In the late 1960s, the collapse of the classic Hollywood studio system led in part, and for less than a decade, to a production trend heavily influenced by the international art cinema. Reflecting a new self-consciousness in the US about the national film patrimony, this period is known as the Hollywood Renaissance. However, critical study of the period is generally associated with its so-called principal auteurs, slighting a number of established and emerging directors who were responsible for many of the era's most innovative and artistically successful releases. With contributions from leading film scholars, this book provides a revisionist account of this creative resurgence by discussing and memorializing twenty-four directors of note who have not yet been given a proper place in the larger history of the period. Including filmmakers such as Hal Ashby, John Frankenheimer, Mike Nichols, and Joan Micklin Silver, this more expansive approach to the auteurism of the late 1960s and 1970s seems not only appropriate but pressing -- a necessary element of the re-evaluation of 'Hollywood' with which cinema studies has been preoccupied under the challenges posed by the emergence and flourishing of new media.

Discussing a variety of independent and experimental Italian films, this book gives voice to a critcically neglected form of Italian cinema. By examining the work of directors such as Marinella Pirelli, Mirko Locatelli and Cesrae Zavattini, the book defines, inspects and studies the cinematic panorama of Italy through a new lens. It thereby explores the character of independent films and their related practices within the Italian historical, cultural and cinematic landscape.

The most comprehensive volume ever published on Alfred Hitchcock, covering his career and legacy as well as the broader cultural and intellectual contexts of his work. * Contains thirty chapters by the leading Hitchcock scholars * Covers his long career, from his earliest contributions to other directors silent films to his last uncompleted last film * Details the enduring legacy he left to filmmakers and audiences alike

Paul Schrader's unique relationship to the role of the author (as screenwriter, director and critic) has long informed his cinema, and raises complicated questions about the definition of the auteur. This volume of essays - one of the first collections to assess Schrader's contributions to directing, screenwriting and criticism - includes the first original appraisals of his much-lauded masterpiece First Reformed (2017), as well as a chapter-length interview with Schrader himself, conducted by the editors. Providing a comprehensive exploration of his groundbreaking achievements in cinema, the book considers Schrader's more overlooked films and provides new insights to their connection with his celebrated work in direction and screenwriting such as Taxi Driver (1976), Cat People (1982) and The Comfort of Strangers (1990).

This wide-ranging and insightful collection of interviews with D. A. Pennebaker (b. 1925) spans the prolific career of this pioneer of observational cinema. From the 1950s to the present day, D. A. Pennebaker has made documentary films that have revealed the world of politics, celebrity culture, and the music industry. Following his early collaborations with Robert Drew on a number of works for television, his feature-length portrait of Bob Dylan on tour in England in 1965 (the landmark film Dont Look Back) established so-called direct cinema as a form capable of achieving broad theatrical release. With Monterey Pop, Pennebaker inaugurated the popular mode of rock concert film (or ""rockumentary""), a style of filmmaking he has expanded on through a number of films, including Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Depeche Mode: 101. Pennebaker has always regarded collaboration as an integral part of his filmmaking methods. His long-running collaboration with Richard Leacock and subsequently his work with Chris Hegedus have enriched his approach and, in the process, have instituted collaboration as a working practice integral to American direct cinema. His other collaborations, particularly those with Jean-Luc Godard and Norman Mailer, resulted in innovative combinations of observational techniques and fictional aesthetics. Such films as The War Room, which was about the 1992 Democratic primaries and was nominated for an Academy Award, and the 2009 Kings of Pastry continue to explore the capacities of observational documentary. In 2012 Pennebaker was the first documentary filmmaker to be awarded an Academy Honorary Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Although Stanley Kubrick adapted novels and short stories, his films deviate in notable ways from the source material. In particular, since 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), his films seem to definitively exploit all cinematic techniques, embodying a compelling visual and aural experience. But, as author Elisa Pezzotta contends, it is for these reasons that his cinema becomes the supreme embodiment of the sublime, fruitful encounter between the two arts and, simultaneously, of their independence. Stanley Kubrick's last six adaptations--2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999)--are characterized by certain structural and stylistic patterns. These features help to draw conclusions about the role of Kubrick in the history of cinema, about his role as an adapter, and, more generally, about the art of cinematic adaptations. The structural and stylistic patterns that characterize Kubrick adaptations seem to criticize scientific reasoning, causality, and traditional semantics. In the history of cinema, Kubrick can be considered a modernist auteur. In particular, he can be regarded as an heir of the modernist avant-garde of the 1920s. However, author Elisa Pezzotta concludes that, unlike his predecessors, Kubrick creates a cinema not only centered on the ontology of the medium, but on the staging of sublime, new experiences.

