Why did it seem strange when Battlestar Galactica ended its narrative on a religious note instead of providing a scientific explanation? And what does this have to do with gender? This book explores the connection between the triumph of religion and the dominance of femininity in Battlestar Galactica and its prequel series Caprica. Both series breached science fiction's convention of representing the ""irrationality"" of femininity and religion. Analyzing the connections (and disconnections) between women and men, and theology and technology, the author argues that the ""Battlestarverse"" depicts women as zones of contact between the seemingly contradictory spheres of science and religion by simultaneously employing and breaking gender stereotypes.

In January 1966, Alan Napier became a household name on ABC's hit series Batman (1966-1968) as Alfred Pennyworth, loyal butler to the show's title character. This ""overnight success"" came after 16 years of stage work (and the occasional film) in his native England. He followed his signature role with another 26 years of film and television work (and the occasional play) in the United States. In the early 1970s, Napier wrote an autobiography, detailing his childhood as a ""poor relation"" of Birmingham's famous political family the Chamberlains (Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was a cousin), and his collaborations over the years with the likes of John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock. Almost 30 years after Napier's death, James Bigwood, who first met the actor in 1975 when interviewing him for a ""Films in Review"" profile, discovered the unpublished manuscript. This is Napier's story in his own words, annotated and updated, with dozens of rare photographs.

Following the Japanese invasion of northeast China in 1931, the occupying authorities established the Manchuria Film Association to promote film production efficiency and serve Japan’s propaganda needs. Manchuria Film Association had two tasks: to make “national policy films� as part of a cultural mission of educating Chinese in Manchukuo (the puppet state created in 1932) on the special relationship between Japan and the region, and to block the exhibition of Chinese films from Shanghai that contained anti-Japanese messages. The corporation relied on Japanese capital, technology, and film expertise, but it also employed many Chinese filmmakers. After the withdrawal of Japanese forces in 1945, many of these individuals were portrayed as either exploited victims or traitorous collaborators. Yuxin Ma seeks to move the conversation beyond such simplistic and inaccurate depictions. By focusing on the daily challenges and experiences of the Chinese workers at the corporation, Ma examines how life was actually lived by people navigating between practical and ideological concerns. She illustrates how the inhabitants of Manchukuo navigated social opportunities, economic depression, educational reforms, fascist rule, commercial interests, practical daily needs, and more—and reveals ways in which these conflicting preoccupations sometimes manifested as tension and ambiguity on screen. In the battle between repression and expression, these Chinese actors, directors, writers, and technicians adopted defensive and opportunistic tactics. They did so in colonial spaces, often rejecting modernist representations of Manchukuo in favor of venerating traditional Chinese culture and values. The expertise, skills, and professional networks they developed extended well beyond the occupation into the postwar period, and may individuals reestablished themselves as cinema professionals in the socialist era.

...PANTS ON FIRE amply illustrates not only that many of Al Franken's claims are false but that Franken employs the very tactics he accuses the right of using.

The twentieth century was a dynamic period for the theatrical arts in China. Booming urban theatres, the interaction between commercial practice and theatre, dramas staged during the War of Resistance against Japan and a healthy dialogue between Western and Eastern theatres all contributed to the momentousness of this period. The four volumes of A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century display the developmental trajectories of Chinese theatre over those hundred years. This volume examines national policies developed for the culture industry and practice of Chinese theatre from 1949 to the period of "the Great Leap Forward". The author highlights the tension between the new nation’s principle of "letting one hundred flowers bloom" and the theatrical industry as a tool for ideological propaganda. He argues that the transition from war-time conditions to the new social structure of peace time was far from thorough and stable. Scholars and students in the history of the arts, especially the history of Chinese theatre, will find this book to be an essential guide.

25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap takes readers behind the scenes of TV's legendary Dallas. It includes interviews with over 45 Dallas stars, including Larry Hagman, Victoria Principal, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, photographs from Southfork and Steve Kanaly's personal collection, trivia and more!

Within the English-speaking world, no work of the German High Middle Ages is better known than the Nibelungenlied, which has stirred the imagination of artists and readers far beyond its land of origin. Its international influence extends from literature to music, art, film, politics and propaganda, psychology, archeology, and military history. Now for the first time all references to the vast Nibelungen tradition have been catalogued in this comprehensive encyclopedia containing nearly 1000 entries by several dozen international contributors, including the most distinguished scholars in the field. Readers will find illuminating passages on a variety of topics, including literary and extra-literary references, characters and place names, significant motifs and concepts, historical background, and cultural reception through the centuries. This monumental work is an invaluable guide to a fascinating, age-old tradition.

25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap takes readers behind the scenes of TV's legendary Dallas. It includes interviews with over 45 Dallas stars, including Larry Hagman, Victoria Principal, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, photographs from Southfork and Steve Kanaly's personal collection, trivia and more!

