This incisive book provides an in-depth critical and biographical study of the artistic range of film director Gus Van Sant. Arranged chronologically, Gus Van Sant: His Own Private Cinema provides a comprehensive overview of the life and art of this talented director, covering his mainstream, commercial, and avant-garde projects. More than a biography, the book examines Van Sant's incredibly diverse body of work, exploring the influence of his open homosexuality; of fine art, literature, and music; and of the range of cinema styles to which he has been exposed. Stressing Van Sant's wide-ranging content, genre, style, and cinematic presentation, author Vincent LoBrutto details the filmmaker's autobiographical tendencies and how he uses the film craft, literature, popular music, and fine arts to create his movies. The book dissects ways in which each of his films reflects Van Sant's sexual orientation, whether the individual film has a gay theme or not. Because of its importance to Van Sant's films, the book also offers a history of gay culture, past and present, covering its influence on art, music, theater, and dance, as well as community, activism, and prejudice.

What makes good art? Learn the tricks of the trade and tackle the techniques from the greatest artists from around the world with this fun activity-sketch book. Create your very own self-portrait like Picasso, collage like Matisse and understand conceptual art with thought-provoking tasks inspired by great artists. Covering everything from collage to pop art, expressionism to surrealism, this essential activity book will let you step into the shoes of the artists and learn how to master their craft. With helpful hints, tips and step-by-steps, Make Art with the Greats will help you to build your creative confidence as you explore the world’s most famous artists throughout history, from the early Renaissance to the present day. Familiarize yourself with the tricks of the trade by tackling a broad range of creative tasks and get to know the artists with a short biography and low-down on their practice. As Jackson Pollock once said, ‘some artists build things with a brush, some with a shovel, some with a pen.’ So, get ready to dabble with different artistic techniques alongside the biggest names in the world . . . and make art with the greats.

In his bold new study of the career of one of filmmaking's premier directors, author James M. Vest traces two intertwining strands of history: Alfred Hitchcock's interest in French culture, and French critics' sometimes complementary, sometimes confrontational interest in him. In the 1950s, Hitchcock was increasingly committed to including French-related elements in his films to enhance suspense and humor. At that same time, young critics in France-including Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, and Jean-Luc Godard-discovered in Hitchcock's films the mark of an auteur. They saw in him the creator of a cohesive body of work that bore his unique imprint, and in so doing, they countered the dominant opinion of Hitchcock as a proficient craftsman but ultimately just a maker of implausible melodramas. These interactions, explored fully and in-depth here, led not only to a revolution in film criticism, but also to a reenergizing of French cinema as well as the creation of a reputation that has lasted decades. Here is examined for the first time the cultural and intellectual background of those convergences in the mid-1950s-when the auteur theory was first being developed-as well as Hitchcock's transformation of French source materials in such films as I Confess and Vertigo, his use of French allusions in several films, and his New Wave tendencies in others. Providing access to books, essays, reviews, screenplays, and advertisements not generally available, Hitchcock and France chronicles a crucial period in the history of both filmmaking and film-viewing.

This examniation of the cinematic style of film noir originals and their neo-noir remakes compares thirty-five films, beginning with Billy Wilder's classic "Double Indemnity" and concluding with Jim McBride's "Breathless." In-depth analysis of the films explain the qualities and characteristics of film noir, while providing critical readings of both the originals and the remakes. The most significant films since 1944 are reviewed and reveal the ever-changing values in American society. As this study reveals, the noir style significantly impacted American film and neo-noir remakes attest to its continued popularity in cinematic art.

This work will appeal to film scholars and to fans of film noir. Filmogrpahies and video information follow each chapter. Appendices briefly explain the roots of many noir films discussed in the text along with their subsequent remakes.

