Todd McGowan launches a provocative exploration of weirdness and fantasy in David Lynch's groundbreaking oeuvre. He studies Lynch's talent for blending the bizarre and the normal to emphasize the odd nature of normality itself. Hollywood is often criticized for distorting reality and providing escapist fantasies, but in Lynch's movies, fantasy becomes a means through which the viewer is encouraged to build a revolutionary relationship with the world.

Considering the filmmaker's entire career, McGowan examines Lynch's play with fantasy and traces the political, cultural, and existential impact of his unique style. Each chapter discusses the idea of impossibility in one of Lynch's films, including the critically acclaimed "Blue Velvet" and "The Elephant Man"; the densely plotted "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Drive"; the cult favorite "Eraserhead"; and the commercially unsuccessful Dune. McGowan engages with theorists from the "golden age" of film studies (Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey, and Jean-Louis Baudry) and with the thought of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Hegel. By using Lynch's weirdness as a point of departure, McGowan adds a new dimension to the field of auteur studies and reveals Lynch to be the source of a new and radical conception of fantasy.

In a controversial and tumultuous filmmaking career that spanned nearly fifty years, Robert Altman mocked, subverted, or otherwise refashioned Hollywood narrative and genre conventions. Altman's idiosyncratic vision and propensity for formal experimentation resulted in an uneven body of work: some rank failures and intriguing near-misses, as well as a number of great films that are among the most influential works of New American Cinema. While Altman always professed to have nothing authoritative to say about the state of contemporary society, this volume surveys all of his major films in their sociohistorical context to reposition the director as a trenchant satirist and social critic of postmodern America, depicted as a lonely wasteland of fraudulent spectacle, exploitative social relations, and unfulfilled solitaries in search of elusive community.

One of world cinema's most exciting filmmakers, Pedro Almodovar has been delighting, provoking, arousing, shocking, and-above all-entertaining audiences around the globe since he first burst onto the international film scene in the early 1980s. All about Almodovar offers new perspectives on the filmmaker's artistic vision and cinematic preoccupations, influences, and techniques. Through overviews of the filmmaker's oeuvre and in-depth analyses of specific films, the essays here explore a diverse range of subjects: Almodovar's nuanced use of television and music in his films; his reworkings of traditional film genres such as comedy, horror, and film noir; his penchant for melodrama and its relationship to melancholy, violence, and coincidence; his intricate questioning of sexual and national identities; and his increasingly sophisticated inquiries into visuality and its limits. Closing with Almodovar's own diary account of the making of Volver and featuring never-before-seen photographs from El Deseo studio, All about Almodovar both reflects and illuminates its subject's dazzling eclecticism. Contributors: Mark Allinson, U of Leicester; Pedro Almodovar; Isolina Ballesteros, Baruch College; Leo Bersani, UC Berkeley; Marvin D'Lugo, Clark U; Ulysse Dutoit, UC Berkeley; Peter William Evans, Queen Mary U of London; Victor Fuentes, UC Santa Barbara; Marsha Kinder, USC; Steven Marsh, U of Illinois, Chicago; Andy Medhurst, U of Sussex; Ignacio Olivia, Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca; Paul Julian Smith, U of Cambridge; Kathleen M. Vernon, SUNY Stony Brook; Linda Williams, UC Berkeley; Francisco A. Zurian, U Carlos III, Madrid.

Celine Sciamma is the most visible and important feminist, and lesbian, director in contemporary international filmmaking. Her fourth feature, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2019 and intervened directly in debates about the female gaze, sexuality and specifically how to look at and make a portrait of young women. In her approach to female, non-binary and queer identities, she has focused on the need for agency, binding this imperative into her aesthetic choices and modes of filmmaking. This is the first book-length study of Sciamma's films, focusing on the relationship of her work to the visual arts and exploring the relevance of feminist theory to her unique perspective.

This is the first in-depth look at Reginald LeBorg, the quintessential Hollywood contract director, who worked constantly during the 1940s and 50s at such studios as Universal, PRC, and Monogram, making a series of beautiful and resonant films under severe constraints of time and budget. Here, in a book-length interview recorded a year before his death in 1989, LeBorg looks back at all his work Destiny, Calling Doctor Death, Weird Woman, The Flight That Disappeared, Jungle Woman, Diary of A Madman, San Diego I Love You, and many others, and discusses his impatience with "fans" who don't bother to screen his more interesting non-Gothic films, describes studio life during the 1940s, and gives the reader insights into his personal life. With stills and a thorough filmography.

