![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema > Individual film directors, film-makers
An extensive critical study of cinematic representations of Irish queer masculinitiesIn recent years queer identities have become increasingly visible in Irish cinema, a shift that can be linked to political, economic and social changes taking place both in Ireland and around the world, as well as to changes in national film policy to cater more to international audiences. 'Irish Queer Cinema' explores the sexual politics and socio-economic conditions that have determined the shape and evolution of these representations whilst interrogating the relationship between on-screen visibility and progressive sexual politics. Drawing together 23 films as depictive of an Irish queer cinema, including 'Clash of the Ash, The Crying Game' and 'Me First', the book investigates the different ways gender and sexuality intersect with nationhood and national forms of belonging, and explores the role of queerness within the constitution of an Irish national culture.Key FeaturesDevelops innovative spatial models of queer sociality as frameworks for analysing Irish filmsProvides readings of cinematic space to assess the impact of socio-economic change on Irish identity politics and patterns of cultural representationUses queer theory to explore the relationship between Irish nationalist discourses, LGBTQ politics in Ireland and the increasing visibility of Irish queer identities on-screen
Examines how Singapore cinema functions as a national cinema'Celluloid Singapore' is a ground-breaking study of the three major periods in Singapore's fragmented cinema history, namely the golden age of the 1950s and 60s, the post-studio 1970s, and the revival from the 1990s onwards. Set against the context of Singapore's own trajectory of development, the book poses two central questions: how can the films of each period be considered 'Singapore' films, and how is this cinema specifically national? The book argues that the films of these three periods collectively constitute a national cinema through different performances of Singapore, offering a critical framework for understanding this cinema and its history in relation to the development of the country and the national.Key FeaturesThe first full length, critical study of Singapore cinemaIncludes case studies of films from the golden age of the 1950s and 60s, the post-studio 1970s, and the revival from the 1990s onwardsConsiders Singapore's cinema history and relationship with the national, building on developments in transnational cinema studies
The first comprehensive collection on the subject of Hong Kong neo-noir cinemaThe first comprehensive collection on Hong Kong neo-noir cinema, this book examines the way Hong Kong has developed its own unique version of noir since the late 1940s, while drawing upon and enriching global neo-noir cinemas. With a range of contributions from established and emerging scholars, this book illuminates the origins of Hong Kong neo-noir, its styles and contemporary manifestations, and its connection to mainland China before and after the 1997 Handover.Case studies include classics such as 'The Wild, Wild Rose' (1960) and more recent films like 'Full Alert' (1997), 'Exiled' (2007) and 'Shinjuku Incident' (2008). It provides a fresh look at the careers of iconic figures Johnnie To, Jackie Chan and Fruit Chan. By examining the films of emigre Shanghai directors, the cool women killers, the hybrids and noir cityscapes, 'Hong Kong Neo-Noir' explores the complex connections between a vibrant cinema and global noir.ContributorsAdam Bingham, Edge Hill UniversityJinhee Choi, King's College LondonDavid Desser, University of IllinoisKenneth E. Hall, East Tennessee State UniversityLaw Kar, Hong Kong Film ArchiveKwai-Cheung Lo, Hong Kong Baptist UniversityGina Marchetti, University of Hong KongLisa Odham Stokes, Seminole State College in Central FloridaJulian Stringer, University of NottinghamKristof Van den Troost, Chinese University of Hong KongTony Williams, Southern Illinois University, CarbondaleEsther C. M. Yau, University of Hong Kong
Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder introduces scholars and students to the controversial and prolific but brief career of a filmmaker hailed as one of the New German Cinema's most talented exponents. Combining a chronological survey with a thematic exploration, Wallace Steadman Watson reviews the entirety of Fassbinder's artistic output, focusing specifically on fifteen of the filmmaker's thirty-eight feature-length works. Watson's interpretations of these films, all of which he studied in Germany, scrutinize the financial constraints, material conditions, and script development involved in their production. In addition, Watson's analyses draw on a wide assortment of Fassbinder interviews - many of which are not available in English - and on theoretical and critical approaches employed in the Frankfurt School, gay and lesbian film theory, and studies of melodrama and camp. A comprehensive, balanced study, Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder also features an annotated bibliography, extensive notes, a filmography of Fassbinder's works, and a listing of films and television programs that examine Fassbinder and his achievements.
"One of the great works of film history of the decade." -Slate Now a Netflix original documentary series, also written by Mark Harris: the extraordinary wartime experience of five of Hollywood's most important directors, all of whom put their stamp on World War II and were changed by it forever Here is the remarkable, untold story of how five major Hollywood directors-John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra-changed World War II, and how, in turn, the war changed them. In a move unheard of at the time, the U.S. government farmed out its war propaganda effort to Hollywood, allowing these directors the freedom to film in combat zones as never before. They were on the scene at almost every major moment of America's war, shaping the public's collective consciousness of what we've now come to call the good fight. The product of five years of scrupulous archival research, Five Came Back provides a revelatory new understanding of Hollywood's role in the war through the life and work of these five men who chose to go, and who came back.
A wide-ranging study of developments in global French-language cinemaThe first book devoted to a wide-ranging study of developments in global French-language cinema, from Quebec to Mauritania and from Belgium to Cambodia, 'Cinema-monde' picks up on the lively scholarly debates generated by the related topic of litterature-monde. Extending the scope of this debate to cover the thriving and diverse area of international French-language cinema, this innovative book also considers cinema from France within the context of global production. With contributions from an international range of specialists, and with considerations of works by contemporary directors like Rachid Bouchareb, Abderrahmane Sissako and Rithy Panh, 'Cinema-monde' explores the porous borders around francophone spaces and the ways in which languages and identities 'travel' in contemporary cinema.ContributorsJoseph Mai (Clemson University)Mireille Rosello (University of Amsterdam)Laura Reeck (Allegheny College)Dayna Oscherwitz (Southern Methodist University)Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp (University of Rhode Island)Michael Gott (University of Cincinnati)Vlad Dima (University of Wisconsin) Gemma King (The University of Melbourne)Thibaut Schilt (College of the Holy Cross)Leila Ennaili (Central Michigan University)Alison Rice (University of Notre Dame)Jaime Steele (University of Exeter)Michelle Stewart (SUNY-Purchase)Carina Yervasi (Swarthmore College)Bill Marshall (University of Stirling)Lucy Mazdon (University of Southampton)Will Higbee (University of Exeter)
In Vampires, Race, and Transnational Hollywoods, Dale Hudson explores the movement of transnational Hollywood's vampires, between low-budget quickies and high-budget franchises, as it appropriates visual styles from German, Mexican and Hong Kong cinemas and off-shores to Canada, Philippines, and South Africa. As the vampire's popularity has swelled, vampire film and television has engaged with changing discourses around race and identity not always addressed in realist modes. Here, teen vampires comfort misunderstood youth, chador-wearing skateboarder vampires promote transnational feminism, African American and Mexican American vampires recover their repressed histories. Looking at contemporary hits like True Blood, Twilight, Underworld and The Strain, classics such as Universal's Dracula and Dracula, and miscegenation melodramas like The Cheat and The Sheik, the book reconfigures Hollywood historiography and tradition as fundamentally transnational, offering fresh interpretations of vampire media as trans-genre sites for political contestation.
This, the first book-length study of Hong Kong cult director Wong Kar-wai, provides an overview of his career and in-depth analyses of his seven feature films to date. The study also takes an intriguing look at Wong's commercials for the likes of Motorola, BMW, and Lacoste and at his music video for DJ Shadow. Stephen Teo probes Wong's cinematic and literary influences--from Martin Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock to Manuel Puig and Haruki Murakami--yet shows how Wong transcends them all. This comprehensive and thoroughly accessible study confirms Wong's position as the star of the Hong Kong-global nexus and as a postmodern exemplar of world cinema.
This comprehensive study of prolific British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom explores the thematic, stylistic, and intellectual consistencies running through his eclectic and controversial body of work. This volume undertakes a close analysis of a TV series directed by Winterbottom and sixteen of his films ranging from television dramas to transnational co-productions featuring Hollywood stars, and from documentaries to costume films. The critique is centered on Winterbottom's collaborative working practices, political and cultural contexts, and critical reception. Arguing that his work delineates a 'cinema of borders', this study examines Winterbottom's treatment of sexuality, class, ethnicity, and national and international politics, as well as his quest to adequately narrate inequality, injustice, and violence.
Fargo is the most commercially and critically successful film of Ethan and Joel Coen. Immediately recognized as an important work, it was nominated for five Academy Awards and received two, an exceptional achievement for a low budget, independently produced film without major stars. Fargo is also a film that explores middle-American themes and settings from an original and unsettling perspective, challenging traditional genre structures. This volume explores Fargo from a variety of methodological perspectives. Providing a detailed account of the film's production, reception and place within the career of the Coen brothers, it explores issues and themes that are important to current film discourse, including genre, gender and sexuality, race, history, culture and myth.
In this, the first comprehensive book on Liliana Cavani, Gaetana Marrone redraws the map of postwar Italian cinema to make room for this extraordinary filmmaker, whose representations of transgressive eroticism, spiritual questing, and psychological extremes test the limits of the medium, pushing it into uncharted areas of discovery. Cavani's film "The Night Porter" (1974) created a sensation in the United States and Europe. But in many ways her critically renowned endeavors--which also include "Francesco di Assisi, Galileo, I cannibali, Beyond Good and Evil, The Berlin Affair, " and several operas and documentaries--remain enigmatic to audiences. Here Marrone presents Cavani's work as a cinema of ideas, showing how it takes pleasure in the telling of a story and ultimately revolts against all binding ideological and commercial codes. The author explores the rich visual language in which Cavani expresses thought, and the cultural icons that constitute her style and images. This approach affords powerful insights into the intricate interlacing of narrated events. We also come to understand the importance assigned to the gaze in the genesis of desire and the acquisition of knowledge. The films come to life in this book as the classical tragedies Cavani intended, where rebels and madmen experience conflict between historical and spiritual reality, the present and the past. Offering intertextual analyses within such fields as psychology, history, and cultural studies, along with production information gleaned from Cavani's personal archives, Marrone boldly advances our understanding of an intriguing, important body of cinematic work.
This concise overview of the career of one of the modern masters of world cinema defines Ingmar Bergman's conception of the human condition as a struggle to find meaning in life as it is played out. After examining six existential themes explored repeatedly in Bergman's films--judgment, abandonment, suffering, shame, a visionary picture, and a turning toward or away from others--Jesse Kalin shows how these themes are expressed in eight of his films, including well known favorites such as Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, and Fanny and Alexander. Other important but lesser known films covered include Naked Night, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage.
Famous for their stunts, gags, and images, Buster Keaton's silent films have enticed everyone from Hollywood movie fans to the surrealists, such as Dali and Bunuel. Here Robert Knopf offers an unprecedented look at the wide-ranging appeal of Keaton's genius, considering his vaudeville roots and his ability to integrate this aesthetic into the techniques of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1920s. When young Buster was being hurled about the stage by his comically irate father in the family's vaudeville act, The Three Keatons, he was perfecting his acrobatic skills, timing, visual humor, and trademark "stone face." As Knopf demonstrates, such theatrics would serve Keaton well as a film director and star. By isolating elements of vaudeville within works that have previously been considered "classical," Knopf reevaluates Keaton's films and how they function. The book combines vivid visual descriptions and illustrations that enable us to see Keaton at work staging his memorable images and gags, such as a three-story wall collapsing on him ("Steamboat Bill, Jr.," 1928) and an avalanche of boulders chasing him down a mountainside ("Seven Chances," 1925). Knopf explains how Keaton's stunts and gags served as fanciful departures from his films' storylines and how they nonetheless reinforced a strange sense of reality, that of a machine-like world with a mind of its own. In comparison to Chaplin and Lloyd, Keaton made more elaborate use of natural locations. The scene in "The Navigator, "for example," " where Buster brandishes a swordfish to fend off another swordfish derives much of its power from actually being shot under water. Such "hyper-literalism" was but one element of Keaton's films that inspired the surrealists. Exploring Keaton's influence on Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Robert Desnos, Knopf suggests that Keaton's achievement extends beyond Hollywood into the avant-garde. The book concludes with an examination of Keaton's late-career performances in Gerald Potterton's "The Railrodder" and Samuel Beckett's "Film," and locates his legacy in the work of Jackie Chan, Blue Man Group, and Bill Irwin."
Sam Girgus argues that Allen has consistently been on the cutting edge of contemporary critical and cultural consciousness. Allen continues to challenge notions of authorship, narrative, perspective, character, theme, ideology, gender and sexuality. This revised and updated edition includes two new chapters that examine Allen's work since 1992. Girgus thoughtfully asserts that the scandal surrounding Allen's personal life in the early 1990s has altered his image in ways that reposition moral consciousness in his work.
John Sayles is an inspiration to independent filmmakers in America and beyond, both for his engaged political filmmaking and as living proof that directors can survive and thrive without the need for mainstream financing. His 1980s films were the counter-punch to the special effects and blockbuster aesthetics of the Star Wars and Spielberg era, and this volume closely follows his career with analysis of all of his directed works. Through discussion of films such as "Return of the Secaucus 7" (1980), "The Brother from Another Planet" (1984), "Matewan" (1987) and "Sunshine State" (2003), this study uncovers themes of racial and sexual otherness, capitalist excess and the erosion of community in his work. With new distribution channels now enabling independent cinema to reach a wider audience than ever before, this timely volume will be of interest to left-wing thinkers, guerrilla filmmakers and all aficionados of independent film.
This study examines the career of one of Italy's most renowned filmmakers through close analysis of five masterpieces that span his career: La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Amarcord and Interview. Providing an overview of Fellini's early career as a cartoonist and scriptwriter for Neorealist directors such as Roberto Rosselini, it traces the development of his unique and personal cinematic vision as it transcends Italian Neorealism. Rejecting an overtly ideological approach to Fellini's cinema, Bondanella emphasizes the director's interest in fantasy, the irrational, and individualism.
"The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer" explores the legacy of this legendary Czech surrealist filmmaker, a key influence on directors such as Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, and one of the greatest animators in cinema history. This updated second edition -- still the only full-length study of his work--features contributions from scholars and colleagues within the Czech Surrealist movement, as well as a new chapter on Svankmajer's feature films and an extended interview with Svankmajer himself. This volume is required reading for all budding animators and disciples of surrealism.
Despite creating an extensive and innovative body of work over the last 30 years, Aki Kaurismaki remains relatively neglected in Anglophone scholarship. This international collection of original essays aims to redress such neglect by assembling diverse critical inquiries into Kaurismaki's oeuvre. The first anthology on Kaurismaki to be published in English, it offers a range of voices responding to his politically and aesthetically compelling cinema. Deploying various methodologies to explore multiple facets of his work, The Films of Aki Kaurismaki will come to be seen as the definitive book on Kaurismaki.
The Films of Mike Leigh is the first critical study of one of the most important and eccentric directors of British independent filmmaking. Although active since 1971, Leigh has only come to the attention of an international audience in the 1990s through films such as Secrets and Lies, and Career Girls. The authors examine Leigh's working method and films in the intellectual and social contexts in which they were created. All of Leigh's major box office successes are analyzed, interpreted, and shown to be among the finest examples of cinema.
Norfolk Summer presents the story about the making of a film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates Joseph Losey's award-winning movie The Go-Between was filmed entirely on location in Norfolk in 1970. The film charts the tragic story of a young boy's loss of innocence during a hot summer and stars Julie Christie and Alan Bates as a pair of lovers crossing class boundaries in late Victorian England. The production brought together the playwright Harold Pinter, who adapted L.P. Hartley's elegant novel for the screen, the acclaimed director Joseph Losey and a cast of international stars for ten weeks' filming in and around Melton Constable Hall in north Norfolk - a time of happy creativity, some tension and a good deal of comedy. But the idyllic summer only came about after years of bitter battling over the rights of the book, and it was to be followed by yet more intrigue and high drama, which culminated in the film's triumph at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Palme d'Or.
Twenty years since its release, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut remains a complex, visually arresting film about domesticity, sexual disturbance, and dreams. It was on the director's mind for some 50 years before he finally put it into production. Using the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts, London, and interviews with participants in the production, the authors create an archeology of the film that traces the progress of the film from its origins to its completion, reception, and afterlife. The book is also an appreciation of this enigmatic work and its equally enigmatic creator.
Sergei Eisenstein's greatness lies not only in his films, such as Potemkin or Ivan the Terrible, or his contributions to the technique and art of the cinema but also in his contributions as a theoretician and philosopher of the art. This edition includes a new translation of Eisenstein's essay on Orozco. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. |
You may like...
Don't Give Up, Don't Give In - Life…
Louis Zamperini, David Rensin
Paperback
(2)
|