The only Japanese director to have won the Palme d'Or from Cannes more than once, and second only to Ozu Yasujiro in the number of times he has won the prestigious Kinema Jumpo Best One award, the late Imamura Shohei was one of Japan's leading and most controversial film directors. This book is one of the first to study all of Imamura's major films alongside his television and theatrical documentaries, focusing on his major themes and concerns. By giving shape to Imamura's career, the book positions him as a stylistic innovator as well as an ethnographic investigator into Japanese culture and tradition; the preeminent examiner of the hidden, barely repressed underpinnings of Japanese society.

The purpose of this book, through its very creation, is to strengthen the dialogue between practitioner and theorist. To that end, a film academic and musicologist have collaborated as editors on this book, which is in turn comprised of interviews with composers alongside complementary chapters that focus on a particular feature of the composer's approach or style. These chapters are written by a fellow composer, musicologist, or film academic who specializes in that element of the composer's output. In the interview portions of this book, six major film composers discuss their work from the early 1980s to the present day: Carter Burwell, Mychael Danna, Dario Marianelli, Rachel Portman, Zbigniew Preisner, and A.R. Rahman. The focus is on the practical considerations of film composition, the relationship each composer has with the moving image, narrative, technical considerations, personal motivations in composing, the relationships composers have with their directors, and their own creative processes. Contemporary Film Music also explores the contemporary influence of electronic music, issues surrounding the mixing of soundtracks, music theory, and the evolution of each composer's musical voice.

With full-frontal genitalia, erections, even actual sex featuring increasingly in films, this explicitness in presentation has caused critical consternation and accusations that such film narratives are pornographic. This book explores how, rather than being pornographic, explicit sex can be an essential element of cinematic storytelling today. Offering detailed analysis of how choices are made in the presentation of explicit sex in often very controversial films, such as "Shame", "Baise-Moi", "Antichrist", "Dogtooth" and "Lust, Caution", the expert contributors - including Barbara Creed, Jacob Held and Linda Ruth Williams - show how sexual content can aid characterisation, highlight themes, and provide events that serve to develop plot. The impact of explicit sex as an element of a film's narrative is also revealed to be assisted by effective, nuanced performances and the incisive deployment of directorial technique. Together they detail through the fundamentals of cinema the shot by shot, moment by moment manner in which explicit sex can be an essential component of a dramatically powerful narrative.

The only Japanese director to have won the Palme d'Or from Cannes more than once, and second only to Ozu Yasujiro in the number of times he has won the prestigious Kinema Jumpo Best One award, the late Imamura Shohei was one of Japan's leading and most controversial film directors. This book is one of the first to study all of Imamura's major films alongside his television and theatrical documentaries, focusing on his major themes and concerns. By giving shape to Imamura's career, the book positions him as a stylistic innovator as well as an ethnographic investigator into Japanese culture and tradition; the preeminent examiner of the hidden, barely repressed underpinnings of Japanese society.

With full-frontal genitalia, erections, even actual sex featuring increasingly in films, this explicitness in presentation has caused critical consternation and accusations that such film narratives are pornographic. This book explores how, rather than being pornographic, explicit sex can be an essential element of cinematic storytelling today. Offering detailed analysis of how choices are made in the presentation of explicit sex in often very controversial films, such as "Shame", "Baise-Moi", "Antichrist", "Dogtooth" and "Lust, Caution", the expert contributors - including Barbara Creed, Jacob Held and Linda Ruth Williams - show how sexual content can aid characterisation, highlight themes, and provide events that serve to develop plot. The impact of explicit sex as an element of a film's narrative is also revealed to be assisted by effective, nuanced performances and the incisive deployment of directorial technique. Together they detail through the fundamentals of cinema the shot by shot, moment by moment manner in which explicit sex can be an essential component of a dramatically powerful narrative.

