The International Film Directors series' editor is Robert Shail. This series of reference guides covers the key film directors of a particular nation or continent. Each volume introduces the work of 100 contemporary and historically important figures, with entries arranged in alphabetical order as an A-Z. The Introduction to each volume sets out the existing context in relation to the study of the national cinema in question, and the place of the film director within the given production/cultural context. Each entry includes both a select bibliography and a complete filmography, and an index of film titles is provided for easy cross-referencing. British Film Directors is a book by Robert Shail. British national cinema has produced an exceptional track record of innovative, creative and internationally recognised filmmakers, amongst them Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell and David Lean. This tradition continues today with the work of directors as diverse as Neil Jordan, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. This concise, authoritative volume analyses critically the work of 100 British directors, from the innovators of the silent period to contemporary auteurs. An introduction places the individual entries in context and examines the role and status of the director within British film production. Balancing academic rigour with accessibility, British Film Directors provides an indispensable reference source for film students at all levels, as well as for the general cinema enthusiast. Its key features include: a complete list of each director's British feature films; suggested further reading on each filmmaker; and, a comprehensive career overview, including biographical information and an assessment of the director's current critical standing.

"Hitchcock Annual: Volume 18" features essays on Hitchcock and Italian art cinema; the cinematic and cultural context of Hitchcock's silent film, "Champagne" (1928); "Marnie" (1964) and queer theory; the use of newspapers in Hitchcock's films; and Hitchcock's wartime documentary work.

William Friedkin is the director of genre-defining works such as The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), controversial productions like Cruising (1980) and Killer Joe (2011), as well as understudied films including The Birthday Party (1968), Sorcerer (1977) and The Hunted (2003). This book, the first scholarly study of Friedkin's films, reveals how they confront the ambiguities of law and morality, issues of subjectivity and problems of faith, while raising key questions around emotion and narrative in the cinema.Placing his work in the historical contexts of the Vietnam War and Nixon's presidency, ReFocus: The Films of William Friedkin also examines the director's representations of sex and violence after the dismantling of the Production Code and in light of the rise and fall of New Hollywood cinema.

Film noir, one of the most intriguing yet difficult to define terms in cinema history, is usually associated with a series of darkly seductive Hollywood thrillers from the 1940s and 50s - shadowy, black-and-white pictures about private eyes, femme fatales, outlaw lovers, criminal heists, corrupt police, and doomed or endangered outsiders. But as this VSI demonstrates, film noir actually predates the 1940s and has never been confined to Hollywood. International in scope, its various manifestations have spread across generic categories, attracted the interest of the world's great directors, and continue to appear even today. In this Very Short Introduction James Naremore shows how the term film noir originated in in French literary and film criticism, and how later uses of the term travelled abroad, changing its implications. In the process, he comments on classic examples of the films and explores important aspects of their history: their critical reception, their major literary sources, their methods of dealing with censorship and budgets, their social and cultural politics, their variety of styles, and their future in a world of digital media and video streaming. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The 1969 film "Ma Nuit chez Maud" catapulted its shy academic film director Eric Rohmer (1920-2010) into the limelight, selling over a million tickets in France and earning a nomination for an Academy Award. "Ma Nuit chez Maud" remains his most famous film, the highlight of an impressive range of films examining the sexual, romantic, and artistic mores of contemporary France, the temptations of desire, the small joys of everyday life, and sometimes, the vicissitudes of history and politics. Yet Rohmer was already forty years old when Maud was released and had already had a career as the editor of "Cahiers du Cinema," a position he lost in a political takeover in 1963. The interviews in this book offer a range of insights into the theoretical, critical, and practical circumstances of Rohmer's remarkably coherent body of films, but also allow Rohmer to act as his own critic, providing us with an array of readings concerning his interest in setting, season, color, and narrative.

Alongside the application of a theoretical rigor to his own films, Rohmer's interviews also discuss directors as varied as Godard, Carne, Renoir, and Hitchcock, and the relations of film to painting, architecture, and music. This book reproduces little-known interviews, such as a debate Rohmer undertakes with Women and Film concerning feminism, alongside detailed discussions from "Cahiers" and "Positif," many produced in English here for the first time."

Cinema's most successful director is a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration. Not just triumphant marketing, this international popularity is partly a function of the movies themselves. Polarised critical attitudes largely overlook this, and evidence either unquestioning adulation or vilification--often vitriolic--for epitomising contemporary Hollywood. Detailed textual analyses reveal that alongside conventional commercial appeal, Spielberg's movies function consistently as a self-reflexive commentary on cinema. Rather than straightforwardly consumed realism or fantasy, they invite divergent readings and self-conscious spectatorship which contradict assumptions about their ideological tendencies. Exercising powerful emotional appeal, their ambiguities are profitably advantageous in maximising audiences and generating media attention.

