Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television – serie

We are so used to images of words that it is easy to ignore the different ways in which they work in films. This book explores both the letters that come in the post and the many other kinds that are offered to us on screen.

Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives of art, literature and music, Donaldson develops a stimulating understanding of a concept that has received little detailed attention in relation to film. Based in close analysis, Texture in Film brings discussion of style and affect together in a selection of case studies drawn from American cinema.

This pioneering book provides detailed analysis of scenes from nine British television dramas produced between 1954 and 2001. Taking dinner table scenes as a recurring motif, the study analyses changes in televisual style with reference to production practices, technology, aesthetic preferences, and social and institutional change.

Styles of filmmaking have changed greatly from classical Hollywood through to our digital era. So, too, have the ways in which film critics and scholars have analysed these transformations in film style. This book explores two central style concepts, mise en scène and dispositif, to illuminate a wide range of film and new media examples.

This book provides an in-depth study of Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine, Kim Novak and Meryl Streep, and the treatment of adultery in their films. It avoids the near-impossible challenge of writing about the sheer volume of adultery in film by focusing on specific periods in the work of these four major Hollywood actresses who have each performed roles that share some features but also contain points of difference. The periods discussed cover Davis’s work in 1937 to 1943, Fontaine’s work between 1939 and 1950, Novak in 1954 to 1964, and finally Streep’s work between 1979 and 1985. Closely analysing both established classics and lesser known films, Edward Gallafent explores the work of a broad range of directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Max Ophüls, Sydney Pollack and Billy Wilder. Adultery and the Female Star explores topics such as motherhood, the significance of place, censorship, and adaptation, and is the first book of its kind to take on the topic of adultery in relation to these four actresses. It ultimately argues that our understanding of the adultery narrative is tightly bound up with our understanding of the Hollywood stars that depict it.

An ambitious interpretation of the critically celebrated and widely popular crime drama Breaking Bad , this book argues that not only should the series be understood as a show that revolves around the dramatic stakes of dignity, but that to do so reveals - in new ways - central aspects of serial television drama as an art form.

This is the first book in English exclusively devoted to the long take, one of the key elements of film style. Increasingly visible in contemporary international media, the long take currently attracts a good deal of attention in criticism and commentary. There are also significant strands of film theory in which duration has become a recurrent concern. In keeping with the approach of Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television, this collection is devoted to the detailed critical analysis of specific long takes, explored in terms of how they function within their contexts, how they shape the visual field, the meanings they generate and the effects they create. The Long Take: Critical Approaches brings together essays by established and emerging scholars (all but one essay commissioned for this volume) in an exciting collection that analyses works from a range of filmmaking traditions, from the 1930s to the present day, selected to represent varied long take practices and to explore associated debates.

We are so used to images of words that it is easy to ignore the different ways in which they work in films. This book explores both the letters that come in the post and the many other kinds that are offered to us on screen.

Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives of art, literature and music, Donaldson develops a stimulating understanding of a concept that has received little detailed attention in relation to film. Based in close analysis, Texture in Film brings discussion of style and affect together in a selection of case studies drawn from American cinema.

This pioneering book provides detailed analysis of scenes from nine British television dramas produced between 1954 and 2001. Taking dinner table scenes as a recurring motif, the study analyses changes in televisual style with reference to production practices, technology, aesthetic preferences, and social and institutional change.

Styles of filmmaking have changed greatly from classical Hollywood through to our digital era. So, too, have the ways in which film critics and scholars have analysed these transformations in film style. This book explores two central style concepts, mise en scène and dispositif, to illuminate a wide range of film and new media examples.

An ambitious interpretation of the critically celebrated and widely popular crime drama Breaking Bad , this book argues that not only should the series be understood as a show that revolves around the dramatic stakes of dignity, but that to do so reveals - in new ways - central aspects of serial television drama as an art form.

Irony in Film is the first book about ironic expression in this medium. We often feel the need to call films or aspects of them ironic; but what exactly does this mean? How do films create irony? Might certain features of the medium help or hinder its ironic potential? How can we know we are justified in dubbing any film or moment ironic? This book attempts to answer such questions, investigating in the process crucial and under-examined issues that irony raises for our understanding of narrative filmmaking.A much-debated subject in other disciplines, in film scholarship irony is habitually referred to but too seldom explored. Combining in-depth theorising with detailed close analysis, this pioneering study asks what ironic capacities films might possess, how film style may be used ironically, and what role intention should play in film interpretation. The proposed answers have significance for our understanding of not only ironic filmmaking, but the nature of expression in this medium.

This book puts forward a more considered perspective on 3D, which is often seen as a distracting gimmick at odds with artful cinematic storytelling. Owen Weetch looks at how stereography brings added significance and expressivity to individual films that all showcase remarkable uses of the format. Avatar, Gravity, The Hole, The Great Gatsby and Frozen all demonstrate that stereography is a rich and sophisticated process that has the potential to bring extra meaning to a film’s narrative and themes. Through close reading of these five very different examples, Expressive Spaces in Digital 3D Cinema shows how being sensitive to stereographic manipulation can nuance and enrich the critical appreciation of stereoscopic films. It demonstrates that the expressive placement of characters and objects within 3D film worlds can construct meaning in ways that are unavailable to ‘flat’ cinema.