The author analyzes appropriately selected historical films of Steven Spielberg and Andrzej Wajda with respect to historical memory in relation to film. Cultural and moral foundations of national identity are also taken into account. Spielberg films particularly valuable for this comparative analysis are: "Schindler's List", "Amistad", "Saving Private Ryan" and "Lincoln"; crucial Wajda films include: "Korczak", "Holy Week", "Katyn and Walesa". These works are analyzed in relation to the problem of representing the Holocaust, self-scrutiny in historical memory, commemoration of sacrifices for the national community during war, and foundation myths evoked through national heroes. The larger thematic framework for the above concerns is the underlying sense of covenant present within the two national communities that Spielberg and Wajda draw upon, a sense that explores the possibility of moral renewal under contemporary circumstances.

Eschewing the idea of film reviewer-as-solitary-expert, Jonathan Rosenbaum continues to advance his belief that a critic's ideal role is to mediate and facilitate our public discussion of cinema. Portraits and Polemics presents debate as an important form of cinematic encounter whether one argues with filmmakers themselves, on behalf of their work, or with one's self. Rosenbaum takes on filmmakers like Chantal Akerman, Richard Linklater, Manoel De Oliveira, Mark Rappaport, Elaine May, and Bela Tarr. He also engages, implicitly and explicitly, with other writers, arguing with Pauline Kael-and Wikipedia-over Jacques Demy, with the Hollywood Reporter and Variety reviewers of Jarmusch's The Limits of Control, with David Thomson about James L. Brooks, and with many American and English film critics about misrepresented figures from Jerry Lewis to Yasujiro Ozu to Orson Welles. Throughout, Rosenbaum mines insights, pursues pet notions, and invites readers to join the fray.

In these eight sparkling biographies, Stan Brakhage brings us into intimate acquaintance with some of America's most influential independent filmmakers. With insight and sharp detail, Brakhage puts the lives and works of these filmic visionaries into personal focus. We meet Jerome Hill, born to inherit railroads and banks but destined to forge his artistic vision into a lasting film statement. And Marie Menken who, against the odds of a miserable and brutal marriage, developed a film aesthetic that revolutionized the very essence of independent filmmaking. Then James Broughton, the inveterate San Franciscan, whose irrepressible sense of whimsy and profound grasp of classical symbols combined to create some of the most vital filmworks of the last four decades; Christopher MacLaine, the "Artaud of North Beach"; Maya Deren, known to independent filmmakers as "the mother of us all"; Sidney Peterson, sophisticated, erudite, shy, the gentleman of the avant-garde film world; and two of Brakhage's most prominent contemporaries, Bruce Conner and Ken Jacobs.

These filmmakers are members of one of the most radical of 20th-century art movements; and yet as radical and individual as they are, their films and their lives are a continuous source of inspiration, not only to young, developing film-artists, but to the makers of commercial movies and videos as well. Brakhage presents them and their work in portraits that are at once critical and anecdotal. One comes away from Film at Wit's End as one leaves an enjoyable, lively evening among friends.

Temporality and age are inherent in every object and creature and, depending on one's outlook, may transcend to infinity. How can this be imagined? What goes beyond it? Swiss filmmaker Christoph Schaub sets out for a personal journey through time and space. He starts in his childhood, when his fascination with sacred buildings began, and also his wondering about beginnings and ends. In dialogue with architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Markli, and Alvaro Siza, artists James Turell and Cristina Iglesias, and musician Jojo Mayer, Schaub explores the magic of sacred spaces, a term that for him represents much more than just churches. Architecture of Infinity traces spirituality in architecture and fine arts as well as in nature, and even over and above the limits of thought. The lightly floating camera immerses the viewer in somnambulistic images, taking him on a sensual and sensing journey through vast spaces, guiding his eye towards the star-spangled sky's infinity and the depths of the ocean. Past and present, primeval times and light years, it is all there. The running time of the film is 85 minutes, and the DVD is accompanied by a 32-page booklet with text in English and German.

The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema draws readers into the first 13 feature films and 5 of the documentaries of award-winning Japanese film director Kore-eda Hirokazu. With his recent top prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Shoplifters, Kore-eda is arguably Japan's greatest living director with an international viewership. He approaches difficult subjects (child abandonment, suicide, marginality) with a realistic and compassionate eye.The lyrical tone of the writing of Japanese film scholar Linda C. Ehrlich perfectly complements the understated, yet powerful, tone of the films. From An Elemental Cinema, readers will gain a special understanding of Kore-eda's films through a novel connection to the natural elements as reflected in Japanese traditional aesthetics.An Elemental Cinema presents Kore-eda's oeuvre as a connected whole with overarching thematic concerns, despite frequent generic experimentation. It also offers an example of how the poetics of cinema can be practiced in writing, as well as on the screen, and helps readers understand the films of this contemporary director as works of art that relate to their own lives.

