SUNY series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video – serie

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.

The first book to focus on the representation of character in film, encompassing the art cinema, popular movies, and documentaries.The first extended study to focus on the representation of character in film, The Phantom of the Cinema provides a historically informed, theoretically sophisticated, yet eminently readable account of a broad spectrum of texts that center on elusive, ambiguous protagonists. Ranging across acknowledged classics such as Citizen Kane and Persona, including relatively neglected works such as House of Games, The Last Tycoon, and Badlands, and encompassing the art cinema, popular movies, and documentary, Michaels applies the concept of "presence of absence" to distinguish cinema from other performative arts. He then suggests how this propensity to present images that reflect a constantly mediated sense of reality allows certain reflexive films to project a problematic understanding of human identity.In analyzing these spectral figures haunting the modern cinema, Michaels combines contemporary theory with his own close reading in order to reconcile the structuralist emphasis on textuality with the humanist account of character as representing the autonomous self. Ultimately, he demonstrates how film protagonists reflect both the melancholy and mystery of personhood and the "inner aesthetic" of the medium itself.

A history of the near-simultaneous emergence of moving pictures in several countries in the mid-1890s and a thorough reevaluation of the development of the technology.CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book 1999CHOICE 1999 Outstanding Academic BooksThis is the first book in English in nearly half a century to tell the full story of the international development of the first films, the origins of celluloid itself, the background of magic lantern shows (which were the first home of the movies), and the social influences on movie inventors and their chosen technologies. When moving pictures were invented one hundred years ago, inventors in many countries had different ideas about what a movie was, how it could be used, and how it could be seen; these ideas directly influenced their technological solutions to the problem of reproducing moving pictures, and account for the plethora of devices proposed during the period of invention. Living Pictures takes a new look at the international origins of moving pictures and examines the many solutions posed by Thomas Edison in America, the Lumière brothers in France, Robert Paul in England, and Max Skladanowsky in Germany, among many other pioneering figures.Using concepts drawn from recent work in the sociology of the history of technology, Living Pictures places the invention of the movies firmly in the context of late-nineteenth-century entertainment and explains clearly the motivations and accomplishments of the inventors in both America and Europe who brought the first movies to astounded audiences in 1895 and 1896. In addition, new research illuminates the roles played by many secondary figures whose proposals for movies in the home, in mobile street theatres, and in major concert halls were a vivid part of the struggle of the new medium to find its place in the world.

A history of the near-simultaneous emergence of moving pictures in several countries in the mid-1890s and a thorough reevaluation of the development of the technology.CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book 1999CHOICE 1999 Outstanding Academic BooksThis is the first book in English in nearly half a century to tell the full story of the international development of the first films, the origins of celluloid itself, the background of magic lantern shows (which were the first home of the movies), and the social influences on movie inventors and their chosen technologies. When moving pictures were invented one hundred years ago, inventors in many countries had different ideas about what a movie was, how it could be used, and how it could be seen; these ideas directly influenced their technological solutions to the problem of reproducing moving pictures, and account for the plethora of devices proposed during the period of invention. Living Pictures takes a new look at the international origins of moving pictures and examines the many solutions posed by Thomas Edison in America, the Lumière brothers in France, Robert Paul in England, and Max Skladanowsky in Germany, among many other pioneering figures.Using concepts drawn from recent work in the sociology of the history of technology, Living Pictures places the invention of the movies firmly in the context of late-nineteenth-century entertainment and explains clearly the motivations and accomplishments of the inventors in both America and Europe who brought the first movies to astounded audiences in 1895 and 1896. In addition, new research illuminates the roles played by many secondary figures whose proposals for movies in the home, in mobile street theatres, and in major concert halls were a vivid part of the struggle of the new medium to find its place in the world.

Examines the Italian popular cinema's preoccupation with theatricality in the 1930s and early 1940s, arguing that theatricality was a form of politics—a politics of style.Marcia Landy's The Folklore of Consensus examines the theatricality in the Italian popular cinema of the 1930s and early 1940s, arguing that theatricality was a form of politics-a politics of style. While film critics no longer regard the commercial films of the era as mere propaganda, they continue to regard the cinema under fascism as "escapist," diverting audiences from the harsh realities of life under fascism. The Folklore of Consensus problematizes the notion of "escapism," examining the complexity that redeems the films from frivolity and evasion. It shifts the focus from a preoccupation with cinema as the public and spectacular purveyor of "fascinating fascism" to a more immediate and intimate terrain that bears on formulations about the role of mass culture then and now.

