Phil's 3rd Favorite 500
"Descriptively informative, Phil's 3rd Favorite 500 is thoroughly film fan friendly ... making it an essential and welcome addition."--Midwest Book Review In 2012, Phil Berardelli published his first compilation of 500 favorite movies, divided into 50 categories and borne of a lifelong love of the medium, and a desire to share some of his most enjoyable experiences with other cinephiles. He followed up in 2018 with a print edition of that compilation. Then, two years later, Phil completed his second 500 favorites, likewise encompassing 50 categories. Now, in Phil's 3rd Favorite 500, he adds yet another 500 titles, presented in yet another 50 categories. With this trilogy, Phil offers a vast array of attractions to engage a wide variety of interests, from the most avid film students to the most casual viewers, and ranging from acknowledged classics to little-known treasures. All represent some of the finest work of moviemakers in America and overseas alike, with some titles going back nearly a hundred years. Witty and eminently browsable, Phil's three compilations will no doubt in the coming years be regarded as classic references for movie lovers everywhere.
Lowcountry Brittle
A FRIENDLY VACATION TURNS DANGEROUS WHEN A LARGE STORM HITS THE LOW COUNTRY AND THREATENS THE WAY OF LIFE FOR LOCAL RESIDENTS
The Trilogy of Life Movies
THE TRILOGY OF LIFE MOVIESTHE DECAMERON - THE CANTERBURY TALES - THE ARABIAN NIGHTSPIER PAOLO PASOLINIPOCKET MOVIE GUIDEBy Jeremy Mark RobinsonA new critical study of the Italian filmmaker and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'trilogy of life' movies (also known as the 'trilogia di vita'/ 'mediaeval trilogy'): The Decameron (Il Decamerone, 1971), The Canterbury Tales (I racconti di Canterbury, 1972), and The Arabian Nights (Il Fiore Delle Mille e Una Notte, 1974). The 'trilogy of life' movies were adaptations of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400), and the 1001 Nights (15th century). Pier Paolo Pasolini's other works in cinema include The Gospel According To Matthew, one of the great films about Jesus, adaptations of ancient world plays (Medea and Oedipus Rex), and poetic portraits of contemporary Roman life (Accattone, Mamma Roma and The Hawks and the Sparrows). The book includes a biography of Pier Paolo Pasolini, an exploration of aspects of his cinema, and topics related to Pasolini's life and interests such as religion, poetry, homosexuality, his colleagues, Marxist politics, modern Italy, and the Third World. Pier Paolo Pasolini was born on March 5, 1922, in Bologna, Italy. He died on November 2, 1975, in Ostia, Rome (he was buried in Casarca, in his beloved Friuli). When he was a film director, Pier Paolo Pasolini was certainly an intimidating presence, with a formidable reputation - like Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith or Jean-Luc Godard. Very confident, very smart, a great talker and interviewee, a leader on set, with no doubts from anyone about who was the primary creator and author. The appendices include quotes by Pasolini; a chapter on Satyricon (Federico Fellini, 1969); two films directed by Sergio Citti, Pasolini's frequent collaborator; and on Renaissance artists. Fully illustrated. Bibliography, appendices, filmography and notes. 324 pages. Hardcover with a colour laminated cover. www.crmoon.com
Crooked, But Never Common
In a burst of creativity unmatched in Hollywood history, Preston Sturges directed a string of all-time classic comedies from 1939 through 1948--The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek among them--all from screenplays he alone had written. Cynical and sophisticated, romantic and sexually frank, crazily breakneck and endlessly witty, his movies continue to influence filmmakers and remain popular to this day. Yet despite this acclaim, Sturges's achievements remain underappreciated: he is too often categorized as a dialogue writer and plot engineer more than a director, or belittled as an irresponsible spinner of laughs. In Crooked, but Never Common, Stuart Klawans combines a critic's insight and a fan's enthusiasm to offer deeper ways to think about and enjoy Sturges's work. He provides an in-depth appreciation of all ten of the writer-director's major movies, presenting Sturges as a filmmaker whose work balanced slapstick and social critique, American and European traditions, and cynicism and affection for his characters. Tugging at loose threads--discontinuities, puzzles, and allusions that have dangled in plain sight--and putting the films into a broader cultural context, Klawans reveals structures, motives, and meanings underlying the uproarious pleasures of Sturges's movies. In this new light, Sturges emerges at last as one of the truly great filmmakers--and funnier than ever.