This book is about the aesthetics and politics of contemporary artists’ moving image installations, and the ways that they use temporal and spatial relationships in the gallery to connect with geopolitical issues. Displaced from the cinema, moving images increasingly address themes of movement and change in the world today. Digital technology has facilitated an explosion of work of this kind, and the expansion of contemporary art museums, biennales and large-scale exhibitions all over the world has created venues and audiences for it. Despite its 20th century precursors, this is a new and distinct artistic form, with an emerging body of thematic concerns and aesthetics strategies. Through detailed analysis of a range of important 21st century works, the book explores how this spatio-temporal form has been used to address major issues of our time, including post-colonialism, migration and conflict. Paying close attention to the ways in which moving imagesinteract with the specific spaces and sites of exhibition, the book explores the mobile viewer’s experiences in these immersive and transitory works.

This book is about the aesthetics and politics of contemporary artists’ moving image installations, and the ways that they use temporal and spatial relationships in the gallery to connect with geopolitical issues. Displaced from the cinema, moving images increasingly address themes of movement and change in the world today. Digital technology has facilitated an explosion of work of this kind, and the expansion of contemporary art museums, biennales and large-scale exhibitions all over the world has created venues and audiences for it. Despite its 20th century precursors, this is a new and distinct artistic form, with an emerging body of thematic concerns and aesthetics strategies. Through detailed analysis of a range of important 21st century works, the book explores how this spatio-temporal form has been used to address major issues of our time, including post-colonialism, migration and conflict. Paying close attention to the ways in which moving imagesinteract with the specific spaces and sites of exhibition, the book explores the mobile viewer’s experiences in these immersive and transitory works.

Built around close readings of 11 noir films, this book seeks to refresh our understanding of “film noir” by returning to the films themselves. Pushing against totalizing or generalizing approaches, which may have the unintended effect of flattening out significant distinctions and differences between individual approaches, Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood argues for the importance of staying attuned the varied and variegated formal, aesthetic and thematic strategies at work in individual films. By focusing on these strategies, the book invites readers to consider anew the enabling possibilities of Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era.

Built around close readings of 11 noir films, this book seeks to refresh our understanding of “film noir” by returning to the films themselves. Pushing against totalizing or generalizing approaches, which may have the unintended effect of flattening out significant distinctions and differences between individual approaches, Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood argues for the importance of staying attuned the varied and variegated formal, aesthetic and thematic strategies at work in individual films. By focusing on these strategies, the book invites readers to consider anew the enabling possibilities of Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era.

After over a century of existence, the cinema still has its mysteries.  Why, for example, is the job we call movie stardom unlike any other in the world?  How do films provide so much unconcealed information that we fail to notice?  What makes it hard to define what counts as “acting”?  How do movies like Casablanca and Breathless store the film and world histories of their generations?  How can we reconcile auteurism’s celebration of the movie director’s authority with the camera’s automatism?  Why have the last four decades of film criticism so often neglected such questions?  After beginning with an overview of film studies, this book proposes a shift from predictable theoretical approaches to models that acknowledge the perplexities and mysteries of the movies.  Deriving methods from cinephilia, Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Eleanor Duckworth, V. F. Perkins, and James Naremore, Robert B. Ray offers closereadings that call attention to what we have missed in such classic films as La Règle du Jeu, It Happened One Night, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Casablanca, Breathless, and Tickets.

After over a century of existence, the cinema still has its mysteries.  Why, for example, is the job we call movie stardom unlike any other in the world?  How do films provide so much unconcealed information that we fail to notice?  What makes it hard to define what counts as “acting”?  How do movies like Casablanca and Breathless store the film and world histories of their generations?  How can we reconcile auteurism’s celebration of the movie director’s authority with the camera’s automatism?  Why have the last four decades of film criticism so often neglected such questions?  After beginning with an overview of film studies, this book proposes a shift from predictable theoretical approaches to models that acknowledge the perplexities and mysteries of the movies.  Deriving methods from cinephilia, Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Eleanor Duckworth, V. F. Perkins, and James Naremore, Robert B. Ray offers closereadings that call attention to what we have missed in such classic films as La Règle du Jeu, It Happened One Night, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Casablanca, Breathless, and Tickets.

This book defends an account of ambiguity which illuminates the aesthetic possibilities of film and the nature of film criticism. Ambiguity typically describes the condition of multiple meanings. But we can find multiple meanings in what appears unambiguous to us. So, what makes ambiguity ambiguous? This study argues that a sense of uncertainty is vital to the concept. Ambiguity is what presses us to inquire into our puzzlement over a movie, to persistently ask “why is it as it is?” Notably, this account of the concept is also an account of its criticism. It recognises that a satisfying assessment of what is ambiguous involves both our reason and doubt; that is, reason and doubt can work together in our practice of reading. This book, then, considers ambiguity as a form of reasonable doubt, one that invites us to reflect on our critical efforts, rethinking the operation of film criticism.