For many individuals, pornography is a troubling and problematic issue. Regardless of how the public views this topic, one thing is clear: Pornography is as prevalent and accessible as smartphones and laptop computers. Indeed, beyond traditional hardcore material, a pornographic sensibility can be seen permeating all aspects of culture from tween and young teen fashions to television and commercially successful films. In fact, pornography is so widespread that more often than not it is taken as a given in our modern social space. We assume all people look at or know about pornography, but to some, the thought of engaging in intellectual discussions about the topic strikes many particularly scholars as beneath them. And yet something this impactful, this definitive of modern culture, needs to be laid open to scrutiny. In The Philosophy of Pornography: Contemporary Perspectives, Lindsay Coleman and Jacob M. Held offer a collection of essays covering a wide range of viewpoints from issues of free speech and porn s role in discrimination to the impact of porn on sexuality. These essays investigate the philosophical implications of pornography as a part of how we now seek to conceive and express our sexuality in contemporary life. Contributors to this volume discuss: .pornography as a component of gender and sexual socialization .ecological understandings of sexually explicit media .subordination, sexualization, and speech .feminism and pornography .pornography s depiction of love and friendship .black women and pornography .playfulness, creativity, and porn s possibilities Because its subject matter sex, gender, interpersonal relationships, and even love is reflective of who we are and what kind of society we want to create, pornography demands serious treatment. So whether one chooses to accept pornography as a fact of modern culture or not, this collection of timely essays represents a variety of voices in the ongoing debate. As such, The Philosophy of Pornography will be of interest to not only those who are engaged in porn studies but also to an audience educated in and conversant with recent trends in philosophy."

As many critics and theorists have noted, non-pornographic films, documentaries, and quality television series have increasingly included explicit sex scenes since the 1990s, some of such scenes featuring the performance of actual sex acts. The incidence of sex in narratively powerful, resonant visual media can no longer be dismissed as a trend. What was once an aesthetic weapon in the arsenal of provocateurs is now frequently integrated seamlessly into the mise-en-scene and exposition of widely viewed and culturally significant films and television series. Intercourse in Television and Film: The Presentation of Explicit Sex Acts analyzes the aesthetic and narrative contexts for the visual media presentation of the sexual act, both those which are non-simulated and those which are explicit to that point that their simulation is brought into question by the viewer. In this book, questions involving the performance choices of actors, the framing and editing of the sex act, and the director's attempts at integrating sexuality into the overall narrative structure as well as their effects are explored.

Transnational Cinematography Studies introduces new perspectives to the discipline of film and media studies. First, this volume focuses on a crucial yet largely unexplored area in film and media studies: the substantial communication between critical studies of cinema and film production practices. This book integrates theories and practices of cinematographic technology. Secondly, Transnational Cinematography Studies expands the scope of film and media studies into the arena of transnationalism. Cinema is now discussed in terms of globalization of audio-visual cultures, with regard to such issues as Hollywood film studios' so-called "runaway productions" and multi-national co-productions; Hollywood remakes of Asian horror films or Hong-Kong martial arts films; and the growing significance of international film festivals. However, this volume proposes that globalization is not in itself new in the history of cinema, and that cinema has always been at the forefront of transnational culture from the beginning of its history.

For many individuals, pornography is a troubling and problematic issue. Regardless of how the public views this topic, one thing is clear: Pornography is as prevalent and accessible as smartphones and laptop computers. Indeed, beyond traditional hardcore material, a pornographic sensibility permeates many aspects of culture-from tween and young teen fashions to television and commercially successful films. In fact, pornography is so widespread that more often than not it is taken as a given in our modern social space. However, the thought of engaging in intellectual discussions about the topic strikes many-particularly scholars-as beneath them. And yet something this impactful, this definitive of modern culture, needs to be laid open to scrutiny. In The Philosophy of Pornography: Contemporary Perspectives, Lindsay Coleman and Jacob M. Held offer a collection of essays covering a wide range of viewpoints-from issues of free speech and porn's role in discrimination to the impact of porn on sexuality. These essays investigate the philosophical implications of pornography as a part of how we now seek to conceive and express our sexuality in contemporary life. Contributors to this volume discuss: opornography as a component of gender and sexual socialization oecological understandings of sexually explicit media osubordination, sexualization, and speech ofeminism and pornography opornography's depiction of love and friendship oblack women and pornography oplayfulness and creativity in porn Because its subject matter-sex, gender, interpersonal relationships, and even love-is reflective of who we are and what kind of society we want to create, pornography demands serious treatment. So whether one chooses to accept pornography as a fact of modern culture or not, this collection of timely essays represents a variety of voices in the ongoing debate. As such, The Philosophy of Pornography will be of interest to not only those who are engaged in porn studies but also to an audience educated in and conversant with recent trends in philosophy.