Watching Cosmic Time
How do the suspense films of Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, and Carol Reed allow us special insight into the popular mentality of their contemporaries--contemporaries who went to war against the forces of Adolf Hitler? How did midcentury films that fetishized clocks and time-keeping devices as diverse as Peter Pan, High Noon, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, The Stranger, and Odd Man Out produce unique experiences that invited audiences to literally watch cosmic time? What role did cinema audiences play in perpetuating the presumption that order exists in the universe--and how have the polyvalent institutions of church and state implicated human agency in such perpetuation? This full-length academic treatment of the topic employs formal film analysis that is situated squarely within historical studies and addresses these cinematic and phenomenological questions--and more.
Audience-Ology
Discover the fascinating and secretive process of audience testing of Hollywood movies through these firsthand stories from famous filmmakers, studio heads, and stars. Audience-ology takes you to one of the most unknown places in Hollywood--a place where famous directors are reduced to tears and multi-millionaire actors to fits of rage. A place where dreams are made and fortunes are lost. From "the best in the business" (Sacha Baron Cohen), this book is the chronicle of how real people have written and rewritten America's cinematic masterpieces by showing up, watching a rough cut of a new film, and giving their unfettered opinions so that directors and studios can salvage their blunders, or better yet, turn their movies into all-time classics. Each chapter informs an aspect or two of the test-screening process and then, through behind-the-scenes stories, illustrates how that particular aspect was carried out. Nicknamed "the doctor of audience-ology," Kevin Goetz shares how he helped filmmakers and movie execs confront the misses and how he recommended ways to fix the blockbusters, as well as first-hand accounts from Ron Howard, Cameron Crowe, Ed Zwick, Renny Harlin, Jason Blum, and other Hollywood luminaries who brought you such films as La La Land, Chicago, Titanic, Wedding Crashers, Jaws, and Forrest Gump. Audience-ology explores one of the most important (and most underrated) steps in the filmmaking process with enough humor, drama, and surprise to entertain those with only a spectator's interest in film, offering us a new look at movie history.
THE POWER OF STORYTELLING Social Impact Entertainment
Storytelling is hugely transformative to how we view ourselves, those around us, and our place amidst it all. The Power of Storytelling: Social Impact Entertainment is a look at how entertainment and media has had a positive and negative impact throughout the last century by looking at specific films and TV shows, pioneers in the field, and those that dial it down to a science. Readers will be left with unprecedented insight into how a simple narrative can change the world.
Cinematic Modernism and Contemporary Film
Cinema was the most important new artistic medium of the twentieth century and modernism was the most important new aesthetic movement across the arts in the twentieth century. However, what exactly is the relationship between cinema and modernism? Cinematic Modernism and Contemporary Filmexplores how in the early twentieth century cinema came to be seen as one of the new technologies which epitomised modernity and how cinema itself reflected ideas, hopes and fears concerning modern life. Howard Finn examines the emergence of a new 'international style' of cinema, combining a poetic aesthetic of the image with genre-based fictional narrative and documentary realism. He provides concise accounts of how theorists such as Andr矇 Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Ranci癡re have discussed this cinematic aesthetic, clarifying debates over terms such as 'realism', 'classical' and 'avant-garde' as well as recent controversies over terms such as 'slow cinema' and 'vernacular modernism'. He further argues the influence of modernism through close readings of many contemporary films, including films by Abbas Kiarostami, B矇la Tarr, Jia Zhangke, and Angela Schanelec.Drawing on a broad range of examples, including Soviet montage, Italian neorealism, postwar new waves and the 'new cinema' of Taiwan and Iran, this book explores the cultural significance of modernism and its lasting influence over cinema.
