Wheeler Winston Dixon – författare

Using the media's coverage of the death of Princess Diana as a departing point, Wheeler Dixon presents a sharply critical assessment of the current state of movies--from the cult of celebrity, to the nature of public surveillance, to the role of print and television media in shaping our shared consciousness--unveiling our fascination with disaster. Dixon argues that movies such as James Cameron's Titanic replay the same Hollywood disaster plotlines with greater wizardry and less humanity than the films of fifty years ago. Contemporary cinema has become simply a memory of itself. Dixon draws on the effects of new technologies, the role of the "star" system, and the development of media conglomerates to explain why Hollywood has become so repetitive. Looking at a wide range of film genres, from obscure horror to blockbuster disaster movies, Dixon weaves together the elements that entice and manipulate audience expectations and emotions.Throughout the book, he examines the role of televisual media (cable, video, instant print magazines, digitally stored photos) in capturing the public's attention, and how these media could instead be used to open movie audiences to new stories and experiences.With its broad scope and frank tone, Disaster and Memory offers a refreshing and controversial perspective on the past, present, and future of Hollywood.

Before turning to filmmaking, Francois Truffaut was a film critic writing for Cahiers du Cinema during the 1950s. The Early film Criticism of Francois Truffaut makes available, for the first time in English, articles that originally appeared in French journals such as Cahiers du Cinema and Arts. Truffaut discusses films by such acknowledged masters as Hitchcock, Huston, Dymytryk, and Lang, but also examines the work of such lesser-known directors as Robert Wise, Don Weis, and Roger Vadim.

This volume provides a comprehensive guide to the long tradition of American avant-garde cinema, from its origins in the 1920s to the work of contemporary film and video artists. The Reader addresses major movements and key figures of the avant-garde, including filmmakers such as Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Isaac Julien and Julie Dash, investigates how underground films have explored issues of gender, sexuality and race, and foreground technical innovations such as the use of Super 8mm and video.

This volume provides a comprehensive guide to the long tradition of American avant-garde cinema, from its origins in the 1920s to the work of contemporary film and video artists. The Reader addresses major movements and key figures of the avant-garde, including filmmakers such as Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Isaac Julien and Julie Dash, investigates how underground films have explored issues of gender, sexuality and race, and foreground technical innovations such as the use of Super 8mm and video.

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is an overview of 20th- and 21st-century noir and fatalist film practice from 1945 onwards. The book demonstrates the ways in which American cinema has inculcated a climate of fear in our daily lives, as reinforced, starting in the 1950s, by television, and later videocassettes, the web, and the Internet, to create, by the early 21st century a hypersurveillant atmosphere in which no one can avoid the barrage of images that continually assault our senses. The book begins with the return of American soldiers from World War II, 'liberated' from war in the Pacific by the newly created atomic bomb, which will come to rule American consciousness through much of the 1950s and 1960s and then, in a newer, more small-scale way, become a fixture of terrorist hardware in the post-paranoid ear of the 21st century. Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is constructed in six chapters, each highlighting a particular 'raising of the cinematic stakes' in the creation of a completely immersible universe of images. Selling points:*Expands the definition of noir to include numerous lesser known works.*Deals with Red Scare films of the 1950s in the US.*Examines the 'dark side' of the 1960s, or films that questioned the emerging counterculture.*Explores such neo-noir films as The Last Seduction (1993), Angel Heart (1987), The Grifters (1990), Red Rock West (1993), The Usual Suspects (1995), Mulholland Drive (2001), L.A. Confidential (1997), and Memento (2000).*Details the 'noir' aspects of the cybernetic age, both in online and videogame uses.

Re-Viewing British Cinema, 1900–1992 is a collection of essays on British cinema history and practice. It offers both the casual reader and the film scholar a different view of British filmmaking during the past century. Arranged in chronological order, the book explores those areas of British cinema that have not been fully examined in other works and also offers fresh interpretations of a number of classic films. From the work of Frederic Villiers, the pioneering British newsreel cameraman who at the turn of the century brought home images of battlefield carnage, to essays on the British "B" film and the long-forgotten "Independent Frame" method of film production, to new readings of classics such as The Red Shoes, Passport to Pimlico, and Peeping Tom, the authors offer a look behind the scenes of the British film industry and engage the reader in some of the most compelling interpretational and historical issues of recent film history and critical theory.In addition, the volume contains a number of interviews with such key directors as Stephen Frears, Terence Davies, Wendy Toye, and Lindsay Anderson and also pays particular attention to the work of early twentieth-century British feminist filmmakers whose films have often been ignored by conventional film theory and history. It also offers new material on the British "film noir," the English horror film, and the pioneering gay director Brian Desmond Hurst. Taken as a whole, this book presents an entirely new series of viewpoints on British film practice, theory, and reception and affords a fresh and vibrant view of the British film medium.

Explores the work of lesser-known American experimental filmmakers whose films, though well-received and influential, have been excluded from the dominant film canon.The Exploding Eye explores the work of lesser-known American experimental filmmakers whose work has been excluded from the dominant film canon. Although the works of such artists as Michael Snow, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, Robert Nelson, and Maya Deren are well-known to the contemporary scholar of independent cinema, there is an entire body of work created in the American experimental cinema that has been overlooked, work of considerable beauty and influence that was enthusiastically received when first released and that is still available for viewing today, awaiting long-overdue rediscovery.Featuring more than seventy rare stills and complete information on the films and filmmakers covered, The Exploding Eye offers a fresh vision of American experimental film for critics, scholars, and the general reader.

Explores the work of lesser-known American experimental filmmakers whose films, though well-received and influential, have been excluded from the dominant film canon.The Exploding Eye explores the work of lesser-known American experimental filmmakers whose work has been excluded from the dominant film canon. Although the works of such artists as Michael Snow, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, Robert Nelson, and Maya Deren are well-known to the contemporary scholar of independent cinema, there is an entire body of work created in the American experimental cinema that has been overlooked, work of considerable beauty and influence that was enthusiastically received when first released and that is still available for viewing today, awaiting long-overdue rediscovery.Featuring more than seventy rare stills and complete information on the films and filmmakers covered, The Exploding Eye offers a fresh vision of American experimental film for critics, scholars, and the general reader.

New essays by prominent film scholars address recent developments in American genre filmmaking.Covering over 100 feature films in critical depth and detail, this reader provides an excellent introduction to American genre filmmaking since 1990. These previously unpublished essays by prominent film scholars each address a different film genre-from science fiction to romance to '90s noir-as well as the ways in which genre filmmaking as a whole has been changed by the new technologies and market forces that are shaping the future of cinema.One of the peculiar aspects of recent American genre filmmaking is its apparent facelessness, its desire to subsume itself into the larger framework of genre cinema, and not to identify each film as a unique exemplar. What this book argues, among other things, is that the implicit message in contemporary genre films is rarely that which is signified by a film's external or even internal narrative structure. What drives the thematic and structural concerns of recent genre cinema is the recovery of initial investment, made all the more pressing by the fact that each film released theatrically now represents an investment of many millions of dollars.For better or worse, American genre cinema dominates the globe. The Hollywood genre film has become one of America's most prolific and profitable social exports. These contemporary genre films all seek to further the values of their nation of origin as they journey through the world on film, videotape, DVDs, and television; it is the pervasive influence, and numerous subjects, of these films that are analyzed here.Contributors include Heather Addison, Chuck Berg, Ton Conley, David M. Desser, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Marc Miller, Catherine Preston, Stephen Prince, David Sanjek, Mark A. Reid, John Tibbets, Jim Welsh, and Ron Wilson.

Contemplates the future of cinema in light of emerging digital technologies and new systems of distribution.In a unique and perceptive look at the future of cinema, Wheeler Winston Dixon explores the possible effects of the digital age on the production and exhibition of films. Although Hollywood will seek to retain its dominance over the global presentation of entertainment, Dixon argues, a new vision of international access-a democracy of images-will finally inform the future structure of cinema in the twenty-first century.

Explores the ways that stereotypes of heterosexuality are portrayed and constructed in film.straight / 'strāt (adj.)... without curves... correct... honest... not deviating from the normal... conventional... HeterosexualPractically all mainstream cinema is "straight," and has been since its inception. In Straight, Wheeler Winston Dixon explores how heterosexual performativity has been constructed in film, from early cinema to the present day. In addition to discussing how cinematic visions of masculine and feminine desire have been commodified and sold to reinforce existing societal constructs, Dixon also documents the recent emergence of "hypermasculinity," a kinetic and exaggerated masculinity that has been created to counter the more gentle, thoughtful male portrayed in While You Were Sleeping, Sleepless in Seattle, and other films that seemingly threaten the established order of patriarchal cinematic discourse.

In Film and Television after 9/11, twelve distinguished scholars and critics discuss the production, reception, and distribution of Hollywood and foreign films after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and examine how movies have changed to reflect the new world climate. While some contemporary films offer escapism, the bulk of mainstream American cinema since 9/11 seems centered on the desire to replicate the idea of the ""just war,"" in which military reprisals and escalation of warfare appear to be both inevitable and justified. Films such as Black Hawk Down, Collateral Damage, and We Were Soldiers reflect a renewed audience appetite for narratives of conflict, reminiscent of the wave of filmmaking that surrounded American involvement in World War II. The attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington have galvanized the American public into a call for action and film critics wonder how this will play out in the months and years to come. How will American films shape the perspectives of other nations? What sort of dialogue do post-9/11 films establish? How do we now re-view the films of our shared cinematic past in light of these recent events? And are we about to replay the events of the 1940s and 1950s, albeit in a hyperstylized, MTV edited format? With an introduction by editor Wheeler Winston Dixon and original essays by leading cinema scholars, Film and Television after 9/11 is the first book to offer critical insights to these and other concerns.

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What 1970s Hollywood filmmaker influenced Quentin Tarantino? How have contemporary Japanese horror films inspired Takashi Shimizu, director of the huge box office hit The Grudge? What is it like to be an African American director in the twenty-first century?The answers to these questions, along with many more little-known facts and insights, can be found in Film Talk, an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at filmmaking from the 1940s to the present. In eleven intimate and revealing interviews, contemporary film directors speak frankly about their work-their successes and their disappointments, their personal aspirations, struggles, relationships, and the politics that affect the industry.A medley of directors including those working in pop culture and documentary, as well as feminist filmmakers, social satirists, and Hollywood mavericks recount stories that have never before been published. Among them are Monte Hellman, the auteur of the minimalist masterpiece Two-Lane Blacktop; Albert Maysles, who with his late brother David, created some of the most important documentaries of the 1960s, including Salesman and The Beatles: What's Happening?; Robert Downey Sr., whose social satires Putney Swope and Greaser's Palace paved the way for a generation of filmmakers; Bennett Miller, whose film Capote won an Academy Award in 2005; and Jamie Babbit, a lesbian crossover director whose low-budget film But I'm a Cheerleader! became a mainstream hit.The candid conversations, complimented by more than fifty photographs, including many that are rare, make this book essential reading for aspiring moviemakers, film scholars, and everyone interested in the how movies are made and who the fascinating individuals are who make them.

They are shot on high-definition digital cameras—with computer-generated effects added in postproduction—and transmitted to theaters, websites, and video-on-demand networks worldwide. They are viewed on laptop, iPod, and cell phone screens. They are movies in the 21st century—the product of digital technologies that have revolutionized media production, content distribution, and the experience of moviegoing itself.21st-Century Hollywood introduces readers to these global transformations and describes the decisive roles that Hollywood is playing in determining the digital future for world cinema. It offers clear, concise explanations of a major paradigm shift that continues to reshape our relationship to the moving image. Filled with numerous detailed examples, the book will both educate and entertain film students and movie fans alike.

Death of the Moguls is a detailed assessment of the last days of the “rulers of film.” Wheeler Winston Dixon examines the careers of such moguls as  Harry Cohn at Columbia, Louis B. Mayer at MGM, Jack L. Warner at Warner Brothers, Adolph Zukor at Paramount, and Herbert J. Yates at Republic in the dying days of their once-mighty empires. He asserts that the sheer force of personality and business acumen displayed by these moguls made the studios successful; their deaths or departures hastened the studios’ collapse. Almost none had a plan for leadership succession; they simply couldn't imagine a world in which they didn’t reign supreme.Covering 20th Century-Fox, Selznick International Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Republic Pictures, Monogram Pictures and Columbia Pictures, Dixon briefly introduces the studios and their respective bosses in the late 1940s, just before the collapse, then chronicles the last productions from the studios and their eventual demise in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He details such game-changing factors as the de Havilland decision, which made actors free agents; the Consent Decree, which forced the studios to get rid of their theaters; how the moguls dealt with their collapsing empires in the television era; and the end of the conventional studio assembly line, where producers had rosters of directors, writers, and actors under their command.Complemented by rare, behind-the-scenes stills, Death of the Moguls is a compelling narrative of the end of the studio system at each of the Hollywood majors as television, the de Havilland decision, and the Consent Decree forced studios to slash payrolls, make the shift to color, 3D, and CinemaScope in desperate last-ditch efforts to save their kingdoms. The aftermath for some was the final switch to television production and, in some cases, the distribution of independent film.

With more than 250 images, new information on international cinema-especially Polish, Chinese, Russian, Canadian, and Iranian filmmakers-an expanded section on African-American filmmakers, updated discussions of new works by major American directors, and a new section on the rise of comic book movies and computer generated special effects, this is the most up to date resource for film history courses in the twenty-first century.

With more than 250 images, new information on international cinema-especially Polish, Chinese, Russian, Canadian, and Iranian filmmakers-an expanded section on African-American filmmakers, updated discussions of new works by major American directors, and a new section on the rise of comic book movies and computer generated special effects, this is the most up to date resource for film history courses in the twenty-first century.

Focusing on "dark" or black comedy films in the US and the UK, Wheeler Winston Dixon provides a comprehensive overview of a variety of films and filmmakers (Vanishing Point, Marcel Hanoun), whose work has largely been ignored, but whose influence and importance is clearly present.

Black & white film, the cinema of shadows and light, is a filmgoer's pleasure and a film student's surprised delight. The greatest of films are black & white, from Chaplin and Keaton, through the masterpieces of Film Noir, up to the black & white rarities of modern cinema, from Raging Bull to The Artist. Featuring 40 well-chosen illustrations, this is the first full account, critique and history of the black & white film, which dominated the movies internationally over seven decades. It reveals the art and craft of filming in black & white, going behind the scenes to the directors and cinematographers, tracing the fortunes of this unique medium through the history of the silver screen.

The history of international cinema is now available in this concise, compact and comprehensive book, illustrated with over 300 rare stills and illustrations.The best one-stop source for the history of world film on the market, it's the story, accessibly and authoritatively told, of the major movements and events, directors, stars and studios from the 1880s to the present. The illustrations bring readers face to face with the key players and films that have made this modern world history such an exciting one. The book presents full sweep of cinema and its major events and technological developments, from the invention of the kinetoscope, through the introduction of sound and colour, to the computer-generated imagery of the twenty-first century. This history is original and satisfying in throwing its spotlight on the great filmmakers, on Hollywood, Bollywood and the New Wave cinemas of Britain, Europe and South America, but also bringing into the frame minority and independent films and filmmakers, women filmmakers and the cinemas of developing nations that have so often been overlooked in histories of cinema.

The 1940s was a watershed decade for American cinema and the nation. At the start of the decade, Hollywood - shaking off the Depression - launched an unprecedented wave of production, generating some of its most memorable classics, including Citizen Kane, Rebecca, The Lady Eve, Sergeant York, and How Green Was My Valley. Hollywood then joined the national war effort with a vengeance, creating a series of patriotic and escapist films, such as Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, The Road to Morocco, and Yankee Doodle Dandy. By the end of the war America was a country transformed. The 1940s closed with the threat of the atom bomb and the beginnings of the Hollywood blacklist. Film Noir reflected the new public mood of pessimism and paranoia. Classic films of betrayal and conflict - Kiss of Death, Force of Evil, Caught, and Apology for Murder - depicted a poisonous universe of femme fatales, crooked lawyers, and corrupt politicians.

The 1940s was a watershed decade for American cinema and the nation. At the start of the decade, Hollywood - shaking off the Depression - launched an unprecedented wave of production, generating some of its most memorable classics, including Citizen Kane, Rebecca, The Lady Eve, Sergeant York, and How Green Was My Valley. Hollywood then joined the national war effort with a vengeance, creating a series of patriotic and escapist films, such as Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, The Road to Morocco, and Yankee Doodle Dandy. By the end of the war America was a country transformed. The 1940s closed with the threat of the atom bomb and the beginnings of the Hollywood blacklist. Film Noir reflected the new public mood of pessimism and paranoia. Classic films of betrayal and conflict - Kiss of Death, Force of Evil, Caught, and Apology for Murder - depicted a poisonous universe of femme fatales, crooked lawyers, and corrupt politicians.

Tracing the entire career of the British director Terence Fisher, best known for his Gothic horror films for Hammer—such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958)—The Films of Terence Fisher covers not only his horror films, but also his film noirs, comedies, and early apprenticeship work to create a full picture of Fisher's life and work.Brimming with rare stills, interviews, and detailed analysis of Fisher's films—both for Hammer as well as his earlier work—this is the ultimate "one-stop" book on Terence Fisher, both in his horror films, and his entire body of work, as well as his legacy to the British cinema.

Tracing the entire career of the British director Terence Fisher, best known for his Gothic horror films for Hammer—such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958)—The Films of Terence Fisher covers not only his horror films, but also his film noirs, comedies, and early apprenticeship work to create a full picture of Fisher's life and work.Brimming with rare stills, interviews, and detailed analysis of Fisher's films—both for Hammer as well as his earlier work—this is the ultimate "one-stop" book on Terence Fisher, both in his horror films, and his entire body of work, as well as his legacy to the British cinema.

Ever since horror leapt from popular fiction to the silver screen in the late 1890s, viewers have experienced fear and pleasure in exquisite combination. Wheeler Winston Dixon's fully revised and updated A History of Horror is still the only book to offer a comprehensive survey of this ever-popular film genre. Arranged by decades, with outliers and franchise films overlapping some years, this one-stop sourcebook unearths the historical origins of characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman and their various incarnations in film from the silent era to comedic sequels. In covering the last decade, this new edition includes coverage of the resurgence of the genre, covering the swath of new groundbreaking horror films directed by women, Black and queer horror films, and a new international wave in body horror films. A History of Horror explores how the horror film fits into the Hollywood studio system, how the distribution and exhibition of horror films have changed in a post-COVID world, and how its enormous success in American and European culture expanded globally over time. Dixon examines key periods in the horror film-in which the basic precepts of the genre were established, then banished into conveniently reliable and malleable forms, and then, after collapsing into parody, rose again and again to create new levels of intensity and menace. A History of Horror, supported by rare stills from classic films, brings over sixty timeless horror films into frightfully clear focus, zooms in on today's top horror Web sites, and champions the stars, directors, and subgenres that make the horror film so exciting and popular with contemporary audiences.

Ever since horror leapt from popular fiction to the silver screen in the late 1890s, viewers have experienced fear and pleasure in exquisite combination. Wheeler Winston Dixon's fully revised and updated A History of Horror is still the only book to offer a comprehensive survey of this ever-popular film genre. Arranged by decades, with outliers and franchise films overlapping some years, this one-stop sourcebook unearths the historical origins of characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman and their various incarnations in film from the silent era to comedic sequels. In covering the last decade, this new edition includes coverage of the resurgence of the genre, covering the swath of new groundbreaking horror films directed by women, Black and queer horror films, and a new international wave in body horror films. A History of Horror explores how the horror film fits into the Hollywood studio system, how the distribution and exhibition of horror films have changed in a post-COVID world, and how its enormous success in American and European culture expanded globally over time. Dixon examines key periods in the horror film-in which the basic precepts of the genre were established, then banished into conveniently reliable and malleable forms, and then, after collapsing into parody, rose again and again to create new levels of intensity and menace. A History of Horror, supported by rare stills from classic films, brings over sixty timeless horror films into frightfully clear focus, zooms in on today's top horror Web sites, and champions the stars, directors, and subgenres that make the horror film so exciting and popular with contemporary audiences.

This updated and expanded edition of A Short History of Film provides an accessible overview of the major movements, directors, studios, and genres from the 1880s to the present. Succinct yet comprehensive, with more than 250 rare stills and illustrations, it brings readers face to face with many of the key players and films that have shaped the industry.Beginning with the precursors of moving pictures, Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster lead a fast-paced tour through the invention of the kinetoscope, the introduction of sound and color between the two world wars, and ultimately the computer-generated imagery of the present day. They detail significant periods in world cinema, including the creation of early major industries in Europe, the dominance of the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and 1940s, and the French New Wave of the 1960s. They also highlight independent efforts in developing nations and the corresponding more personal independent film movement that briefly flourished in the United States. Along the way, the authors incorporate the stories of women and other minority filmmakers who have often been overlooked in other texts.Compact and easily readable, this is a vital history of international cinema is a one-stop resource for students, teachers, and general readers alike.