Starting in the early 1990s, artists such as Quentin Tarantino, David Foster Wallace, and Kurt Cobain contributed to a swelling cultural tide of pop postmodernism that swept through music, film, literature, and fashion. In cinema in particular, some of the art's most fundamental aspects--stories, characters, and genres, for instance--assumed such a trite and trivialized appearance that only rarely could they take their places on the screen without provoking an inward smirk or a wink from the audience. In horror films, characters knew what was coming next from having already studied the horror genre themselves; in Westerns, new plots developed out of an assortment of old ones; and in action features, few heroes came without a strong hint of the anti-hero as well. Out of this highly self-conscious and world-weary environment, however, a new group of filmmakers began to develop as the decade wore on, with a new set of styles and sensibilities to match. In Post-Pop Cinema author Jesse Fox Mayshark takes us on a film-by-film tour of the works of Wes and P. T. Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, and David O. Russell, and reveals how a common pool of styles, collaborators, and personal connections helps them to confront the unifying problem of meaning in American film. Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket (1996) and Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) were ultimately about their characters' lives-even though their characters often dealt with highly contrived environments and situations. And soon after Wes Anderson scored his first success, others like David O. Russell (Flirting With Disaster, Three Kings), the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (who collaborated with SpikeJonze on such projects as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation), Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways), Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) began to tread their own paths over this same ground. Although these men and women represent a wide range of styles and subject matter, all their films revolve in different ways around the difficulty of establishing and maintaining connections. This theme of connection also runs deeper than the films made: the directors share actors (Mark Wahlberg, Bill Murray, Ben Stiller, Jason Schwartzman), collaborators (the musician Jon Brion) and sometimes even personal connections (Spike Jonze starred in Russell's Three Kings, and was married to Coppola). Together these filmmakers form a loose and distinctly American school of filmmaking, one informed by postmodernism but not in thrall to it, and one that every year becomes more important to the world of cinema both within and beyond the United States. Author Jesse Fox Mayshark has been reviewing these filmmakers from their debut features to the present day This book represents not only the first prolonged study devoted to several of these very important filmmakers, but also the first effort to chronicle the efforts of this group as a whole

Motion pictures have been one of the forces that have both shaped and reproduced adolescent femininity. Films not only reflect culture--they help to create it. So it is worth looking at films to see what messages they gave girls--and adults--about what girls were and should be like. Scheiner uses film as a window into the cultural meanings of female adolescence, and explores how those meanings changed over time. She looks at how female adolescence has been constructed in film, focusing on the period from 1920 to 1950. She contextualizes representations of female adolescence by looking at the actual experience of adolescence in each period and by examining the material conditions and film industry processes that contributed to these portrayals.

As Scheiner makes clear, historical interpretations of film messages must be expanded to determine what conclusions girls themselves reached from film images. Girls are hardly passive consumers of film. Rather, they choose how to respond to the films they see. This is perhaps best illustrated by fan activities, where girls actively define what is important about films and film stars, and create their own understandings of female adolescence. Scheiner also looks specifically at adolescent girls as fans to decode their responses to filmic representations of adolescence. She uses some nontraditional sources such as fan columns in fan magazines, fan publications of various stars, reviews in young women's literature, fan mail, and letters to film companies to find evidence of audience reception. Scheiner opens up a world often at odds with the actual experience of female adolescents, and she makes clear that films about adolescent girls are not only a formative part of the nation's history in the early 20th century, but a formative part of becoming a girl. Scholars, students, and other researchers of American film and women's studies, popular culture, and 20th-century history will find this study of particular interest.

Wes Britton's Spy Television (2004) was an overview of espionage on the small screen from 1951 to 2002. His Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film (2004) wove spy literature, movies, radio, comics, and other popular media together with what the public knew about actual espionage to show the interrelationships between genres and approaches in the past century. Onscreen and Undercover, the last book in Britton's "Spy Trilogy," provides a history of spies on the large screen, with an emphasis on the stories these films present. Since the days of the silent documentary short, spying has been a staple of the movie business. It has been the subject of thrillers, melodramas, political films, romances, and endless parodies as well. But despite the developing mistrust of the spy as a figure of hope and good works, the variable relationship between real spying and screen spying over the past 100 years sheds light on how we live, what we fear, who we admire, and what we want our culture--and our world--to become. Onscreen and Undercover describes now forgotten trends, traces surprising themes, and spotlights the major contributions of directors, actors, and other American and English artists. The focus is on movies, on and off camera. In a 1989 National Public Radio interview, famed author John Le Carre said a spy must be entertaining. Spies have to interest potential sources, and be able to draw people in to succeed in recruiting informants. In that spirit, Wes Britton now offers Onscreen and Undercover.

