inspired by the Dark Arts. Filled with facts and photos, fans will learn about the dark side of the Wizarding World, relive moments from the films, and delve into the behind-the-scenes magic that brought Harry Potter to life on the big screen. AUTHENTIC COLLECTIBLES: More than a dozen exclusive, official Harry Potter collectibles inspired by the Dark Arts including a 16-page journal, stickers, and more! BEHIND-THE-SCENES MOVIE FACTS: Dark Arts-related facts, trivia, and stories from the set of the Harry Potter films. STUNNING ART AND IMAGES: Photos from the films and gorgeous illustrations bring the world of the Dark Arts to life! PERFECT GIFT: An ideal and unusual gift for the Harry Potter fan. COLLECT THEM ALL: Harry Potter: Dark Arts joins the of Artifacts of the Wizarding World series that includes Harry Potter: Wand Magic, Harry Potter: Travel Magic, Harry Potter: Gryffindor Magic, Harry Potter: Slytherin Magic, Harry Potter: Hufflepuff Magic and Harry Potter: Ravenclaw Magic

How do we experience disaster films in cinema? And where does disaster cinema come from? The two questions are more closely related than one might initially think. For the framework of the cinematic experience of natural disasters has its roots in the mid-eighteenth century when the aesthetic category of the sublime was re-established as the primary mode for appreciating nature's violent forces. In this book, the sublime is understood as a complex and culturally specific meeting point between philosophical thought, artistic creation, social and technical development, and popular imagination. On the one hand, the sublime provides a receptive model to uncover how cinematic disaster depictions affect our senses, bodies and minds. On the other hand, this experiential framework of disaster cinema is only one of the most recent agents within the historical trajectory of sublime disasters, which is traced in this book among a broad range of media: from landscape and history painting to a variety of pictorial devices like Eidophusikon, Panorama, Diorama, and, finally, cinema.