Derek Jarmans films explore the possibilities and limitations of same-sex love and self-expression during various historical eras, ranging from ancient Egypt to present times. His work covers a millennium of sexual repression and efforts to escape this repression. Jarman provides us with a cinematic history of people whose homoerotic passions had a major impact on western civilization in religion, art, politics, philosophy, and war. This book provides historical background information on each of Jarmans fifteen scripts and films. The chapters are "program notes" to his films from a historical perspective. An interpretation of Jarmans intentions, gleaned from the directors writings and writings about him, is also provided. This work reveals Jarmans importance as a keen student of the limits of historical knowledge, and delineates the role of history in inspiring change or preserving inertia in the present struggle against homophobia.

Updated collections of recent interviews with filmmakers whose works represent trends in the film industries of Central Asia and the Middle East, these two new geospecific editions expand upon the earlier volume "Cinemas of the Other: A Personal Journey with Film-Makers from the Middle East and Central Asia." Following an introduction delineating the histories of the film industries of the countries that make up the Middle East and Central Asia--including Iran, Turkey, and the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--both books contain interviews stretching over a decade, which position the filmmakers and their creative concerns within the social or political context of their respective countries. The striking variety of approaches toward each interview creates a rich diversity of tone and opens the door to a better understanding of images of "otherness" in film. In addition to transcripts of the interviews, each chapter also includes stills from important films discussed, biographical information about the filmmakers, and filmographies of their works. Gonul Donmez-Colin offers in these expanded editions a carefully researched and richly detailed firsthand account of the developments and trends in these regional film industries that is sure to be appreciated by film scholars and researchers of the Middle East and Central Asia.

The films of Lars von Trier offer unique opportunities for thinking deeply about how Philosophy and Cinema speak to one another. The book addresses von Trier's films in order of their release. The earlier chapters discuss his Golden Heart trilogy and USA: Land of Opportunities series by addressing issues of potential misogyny, ethical critique, and racial justice. The later chapters focus on his Depression Trilogy and address the undermining of gender binaries, the psychoanalytic meaning of the sacrifice of children and depression, and philosophical questions provoked by the depiction of the end of the world. Taken together, the volume explores the topics of Philosophical Psychology, Social Theory, Political Theory, Theories of the Self, Philosophy of Race, and Feminist Thought, and opens a conversation about von Trier's important work.

What happens when we listen to a film? How can we describe the relationship of sound to vision in cinema, and in turn our relationship as spectators with the audio-visual? Jean-Luc Godard understood the importance of the soundtrack in cinema and relied heavily on the impact of carefully constructed sound to produce innovative effects. For the first time, this book brings together his post-1979 multimedia works, and an analysis of their rich soundscapes.The book provides detailed critical discussions of feature-length films, shorts and videos, delving into Godard's inventive experiments with the cinematic soundtrack and offering new insights into his latest 3D films. By detailing the production contexts and philosophy behind Godard's idiosyncratic sound design, it provides an accessible route to understanding his complex use of music, speech and environmental sound, alongside the distorting effects of speed alteration and auditory excess. The book is framed by the concept of 'acoustic spectatorship': a way of cultivating active listening in the viewer.It also draws on ideas by leading sound theorists, philosophers, musicians, and poets, giving particular emphasis to the pioneering thought of French sound engineer and theorist, Pierre Schaeffer. Softening the boundaries between film studies, sound studies and musicology, Godard and Sound re-evaluates Godard's work from a sonic perspective, and will prove essential reading for those wishing to rebalance the importance of sound for the study of cinema.