Christian Petzold (b. 1960) is the best-known filmmaker associated with the "Berlin School" of postunification German cinema. Identifying as an intellectual, Petzold self-consciously approaches his work for both the big and the small screen by weaving critical reflection on the very conditions of contemporary filmmaking into his approach. Archeologically reconstructing genre filmmaking in a national film production context that makes the production of genre cinema virtually impossible, he repeatedly draws on plots from classic films, including Alfred Hitchcock's, in order to provide his viewers with the distinct pleasures only cinema can instill without, however, allowing his audience the comforts the "cinema of identification" affords them. Including thirty-five interviews, Christian Petzold: Interviews is the first book in any language to document how one of Germany's best-known directors thinking about his work has evolved over the course of a quarter of a century, spanning his days as a flailing student filmmaker in the early 1990s in postunified Germany to 2020, when his reputation as one of world cinema's most respected auteurs has been firmly enshrined. The interviews collected here-thirty of which are published in English for the first time-highlight Petzold's career-long commitment to foregrounding how economic operations affect individual lives. The volume makes for a rich resource for readers interested in Petzold's work or contemporary German cinema but also those looking for theoretically challenging and sophisticated commentary offered by one of global art cinema's leading figures.

Jim Jarmusch: Music, Words and Noise is the first book to examine the films of Jim Jarmusch from a sound-oriented perspective. The three essential acoustic elements that structure a film - music, words and noise - propel this book's fascinating journey through his work. Exploring the director's extensive back catalogue, including Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down By Law (1986), Dead Man (1995), and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Sara Piazza's unique reading reveals how Jarmusch created a form of "sound democracy" in film, in which all acoustic layers are capable of infiltrating each other and in which sound is not subordinate to the visual. In his cultural melting pot, hierarchies are irrelevant: Schubert and Japanese noise-bands, Marlowe and Betty Boop can co-exist easily side-by-side. Developing the innovative idea of a Silent-Sound Film, Piazza identifies prefiguring elements from pre-sound-era film in Jarmusch's work. Highlighting the importance of Jarmusch's treatment of sound, Piazza investigates how the director's distinctive reputation consolidated itself over the course of a thirty-year career.Based in New York, Jarmusch was able to develop a fiercely personal vision far from the commercial pressures of Hollywood. The book uses wide-ranging examples from music, film, literature and visual art, and features interviews with many prominent figures including Ennio Morricone, Luc Sante, Roberto Benigni, John Lurie, and Jarmusch himself.An innovative account of a much-admired body of work, Jim Jarmusch will appeal not only to the many fans of the director, but also all those interested in the connections between sound and film.

Born out of the cultural flamboyance and anxiety of the 1980s, "They Live" (1988) is a hallmark of John Carpenter's singular canon, combining the aesthetics of multiple genres and leveling an attack against the politics of Reaganism and the Cold War. The decision to cast the professional wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as his protagonist gave Carpenter the additional means to comment on the hypermasculine attitudes and codes indicative of the era. This study traces the development of "They Live" from its comic book roots to its legacy as a cult masterpiece while evaluating the film in light of the paranoid/postmodern theory that matured in the decidedly "Big 80s." Directed by a reluctant auteur, the film is examined as a complex work of metafiction that calls attention to the nature of cinematic production and reception as well as the dynamics of the cult landscape.

One of the last representatives of a brand of serious, high-art cinema, Alexander Sokurov has produced a massive oeuvre exploring issues such as history, power, memory, kinship, death, the human soul, and the responsibility of the artist. Through contextualization and close readings of each of his feature fiction films (broaching many of his documentaries in the process), this volume unearths a vision of Sokurov's films as equally mournful and passionate, intellectual, and sensual, and also identifies in them a powerful, if discursively repressed, queer sensitivity, alongside a pattern of tensions and paradoxes. This book thus offers new keys to understand the lasting and ever-renewed appeal of the Russian director's Janus-like and surprisingly dynamic cinema - a deeply original and complex body of work in dialogue with the past, the present and the future.