"An important addition to the literature on Italian Commedia dell'Arte."--"Choice"

This best-selling PAJ volume presents over 250 comedy routines used by commedia performers in Europe from 1550 to 1750. Includes an introduction, two complete commedia scenarios, and a glossary of commedia characters.

The twenty-four essays in this collection represent the best contributions to the Sixth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. All the essays are comparative or interdisciplinary in nature. Their foci range from the psychological aspects of art and literature, to the political implications of fiction and drama, the philosophic and linguistic dimensions of poetry, and the use of landscape in science fiction and fantasy illustration. The contributors also explore the connections between the fantastic and subjects such as religion, myth, the grotesque, the occult, Gothicism, feminism, and even perceptions of reality.

Veteran agent Steve Stevens offers insight into breaking into TV, movies, etc-particularly in the LA market.

Public awareness of bullying has increased tremendously in recent years, largely through its representation in film, television and novels. In popular media targeted towards young readers and viewers, depictions of bullying can present teachable moments and relatable situations. Written from a variety of perspectives, this collection of new essays offers a broad overview of bullying in popular culture. The contributors discuss the changing face of bullying in popular media, bullying among females, parents who cyberbully, anti-bullying novels, the phenomenon of schadenfreude obsessed culture, and how reality television shapes youth perceptions of acceptable aggressiveness.

As early as 1760 and as late as 1920, Romantic drama dominated Spanish peninsular theatre. The love affair with Romanticism influenced the formation of a modern national identity, an identity that depended heavily on re(defining) women's place in nineteenth-century society. Those women who defied traditional roles became a font of modern anxiety--both in society and on stage. The adulteress embodied the fear of rebellious women, modern growing pains, and the political instability of war and invasion. It is the conflicted portrayal of women that creates a compelling performance of Spanish national identity. By looking at the Romantic adulteress on display over many decades, we are able to gain insight into the uneasy dance between progress and tradition in nineteenth-century Spain.

The story of American repertory theatre actress Jolly Della Pringle is best described as an odyssey filled with travel, adventure, dramatic events, romance and many changes in fortune. She lived an extraordinary life in interesting times on the closing frontier of the American West. In the days before radio, motion pictures and television, traveling repertory companies used wagons, stagecoaches and railroads to bring entertainment to cities and towns across America. No history of this movement would be complete without the tale of Jolly Della Pringle who was a major star to the people in the gold fields, cow towns, logging camps, military forts rural communities in the West and Midwest during the decades before and after the turn of the twentieth century. Here for the first time is Della Pringle's saga including her rise from teenage hotel maid to a magnificently gowned star of her own theatrical company, her amassing of a fortune, her coast to coast fame and her appearances in Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops comedies. She knew most of the performers in the show business of her time including Buffalo Bill Cody, Charlie Chaplin, John Gilbert and Gloria Swanson. Her personal life was equally eventful: she married and divorced a “sinful� five times.

John Fowles wrote five compelling stories later made into motion pictures. This book examines for the first time the film and video adaptations of these stories, as well as Fowles's role in adapting his literary genius to visual media. Besides his authorship of the screenplay for The Magus (1968), Fowles was an uncredited contributor to The Collector (1965) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1971), and to the British television adaptations The Ebony Tower and The Enigma. His unpublished short story The Last Chapter was adapted as a theatrical short film satirizing the James Bond novels. Few are aware that the 1997 thriller The Game was a brilliant adaptation of The Magus, or that Fowles himself acted out scenes from that novel for a Greek television documentary. This book gives deserved recognition to John Fowles as a contributor to cinema, a medium he both loved and distrusted, where his stories acquired vivid alternative lives.

How did Brazilian theatre survive under the military dictatorship of 1964-1985? How did it change once the regime was over? This collection of new essays is the first to cover Brazilian theatre during this period. Brazilian scholars and artists discuss the history of a theatre community that not only resisted the regime but reinvented itself and continued to develop more sophisticated forms of expression even in the face of competition from television and other media. The contributors recount the struggle to stage meaningful plays at a time when some artists and intellectuals were exiled, others imprisoned, tortured or killed. With the return of democracy other important issues arose: how to ensure space for different practices and for regional theatre, and how to continue producing international plays that could be meaningful for a Brazilian audience.

Discover the complete history of Godzilla in this definitive, official guide to the King of the Monsters. Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters celebrates more than 60 years of movie mayhem in an exceptional, fully illustrated book. An official publication in partnership with Toho Co., this must-read guide brings together every incarnation of the world's most famous creature for the first time – including all the Japanese and Western movies, as well as Godzilla's most celebrated appearances in TV, comics and video games. Inside you'll find detailed reviews, spectacular stills and behind-the-scenes images from every Godzilla movie, from 1954's Gojira to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, along with countless insights into the making of one of cinema's most enduring, innovative and successful franchises. Packed with essential info, incredible trivia and stunning artwork, this is the ultimate illustrated reference to all things Godzilla.