Luchino Visconti (1906-1976) was one of Europe's most prestigious filmmakers, who rose to prominence as part of the Italian neo-realist movement, alongside contemporaries Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. Famous for his elegant lifestyle, as friend of Jean Renoir and Coco Chanel amongst others, his vibrant technicolour dramas are also known for their decadence and stunning display of aesthetic mastery and sensory pleasure. Looking beyond this colourful facade, however, Resina explores the philosophical implications of decadence with a particular focus on three films from the late phase in Visconti's production, Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971), and Ludwig (1972). From the incestuous relationship between decadence and power to decadence as an outcome of straining toward formal perfection, Resina uncovers the unity and philosophical cohesiveness of these films that deal with different subjects and historical periods. Reading these films and their decadence in light of the time of filming and Visconti's own sense of cultural doom, Resina further demonstrates the relevance of Visconti's philosophy today and how much they still have to say to our contemporary situation.

This is the first English-language study of internationally acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, examining the cultural, production and exhibition contexts of his feature films, shorts and video installations. It situates Costa's filmmaking within the contexts of Portuguese, European and global art film, looking into his working practices alongside the impact of digital video, forms of collaborative authorship, and the intricate dialogue between modes of production and aesthetics. Considering the exhibition, circulation and reception of Costa's creative output in settings such as film festivals, the art gallery circuit and the home video market, ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa provides an essential critical analysis of this major filmmaker - as well as of the multifaceted production and consumption practices that surround contemporary art cinema.

As an actor/director surviving five decades of live and episodic television, Broadway, the Actors Studio, iconic films, Emmy nominated Movies of the Week, as Lou Antonio holds onto his bucking bronco of a career and why it is worth the hard landings. With humor and candor he describes the people, the ever changing tastes, mores, technical evolvements and perplexity of the performing arts, plus facing the unknown challenges of coming out of the gate not knowing if your ass is going to stay on the beast or hit the dirt. His career also serves as a warning to the unwary hopefuls, and to the well-worn pros. Memory keeps the past present as he directs or acts with Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Heath Ledger, George C. Scott to the now of Michelle Williams, Jesse Eisenberg Michael J. Fox, and, yes, the ever-enduring William Shatner. With gratitude and respect Antonio embraces all of those brave souls who hope to make a living in the hard realities of make-believe.

Emmanuel Levinas's ethical philosophy has had a significant influence on film theory in recent years. Proposing a relationship between Levinasian ethics and film style, and bringing it into a productive dialogue with theories of performativity, this book explores this influence through three directorial bodies of work: those of the Dardenne Brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader. Discussing a range of films - including the Dardennes' Le Fils and The Kid with a Bike, Schroeder's Maitresse and Reversal of Fortune and Schrader's American Gigolo and The Comfort of Strangers - Edward Lamberti demonstrates how film styles can perform a Levinasian ethics.

A Companion to Martin Scorsese is a comprehensive collection of original essays assessing the career of one of America s most prominent contemporary filmmakers. * Contains contributions from prominent scholars in North America and Europe that use a variety of analytic approaches * Offers fresh interpretations of some of Scorsese s most influential films, including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and Hugo * Considers Scorsese's place within the history of American and world cinema; his work in relation to auteur theory; the use of popular music and various themes such as violence, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender, and race in his films, and more

Cary Grant famously said, "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant-even I want to be Cary Grant." His development of that star image required serious work, but he also played a variety of characters requiring special performing talents. He was equally skilled in the screwball farce The Awful Truth, the dark thriller Notorious, the romantic melodrama An Affair to Remember, the domestic comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and the social drama None But the Lonely Heart. In a lively style accompanied by many illustrations, James Naremore analyzes these and other of Grant's best films, demonstrating that he had exceptional talent and greater range than usually recognized.

Perhaps the most gifted and invigorating of the American independent film directors of the past two decades, Jim Jarmusch (b. 1953) has presented moviegoers with his uniquely personal vision, from his first feature film, "Permanent Vacation" (1980), to his latest, "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999). "

As the interviews in this volume reveal, Jarmusch has always been interested in mixing very different cultural ingredients to form something uncategorizably new in films that transcend the boundaries between high and low cultures. Jarmusch half-mockingly described his movie "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984), the film that first brought him substantial notice, as "a semi-neorealist black comedy in the style of an imaginary Eastern European film director obsessed with Ozu, and familiar with the 1950s American television show "The Honeymooners.""