A Companion to Robert Altman presents myriad aspects of Altman s life, career, influence and historical context. This book features 23 essays from a range of experts in the field, providing extensive coverage of these aspects and dimensions of Altman s work. * The most expansive and wide-ranging book yet published on Altman, providing a comprehensive account of Altman s complete career * Provides discussion and analysis of generally neglected aspects of Altman s career, including the significance of his work in television and industrial film, the importance of collaboration, and the full range and import of his aesthetic innovations * Includes essays by key scholars in Altman studies , bringing together experts in the field, emerging scholars and writers from a broad range of fields * Multi-disciplinary in design and draws on a range of approaches to Altman s work, being the first substantial publication to make use of the recently launched Robert Altman Archive at the University of Michigan * Offers specific insights into particular aspects of film style and their application, industrial and aesthetic film and TV history, and particular areas such as the theorisation of space, place, authorship and gender

Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965), starring Catherine Deneuve as a repressed and tormented manicurist, is a gripping, visually inventive descent into paranoia and self-destructive alienation. Emblematic of recurrent Polanski motifs, evinced in his student short films, in his striking debut feature, Knife in the Water (1962), and in subsequent features like Death and the Maiden (1994), Repulsion is a tour de force examination of crippling anxiety and the sinister potency of inanimate objects. Repulsion amplifies the realm of psychological horror by evoking the seething impact of increasing delusion, literal and figurative seclusion, and the consequences of one woman's foreboding sensitivity to the unsettling world that surrounds her. This Devil's Advocate considers Repulsion within the context of familiar horror tropes and the prevailing qualities of Polanski's broader oeuvre. Drawing on the research of Sigmund Freud, Julia Kristeva, Barbara Creed and others, concerning issues of abjection, the 'monstrous-feminine', and the psychology of horror spectatorship, this text focuses on central themes of isolation, sexuality and setting. Bookended by introductory biographical details and concluding with a roundup of the film's reception, Jeremy Carr situates Repulsion within the horror genre at large as well as its various off-shoots, such as the rape/revenge subgenre. There is also an analysis of the film's technical qualities, from its sound design to its brilliantly low-key special effects, all of which define the film as Polanski's most audaciously stylish realisation of dread and unease.

In late autumn 1968, Dorian Bond was tasked with travelling to Yugoslavia to deliver cigars and film stock to the legendary Hollywood director Orson Welles. The pair soon struck up an unlikely friendship, and Welles offered Bond the role of his personal assistant - as well as a part in his next movie. No formal education could prepare him for the journey that would ensue. This fascinating memoir follows Welles and Bond across Europe during the late 1960s as they visit beautiful cities, stay at luxury hotels, and reminisce about Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, among others. It is filled with Welles' characteristic acerbic wit - featuring tales about famous movie stars such as Laurence Olivier, Marlene Dietrich and Steve McQueen - and is a fresh insight into both the man and his film-making. Set against the backdrop of the student riots of '68, the Vietnam War, the Manson killings, the rise of Roman Polanski, the Iron Curtain, and Richard Nixon's presidency, Me and Mr Welles is a unique look at both a turbulent time and one of cinema's most charismatic characters.

March 20, 2019 marked the end of an era -- Disney took ownership of the movie empire that was Fox. For almost a century before that historic date, Twentieth Century-Fox was one of the preeminent producers of films, stars, and filmmakers. Its unique identity in the industry and place in movie history is unparalleled -- and one of the greatest stories to come out of Hollywood. One man, a legendary producer named Darryl F. Zanuck, is the heart of the story. This narrative tells the complete tale of Zanuck and the films, stars, intrigue, and innovations of the iconic studio that was.

"The Stanley Kubrick Archives showed up one morning in our offices, where my editor and I circled it like curious apes." -Time Out, New York This is the first book to explore Stanley Kubrick's archives and the most comprehensive study of the filmmaker to date. In 1968, when Stanley Kubrick was asked to comment on the metaphysical significance of 2001: A Space Odyssey, he replied: "It's not a message I ever intended to convey in words. 2001 is a nonverbal experience.... I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophic content." The philosophy behind Part 1 of The Stanley Kubrick Archives borrows from this line of thinking: from the opening sequence of Killer's Kiss to the final frames of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's complete films are presented chronologically and wordlessly via frame enlargements. A completely nonverbal experience. The second part of the book brings to life the creative process of Kubrick's filmmaking by presenting a remarkable collection of mostly unseen material from his archives, including photographs, props, posters, artwork, set designs, sketches, correspondence, documents, screenplays, drafts, notes, and shooting schedules. Accompanying the visual material are essays by noted Kubrick scholars, articles written by and about Kubrick, and a selection of Kubrick's best interviews.

Richard Attenborough's film career has stretched across seven decades; surprisingly, Sally Dux's book is the first detailed scholarly analysis of his work as a filmmaker. Concentrating on his work behind the camera, she explores his initial role as a producer, including his partnerships with Bryan Forbes in Beaver Films (1959-64) and with Allied Film Makers (1960-64). As we know, Attenborough went on to direct twelve films, many of which achieved great acclaim, most notably Gandhi, which won eight Academy Awards in 1982 Attenborough is most renowned for his biographical films including Young Winston, Cry Freedom, Chaplin and Shadowlands, which helped to establish the genre within British cinema. Although his work has often attracted controversy, particularly regarding the representation of individuals and historical events, his films are noted for extracting acclaimed performances from unknown actors such as Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), while maintaining his moral and thematic concerns. -- .

This is the first full-length monograph in English about one of France's most important contemporary filmmakers, perhaps best known in the English speaking world for his award winning Les Roseaux sauvages/Wild Reeds of 1994. This study locates Andre Techine within historical and cultural contexts that include the Algerian war, May 1968 and contemporary globalization, and the influence of Roland Barthes, Bertolt Brecht, Ingmar Bergman, William Faulkner and the cinematic French wave. The originality of Techine's sixteen feature films lies in his subtle exploration of sexuality and national identity, as he challenges expectations in his depictions of gay relations, the North African dimensions of contemporary French culture, and the center-periphery relationship between Paris and his native southwest.
The book will be of interest to researchers and postgraduates working on French cinema, undergraduates studying Techine on their film courses, and all those with a general interest in cinema, contemporary France, and lesbian and gay issues.

ReFocus: The Films of Spike Jonze is the first collection of essays on this important and original contemporary filmmaker. It looks at his ground-breaking work in both features and short forms, exploring the impact of his filmmaking across a range of philosophical and cultural discussions. Each of Jonze's feature films, from Being John Malkovich (1999) to Her (2013), is discussed at length, focusing on issues of authorship, narration, genre and adaptation. As well as the textual aspects of Jonze's feature films, the contributors consider his work in music videos and shorts - investigating his position as a filmmaker on the blurred boundaries between studio and independent modes of production.

Constructivism in Film examines the radical experiments of early Soviet filmmakers, with special emphasis on the relationship of Constructivist film to contemporary literature, painting, architecture and design. Surveying the socio-political aspects of the Constructivist movement as well, Vlada Petric then analyzes in detail the most important silent film produced during this era, Dziga Vertov's The Man with the Movie Camera (1929). This updated edition contains a new chapter about the descriptive score of the film.

Fragile yet powerful, macho yet transgressive, Jacques Audiard's films portray disabled, marginalised or otherwise non-normative bodies in constant states of crisis and transformation. Jacques Audiard is the first book on the cinema of one of the most important French directors working today. It studies his screenwriting background, his collaborative practices and his use of genre motifs alongside his reputation as a celebrated French auteur. Using the motif of border-crossing - both physical and symbolic - the book explores how Audiard's films construct and transcend boundaries of many forms. Focusing on the representation of the physical body, French society and broader transnational contexts, it reveals how Audiard's cinema occupies a space both within and beyond the imaginary of French cinema. -- .

"Hitchcock and Twentieth-Century Cinema" looks at the work, influences, legacy and style of one of cinema's most famous directors. Alfred Hitchcock worked in Britain and America, in silent and sound films, and through and beyond the studio system, all the time appealing to mass audiences while employing his own distinctive style. This book examines how he was affected by German cinema, British writing, the Hays Code and his own upbringing to produce films that challenged key notions of acting, sexuality, mise-en-sc?ne and narrative convention. John Orr contends that Hitchcock is a matrix figure who forged a new dynamics of exchange and of re-made identities in the feature film that in turn has influenced film noir, neo-noir, the French New Wave and David Lynch, as well as countless filmmakers all around the world and, indeed, continues to do so.

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. -- .

Spanning from obscurity to notoriety, the films of director, screenwriter, actor and comic Elaine May have recently experienced a long-overdue renaissance. Although she made only four films -- A New Leaf (1971), The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Mikey and Nicky (1976) and Ishtar (1987) -- and never reached the level of acclaim of her frequent collaborator Mike Nichols, May's work is as enigmatic, sophisticated and unceasingly fascinating as her own complicated, reluctant star persona. This collection focuses both on the films she has directed, and also emphasises her work with other high profile collaborators such as John Cassavetes, Warren Beatty and Otto Preminger.

Pedro Almodovar's influence on European popular culture has been immense. From a small village in rural Spain to international acclaim for his many wonderfully vivid and outrageous films, Almodovar On Almodovar tells the story of the man and his films. Almodovar came from an austere background in rural Spain. It was the 1950s, the age of the Cold War, of mambo, of Balenciaga, of the Korean War, of the Hungarian Revolution, of the death of Stalin. But none of these events bore any impact on his village. In response, Almodovar's films - such as Bad Education, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up!, All About My Mother and Talk to Her to name a few - are colourful and deeply felt celebrations of life and love. In these frank and passionate conversations, Almodovar discusses his astonishing life and career with a humour that is distinctly his own. Pedro Almodovar is widely acclaimed as one of the most successful Spanish film-makers, having won two Academy Awards, six European Film Awards, 2 Golden Globe Awards and 5 BAFTA Awards. His most recent films include Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), The Skin I Live In (2011) and I'm So Excited (2013).