Raymond Carney - Böcker

This volume provides a concise overview of the career of one of the modern masters of world cinema. Jesse Kalin defines Bergman's conception of the human condition as a struggle to find meaning in life as it is played out. For Bergman, meaning is achieved independently of any moral absolute and is the result of a process of self-examination. Six existential themes are explored repeatedly in Bergman's films: judgment, abandonment, suffering, shame, a visionary picture, and above all, turning toward or away from others. Kalin examines how Bergman examines these themes cinematically, through close analysis of eight films: well known favorites such as Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, and Fanny and Alexander; and important but lesser known works, such as Naked Night, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage.

The Films of Vincente Minnelli, first published in 1993, examines the career of MGM's leading director of musicals, melodramas and comedies in the 1940s and 1950s. Widely admired for his flamboyant sense of colour and camera movement, Minnelli played a crucial role in maintaining the studio's reputation as the 'home of the stars'. Describing the director's contributions to some of the most celebrated works of Hollywood's golden era, this volume also includes a close analysis of five important films that represent the full range of Minnelli's career: Cabin in the Sky, Meet Me in St Louis, Father of the Bride, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life. These lively readings provide commentary on problems of genre, directorial style, cultural politics, and the connection between aestheticism and mass culture during the first half of the twentieth century.

The Films of Joseph Losey examines the career of the expatriot director through a close analysis of five of his most important and challenging films. When his leftist politics made him a target of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities in 1951, the blacklisted Losey left America and continued his film career in England. Concerned mainly with the use and abuse of power inherent in intimate relationships, Losey also examined these issues as manifested in institutions and social classes. The book also examines Losey's close working relationships with playwright/screenwriter Harold Pinter and actor Dirk Bogarde, his experimental form of storytelling, the psychological complexity of characters acting as narrator of their own stories, and the intricate handling of time in the structure of his films. Close studies of King and Country, The Servant, Accident, The Go-Between, and The Romantic Englishwoman confirm Losey's stature as a director of powerful and compelling films of both moral importance and great formal complexity.

The Films of D. W. Griffith serves as an introduction to, and a cultural argument for, the work of the first widely acknowledged master filmmaker. Situating D. W. Griffith within film history and American studies, Scott Simmon addresses Griffith's competing reputations as a genius of cinematic form and a retrograde purveyor of reactionary and racist tales. His study includes extended discussion of Griffith's controversial drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction, The Birth of a Nation, and of his grandiose historical epic, Intolerance, but identifies his enduring work within the approximately 450 shorter films that he directed for the Biograph Company between 1908 and 1913, years of rapid change in the film industry. Major discussion is given to the evolution of Griffith's Biograph films about contemporary city life and to his early domestic melodramas or 'woman's films'. In this cultural reading, Griffith's films are located at a crisis point between two centuries, drawing power from the popular attitudes of nineteenth-century America as they create the patterns for the twentieth century's most distinctive art form.

The past thirty years have seen the proliferation of forms of independent cinema that challenge the conventions of mass-market commercial movies from within the movie theatre. Avant-Garde Film examines fifteen of the most suggestive and useful films from this film tradition. The films discussed include No. 4 (Bottoms) by Yoko Ono, Wavelength by Michael Snow, Serene Velocity by Ernie Gehr, Print Generation by J. J. Murphy, Standard Gauge by Morgan Fisher, Zorns Lemma by Hollis Frampton, The Ties that Bind by Su Friedrich, From the Pole to the Equator by Yervant Gianikian and The Carriage Trade by Warren Sonbert. Through in-depth readings of these works, Scott MacDonald takes viewers on a critical circumnavigation of the conventions of movie going as seen by filmmakers who have rebelled against the conventions. MacDonald's discussions do not merely analyse the films; they provide a useful, accessible, jargon-free critical apparatus for viewing avant-garde film and communicate the author's pleasure in exploring 'impenetrable' works.

The authors trace the development of one of the most well-known directors of the New German Cinema that flourished in the 1970s and early 1980s. Examining Wim Wenders' career from his early film school productions through his mature works of the 1970s, this book also analyses the most recent works, as well as the themes and preoccupations that unite his oeuvre. As the authors note, Wenders' works have been profoundly influenced by American films, especially the 'road movie' genre. His own work often features characters who are always on the move, in an attempt to capture a glimpse of their identity and place in the world. They also represent a generation of postwar Germans seeking to redeem themselves and the history of their country by turning to American popular culture, particularly its music and movies.

This volume provides a concise overview of the career of one of the modern masters of world cinema. Jesse Kalin defines Bergman's conception of the human condition as a struggle to find meaning in life as it is played out. For Bergman, meaning is achieved independently of any moral absolute and is the result of a process of self-examination. Six existential themes are explored repeatedly in Bergman's films: judgment, abandonment, suffering, shame, a visionary picture, and above all, turning toward or away from others. Kalin examines how Bergman examines these themes cinematically, through close analysis of eight films: well known favorites such as Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, and Fanny and Alexander; and important but lesser known works, such as Naked Night, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage.

