In her ever-evolving career, the legendary filmmaker Agnes Varda has gone from being a photographer at the Avignon festival in the late 1940s, through being a director celebrated at the Cannes festival (Cleo de 5 a 7, 1962), to her more ironic self-proclaimed status as a 'jeune artiste plasticienne'. She has recently staged mixed-media projects and exhibitions all over the world from Paris (2006) to Los Angeles (2013-14) and the latest 'tour de France' with JR (2015-16). Agnes Varda Unlimited: Image, Music, Media reconsiders the legacy and potential of Varda's radical tour de force cinematique, as seen in the 22-DVD 'definitive' Tout(e) Varda, and her enduring artistic presence. These essays discuss not just when, but also how and why, Varda's renewed artistic forms have ignited with such creative force, and have been so inspiring an influence. The volume concludes with two remarkable interviews: one with Varda herself, and another rare contribution from the leading actress of Cleo de 5 a 7, Corinne Marchand. Marie-Claire Barnet is Senior Lecturer in French at Durham University.

This is a comprehensive, original and accessible account of all aspects of Jean Cocteau's work in the cinema. It is the first major study in English to appear for over forty years and casts new light on Cocteau's most celebrated films as well as those often neglected or little known. Jean Cocteau is not only one of French cinema's greatest and most influential auteurs whose work covered all the major genres but also an experimenter, collaborator, theorist and all-round ambassador of film. The often applied label of 'literary filmmaker' is insufficient to describe Cocteau, who operates on so many different levels and is interested in the fundamentals of time, space, motion, speed and sound. This lucid account provides a complete introduction to Cocteau's cinematic project in the context of his entire oeuvre, detailed analysis of individual films like 'Le Sang d'un poete' and 'Orphee', and a thematic engagement with all his cinema from a range of interdisciplinary approaches, including film history, war and politics, authorship, collaboration (in particular with Jean Marais), the body in performance, and gender and sexuality. The Cocteau that emerges is at once a materialist filmmaker and visionary who is committed to realism in all its guises and reveals the wonder and mystery of what he called 'the cinematograph'. This clear and challenging new study will appeal to first-year students, film-lovers and specialists alike. It will also be of interest to those working in gay studies, cultural studies, star studies and performance studies.

One of the most controversial, yet most honoured, filmmakers of our time, director of some of the most widely debated classics of modern film, including 'Platoon', 'Born on the Fourth of July', 'The Doors', 'JFK', 'Natural Born Killers' and more, Oliver Stone has raised eyebrows both in his career and in his personal life. Now this little book reviews and analyses each of his movies, going behind the scenes to examine the arguments his movies have raised and adding some thought-provoking insights on the world of modern's cinema's most infamous son.

Impeccably designed, and copiously illustrated with more than two hundred stills and behind-the-scenes images, this is the definitive celebration of one of cinema's most enduring talents. Since his emergence in the early seventies, Martin Scorsese has become one of the most respected names in cinema. Classics such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas are regularly cited as being among the finest films ever made. This lavish retrospective is a fitting tribute to a remarkable director, now into his sixth decade in cinema and showing no signs of slowing up. Leading film writer Tom Shone draws on his in-depth knowledge and distinctive viewpoint to present refreshing commentaries on all twenty-three main features, from the rarely shown Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967) to the latest release, The Irishman (2019), as well as covering Scorsese's parallel career as a documentary maker.

Until his early retirement at age 50, Hasse Ekman was one of the leading lights of Swedish cinema, an actor, writer, and director of prodigious talents. Yet today his work is virtually unknown outside of Sweden, eclipsed by the filmography of his occasional collaborator (and frequent rival) Ingmar Bergman. This comprehensive introduction-the first ever in English-follows Ekman's career from his early days as a film journalist, through landmark films such as Girl with Hyacinths (1950), to his retirement amid exhaustion and disillusionment. Combining historical context with insightful analyses of Ekman's styles and themes, this long overdue study considerably enriches our understanding of Swedish film history.

This study of Erich von Stroheim, Ernst Lubitsch, and Billy Wilder focuses on what the common ethical themes in their Hollywood films unveil about the cultural and intellectual heritage of these German and Austrian emigres and their influence on American culture. Aware of the influential power of their films, these filmmakers strove to raise the intellectual standard and the positive educational value of the American film. Brief individual biographies describe their heritage, major influences, and goals and draw connections among the three filmmakers in their preference for German and Austrian literature, which focuses on social criticism, ethics, and the problem of identity. Detailed analyses of their individual styles of filmmaking and readings of selected films reveal how they put their philosophies into practice and to what extent they influenced one another. Films analyzed include "The Merry Widow, " "The Wedding March," "Heaven can Wait, To Be or Not To Be, Sunset Boulevard, "and "The Fortune Cookie "among others. By delineating their contributions to the development of modern film, this research explores the filmmakers impact on film and cultural history.

The convergence of social and philosophical inquiry film-history in this study of Lubitsch, Wilder, and von Stroheim will appeal to scholars of film, of German literature and culture, and of American cultural history. Separate chapters discuss each filmmaker and his movies. A glossary of technical terms and a selected filmography are included.

The secular, pluralist culture of the West encourages a subjective approach to spiritual truth where stimulating emotional experiences, such as those provided by film, can contribute to personal conceptions of the sacred. Examining Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as the principal case-study and Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void (2009) and Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011) as comparative examples, Sarah Balstrup argues that these directors harness the affective properties of film to generate altered states of perception in a manner analogous to religious practice. Powerful feelings of dissociation and indescribable significance typical of mystical testimony appear in viewer responses to these films, demonstrating the continued sacralisation of such states of mind. In their own way, each film confronts the viewer with an apocalyptic revelation of the impersonal forces of the universe, moving away from personhood and the human narrative, into pure sensation. They present a non-deterministic spiritual truth that can be intuited but not explained, mirroring developments in the religious sphere. Investigating the relationship between cinematic technique and religious experience, Spiritual Sensations offers an alternative approach to the study of religion and film that has been principally focused on narrative symbolism and the dramatisation of values. Spiritual Sensations makes a further contribution to the field by analysing films contextually, considering viewers' subjective responses in light of religious and cultural change.

"Women on the Edge re-envisions women's cinema as contemporary political practices by exploring the works of twelve filmmakers. Moving on from the 1970s feminist adage that the personal is political, Sharon Lin Tay argues that contemporary women's cinema must exceed the personal to be politically relevant and ethically cogent"--Provided by publisher.

Children and youth perform both innocence and knowingness within Hitchcock's complex cinematic texts. Though the child often plays a small part, their significance - symbolically, theoretically, and philosophically - offers a unique opportunity to illuminate and interrogate the child presence within the cinematic complexity of Hitchcock's films.

By the Hollywood correspondent for "The New York Times", "Rebels On The Backlot" is a revealing and page-turning account of the new generation of film directors who are changing the face of today's Hollywood. Very much as the 1970s gave rise to a defining group of filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, the 1990s witnessed a new generation who captured the imaginations of audiences, and opened the pursestrings of the Hollywood film machine. "Rebels On The Backlot" follows six top-level film directors, from the origins of their careers through the making and release of their signature films. They are: Quenton Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction"), Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights"), David Fincher ("Fight Club"), Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic"), Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich"), and David O. Russell ("Three Kings"). The book uses the development, writing, shooting, editing, and release of each director's major film to explore the lives and struggles each of them faced. It will dip in and out of each filming experience, drawing in the stories of other figures along the way, creating a chronological portrait of contemporary Hollywood, and the rebel generation of the 1990s. This is also a story of an emerging community of talented artists - directors, writers, actors of young Hollywood - who supported each other, burn with envy at one another's success, swap girlfriends and boyfriends, and ultimately spur each other to greater accomplishments.

From the Academy Award--winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Academy Award--nominated Adaptation (2002) to the cult classic Being John Malkovich (1999), writer Charlie Kaufman is widely admired for his innovative, philosophically resonant films. Although he only recently made his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York (2008), most fans and critics refer to "Kaufman films" the way they would otherwise discuss works by directors Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, or the Coen brothers. Not only has Kaufman transformed our sense of what can take place in a film, but he also has made a significant impact on our understanding of the role of the screenwriter. The Philosophy of Charlie Kaufman, edited by David LaRocca, is a collection of essays devoted to a rigorous philosophical exploration of Kaufman's work by a team of accomplished scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Including a new preface by the editor, this volume offers original philosophical analyses as well as extended reflections on the nature of film and innovative models of film criticism.

No other silent film director has been so extensively studied as D. W. Griffith. However, only a small group of his more than 500 films has been the subject of a systematic analysis and the vast majority of his other works stills await proper examination. For the first time in film studies, the complete creative output of Griffith - from Professional Jealousy (1907) to The Struggle (1931) - will be explored in this multi-volume collection of contributions from an international team of leading scholars in the field. Created as a companion to the on-going retrospective held by the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, The Griffith Project is an indispensable guide to the work of a crucial figure in the arts of the nineteenth century.

This is an innovative critical history of Disney feature animation that uproots common misconceptions and brings fresh scholarly definition to a busy field. "Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation" provides a comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date examination of the Disney studio's evolution through its animated films. In addition to challenging certain misconceptions concerning the studio's development, the study also brings scholarly definition to hitherto neglected aspects of contemporary Disney. Through a combination of economic, cultural, historical, textual, and technological approaches, this book provides a discriminating analysis of Disney authorship, and the authorial claims of others working within the studio; conceptual and theoretical engagement with the constructions of 'Classic' Disney, the Disney Renaissance, and Neo-Disney; Disney's relationship with other studios; how certain Disney animations problematise a homogeneous reading of the studio's output; and how the studio's animation has changed as a consequence of new digital technologies. For all those interested in gaining a better understanding of one of cinema's most popular and innovative studios, this will be an invaluable addition to the existing literature.

This work is translated by John Flower. There are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors. Francois Truffaut's famous statement defined a new way of seeing cinema as an art form and its directors as artists or auteurs. The Hollywood Interviews brings together five of the greatest of contemporary auteur directors - Francis Ford Coppola, Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Tim Burton - and the directorial team of the Coen brothers. Together, they represent some of the leading directors of the last twenty years of cinema. All are auteurs, directors with vision whose movies reflect their particular obsessions and ways of seeing the world. The interviews were all commissioned for the legendary film collective, Cahiers du Cinema, the first group of critics to treat films, particularly Hollywood films, as a serious art form. Conducted in the tradition of Cahiers' famously in-depth, critical and engaged style, these interviews catch each director at a crucial juncture in their development."

Referentiality and the Films of Woody Allen is a scholarly collection that provides expansive exploration of the auteur's use of intertexuality, referentiality, and fusion of media forms. Its scope is framed by Allen's intermedial phase beginning in 1983 with Zelig and his most recent film.

Conflict. Scorsese examines what men do when they are in conflict with themselves. Taxi Driver Travis Bickle is disgusted by the mean streets and wants to wash them clean. After all, what was the point of him going to Vietnam if it wasn't to make things better? Self-destructive Jake La Motta unleashes the Raging Bull within him both inside and outside the boxing ring. Wiseguy Henry Hill thinks that he can be one of the GoodFellas, but he eventually realises that there is nothing good or wise about a life of organised crime. Spirit. There is more to Scorsese's work than crime and violence. His characters are trying to attain some kind of spiritual peace with society, their family and themselves. In the end they try to make a decision they can live with. In Kundun, the Dalai Lama leaves Tibet. In The Last Temptation Of Christ, Jesus forgoes a normal family life to fulfil his destiny. In The Age Of Innocence, Newland Archer decides to be a hypocrite within society rather than truthful outside of it. In Mean Streets, Charlie must choose whether to keep his volatile friend Johnny Boy and his epileptic lover, or to propel himself up the ladder of success. Hailed as America's greatest living film director, Martin Scorsese is an innovative storyteller at the height of his intellectual and emotional powers. This Pocket Essential examines his life and work.

Explores the creativity, excitement, importance, and influence of John Ford, director of nearly 150 movies and in the film industry over 50 years.