Examines the work and aspirations of women filmmakers in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, as well as in marginalized communities within the United States, with particular attention to issues of gender, race, nation, and aesthetics.Redirecting the Gaze is primarily concerned with the cinematic portrayals of women by women directors working outside corporate America and Europe. The book examines cinematic works of the 1980s and 1990s by women filmmakers from Argentina, Bolivia, China, Cuba, India, Mexico, Senegal, Tanzania, and Venezuela, as well as by independent Black American and Chicano women, most of whom are scarcely known in the United States and Europe.

Examines the film industry's fascination with bondage and captivity.Captive Bodies examines the film industry's fascination with bondage and captivity, seeking to revisualize American cinema through the lens of critical discourse on captivity narratives, slave narratives, and postcolonial critiques of cinematic constructions of "whiteness," "blackness," gender, and sexuality. Captivity is also examined here in relation to both those in front and behind the camera. Are we "subject" to others? Are we "bound" and "captive" in images? Are we "captive" bodies and "captive" audiences, held hostage to the spectacles of voyeuristic pleasure? Are those behind the camera involved in a process not unlike that of the slave system, enslaving the body in the image? To answer these and other questions, Captive Bodies draws upon a wide range of critical methodologies, including postcolonial studies, feminist film criticism, anthropology, and phenomenology.

Offers new perspectives on the work of a major filmmaker while making a significant contribution to the study of American cinema.Fred Zinnemann, celebrated director of such classic films as High Noon, From Here to Eternity, and A Man for All Seasons, is studied here in a book-length work for the first time. Zinnemann's fifty-year career includes twenty-two feature films, which are characterized by an unshakable belief in human dignity, a preoccupation with moral and social issues, a warm and sympathetic treatment of character, and consummate technical artistry. In discussing such issues as the role of Zinnemann's documentary aesthetic throughout his career, the relationship between his life and his art, his use and construction of history, and the central importance of women characters in his films, The Films of Fred Zinnemann lends new perspectives to the work of a major filmmaker and makes a significant contribution to the study of American cinema.

Offers new perspectives on the work of a major filmmaker while making a significant contribution to the study of American cinema.Fred Zinnemann, celebrated director of such classic films as High Noon, From Here to Eternity, and A Man for All Seasons, is studied here in a book-length work for the first time. Zinnemann's fifty-year career includes twenty-two feature films, which are characterized by an unshakable belief in human dignity, a preoccupation with moral and social issues, a warm and sympathetic treatment of character, and consummate technical artistry. In discussing such issues as the role of Zinnemann's documentary aesthetic throughout his career, the relationship between his life and his art, his use and construction of history, and the central importance of women characters in his films, The Films of Fred Zinnemann lends new perspectives to the work of a major filmmaker and makes a significant contribution to the study of American cinema.

Critically surveys the films of Tony Richardson, one of Britain's most inventive directors of stage and screen.The Cinema of Tony Richardson examines for the first time the stage and screen achievements of Academy Award–winning director Tony Richardson, and includes recent interviews with his colleagues as well as a complete bibliography and filmography of his work.An important cultural trend-setter both in Britain and America, Richardson is here given his due as an influential and inventive film director who specialized in literary adaptations and worked constantly in theatre, film, and television production. Richardson (1928–1991) worked with George Devine at the Royal Court Theatre during the 1950s where he revolutionized British theater through his productions of John Osborne's plays Look Back in Anger (1956) and The Entertainer (1957). Both plays were then adapted to the cinema, launching Richardson's career as a feature film director. Richardson and Osborne later founded Windfall Film Productions, Ltd. to extend the concerns of "kitchen sink" realism from stage to screen and to make films that display the reality of British life. The Osborne projects were followed by screen adaptations of Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey (1961) and Alan Sillitoe's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), which became benchmark films for the British New Wave. Richardson went on to a distinguished career in Hollywood as a result of his Academy Award–winning 1963 adaptation of Henry Fielding's satiric novel Tom Jones.[Contributors include Kevin Brownlow, Linda Costanzo Cahir, Jocelyn Herbert, Robert Holtzclaw, William L. Horne, Edward T. Jones, Paul Meier, Kenneth S. Nolley, Rebecca M. Pauly, Gene D. Phillips, S.J., Karel Reisz, Judith Bailey Slagle, John C. Tibbetts, and James M. Welsh.]

