Pedro Almodovar's 1988 black comedy-melodrama Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown established its director as one of the most exciting of European film-making talents. An often hilarious study of sexual mores, Women on the Verge has a central character, Pepa (Carmen Maura), as warm and richly drawn as any modern film heroine. Made strong and self-reliant by suffering in a troubled relationship, Pepa is the centre of a network of lovers, friends and family who represent a vivid cross-section of Spanish society. Peter William Evans provides a formidable analysis of Almodovar's insights into gender, sexuality and identity. Evans sees Women on the Verge as concerned with the often tyrannical spell of sexual desire and the anxieties of relationships and families, but also with the possibilities for personal liberation. He discusses the film in the context of the history of Spain and the social revolution that occurred after the death of Franco. In his foreword to this new edition, Evans reflects upon Women on the Verge in the light of Almodovar's subsequent films, and the impact of Carmen Maura's performance as Pepa on the representation of women in Spanish cinema.

Luis Bunuel (1900-83) was one of the world's great film-makers. Always controversial, his first film, Un Chien andalou (1928), which he referred to as a 'call to murder', was a savage Surrealist experiment. L'Age d'or (1930), his second, was banned in Paris after its initial screening, which had led to violent disturbances. Thereafter, his films continued to challenge, provoke and subvert social conventions in their searching analyses of human desire.
Luis Bunuel: New Readings ranges widely over key films and moments from all stages of the director's career: the early years in Spain and France, the middle period in Mexico and the USA, and the return to Europe, where he made late masterpieces like Belle de Jour (1966) and Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972).
Twenty years after his death, the time is ripe for a re-evaluation of Bunuel's legacy. Through theoretically informed discussions of individual films and dominant tendencies, as well as through more biographically orientated perspectives (including newly discovered correspondence), this book locates and re-appraises Bunuel's films with particular emphasis on the national cinemas and varied cultures with which he was identified. These new readings show that Bunuel's significance and impact remain undiminished by the passage of time.

"Written on the Wind" (1956) is one of classical Hollywood's most striking films and
ranks among Douglas Sirk's finest achievements. An intense melodrama about
an alcoholic playboy who marries the woman his best friend secretly loves,
the film is highly stylised, psychologically complex, and marked by Sirk's
characteristic charting of the social realities of 1950s America.

This first single study of "Written on the Wind" reassesses the film's artistic
heritage and place within the wider framework of contemporary American
culture. Incorporating original archival research, Peter William Evans examines
the production, promotion and reception of "Written on the Wind," exploring its
themes - of time, memory, space, family, class and sex - as well as its brilliance
of form. Its vivid aesthetics, powerful performances and profound treatment
of human emotions, make "Written on the Wind" a masterpiece of Hollywood
melodrama.

Carol Reed is one of the truly outstanding directors of British cinema, and one whose work is long overdue for reconsideration. This major study ranges over Reed's entire career, combining observation of general trends and patterns with detailed analysis of twenty films, both acknowledged masterpieces and lesser-known works. Evans avoids a simplistic auteurist approach, placing the films in their autobiographical, socio-political and cultural contexts and relating these to the analysis of Reed's art. The critical approach combines psychoanalysis, gender theory, and the analysis of form. Archival research is also relied on to clarify Reed's relations with his creative team, financial backers and others. Films examined include Bank Holiday, A Girl Must Live, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Third Man, Night Train to Munich, The Way Ahead, Outcast of the Islands, Trapeze and Oliver!. -- .