Michael Haneke is one of the most important directors working in Europe today, with films such as "Funny Games" (1997), "Code Unknown" (2000), and "Hidden" (2005) interrogating modern ethical dilemmas with forensic clarity and merciless insight. Haneke's films frequently implicate both the protagonists and the audience in the making of their misfortunes, yet even in the barren nihilism of "The Seventh Continent" (1989) and "Time of the Wolf" (2003) a dark strain of optimism emerges, releasing each from its terrible and inescapable guilt. It is this contingent and unlikely possibility that we find in Haneke's cinema: a utopian Europe. This collection celebrates, explicates, and sometimes challenges the worldview of Haneke's films. It examines the director's central themes and preoccupations--bourgeois alienation, modes and critiques of spectatorship, the role of the media--and analyzes otherwise marginalized aspects of his work, such as the function of performance and stardom, early Austrian television productions, the romanticism of "The Piano Teacher" (2001), and the 2007 shot-for-shot remake of "Funny Games."

Joao Pedro Rodrigues and Joao Rui Guerra da Mata are one of the most cosmopolitan duos in contemporary world cinema. Their films tell us stories of love and human desire, receiving a highly favourable reception among critics and at international festivals. Despite their high profile, Rodrigues and da Mata's work remains relatively understudied. ReFocus: The Films of Joao Pedro Rodrigues and Joao Rui Guerra da Mata, paves the way for the study of the directors' work, critically analysing the various cinematic perspectives of their short and full-length feature films. In the first collection solely dedicated to their work, this book addresses the historical, political, stylistic, industry, and cultural dimensions of Rodrigues and da Mata's films, providing critical recognition for their contribution to world cinema.

This collection of essays explores intermediality as a new perspective in the interpretation of the cinemas that have emerged after the collapse of the former Eastern bloc. As an aesthetic based on a productive interaction of media and highlighting cinema's relationship with the other arts, intermediality always implies a state of in-betweenness which is capable of registering tensions and ambivalences that go beyond the realm of media. The comparative analyses of films from Hungary, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Russia demonstrate that intermediality can be employed in this way as a form of introspection dealing with complex issues of art and society. Appearing in a variety of sensuous or intellectual modes, intermediality can become an effective poetic strategy to communicate how the cultures of the region are caught in-between East and West, past and present, emotional turmoil and more detached self-awareness. The diverse theoretical approaches that unravel this in-betweenness contribute to the understanding of intermedial phenomena in contemporary cinema as a whole.

Rakhshan Banietemad is one of the first female film directors in Iran. This book, the first English language study of her films and career, Iranian director Rakhshan Banietemad contains chapters by some of the most prominent scholars of Iranian cinema, as well as younger scholars with fresh points of view. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the book devotes special attention to Banietemad's understudied documentaries and films, including Under the Skin of the City (2000) and Tales (2014), while offering new perspectives on well-known works such as The Blue Veiled (1994) and The May Lady (1997). Focusing on questions of aesthetics and poetics, social realism, gender dynamics and the 'afterimages' and 'counter-memories' of revolution and war, the book also includes an in depth interview with Banietemad herself.

Jean Renoir (1894-1979) is widely regarded as one of the most distinguished directors in the history of world cinema. In the 1930s he directed a string of films which stretched the formal, intellectual, political and aesthetic boundaries of the art form, including works such as Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, La Grande Illusion, La Bete humaine and La Regle du jeu. However, the great director's early work from the 1920s remains almost completely unknown, even to film specialists. If it is discussed at all, it is often seen to be of interest only insofar as it anticipates themes and techniques perfected in the later masterpieces. Renoir's films of the 1920s were sometimes unfinished, commercially unsuccessful, or unreleased at the time of their production. This book argues that to regard them merely as prefigurations of later achievements entails a failure to view them on their own terms, as searching, unsettled experiments in the meaning and potential of film art.

Anthony Mann (1906-1967) is renowned for his outstanding 1950s westerns starring James Stewart ("Winchester '73," "The Naked Spur," "The Man from Laramie"). But there is more to Mann's cinematic universe than those tough Wild West action dramas featuring conflicted and secretive heroes. This brilliant Hollywood craftsman also directed fourteen electrifying crime thrillers between 1942 and 1951, among them such towering achievements in film noir as "T-Men," "Raw Deal," and "Side Street." Mann was as much at home filming dark urban alleys in black-and-white as he was the prairies and mountains in Technicolor, and his protagonists were no less conflicted and secretive than his 1950s cowboys.

In these Mann crime thrillers we find powerful stories of sexual obsession ("The Great Flamarion"), the transforming images of women in wartime and postwar America ("Strangers in the Night," "Strange Impersonation"), exploitation of Mexican immigrants ("Border Incident"), studies of the criminal mind ("He Walked by Night"), and Civil War bigotry ("The Tall Target"). Mann's forceful camera captured such memorable and diverse stars as Erich von Stroheim, Farley Granger, Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, Richard Basehart, Ricardo Montalban, Ruby Dee, and Raymond Burr.

"The Crime Films of Anthony Mann" features analysis of rare documents, screenplays, story treatments, and studio memoranda and reveals detailed behind-the-scenes information on preproduction and production on the Mann thrillers. Author Max Alvarez uses rare and newly available sources to explore the creation of these noir masterworks. Along the way, the book exposes secrets and solves mysteries surrounding the mercurial director and his remarkable career, which also included Broadway and early live television."

The films of Abbas Kiarostami confront the questions of cinematic representation, identity, and the relationship between cinema and everyday life in eloquent and imaginative ways. Through a close examination of Kiarostami's formal and narrative strategies in his films, notably Taste of Cherry, The Wind Will Carry Us, Close-Up and Ten, this innovative book works against the grain of auteurist readings of Kiarostami's films to explore global circulation and the controversy over censorship's role in the cinema. It grounds his films firmly within the historical context of Iranian national cinema, revealing the ways in which the reception of films across multiple sites can contribute to how national narratives are articulated locally and globally. It traces Iranian national cinema's self-reflexive narration of its own history and how, in the process, it positions itself as a major player in the construction of national consciousness.

From the trolley scene in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's last dance on the silver screen (The Barkleys of Broadway, 1949) to Judy Garland's timeless, tuxedo-clad performance of "Get Happy" (Summer Stock, 1950), Charles Walters staged the iconic musical sequences of Hollywood's golden age. During his career, this Academy Award--nominated director and choreographer showcased the talents of stars such as Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and Frank Sinatra. However, despite his many critical and commercial triumphs, Walters's name often goes unrecognized today.

In the first full-length biography of Walters, Brent Phillips chronicles the artist's career, from his days as a featured Broadway performer and prot?g? of theater legend Robert Alton to his successes at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He takes readers behind the scenes of many of the studio's most beloved musicals, including Easter Parade (1948), Lili (1953), High Society (1956), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). In addition, Phillips recounts Walters's associations with Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford, and Gloria Swanson, examines the director's uncredited work on several films, including the blockbuster Gigi (1958), and discusses his contributions to musical theater and American popular culture.

This revealing book also considers Walters's personal life and explores how he navigated the industry as an openly gay man. Drawing on unpublished oral histories, correspondence, and new interviews, this biography offers an entertaining and important new look at an exciting era in Hollywood history.

Following on from the "New York Times"-bestselling "My Boring-Ass Life", Kevin Smith is back! In freewheeling conversations with his friend and producer Scott Mosier (as heard on their top-rated podcast, known as SModcast), we discover - to pick just four random examples of the riches therein - the genesis of Stalin's Monkey Soldier army, the horrifying tale of Kevin vs. Steak Tartare, how to make bukkake eggs, and how Kevin was once willing to let Alanis Morissette get mugged...Defiantly lewd, crude and hilariously rude, "Shootin' the Sh*t with Kevin Smith" is a must for all his fans! It is suitable for adults only.