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.

Integrates contemporary film theory into the teaching of film production, presenting alternatives to the standard Hollywood model of filmmaking.Most serious film books during the last twenty years have focused on theoretical issues, film history, or film analyses, leaving production to the side. This text, however, appropriate for film production courses, fills that void, opening the production process to pertinent, argumentative notions and incorporating material from Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Derrida, among others. Although Geuens covers screenwriting, lighting, staging, and framing, among other production issues, he avoids the strictly vocational or "professional" approach to film teaching currently applied to most production courses.Geuens reevaluates what cinema could be, to revive its full powers and attend to the mystery of the creative process. To counter Hollywood's normative machinery, he suggests taking back from the professionals important notions they have arrogated for themselves but rarely act upon: artistry, passion, and engagement.

Examines the cultural, historical, and ideological factors influencing British cinema during World War II and the postwar years, with attention to male-female relationships as well as to utopian desires for a better postwar world.This book examines representations of desire in British cinema during a period of turbulent change. In addition to investigating male-female desire in status quo "realist" films and in various "anti-realist" movements represented by Gainsborough Melodrama and the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the book also explores the various factors that affected utopian aspirations for a better postwar world and how these desires eventually became restrained by the dominant forces of conservative ideology. Structures of Desire provides new perspectives on previously recognized film movements such as Ealing Comedy and Gainsborough Melodrama while also offering analyses of interesting but neglected films such as Love on the Dole (1941), Perfect Strangers (1945), They Made Me a Fugitive (1947), The Bad Lord Byron (1949), and Madeleine (1950).

Examines the cultural, historical, and ideological factors influencing British cinema during World War II and the postwar years, with attention to male-female relationships as well as to utopian desires for a better postwar world.This book examines representations of desire in British cinema during a period of turbulent change. In addition to investigating male-female desire in status quo "realist" films and in various "anti-realist" movements represented by Gainsborough Melodrama and the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the book also explores the various factors that affected utopian aspirations for a better postwar world and how these desires eventually became restrained by the dominant forces of conservative ideology. Structures of Desire provides new perspectives on previously recognized film movements such as Ealing Comedy and Gainsborough Melodrama while also offering analyses of interesting but neglected films such as Love on the Dole (1941), Perfect Strangers (1945), They Made Me a Fugitive (1947), The Bad Lord Byron (1949), and Madeleine (1950).

Explores the historical evolution of Belgian cinema as well as its contemporary situation within the evolving contexts of global media and European unity.In presenting the first English language study of Belgian cinema, Split Screen explores the fascinating history of a cinema largely determined by linguistic division and beset by problems of cultural identity. This "split screen" characterizes the Belgian cinema, which has not received the critical praise that it deserves, despite the recent international successes of films like Toto the Hero, and the achievements of individual directors such as Henri Storck, André Delvaux, and Chantal Akerman. In surveying the evolution of Belgian cinema from its beginnings to the present day, Philip Mosley locates all the major feature films, describes the crucial intervention of the state in film production, and reveals undervalued Belgian traditions in documentary, in animation, in short films, and in a colonial cinema created partly by missionaries in the former Belgian Congo. Due to the political and economic transformations affecting Europe, the reforms of the Belgian state, and the increasing globalization of world media industries, Belgian cinema can now inscribe itself within new national and international contexts.