His unique approach to movie making jump-started the low-budget American independent film movement with "Stranger Than Paradise," which won the Camera d'Or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ranging from 1981 to 2000 this collection chronicles the career and sensibility of a thoroughly independent filmmaker. It features one previously unpublished interview, two that have never appeared in English, and another two which are presented in their entirety rather than in the abridged forms in which they were published.

Jarmusch discusses the actors with whom he has worked (Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, and Roberto Benigni among them), the progression of his camera and editing techniques, his fascination with the co-existence of disparate and often opposing cultures, and his cult status as an independent movie director. He comes across as kind, modest, and attentive, with a warm sense of humor and an ever-glowing affection for and dedication to his art, and for all the small and marginalized aspects of the world.

Ludvig Hertzberg is a freelance film critic and a doctoral candidate in cinema studies at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Christopher Nolan occupies a rare realm within the Hollywood mainstream, creating complex, original films that achieve both critical acclaim and commercial success. In The Traumatic Screen, Stuart Joy builds on contemporary applications of psychoanalytic film theory to consider the function and presentation of trauma across Nolan's work, arguing that the complexity, thematic consistency and fragmentary nature of his films mimic the structural operation of trauma. From 1997's Doodlebug to 2017's Dunkirk, Nolan's films highlight cinema's ability to probe the nature of human consciousness while commenting on the relationship between spectator and screen. Joy examines Nolan's treatment of trauma - both individual and collective - through the formal construction, mise en scene and repeated themes of his films. The argument presented is based on close textual analysis and a methodological framework that incorporates the works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. The first in-depth, overtly psychoanalytic understanding of trauma in the context of the director's filmography, this book builds on and challenges existing scholarship in a bold new interpretation of the Nolan canon.

The name Alfred Hitchcock is synonymous with suspense-that is to say, masterful, spine-tingling, thrilling, shocking, excruciating, eye-boggling suspense. With triumphs such as Rebecca, Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho, Hitchcock (1899-1980) fashioned a new level of cinematic intrigue and fear through careful pacing, subtlety, and suggestiveness. This complete guide traces Hitchcock's life and career from his earliest silent films right through to his last picture in 1976, Family Plot. Updated with fresh images, the book combines detailed entries for each of Hitchcock's 53 films, an incisive essay that sheds light on his fear-inducing devices, photos of the master at work, and an illustrated list of each of his cameos, together adding up to a movie buff's dream.

Let us rejoice in the genius that is Kevin Smith! This fun and photo-filled biography celebrates the life, films, and fans of the director responsible for such indie cult classics as Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. Movie-industry veteran David Gati has compiled and edited this humorous and insightful look at Smith's nearly 30-year moviemaking journey. Through Smith's own uncensored stories-taken from podcasts, Q&As, and documentaries-we get to know him as a person, the struggles he's been through, and the people he's worked with. Gati presents a visual facet to these narrative gems in the form of fan art from around the world, along with on-set stills, candid personal photos, and memorabilia. This scrapbook celebration shows how films affect and reflect pop culture, and explores the cultural phenomenon of fandom. The result is not only a tribute to Smith but also a testimony to his amazing and loyal fans.

Expanding on a burgeoning area in contemporary film studies that explores visual and aural absences and interstices in film narrative, this book explores silences in the soundtrack not ambient silence or so-called 'room tone' but complete sound drop-outs, as if the film projector had broken down, thereby jolting the audience out of their passive relationship to the screen, forcing them to become aware of their surroundings and the material apparatus of film as a mechanical device.Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's concept of Chaoids, which are various organizations of chaos through the different disciplines of science, philosophy and art, this book uses silence to pursue a variety of vectors that open up the surface plane of art (in this case cinema) to discover different philosophical (and by extension, political) singularities and multiplicities.

Though he has made only five films in two decades--"Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet," and the Oscar-nominated films "Moulin Rouge , Australia," and "The Great Gatsby"--Australian writer-director Baz Luhrmann is an internationally known brand name. His Christian name has even entered the English language as a verb, as in "to Baz things up," meaning "to decorate them with an exuberant flourish." Celebrated by some, loathed by others, his work is underscored by what has been described as "an aesthetic of artifice" and is notable for both its glittering surfaces and recurring concerns.