Over nearly sixty years, Agnes Varda (b. 1928) has given interviews that are revealing not only of her work, but of her remarkably ambiguous status. She has been called the ""Mother of the New Wave"" but suffered for many years for never having been completely accepted by the cinematic establishment in France. Varda's first film, La Pointe Courte (1954), displayed many of the characteristics of the two later films that launched the New Wave, Truffaut's 400 Blows and Godard's Breathless. In a low-budget film, using (as yet) unknown actors and working entirely outside the prevailing studio system, Varda completely abandoned the ""tradition of quality"" that Truffaut was at that very time condemning in the pages of Cahiers du cinema. Her work, however, was not ""discovered"" until after Truffaut and Godard had broken onto the scene in 1959. Varda's next film, Cleo from 5 to 7, attracted considerably more attention and was selected as France's official entry for the Festival in Cannes. Ultimately, however, this film and her work for the next fifty years continued to be overshadowed by her more famous male friends, many of whom she mentored and advised. Her films have finally earned recognition as deeply probing and fundamental to the growing awareness in France of women's issues and the role of women in the cinema. ""I'm not philosophical,"" she says, ""not metaphysical. Feelings are the ground on which people can be led to think about things. I try to show everything that happens in such a way and ask questions so as to leave the viewers free to make their own judgments."" The panoply of interviews here emphasize her core belief that ""we never stop learning"" and reveal the wealth of ways to answer her questions.

This is the first volume to focus on the diverse permutations of international surrealist cinema after the canonical interwar period. The collection features eleven original contributions by prominent scholars such as Tom Gunning, Michael Loewy, Gavin Parkinson and Michael Richardson, alongside other leading and emerging researchers. An introductory chapter offers a historical overview as well as a theoretical framework for specific methodological approaches. The collection demonstrates that renowned figures such as Leonora Carrington, Maya Deren, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jan Svankmajer took part in shaping a vibrant and distinctive surrealist film culture following the Second World War. Addressing highly influential films and directors related to international surrealism during the second half of the twentieth century, it expands the purview of both surrealism and film studies by situating surrealism as a major force in postwar cinema. -- .

Since 2007 Mia Hansen-Love has directed a series of meditative film dramas about families, love, vulnerability and growing up, all of them exceptionally attentive to film's ability to convey the passing of time, separation and loss. As the first book-length study of the films of Mia Hansen-Love, this volume introduces her cinema to both an academic and a general readership. Exploring her move from acting, via criticism, to directing, the book first investigates the complexity of her situation as a female auteur based in France. With detailed readings of her films up to Maya (2018), it then examines the precariousness of their families, their emphasis on vulnerability, failure, adversity and resilience, the particular candour of Hansen-Love's filming style, and the vital parts played by music and time in her cinema. It concludes that her cinema may best be regarded as a thoroughly contemporary one, distinguished by a tendency to transcendence that is both ethical and aesthetic.

Charles Crichton is perhaps best remembered as the director of the unlikely blockbuster hit A Fish Called Wanda, made when he was seventy-seven years old. But the most significant part of his career was spent at Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s, working on such beloved comedies as Hue and Cry, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Titfield Thunderbolt. Nonetheless, as this pioneering study of Crichton's work reveals, his filmmaking skills extended way beyond comedy to wartime dramas and film noir, and his adaptability served him well when he made the transition into primetime television, working on popular shows such as The Avengers, Space: 1999 and The Adventures of Black Beauty. Featuring first-hand testimony from colleagues ranging from Dame Judi Dench and Petula Clark to John Cleese and Sir Michael Palin, this riveting account of Crichton's fascinating life in film will appeal to film scholars and general readers alike. -- .

Blake Edwards (1922-2010) was a multitalented, versatile director constantly exploring who he was, not only in filmmaking but also in life. Often typecast as a comedy director, he also created westerns, thrillers, musicals, and heart-wrenching dramas. His strength as a filmmaker came from his ability to be a triple threat--writer, director, and producer--allowing him full control of his films, especially when the studio system failed him.Blake Edwards: Interviews highlights how the filmmaker created the hugely successful Pink Panther franchise; his long partnership with award-winning composer Henry Mancini; his principles of comedy as influenced by the comic greats of film history, especially silent comedies; his decades-long marriage and film collaborations with Julie Andrews; and his unique philosophy of life. Continually testing his abilities as a writer, which he considered himself to be above all other professions, Edwards did not hesitate to strip comedy from films that clearly and purposefully explored other genres with sharp, dramatic insight. He created thrilling suspense (Experiment in Terror); rugged westerns (Wild Rovers); riveting drama (Days of Wine and Roses); and bittersweet romance (Breakfast at Tiffany's). He also created musicals, Namely Darling Lili and Victor/Victoria, showcasing the talents of Andrews. In fact, many of these films have been considered some of Edwards's finest in his appreciable career. Reinventing himself throughout his sixty-year career, Edwards found new outlets of expression that fueled his creativity to the very end. This long-overdue collection of published interviews explores the ups and downs--and ups again--of a sometimes flawed but always gifted and often surprising filmmaker.