Explores the historical evolution of Belgian cinema as well as its contemporary situation within the evolving contexts of global media and European unity.In presenting the first English language study of Belgian cinema, Split Screen explores the fascinating history of a cinema largely determined by linguistic division and beset by problems of cultural identity. This "split screen" characterizes the Belgian cinema, which has not received the critical praise that it deserves, despite the recent international successes of films like Toto the Hero, and the achievements of individual directors such as Henri Storck, André Delvaux, and Chantal Akerman. In surveying the evolution of Belgian cinema from its beginnings to the present day, Philip Mosley locates all the major feature films, describes the crucial intervention of the state in film production, and reveals undervalued Belgian traditions in documentary, in animation, in short films, and in a colonial cinema created partly by missionaries in the former Belgian Congo. Due to the political and economic transformations affecting Europe, the reforms of the Belgian state, and the increasing globalization of world media industries, Belgian cinema can now inscribe itself within new national and international contexts.

Examines gender roles in contemporary foreign and Hollywood films amid changing social, political, cultural, and economic conditions.Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls examines the bizarre and fascinating range of gender portrayals in film at the end of the twentieth century. In order to view the screened face of gender in bold new ways, the contributors cover a wide variety of cinematic forms and styles-from the boy-girls of Hong Kong cinema to the on-screen modesty of post-revolutionary Iran to the New Hollywood's treatment of homosexuality, female power, and male intellectuality. Throughout, the works of important filmmakers are analyzed, including Ridley Scott, David Cronenberg, Jim Jarmusch, Woody Allen, Rakhshan Banietemad, Kathryn Bigelow, Bertrand Tavernier, Roman Polanski, and many others.

Examines gender roles in contemporary foreign and Hollywood films amid changing social, political, cultural, and economic conditions.Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls examines the bizarre and fascinating range of gender portrayals in film at the end of the twentieth century. In order to view the screened face of gender in bold new ways, the contributors cover a wide variety of cinematic forms and styles-from the boy-girls of Hong Kong cinema to the on-screen modesty of post-revolutionary Iran to the New Hollywood's treatment of homosexuality, female power, and male intellectuality. Throughout, the works of important filmmakers are analyzed, including Ridley Scott, David Cronenberg, Jim Jarmusch, Woody Allen, Rakhshan Banietemad, Kathryn Bigelow, Bertrand Tavernier, Roman Polanski, and many others.

Examines the screenplays of the master British dramatist and screenwriter Harold Pinter.The Films of Harold Pinter is a collection of ten original essays on the screenplays of master British dramatist and screenwriter Harold Pinter. Written by noted Pinter and film specialists, the book explores individual Pinter masterpieces such as The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Go-Between, Accident, and The Pumpkin Eater. Along with offering explications of the films themselves, it also provides insights into Pinter's creative process and the differences between the novel, drama, and film.Despite having written twenty-three film scripts and concentrating his recent artistic attention almost exclusively on screenwriting, Pinter's work for the screen has been paid sparse critical attention over the years. This book leaves little doubt, however, that Harold Pinter has made important contributions to the cinema, not the least of which has to do with the primary characteristics of his screenplays-in almost every case he has produced a script that is a work of art in its own right, one that can stand on its own.

A comprehensive look at film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays.Offering a comprehensive look at the strategies that filmmakers have employed in adapting Shakespeare's plays to the cinema, this book investigates what the task of Shakespearean adaptation reveals about film in general and focuses on patterns and approaches shared by various cinematic works. Buhler provides concise histories of each general strategy, which include non-illusionistic cinema, documentary interpretations, mass-market productions, transgressive and transnational cinema, and approaches that see film as either distinct from the stage or as an extension of theatrical traditions. The book spans more than a century of film, starting with the 1899 King John and extending through Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julie Taymor's Titus, and later releases.

Addresses the important role of remakes in film culture, from early cinema to contemporary Hollywood.While the popular press has criticized movie remakes as signs of Hollywood's collective lack of imagination, the essays in Dead Ringers reveal the centrality and staying power of remakes as a formative genre in filmmaking. The contributors show that the practice of remaking films dates back to the origins of cinema and the evolution of film markets. In fact, remakes were never so prevalent as during the Classic Hollywood period, when filmmaking had achieved its greatest degree of industrialization, and they continue to play a crucial role in the development of film genres generally. Offering a variety of historical, commercial, theoretical, and cultural perspectives on the remake, Dead Ringers is a valuable resource for students of film history and theory, as well as those interested in the cultural politics of the late twentieth century.