In this collection of interviews, Luhrmann discusses his methods and his motives, explaining what has been important to him and his collaborators from the start and how he has been able to maintain an independence from the studios that have backed his films. He also speaks about his other artistic endeavors, including stage productions of "La Boheme" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and his wife and collaborative partner Catherine Martin, who has received two Academy Awards for her work with Luhrmann."

In Mythopoetic Cinema, Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli explores how contemporary European filmmakers treat mythopoetics as a critical practice that questions the constant need to provide new identities, a new Europe, and with it a new European cinema after the fall of the Soviet Union. Mythopoetic cinema questions the perpetual branding of movements, ideas, and individuals. Examining the work of Jean-Luc Godard, Alexander Sokurov, Marina Abramovic, and Theodoros Angelopoulos, Ravetto-Biagioli argues that these disparate artists provide a critical reflection on what constitutes Europe in the age of neoliberalism. Their films reflect not only the violence of recent years but also help question dominant models of nation building that result in the general failure to respond ethically to rising ethnocentrism. In close readings of such films as Sokurov's Russian Ark (2002) and Godard's Notre Musique (2004), Ravetto-Biagioli demonstrates the ways in which these filmmakers engage and evaluate the recent reconceptualization of Europe's borders, mythic figures, and identity paradoxes. Her work not only analyzes how these filmmakers thematically treat the idea of Europe but also how their work questions the ability of the moving image to challenge conventional ways of understanding history.

David Fincher (b. 1962) did not go to film school and hates being defined as an auteur. He prefers to see himself as a craftsman, dutifully going about the art and business of making film. Trouble is, it's hard to be self-effacing when you are the director responsible for "Se7en, Fight Club," and "The Social Network." Along with Quentin Tarantino, Fincher is the most accomplished of the Generation X filmmakers to emerge in the early 1990s.

This collection of interviews highlights Fincher's unwavering commitment to his craft as he evolved from an entrepreneurial music video director (Fincher helped Madonna become the undisputed queen of MTV) into an enterprising feature filmmaker. Fincher landed his first Hollywood blockbuster at twenty-seven with "Alien3," but that film, handicapped by cost overruns and corporate mismanagement, taught Fincher that he needed absolute control over his work. Once he had it, with "Se7en," he achieved instant box-office success and critical acclaim, as well as a close partnership with Brad Pitt that led to the cult favorite "Fight Club."

Fincher became circumspect in the 2000s after "Panic Room," shooting ads and biding his time until "Zodiac," when he returned to his mantra that "entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine. Some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything's okay. I don't make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything's not okay." Zodiac reinvigorated Fincher, inspiring a string of films--"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network," and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"--that enthralled audiences and garnered his films dozens of Oscar nominations.

Nominated for both an Academy Award for scriptwriting and a National Book Award, John Sayles has written screenplays, teleplays, short stories, and novels and has worked as a script doctor for a virtual who's who of Hollywood film and television talent. He has acted in films and on stage and even directed a music video for Bruce Springsteen.

In making movies, Sayles has handled subjects as diverse as seventies activists in "The Return of the Secaucus Seven" (1980); a 1920s Appalachian miners' strike in "Matewan" (1987); the 1919 Black Sox scandal in "Eight Men Out" (1988); the Selkies of Ireland in "The Secret of Roan Inish" (1994); and Latin American guerilla warfare in "Men with Guns" (1997).

Conducted over a period of twenty years, these interviews span Sayles's career as a writer, director, and sometimes actor. Whether he is interviewed in "The Progressive," "Film Comment," "Sight and Sound," or Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone Magazine," Sayles is always direct and candid. In each conversation, he cuts to the core of the film business and to the meat of what he is trying to accomplish as an artist.

Known for his fiercely independent vision, his authentic characters, and his provocative observations on the human condition, Sayles demonstrates in these interviews what an endurably original director and artist he is. As he tells "Sight and Sound," "First of all, I'm not afraid of failure. I don't get upset if people don't like it. I'm doing it because I'm interested. . . "Return of the Secaucus Seven"] was the start, because even if I hadn't got it released, at least I've made a movie I wanted to make."

Diane Carson is Professor of Film Studies at St. Louis Community College at Meramec and Adjunct Professor of Film at Webster University, both in St. Louis, Missouri. A film critic for "Riverfront Times" and KDHX in St. Louis, she is also the editor of "Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism."