This volume compares films from the late Cold War era with films of the same genre, or of similar themes, from the post-Cold War era, paying particular attention to shifts in narrative that reflect changes in American culture, attitudes, and ideas. It explains how the absence of the Cold War has changed the way we understand and interpret film.
White hot essays on overlooked aspects of classic film noirConsider the usual view of film noir: endless rainy nights populated by down-at-the-heel boxers, writers, and private eyes stumbling toward inescapable doom while stalked by crooked cops and cheating wives in a neon-lit urban jungle. But a new generation of writers is pushing aside the fog ......
Using the framework of self-representation, this book rethinks problems of representation of the female body in French cinema and contemporary French culture. By filming themselves, these filmmakers visually claim their roles, establish their authority in the field, and expose new ways to configure representation, gender, and cinema.
Of the twenty or so science fiction films produced in America during the 1950s, there is a fascinating subset of nine films that do more than portray an invasion. These films use the invasions as metaphors for assaults against the integrity of various things, such as the self, marriage, and notions involving the supremacy of the human race.
Over the past century or more, the genres of fantasy, horror, and supernatural fiction have increasingly expanded beyond literature and into an array of media-film, television, comic books, and art. Many of the leading figures in the field engage in multimedia enterprises that allow their work to reach a much wider public than the mere readers of ......
This dictionary covers the history of South American Cinema through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on directors, producers, performers, films, film studios, and genres.
Composing, Casablanca, and the Golden Age of Film Music
Max Steiner is one of the greatest-not to mention most prolific-composers of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The winner of three Academy Awards, Steiner's credits include King Kong, The Informer, Gone with the Wind, Now, Voyager, Since You Went Away, Johnny Belinda, and The Caine Mutiny. Though known for timeless melodies that symbolize the glamor of ......
Desperate young lovers on the lam (They Live by Night), a cynical con man making a fortune as a mentalist (Nightmare Alley), a penniless pregnant girl mistaken for a wealthy heiress (No Man of Her Own), a wounded veteran who has forgotten his own name (Somewhere in the Night) - this gallery of film noir characters challenges the stereotypes of the ......
Everyone seems to know what film noir is, but scholars and critics cannot agree on any definition. Some go so far as to insist that there is no such thing. What is Film Noir? claims that this confusion arises from the fact that film noir is both a genre and a period style, and as such is unique in the history of Hollywood. The genre, now known as ......