Addresses the important role of remakes in film culture, from early cinema to contemporary Hollywood.While the popular press has criticized movie remakes as signs of Hollywood's collective lack of imagination, the essays in Dead Ringers reveal the centrality and staying power of remakes as a formative genre in filmmaking. The contributors show that the practice of remaking films dates back to the origins of cinema and the evolution of film markets. In fact, remakes were never so prevalent as during the Classic Hollywood period, when filmmaking had achieved its greatest degree of industrialization, and they continue to play a crucial role in the development of film genres generally. Offering a variety of historical, commercial, theoretical, and cultural perspectives on the remake, Dead Ringers is a valuable resource for students of film history and theory, as well as those interested in the cultural politics of the late twentieth 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.

Explores issues of representation and rebellion in Mexican and Mexican American cinema.Celluloid Nationalism and Other Melodramas looks at representation and rebellion in times of national uncertainty. Moving from mid-century Mexican cinema to recent films staged in Los Angeles and Mexico City, Susan Dever analyzes melodrama's double function as a genre and as a sensibility, revealing coincidences between movie morals and political pieties in the civic-minded films of Emilio Fernández, Matilde Landeta, Allison Anders, and Marcela Fernández Violante. These filmmakers' rationally and emotionally engaged cinema-offering representations of indigenous peoples and poor urban women who alternately endorsed "civilizing" projects and voiced resistance to such totalization-both interrupts and sustains fictions of national coherence in an increasingly transnational world.

Examines the many forms of cinematic "badness" over the past one hundred years, from Nosferatu to The Talented Mr. Ripley.Violence and corruption sell big, especially since the birth of action cinema, but even from cinema's earliest days, the public has been delighted to be stunned by screen representations of negativity in all its forms-evil, monstrosity, corruption, ugliness, villainy, and darkness. Bad examines the long line of thieves, rapists, varmints, codgers, dodgers, manipulators, exploiters, conmen, killers, vamps, liars, demons, cold-blooded megalomaniacs, and warmhearted flakes that populate cinematic narrative. From Nosferatu to The Talented Mr. Ripley, the contributors consider a wide range of genres and use a variety of critical approaches to examine evil, villainy, and immorality in twentieth-century film.

Examines the many forms of cinematic "badness" over the past one hundred years, from Nosferatu to The Talented Mr. Ripley.Violence and corruption sell big, especially since the birth of action cinema, but even from cinema's earliest days, the public has been delighted to be stunned by screen representations of negativity in all its forms-evil, monstrosity, corruption, ugliness, villainy, and darkness. Bad examines the long line of thieves, rapists, varmints, codgers, dodgers, manipulators, exploiters, conmen, killers, vamps, liars, demons, cold-blooded megalomaniacs, and warmhearted flakes that populate cinematic narrative. From Nosferatu to The Talented Mr. Ripley, the contributors consider a wide range of genres and use a variety of critical approaches to examine evil, villainy, and immorality in twentieth-century film.

Interviews with prominent filmmakers, actors, and others on the art, craft, and business of moviemaking.This collection of interviews brings together major Hollywood directors and actors, independent filmmakers, screenwriters, and others to discuss the art, craft, and business of making movies. Whether it be Clint Eastwood or Francis Ford Coppola, Vittorio Storaro or Dede Allen, these filmmakers detail how they strive for quality, the price they pay to do so, and how new technologies and the business aspects of filmmaking impact all aspects of their creativity. Taken together, the interviews reveal much about filmmaking practices in and out of Hollywood.The interviewees include Dede Allen, Robert Altman, Jamie Babbit, Don Bluth, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Downey Sr., Clint Eastwood, Atom Egoyan, Horton Foote, Stephen Frears, Barbara Hammer, Louis Malle, Sydney Pollack, Oliver Stone, Vittorio Storaro, Paul Verhoeven, and James Woods.Contributors include Leo Braudy, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Gerald Duchovnay, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Lester D. Friedman, Ric Gentry, Peter Harcourt, Wade Jennings, Robert P. Kolker, Richard A. Macksey, Mark Crispin Miller, Chris Shea, Scott Stewart, and Gerald C. Wood.