One of the greatest and most influential of Hollywood's film-makers, John Ford was crucial in developing, and extending Hollywood's traditions. Stylistically, Ford was instrumental in experimenting with new camera techniques, atmospheric lighting and diverse narrative devices. Thematically, long before it became conventional wisdom, Ford was exploring issues such as gender, race, the treatment of ethnic minorities and social outcasts, the nature of history and the relationship of myth and reality. Popular film would be different had John Ford not been a director and Brian Spittles illustrates the excitement, importance, influence, creativity, deviousness and complexity of the man and his films.

Surveys Quentin Tarantino's enthralling career at the heart of cult filmmaking, from Reservoir Dogs to his latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most influential and distinctive filmmakers at work in the world today. His films are so admired that nearly every one he makes becomes an instant cult classic. Here, Tom Shone presents in-depth commentaries on each of the ten films Tarantino has directed, from Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as well as looking at his early life, acting career, and his indisputable talent for scriptwriting. Illustrated with more than two hundred film stills and behind-the-scenes images, Tarantino: A Retrospective is a fitting tribute to the great auteur’s unique talent.

Since the early 1950s, Chris Marker has embraced different filmmaking styles as readily as he has new technologies, and has broadened conceptions of the documentary in distinctly personal ways. He has travelled around the world, tracking political upheavals and historic events, as well as unearthing the stories buried under official reporting. This globetrotting filmmaker testifies to his six decades on the move through a passionate devotion to the moving image. Yet from the outset, his filmic images reveal a fascination with stillness. It is at this juncture of mobility and immobility that Sarah Cooper situates her comprehensive study of Marker's films. She pays attention to the central place that photographs occupy in his work, as well as to the emergence in his filming of statuary, painting and other static images, including the film still, and his interest in fixed frame shooting. She engages with key debates in photographic and film theory in order to argue that a different conception of time emerges from his filmic explorations of stasis. In detailed readings of each of his films, including Le souvenir d'un avenir andLa Jetee, Sans soleil and Level 5, Cooper charts Marker's concern with mortality in varied historical and geographical contexts, which embraces the fragility of the human race, along with that of the planet. -- .

In The Films of Walter Hill: Another Time, Another Place, Brian Brems explores how, as action emerged as a full-fledged genre of cinema, Walter Hill established his position in the genre, first as a screenwriter and then as a director. Hill, Brems argues, helped merge the thematic and stylistic concerns of the Western and film noir into a new action cinema, establishing a reputation for mythic, highly-stylized storytelling driven by a relentless pace. Through analyses of Hill's filmography, this book demonstrates his consistent use of the architecture of classical storytelling to help codify the language of the action movie. These observations are supported by extensive conversations with Walter Hill and several of his on-screen collaborators, including Lance Henriksen, Sigourney Weaver, David Patrick Kelly, James Renmar, and William Sadler. Ultimately, Brems positions Hill as a key American film artist, whose work has inspired countless imitations.

Spike Lee's journey from guerrilla filmmaker to Hollywood insider is explored in light of his personal background, the cultural influence of his films, and the extensive scholarship his movies have inspired. This insightful study probes the iconic filmmaker's career as a director and shaper of American culture. It not only sheds light on the ways in which Lee's background, influences, and outlook affect his films but also discusses how he participates in, transforms, and transcends the tradition of black American filmmaking. Each chapter offers a critical assessment of at least one, and sometimes multiple, Lee films, examining their production history; their place in Lee's filmography; and their aesthetic, cultural, and historical significance. Readers will come away from this first scholarly assessment of Lee's career and work with a better understanding of his penchant for stirring up controversy about significant social, political, and artistic issues as well as his role as an American artist who provokes his audiences as much as he pacifies them. Examines the full range of Lee's career, including the five film books he authored or coauthored, his feature films, his television projects, and his documentaries Offers a comprehensive, scholarly analysis of how, as both an American and African American filmmaker, Lee tells stories that might otherwise have remained untold on American movie screens Analyzes Lee's place in a rich tradition of African American filmmaking that includes Oscar Micheaux, Gordon Parks, Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, and John Singleton Discusses the influence directors such as Martin Scorsese and Melvin Van Peebles have had on Lee Reveals how Lee's films expose little-known aspects of American social issues, historical events, and public figures