Teens interested in preparing for a career in the arts will find this introductory resource invaluable as it is the first book to guide them long before they apply to college or seek a position in their field. Whether they would like to become actors or filmmakers, artists, architects, dancers, musicians or singers, photographers, or writers, this book will show them how to do so. For each of the arts, an overview of the career, training, and a discussion of related careers is provided, along with lists of books, web sites, and organizations for further information. Sections directed to parents and teachers of the teens, with advice on how to support and encourage teens in their careers, are also included. Teens wanting to gain an edge in their craft by practicing and preparing early will find a wealth of information: advice from experts in each field provide an inside look on what skills are necessary for the twenty-first century. Suggestions for building discipline are provided, such as keeping a writing or sketching journal, and finding the proper trainers in music, dance, and acting. Contests and other opportunities that teens can submit work to or apply for auditions are provided, along with an extensive list of books, trade journals, Web sites, and professional and non-professional organizations. Using the resources in this book will ensure teens are experienced and well-prepared in their art form when they apply to college or other professional training and seek positions in their field.

The Artef (1925-1940) began as a radical Yiddish workers' theatre and developed into a major American Yiddish theatre company. It was among the acknowledged pillars of the Theatre of Social Consciousness, a movement that redefined the course for the American stage during the half century that followed.

In the 1920s and 1930s, New York was widely recognized as the world capital of the Yiddish theatre. The Artef was a principal theatrical institution during this so-called Golden Era. Established in 1925 as a proletarian theatrical organization affiliated with the Jewish section of the American communist movement, the Artef was hailed by Brooks Atkinson as one of the artistic ornaments in town. In 1934 the Artef moved to Broadway, where it continued to perform until its demise in 1940.

This work examines the history of Artef and analyzes the artistic, ideological, and organizational aspects of its work. The company's major productions are discussed, with a focus on the central issues raised by script, direction, and acting. The book attempts to demonstrate that radical politics often shaped and determined the evolution of the theatre, and that its artistic and organizational life must be seen within the context of the political and cultural movement of which it was a part. The work is divided into three major segments: Chapters I-IV discuss the ideological, social, and cultural forces that gave rise to the Artef, the crystallization of the organization, and the work of its acting studio, which in 1928 became the acting collective of the Artef; Chapters V-VIII cover the period of 1929-1934, the formative years of the Artef and their correspondence to communist Third Period doctrine; Chapters IX-XIII are devoted to the theatre's successful Broadway period, which paralleled the Communist Party's liberal Popular Front era. The last chapter discusses the efforts to revive the Artef, and its inevitable demise following the 1939 German-Russian Nonaggression Pact. This is a major work in Jewish Theatre Studies that will be of great use to scholars and other researchers involved with Jewish and Performance Theatre Studies as well as the history of the American Left.

This work is a wide-ranging survey of American children's film that provides detailed analysis of the political implications of these films, as well as a discussion of how movies intended for children have come to be so persistently charged with meaning. Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films provides wide-ranging scrutiny of one of the most lucrative American entertainment genres. Beyond entertaining children—and parents—and ringing up merchandise sales, are these films attempting to shape the political views of young viewers? M. Keith Booker examines this question with a close reading of dozens of films from Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and other studios, debunking some out-there claims—The Ant Bully communist propaganda?—while seriously considering the political content of each film. Disney, Pixar, and the Hidden Messages of Children's Films recaps the entire history of movies for young viewers—from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to this year's Up—then focuses on the extraordinary output of children's films in the last two decades. What Booker finds is that by and large, their lessons are decidedly, comfortably mainstream and any political subtext more often than not is inadvertent. Booker also offers some advice to parents for helping children read films in a more sophisticated way.