Neil Simon is the most successful American playwright on Broadway, and the winner of many awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Mark Twain Prize for Humor, and a Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime Achievement. Many of his plays have been adapted into films and made-for-television movies, and he has written original screenplays and television specials. This book provides a catalogue of Simon's screen work with cast and crew information, synopses, release dates, reviews, awards and DVD availability. Notes on each film cover his narrative subjects and themes as well as adaptation, direction and performance.

Winner of the Theatre Library Association’s 2021 Richard Wall Memorial Award for an exemplary work in the field of recorded performance. Cinema on the Front Line offers the first comprehensive history and analysis of how the medium of cinema intersected with the lives of British soldiers during the First World War. Documenting the wartime use of cinema, from domestic recruitment drives to makeshift theatrical venues established on the front line, and then in convalescent hospitals and camps, this book provides evidence of the previously unacknowledged importance of the medium as recreational support and entertainment for soldiers living through the trauma of conflict. Presenting the fruits of his archival research, the author makes extensive use of war diaries and other military records to foreground the voices and perspectives of British soldiers themselves. Including discussion of over 70 films, this book will interest specialists in British film history, propaganda film, exhibition and audience studies, as well as historians and students of the First World War, propaganda and the military. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47788/LAML7430

Why does the 1974 war in Cyprus remain so dominant in Greek-Cypriot cinema? How has this event shaped the imagination of contemporary filmmakers, and how might one define the new national cinema that has emerged as a result? This book explores such questions by analysing a range of Greek-Cypriot films that have hitherto received little or no critical discussion. The book adopts a predominantly conceptual approach, situating contemporary Greek-Cypriot cinema within a specific cultural and national context. Drawing on the work of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and particularly his theories of time and space, the author explores ways in which Greek-Cypriot directors invent new forms of imagery as a way of dealing with the crisis of history, the burden of memory and the dislocation of the island’s abandoned spaces.

The economic and cultural changes Cuba experienced following the collapse of the Soviet Union compelled Cuban filmmakers to rethink the revolutionary values and esthetics developed after the 1959 revolution. Long-forgotten genres re-emerged, established auteurs incorporated new aesthetic devices into their films and an influx of foreign capital led to the repackaging of revolutionary ideology into more visually attractive narratives. Films such as Alice in Wondertown (1991), Strawberry and Chocolate (1993) and Juan of the Dead (2011) stirred controversy, criticized revolutionary discourse and helped establish new industrial models that allowed post-Castro national cinema to find global audiences on an unprecedented scale. This exploration of transformations in the Cuban film industry offers a detailed analysis of key post-Cold War Cuban films. Recurrent esthetic and sociopolitical tropes are examined to discover how Cuban cinema reflects the turbulent changes the island has experienced.

Bringing together papers presented at the Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy from 2005 to 2013, this collection of fresh essays includes two plenary session keynote addresses - by Veronica Hollinger and by Robert Runte - and 15 papers on science fiction and fantasy literature, television and music by Canadian creators. Authors discussed include Charles de Lint, Nalo Hopkinson, Tanya Huff, Esther Rochon, Peter Watts and Robert Charles Wilson. Papers on the television show Supernatural and the Scott Pilgrim comics series are also included.

These new essays examine the many ways that issues of gender and sexuality intersect with other identities and practices - including race, religion, disability, music and education - on the Fox hit program Glee. With gender and sexuality concerns at the crux, the authors tackle such specific aspects of the show as the coming out narrative, Glee fandom and fan fiction, representation of sex education, and the intersection of Broadway music and queerness. The aim of these essays is to open up a dialogue about Glee - which is often dismissed by critics and fans alike - and to reveal how scholars are critically engaging with the show around issues of gender and sexuality.

Drawing on the works of Shakespeare and American screenwriter Joss Whedon, this study in narrative ethics contends that Whedon is the Shakespeare of our time. The Bard wrote before the influence of the modern moral philosophers, while Whedon is writing in the postmodern period. It is argued that Whedon's work is more in harmony with the early modern values of Shakespeare than with modern ethics, which trace their origin to 17th and 18th-century moral philosophy. This study includes a detailed discussion of representative works of Shakespeare and Whedon, showing how they can and should be read as forms of narrative ethics.

Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad has emerged as a defining example of the recent renaissance in television-making. The sheer breadth and visionary scope of the series demand that it receive extensive critical engagement. The contributors collected here, from chemists and midwives to philosophers and novelists, examine a variety of themes in Breaking Bad. Walter White is discussed as father, as psychopath, as a scientist, and as an example of masculinity. The writers look at the series in terms of gender, neo-liberal politics, and health care reform as well as the more traditional aesthetic categories of narrative construction, experimentation, allusion, and genre. With television emerging as the dominant artistic genre of the early 21st century America, Breaking Bad should not simply be seen as a wildly popular phenomenon, but also as a superbly designed artwork that reflects widespread cultural concerns and crises. The series' complexity warrants the rigorous analysis that it here receives.