This book defends an account of ambiguity which illuminates the aesthetic possibilities of film and the nature of film criticism. Ambiguity typically describes the condition of multiple meanings. But we can find multiple meanings in what appears unambiguous to us. So, what makes ambiguity ambiguous? This study argues that a sense of uncertainty is vital to the concept. Ambiguity is what presses us to inquire into our puzzlement over a movie, to persistently ask “why is it as it is?” Notably, this account of the concept is also an account of its criticism. It recognises that a satisfying assessment of what is ambiguous involves both our reason and doubt; that is, reason and doubt can work together in our practice of reading. This book, then, considers ambiguity as a form of reasonable doubt, one that invites us to reflect on our critical efforts, rethinking the operation of film criticism.

This book offers a critical account of film performances by nonprofessional actors. Nonprofessional actors — actors without previous acting training or experience — have performed in films since the days of the Lumière brothers. Generally associated with currents such as Early Soviet Cinema, Italian Neorealism and New Argentine Cinema, nonprofessional actors also feature prominently in the works of celebrated directors including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Robert Bresson and Joanna Hogg. Since the turn of the century and the rise of digital filmmaking, the performances of nonprofessional actors have remained a staple of independent cinemas from all over the world, including films associated with the loose trend often referred to as Slow Cinema. Despite their enduring presence in acclaimed and widely discussed films, nonprofessional actors have received scant scholarly attention. This book proposes to analyse exemplary nonprofessional performances from across the history of cinema as a means of illuminating their significance and celebrating the performers’ contributions to the films.

This book offers a critical account of film performances by nonprofessional actors. Nonprofessional actors — actors without previous acting training or experience — have performed in films since the days of the Lumière brothers. Generally associated with currents such as Early Soviet Cinema, Italian Neorealism and New Argentine Cinema, nonprofessional actors also feature prominently in the works of celebrated directors including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Robert Bresson and Joanna Hogg. Since the turn of the century and the rise of digital filmmaking, the performances of nonprofessional actors have remained a staple of independent cinemas from all over the world, including films associated with the loose trend often referred to as Slow Cinema. Despite their enduring presence in acclaimed and widely discussed films, nonprofessional actors have received scant scholarly attention. This book proposes to analyse exemplary nonprofessional performances from across the history of cinema as a means of illuminating their significance and celebrating the performers’ contributions to the films.

This book explores visions of home in cinema and the ways in which women inhabit the onscreen realm. Looking closely at a range of films made between 1936 and 2013, it examines how filmmakers reconfigure studio sets and real locations through the filmmaking process into mutable onscreen domains imbued with depth, metaphor, and expressivity.The book studies the films through the lens of four filmmaking processes in particular: découpage, mise-en-scène, sound and editing. Close analysis reveals how filmmakers use these cinematic ‘building blocks’ to shape onscreen worlds charged with emotion and animated by the warp and weft of psychic life.Images of home abound in the cinema, and women frequently find themselves at the core of both structures. Drawing on recent spatial and feminist enquiry, the book reviews the idea of home as a fixed and stable location and illustrates how the art of cinema is well equipped to explore home as an imaginary as well as a material realm.With its emphasis on film practice as a route into critical reflection, this book will be of interest to filmmakers, film theorists and those who simply want to understand more about how films work.

This book explores visions of home in cinema and the ways in which women inhabit the onscreen realm. Looking closely at a range of films made between 1936 and 2013, it examines how filmmakers reconfigure studio sets and real locations through the filmmaking process into mutable onscreen domains imbued with depth, metaphor, and expressivity.The book studies the films through the lens of four filmmaking processes in particular: découpage, mise-en-scène, sound and editing. Close analysis reveals how filmmakers use these cinematic ‘building blocks’ to shape onscreen worlds charged with emotion and animated by the warp and weft of psychic life.Images of home abound in the cinema, and women frequently find themselves at the core of both structures. Drawing on recent spatial and feminist enquiry, the book reviews the idea of home as a fixed and stable location and illustrates how the art of cinema is well equipped to explore home as an imaginary as well as a material realm.With its emphasis on film practice as a route into critical reflection, this book will be of interest to filmmakers, film theorists and those who simply want to understand more about how films work.

This book examines the concept of coherence in film studies. It asks if there are ways to appreciate the achievement of coherence in narrative films that are characterised by an eccentric or difficult style, as well as by an apparently confusing intelligibility. In order to answer this critical question, the author argues that we need to reconsider the predominant understanding of the concept of coherence in film studies. Virvidaki identifies how a general function of coherence is manifested through the aesthetic of transparency and unobtrusiveness of classical Hollywood film. The author then proceeds to a close analysis of stylistically perplexing narrative films, in order to demonstrate how we can broaden, expand and readjust the classical criteria of coherence. Testing Coherence in Narrative Film will appeal to film and philosophy scholars interested in aesthetics and narrative form.