Prime time soaps are often revered long after their runs on television have ended, as Dallas, Twin Peaks, and Beverly Hills 90210 readily demonstrate. Due to their profound impact, it's easy to forget how recently the genre itself was born. Dallas premiered in 1978, and was originally intended to air solely as a five-part mini-series. Then, in 1981, producer Aaron Spelling stepped in and introduced his own ultra-glitzy entry Dynasty. Between these two mega-hits, the era of the nighttime soap was born. Soaps soon spun off into non-traditional avenues as well, in sitcoms like Filthy Rich and the supernatural drama Twin Peaks. Then, with the arrival of the more youth-oriented Fox Network, producers were able to hook an entirely new generation on programs such as Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, and Party of Five. Pay-cable channels have also stepped into the picture and now act as trendsetters with hits like Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, and The L Word. Now, from the spiritually themed 7th Heaven to the naughty neighbors of ABC's Desperate Housewives, soaps dominate prime time. Prime Time Soaps covers all the major shows within the soap-opera genre, and also investigates all the ways that soaps have contributed to the development of more general television trends. Interviews with producers, actors, and other artistic collaborators also supplement this revealing and entertaining account. Even outside of their genre, these shows continue to influence current programming. Few series on TV today are purely episodic, instead containing on-going storylines involving the personal dilemmas of their characters. Another very recognizable contribution from soaps occurred on the evening of March 21, 1980, when Dallas finished out its third year with J.R. Ewing being shot by an unknown assailant, leaving fans to wait until the fall for the resolution. This was the beginning of the cliffhanger endings that are now implemented by just about every series on television. Prime Time Soaps covers all the major shows, and also investigates all the ways that soaps have contributed to the development of more general television trends. Interviews with producers, actors, and other artistic collaborators supplement this revealing and entertaining account.

James Mason broke into British films in 1935 after a few years working on the stage. For the rest of the decade, he alternated unsuccessful theatre ventures with increasingly important movies. Though he was a conscientious objector, he became one of the most popular British actors of the World War II era. He moved to Hollywood after the war and made 34 films between 1949 and 1962. Though success initially eluded him, he worked with some of the leading directors of the time and eventually won an Academy Award nomination for A Star is Born (1954). He worked steadily in the years that followed, appearing in nearly 50 feature films from 1963 until his death in 1984. While many of these films were undistinguished, he earned two additional Oscar nominations and was voted Cinema Actor of the Century by a panel of international critics in 1967. This reference book is a comprehensive guide to his life and career. The volume begins with a biography in narrative form that traces Mason's life. The biography is followed by a short chronology, which highlights the principal events of his life and career. An extensive annotated bibliography then reviews works by and about Mason. The sections that follow detail his many performances in film, radio, television, audio recordings, and the stage. Each section includes entries for individual productions, with entries providing extensive cast and credit information, plot summaries, excerpts from reviews, and critical commentary where available. The volume also lists additional information, such as Mason's awards and nominations.

British drama since 1956 has been particularly innovative. This volume investigates how recent British history plays reflect the methods and values of New History, in contrast to traditional biographical dramas that depict the lives of great men of the past. More than 50 British playwrights are discussed, including John Osborne, John Arden, Edward Bond, Robert Bolt, Pam Gems, Howard Brenton, Caryl Churchill, Howard Barker, and Peter Shaffer. Historical drama consistently displays the sense of history prevalent when it was written: a 17th century quest for precedent and analogy; the affirmation of cosmic order in the 18th century; the Romantic search for manifestations of spiritual purpose; in Victorian times, a demonstration that humans control events; and the early 20th century promise, emulating science, to present the facts objectively. Contemporary British history plays, however, demonstrate different agendas for history itself. Marxist plays illustrate a historical dialect leading to the emergence of Communism. Oppositional history takes the point of view of the disenfranchised, the defeated, or the oppressed. Social histories refocus attention away from movers and shakers onto groups of small players. Feminist historians expose the biases of a male dominated hegemony and confront the role of gender in history. Deconstructionists debunk our confidence in historical metanarratives. Postmodernism uses anachronism and stylistic eclecticism to emphasize parallels in different historical periods or to relate historically defined metaphors and rituals to modern experience. Both playwrights and critics confront the implications of the idea that history is constructed and not simply found, and new approaches to history demand innovations in the staging and structuring of plays.