The Films of Paul Morrissey is the first appraisal of one of the major figures of American independent cinema. An innovator in the narrative cinema that emerged from Andy Warhol's Factory, Morrissey, as established in this study, was also the force who shaped the most important films that have up till now been attributed to Warhol. The director's experiments in the use of non-professional actors, controversial subject matter, and language are demonstrated through analysis of his most accomplished achievements, including Mixed Blood, 40 Deuce, and Spike of Bensonhurst. The Films of Paul Morrissey furthermore reveals the director's challenge to the moral, social and political values of contemporary liberalism.

The Films of Roberto Rossellini traces the career of one of the most influential Italian filmmakers through close analysis of the seven films that mark important turning points in his evolution: The Man with a Cross (1943), Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), The Machine to Kill Bad People (1948-52), Voyage in Italy (1953), General della Rovere (1959) and The Rise to Power of Louis XIV (1966). Beginning with Rossellini's work within the fascist cinema, it discusses his invention of neorealism, a new cinematic style that resulted in several classics during the immediate postwar period. Almost immediately, however, Rossellini's continually evolving style moved beyond mere social realism to reveal other aspects of the camera's gaze, as is apparent in the films he made with Ingrid Bergman during the 1950s; though unpopular, these works had a tremendous impact on the French New Wave critics and directors. Rossellini's late career marks a return to his nonrealist period, now critically reexamined, in such works as the commercially successful General della Rovere, and his eventual turn to the creation of didactic films for television.

The introduction gives an overview of Hitchcock's long career, with special attention to the varied influences on his work; themes that run through many of his films, from the 'transference of guilt', to the connection between knowledge and danger; the overlooked importance of his presence within his films, including his famous cameo appearances and characters who represent him within the story; his fascination with performance and the ambiguities of illusion and reality; the question of viewing him and his work through the auteur theory; and other issues. Also discussed is the relationship between Hitchcock as a serious, even tormented artist and Hitchcock as a magician with a weakness for cinematic practical jokes. Six chapters then provide in-depth examinations of key films: Blackmail, his first talkie; Shadow of a Doubt, one of his personal favourites; The Wrong Man, which questions the nature of guilt and innocence; Vertigo, arguably his most profound work; Psycho, his most savage look at the nature of evil; and The Birds, his last masterpiece and one of his most widely misunderstood works.

The Films of Roberto Rossellini traces the career of one of the most influential Italian filmmakers through close analysis of the seven films that mark important turning points in his evolution: The Man with a Cross (1943), Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), The Machine to Kill Bad People (1948-52), Voyage in Italy (1953), General della Rovere (1959) and The Rise to Power of Louis XIV (1966). Beginning with Rossellini's work within the fascist cinema, it discusses his invention of neorealism, a new cinematic style that resulted in several classics during the immediate postwar period. Almost immediately, however, Rossellini's continually evolving style moved beyond mere social realism to reveal other aspects of the camera's gaze, as is apparent in the films he made with Ingrid Bergman during the 1950s; though unpopular, these works had a tremendous impact on the French New Wave critics and directors. Rossellini's late career marks a return to his nonrealist period, now critically reexamined, in such works as the commercially successful General della Rovere, and his eventual turn to the creation of didactic films for television.

The Films of Peter Greenaway is the first critical overview of one of the most controversial contemporary film-makers. Trained as an artist, Greenaway began his career in cinema as an editor of government-sponsored films. He began to attract critical attention in 1980 with his epic mock-documentary The Falls, the first British film to be named Best Film by the British Film Institute in 30 years. Since then he has created the wittily elegant The Draughtsman's Contract, the strikingly unconventional Shakespearean adaptation Prospero's Books, and the disturbingly violent The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. In-depth analyses of these and several other of Greenaway's most important works are examined within the context of the director's biography and artistic goals. This edition also includes stills from Greenaway's feature films, as well as his own drawings.

The Films of Jean-Luc Godard examines the work of one of the most versatile and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. With a career ranging from France's New Wave movement in the early 1960s to a period of political experimentation in the late 1960s and 70s, and, currently, a contemplative period in which Godard has explored issues of spirituality, sexuality, and the aesthetics of sound, image, and montage, the filmmaker's work defies easy categorization. In this study, David Sterritt offers an introductory overview of Godard's work as a filmmaker, critic, and video artist. In subsequent chapters, he traces Godard's visionary ideas through six of his key films, including Breathless, My Life to Live, Weekend, Numéro deux, Hail Mary, and Nouvelle Vague formats. Linking Godard's works to key social and cultural developments, The Films of Jean-Luc Godard explains their importance in modernist and postmodernist art of the last half century.