Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin (b. 1935) is best known for his critically and commercially successful films The French Connection and The Exorcist. Unlike other film school-educated filmmakers of the directors' era, Friedkin got his start as a mailroom clerk at a local TV station and worked his way up to becoming a full-blown Hollywood filmmaker by his thirties. His rapid rise behind the camera from television director to Oscar winner came with self-confidence and unorthodox methods. Known for his gritty and auteurist style, Friedkin's films tell the story of a changing America upended by crime, hypocrisy, the occult, and amorality. Although his subsequent films achieved varying levels of success, his cultural impact is undeniable. William Friedkin: Interviews collects fifteen articles, interviews, and seminars spanning Friedkin's career. He discusses early influences, early successes, awards, and current projects. The volume provides coverage of his directorial process, beliefs, and anecdotes from his time serving as the creative force of some of the biggest films of the 1970s and beyond-from his early days in Chicago, to his run-ins with Alfred Hitchcock, to firing guns on set and witnessing an actual exorcism in Italy. Through previously unpublished and obscure interviews and seminars, the story of William Friedkin's work and life is woven together into a candid and concise impression for cinephiles, horror junkies, and aspiring filmmakers alike. Readers will gain insight into Friedkin's genius from his own perspectives and discover the thoughts and processes of a true maverick of American cinema.

Over the past two decades, independent director Gregg Araki has emerged as one of the most intriguing auteurs of contemporary U.S. cinema. A leading figure of the New Queer Cinema movement of the early 1990s, Araki is known for his innovative, eye-opening, and at-times-controversial films aimed primarily at queer audiences. Images for a Generation Doomed: The Films and Career of Gregg Araki explores the films and career trajectory to date of this New Queer Cinema pioneer. Offering in-depth analyses of films such as The Living End, Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, Nowhere, and Splendor, Kylo-Patrick R. Hart demonstrates how, over the course of the 1990s, the director's cinematic offerings became increasingly devoid of their early subversive potential. Hart goes on to argue that as the 1990s progressed, Araki's films were largely irrelevant to the cultural project of providing groundbreaking on-screen representations of non-heterosexual individuals living in the age of AIDS. However, Hart sees Mysterious Skin as evidence of Araki's successful attempt at reestablishing his cinematic and cultural relevancy in relation to the approaches and subject matter of contemporary queer cinema in the new millennium.

Saccharine for some, poignant for others, Jacques Demy's 'enchanted' world is familiar to generations of French audiences accustomed to watching Christmas repeats of his fairytale Peau d'ane (1970) or seeing Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac prance and pirouette in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1966). Demy achieved international recognition with Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1963), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at Cannes. However, beneath the apparently sugary coating of his films lie more philosophical reflections on some of the most pressing issues that preoccupy Western societies, including affect, subjectivity, self/other relations and free will. This wide-ranging book addresses many of the key aspects of Demy's cinema, including his associations with the New Wave, his unique approach to musicals, his adaptations of fairytales, his representations of gender and sexuality and his legacy as an iconic director for generations of audiences and filmmakers. -- .

Nicolas Winding Refn has emerged as a uniquely talented international filmmaker with an eye for visceral, iconic images. A 21st century mythmaker from his cult Pusher trilogy to the award-winning Drive and Only God Forgives, Refn infuses a sophisticated avant-garde sensibility with the grit of exploitation cinema. This book relates Refn's films to the ideas of Nietzsche, Canetti, Blanchot and others, and to aesthetic theory in general. It also asks why the West has become a largely artificial society, unable to generate new communal mythologies.

Pedro Almodovar is an internationally acclaimed Spanish director. The national and international fascination over Almodovar's cinema lies in his ability to reflect the problems of contemporary society, his lucidity in combining the urban and the rural, his ability to express the frustrations of modern man, as well as his freshness and spontaneity. Although the vast majority of studies on this Spanish director have focused on women and the gay world, his films are crowded with many types and archetypes of heterosexual men. This groundbreaking edited volume studies the men in the cinema of Almodovar from a broad yet comprehensive and complementary perspective. Each chapter of All About Almodovar's Men methodically dissects these male characters-their misery and their greatness, their frustrations and their desires-offering a kaleidoscopic view of man that goes beyond the narrow framework in which many studies have locked the rich cinema of Almodovar.

Since the early 1970s, Steven Spielberg has directed more than two dozen films, many of which have achieved classic status. In addition to critical and commercial successes that include E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Lincoln, Spielberg s name has become synonymous with such thrilling adventure films as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and Minority Report. Before he became a world-renowned filmmaker, however, Spielberg established himself on television, helming episodes of Rod Serling s Night Gallery; Marcus Welby, M.D.; and Columbo. But it was the small-screen version of a Richard Matheson short story that brought the young director s work to the attention of critics and viewers alike. In Steven Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career, Steven Awalt provides an exhaustive study commemorating the film that decisively launched the career of a major film artist. Through in-depth research and interviews with the film s creative and technical crew, the author tracks the film from genesis through production to release. Awalt conducted lengthy one-on-one interviews with Spielberg, Matheson, assistant director James Fargo, editor Frank Morriss, composer Billy Goldenberg, former MCA/Universal president Sidney J. Sheinberg, and writer-producer Steven Bochco, among others. Spielberg provided access to many rare documents from his archives, including multiple drafts of Duel s teleplay, the shooting schedule, shooting logistics breakdowns, and production correspondence. The first book-length examination of this important production in the director s early career, Steven Spielberg and Duel also includes the original teleplay by Matheson, four additional scenes created for the international theatrical release of the film, photos, and storyboards of the film s final sequence. A fascinating look behind the scenes of an acclaimed work, this book will interest not only scholars and film historians but anyone interested in the work of Richard Matheson and Steven Spielberg."

Jerzy Skolimowski is one of the most original Polish directors and one of only a handful who has gained genuine recognition abroad. This is the first monograph, written in English, to be devoted to his cinema. It covers Skolimowski's career from his early successes in Poland, such as Identification Marks: None and Barrier, through his emigre films, Deep End, Moonlighting and The Lightship, to his return to Poland where, in 2008, he made the internationally acclaimed Four Nights with Anna.

Ewa Mazierska addresses the main features of Skolimowski's films, such as their affinity to autobiographism and surrealism, while discussing their characters, narratives, visual style, soundtracks, and the uses of literature. She draws on a wide range of cinematic and literary texts, situating Skolimowski's work within the context of Polish and world cinema, and drawing parallels between his work and that of two directors, with whom he tends to be compared, Roman Pola ski and Jean-Luc Godard.

'Ewa Mazierska's monograph is the first book-length study of his Jerzy Skolimowski's] work, nearly half a century after his emergence as a one-man Polish New Wave ... Mazierska eschews a chronological survey in favour of five themed essays ... this approach allows her to make connections between outwardly disparate films and mount a convincing challenge to the received opinion that there are fundamental differences between his Polish and non-Polish output ... this is an important, desperately overdue book.' Sight & Sound

Ewa Mazierska is Professor of Contemporary Cinema, Department of Humanities, University of Central Lancashire. Her publications include Crossing New Europe: The European Road Movie (Wallflower Press, 2006), Dreams and Diaries: The Cinema of Nanni Moretti (Wallflower Press, 2004) and From Moscow to Madrid: Postmodern Cities, European Cinema (I.B. Tauris, 2003), all co-authored with Laura Rascaroli and Women in Polish Cinema (Berghahn Books, 2006), co-authored with El bieta Ostrowska."

Whatever people think about Kubrick's work, most would agree that there is something distinctive, even unique, about the films he made: a coolness, an intellectual clarity, a critical edginess, and finally an intractable ambiguity. In an attempt to isolate the Kubrick difference, this book treats Kubrick's films to a conceptual and formal analysis rather than a biographical and chronological survey.

As Kubrick's cinema moves between the possibilities of human transcendence dramatized in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the dismal limitations of human nature exhibited in A Clockwork Orange, the filmmaker's style "de-realizes" cinematic realism while, paradoxically, achieving an unprecedented frankness of vision and documentary and technical richness. The result is a kind of vertigo: the audience is made aware of both the de-realized and the realized nature of cinema. As opposed to the usual studies providing a summary and commentary of individual films, this will be the first to provide an analysis of the "elements" of Kubrick's total cinema.

Between 1960 and 1964, the legendary Roger Corman created eight motion pictures that have become known as the "Poe Cycle", elevating the careers of both himself and Vincent Price to cult status around the world. Nearly half a century later these films are staples in most DVD collections of anyone who admires the cinema of the Fantastic. This is the long-awaited book that details and analyses these highly important films. This book has been 30 years in the making! Nevermore will include: Hundreds of rare images never seen before from each film; Commentaries from Vincent Price and Roger Corman; Special observations by Barbara Steele, Elizabeth Shepherd, Joyce Jameson and Hazel Court as the leading ladies of the series; Exclusive interviews with the actors and artisans that made the Poe films; Rare poster art from around the world; Extra material on the Poe films made after Corman with exclusive interviews with Gordon Hessler and Samuel Z Arkoff. Archivist and film historian David Del Valle in collaboration with Professor Sam Umland have fashioned a film-by-film analysis of Roger Corman's Poe films including the Poe-inspired films made after Corman left AIP to pursue other projects. The unique combination of Professor Umland's insights into the literary landscape of Poe in concert with Mr Del Valle's twenty five years of research interviewing all the participants in the Poe series now culminates here. This is the "dream within a dream" for aficionados of these films which have never left the imagination of the generation that grew up watching them.

From his early days as a film editor at RKO studios, where he helped Orson Welles shape Citizen Kane, to his success as a director and producer of musical blockbusters of the 1960s, Robert Wise had a long and illustrious film career. Unlike contemporaries such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford or Howard Hawks, however, Wise's films lack any clearly discernible characteristics to signify his work. There are few striking camera angles or visual flourishes that might distract from the primary obligation to present the story. And like Hawks, Wise never specialized in one or two genres, but brought his directing skills to all manner of films. His work as a director resists auteur categorization, and that is a chief reason why some critics have been unduly negative in their consideration of his work. In The Films of Robert Wise, Richard Keenan examines the nearly forty features that represent the director's career-from Curse of the Cat People in 1944 to A Storm in Summer (2001), the only television production Wise ever directed. Keenan offers a reappraisal of Wise's films so that the true quality of his work can be better appreciated. Keenan argues that if there was a flaw in Robert Wise as a director, it was that he lacked the ego and temperament of the artist, which was not necessarily a flaw at all. Indeed, Wise was a conscientious craftsman who saw his work not primarily as a vehicle for his own ideas and visual style, but as an opportunity to present narrative that-quite simply-engages, informs, and entertains. It was this perspective that helped produce a number of memorable films over the years, including the gritty noir Born to Kill, the one-two punch of The Set-Up and Somebody Up There Likes Me, the sci-fi prophecy The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the gripping indictment of capital punishment, I Want to Live!-classics all. Wise also won a pair of Oscars for two of the most memorable-not to mention successful-musicals of all time: West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Drawing on more than 30 hours of interviews with Wise-as well as additional interviews with a number of his collaborators-Keenan offers a welcome reassessment of the director's work. In his analysis of each film, Keenan reveals both Wise the craftsman and the artist. In doing so, The Films of Robert Wise finally confers upon this underappreciated director the recognition he deserves.

Over the past two decades, independent director Gregg Araki has emerged as one of the most intriguing auteurs of contemporary U.S. cinema. A leading figure of the New Queer Cinema movement of the early 1990s, Araki is known for his innovative, eye-opening, and at-times-controversial films aimed primarily at queer audiences. Images for a Generation Doomed: The Films and Career of Gregg Araki explores the films and career trajectory to date of this New Queer Cinema pioneer. Offering in-depth analyses of films such as The Living End, Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, Nowhere, and Splendor, Kylo-Patrick R. Hart demonstrates how, over the course of the 1990s, the director's cinematic offerings became increasingly devoid of their early subversive potential. Hart goes on to argue that as the 1990s progressed, Araki's films were largely irrelevant to the cultural project of providing groundbreaking on-screen representations of non-heterosexual individuals living in the age of AIDS. However, Hart sees Mysterious Skin as evidence of Araki's successful attempt at reestablishing his cinematic and cultural relevancy in relation to the approaches and subject matter of contemporary queer cinema in the new millennium.

This book gives detailed and original critical readings of all eleven of Derek Jarman's feature-length films, arguing that he occupies a major and influential place in European and world cinema rather than merely being a cult figure. It places particular emphasis on the importance of Renaissance art and literature for Jarman, and emphasises his interest in Jungian psychology. Wymer shows how Jarman used his films to take his audience with him on an inner journey in search of the self, whilst remaining fully aware of the dangers of such a journey. Making substantial use of Jarman's unpublished papers as well as all his published works, Wymer argues that the films are orientated towards a much wider audience than is often supposed. They are addressed to anyone, of whatever gender or sexuality, who is prepared to go on a journey in search of him or her self and to become Jarman's accomplice in 'the dream world of the soul'. -- .

Elia Kazan first made a name for himself on the Broadway stage, directing productions of such classics as The Skin of Our Teeth, Death of Salesman, and A Streetcar Named Desire. His venture to Hollywood was no less successful. He won an Oscar for only his second film, Gentleman's Agreement, and his screen version of Streetcar has been hailed as one of the great film adaptations of a staged work. But in 1952, Kazan's stature was compromised when he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan's decision to name names allowed him to continue his filmmaking career, but at what price to him and the Hollywood community? In The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan: The Politics of the Post HUAC Films, Ron Briley looks at the work of this unquestionable master of cinema whose testimony against former friends and associates influenced his body of work. By closely examining the films Kazan helmed between 1953 and 1976, Briley suggests that the director's work during this period reflected his ongoing leftist and progressive political orientation. The films scrutinized in this book include Viva Zapata!, East of Eden, A Face in the Crowd, Splendor in the Grass, America America, The Last Tycoon, and most notably, On the Waterfront, which many critics interpret as an effort to justify his HUAC testimony. In 1999, Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar that caused considerable division within the Hollywood community, highlighting the lingering effects of the director's testimony. The blacklist had a lasting impact on those who were named and those who did the naming, and the controversy of the HUAC hearings still resonates today. The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan will be of interest to historians of postwar America, cinema scholars, and movie fans who want to revisit some of the director's most significant films in a new light.

"Eye-opening and addictively readable." Total Film Who and what decides if a film gets funded? How do those who control the purse strings also determine a film's content and even its message? Writing as the director of award-winning feature films including Welcome to Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People and The Road to Guantanamo as well as the hugely popular The Trip series, Michael Winterbottom provides an insider's view of the workings of international film funding and distribution, revealing how the studios that fund film production and control distribution networks also work against a sustainable independent film culture and limit innovation in filmmaking style and content. In addition to reflecting upon his own filmmaking career, featuring critical and commercial successes alongside a 'very long list' of films that didn't get made, Winterbottom also interviews leading contemporary filmmakers including Lynne Ramsay, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Asif Kapadia and Joanna Hogg about their filmmaking practice. The book closes with a vision of how the contemporary filmmaking landscape could be reformed for the better with fairer funding and payment practices allowing for a more innovative and sustainable 21st century industry.

Carrying On presents the complete story of the Carry Ons which have made Britain laugh for generations on film, television, and stage, and of the unique British filmmaking partnership of producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas. Writer and film historian Ian Fryer takes us on a journey into the glorious days of classic British humour, bringing to life the Carry On films and the vibrant, fascinating world of comedy from which they sprang. This lively and entertaining book presents detailed histories of the thirty Carry On films, revealing a cinematic legacy which is often more clever and complex than expected; from the post-war optimism of Carry On Sergeant and Carry On Nurse, via mini-epics such as Carry On Cleo, all the way to the smut-tinged seventies. Carrying On also turns the spotlight onto the host of other productions the Rogers and Thomas partnership brought to the screen along with detailed biographies of legendary Carry On stars such as Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, and Barbara Windsor who have brought fun and laughter to millions for decades.

Discover the secrets of Christopher Nolan's Tenet with this exclusive behind-the-scenes look at 2020's most anticipated film. In 2020, director Christopher Nolan returns with Tenet, an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage. This deluxe book takes fans through the full creative journey that brought Tenet to the screen, from the genesis of Nolan's uniquely imaginative script through to the cutting edge techniques used to realise the film's innovative action sequences. Featuring exclusive interviews with the director and his crew, including producer Emma Thomas and production designer Nathan Crowley, The Making of Tenet is a can't-miss companion to Nolan's thrilling new masterpiece.

Since their first film in 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen have written and directed some of the most celebrated American films of the last thirty years. The output of their work has embraced a wide range of genres, including the neo-noirs Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn t There, the absurdist comedy Raising Arizona, and the violent gangster film Miller s Crossing. Whether producing original works like Fargo and Barton Fink or drawing on inspiration from literature, such as Charles Portis True Grit or Cormac McCarthy s No Country for Old Men, the brothers put their distinctive stamp on each film. In The Coen Brothers Encyclopedia, all aspects of these gifted siblings as writers, directors, producers, and even editors in the guise of Roderick Jaynes are discussed. Entries in this volume focus on creative personnel behind the camera, including costumer designers, art directors, and frequent contributors like cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Carter Burwell. Recurring actors are also represented, such as Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, George Clooney, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, and John Turturro. Each entry is followed by a bibliography of published sources, both in print and online. From Blood Simple to Inside Llewyn Davis, The Coen Brothers Encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference on two of the most significant filmmakers of the last three decades. An engaging examination of their work, this volume will appeal to scholars, researchers, and fans interested in this creative duo."

Acclaimed British director Michael Winterbottom is known for the diversity of his prolific output of films. His films span a wide range of genres in mainstream and art house cinema alike, from western to science-fiction. Working within different genres gives Winterbottom a framework within which to explore favored themes, while incorporating new ideas and taking on new challenges. At the same time, his manner of undermining familiar generic qualities and frustrating audience expectations also refreshes the genres he explores. The Cinema of Michael Winterbottom, by Deborah Allison, explores Winterbottom's contributions to contemporary cinema by using ideas of genre as a critical tool. This text focuses on eight Winterbottom films, and examines how he adopts, inflects, and challenges the main attributes of the films' associated genres, creating a personal and idiosyncratic style of filmmaking. The potency and integrity of his authorship unites films as generically diverse as the road film (Butterfly Kiss), western drama (The Claim), science fiction (Code 46), and the docudrama (The Road to Guantanamo.)

To coincide with the recent DVD release of The Spirit of the Beehive, this paperback collection of essays focuses on the work of acclaimed Spanish director, Victor Erice. Originally published in hardcover under the title An Open Window, this expanded edition draws on original essays, reprints, and new translations from an international group of writers. New to this edition are four essays from noted film scholars-including editor Linda C. Ehrlich-as well as three added essays from the filmmaker himself. Both the original and new material provide a deeper appreciation of Erice's three feature-length films-The Spirit of the Beehive [El espiritu de la colmena] (1973), El Sur (1982), and Dream of Light [aka The Quince Tree Sun, El sol del membrillo] (1992), as well as his shorter works, including his most recent accomplishment, La morte rouge (2006). This anthology examines the aesthetic, historical, and sociological forces at work in Erice's films and includes an extensive interview with the director. This broad array of writings provides insight into not only three unforgettable films, but also into twentieth-century Spanish society, as well as world cinema. The Cinema of Victor Erice: An Open Window will serve as an important resource to measure the career of this director who-along with Bunuel, Saura, and Almodovar-has helped show the world the creative range of Spanish cinema. With additional essays, translations, and illustrations, this paperback edition explores new avenues of expression pursued by one of the most poetic of modern filmmakers.

Largely forgotten during the last 20 years of his life, the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov (1896-1954) has occupied a singular and often controversial position over the past sixty years as a founding figure of documentary, avant-garde, and political-propaganda film practice. Creator of Man with a Movie Camera (1929), perhaps the most celebrated non-fiction film ever made, Vertov is equally renowned as the most militant opponent of the canons of mainstream filmmaking in the history of cinema. This book, the first in a three-volume study, addresses Vertov's youth in the largely Jewish city of Bialystok, his education in Petrograd, his formative years of involvement in filmmaking, his experiences during the Russian Civil War, and his interests in music, poetry and technology.

Mark Lewis' work functions as a critique of cinema, encouraging the viewer's awareness of the cliches, conventions and fragmentary nature of film, and how it has been constructed historically. In so doing, he also acknowledges its suggestive power, and the alluring, seductive visual qualities of the medium, whilst maintaining a certain critical distance in his extraction and re-evaluation of its components. This catalogue provides a survey of Lewis' film works from 1995-2000.

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.

This unique study opens up a new dimension of Terrence Malick's cinema - its expressions of unseeing and hearing. 'Unseeing' is Malick's means of transcending the moment in order to enter the life that unfolds; to treat cinema as a real experience for those who live its reality. In this way, Terrence Malick's Unseeing Cinema moves beyond film theory to advance a work of original philosophy, bringing together two thinkers not normally associated with one another: Gilles Deleuze and Soren Kierkegaard. It investigates how Malick's gatherings of time allow one to explore new philosophical questions about immanence and transcendence, ethics and faith, time and infinity, and the foldings of subjectivity that are central to both philosophers. Beyond cinema, it offers a way to think about our everyday repetitions and recollections and our ephemeral points of connection with those we love.