Pasolini
PASOLINIIL CINEMA DI POESIA/ THE CINEMA OF POETRY By Jeremy Mark RobinsonA new critical study of the Italian filmmaker and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975). The focus is the cinema of Pasolini, which includes The Gospel According To Matthew (his best-known film), the controversial Salo, the 'trilogy of life' movies based on Middle Ages texts (Chaucer, Boccaccio and the 1001 Nights), adaptations of ancient world plays (Medea and Oedipus Rex), and poetic portraits of contemporary Roman life (Accattone, Mamma Roma and The Hawks and the Sparrows). Pasolini: Il Cinema di Poesia/ The Cinema of Poetry considers all of Pier Paolo Pasolini's work in cinema, with a chapter on each feature-length movie, plus the short episodes he made for anthology films, all of his documentaries, and his unmade film projects. There is a biography of Pasolini, an exploration of aspects of his cinema, and topics related to Pasolini's life and interests such as religion, poetry, homosexuality, his colleagues, Marxist politics, modern Italy, and the Third World. Pier Paolo Pasolini was born on March 5, 1922, in Bologna, Italy. He died on November 2, 1975, in Ostia, Rome (he was buried in Casarca, in his beloved Friuli). When he was a film director, Pier Paolo Pasolini was certainly an intimidating presence, with a formidable reputation - like Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith or Jean-Luc Godard. Very confident, very smart, a great talker and interviewee, a leader on set, with no doubts from anyone about who was the primary creator and author. The appendices include entries on the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini's collaborators, such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Sergio Citti, and films made from Pasolini's fiction (such as A Violent Life and The Big Night). Fully illustrated with images from all of Pasolini's works in cinema. Bibliography, appendices, filmography and notes. 536 pages. Full colour cover, in hardcover with a jacket (flyleaf). www.crmoon.com
Cinema of Discontent
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, Japan experienced an unprecedented level of economic growth, transforming itself from a war-devastated country to a global economic power. Our image of postwar Japan has been shaped by this event, and we tend to see its history as a story of great national success. Cinema of Discontent challenges this view and details the tensions generated by massive and intense capitalist development through analyses of popular cinema produced during the era of high-speed growth. The films discussed in this book, directed by Kawashima Yūzō, Masumura Yasuzō, Inoue Akira, Ezaki Mio, and Kumashiro Tatsumi, attracted broad audiences yet remain understudied. Cinema of Discontent contextualizes these films in relation to the politics, economy, intellectual discourse, and cultural texts of the time. By doing so, it demonstrates how these films address problems immanent to Japan's postwar capitalism, including uneven development, increasing corporate control over individuals, precarious and contingent work, and militarized peace and prosperity.
Action, Action, Action
Director of over 150 films from 1912 to 1964, Raoul Walsh was a core figure in Hollywood from its beginnings to the end of the studio system. Perhaps best known for such films as The Big Trail (starring John Wayne in his first leading role), High Sierra, and White Heat, Walsh cut his teeth under D. W. Griffith, and, like his contemporary John Ford, found a style and signature in his silent cinema and early talkies. Through close analysis of seven of his films, six shot between 1915 and 1933 and one a remake from 1956, and stressing the visual character of their settings and situations, Tom Conley examines how composition and montage--or action--often overtake the crisp narratives these films convey. Rife with contradiction, they ask us to see what makes them possible and how they contend with prevailing codes. Films discussed include Regeneration (1915); Sadie Thompson (1928) and a likely avatar, The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956); The Cock-Eyed World (1929); The Big Trail (1930); Me and My Gal (1932); and The Bowery (1933).
Film Noir Portraits
The very best portrait photography of the film-noir era, with previously unpublished images from beloved gems such as The Night of the Hunter and Sweet Smell of SuccessWith its singular focus on the very best portrait photography of the 1940s and 1950s Hollywood film noir era, every page of this coffee-table volume is rich in brooding atmosphere. The portraits gathered here, of actors such as Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Gene Tierney, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Jack Palance, Joan Crawford and Richard Widmark, were taken by premier studio photographers such as Robert Coburn, Ernest Bachrach and A.L. "Whitey" Schafer. Their remarkable ability to exaggerate the play of shadow and light to dramatic effect is the reason that their work still has the same ability to arrest the viewer as it did in the 1940s. The photographs remain some of the most innovative and striking portraits in the history of cinema. Carefully curated, the photographs are taken from the collection of MPTV, one of the world's most exclusive archives of entertainment photography. The book includes many previously unseen images, including hitherto unpublished outtakes from The Night of the Hunter (1955) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957); and classic moments from films such as Gilda (1946), Double Indemnity (1944), The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and celebrated B-noirs such as Gun Crazy (1950) and The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Reel Art Press' exquisite print quality serves to emphasize the timeless power of the black-and-white studio portraiture.
Crooked, But Never Common
In a burst of creativity unmatched in Hollywood history, Preston Sturges directed a string of all-time classic comedies from 1939 through 1948--The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek among them--all from screenplays he alone had written. Cynical and sophisticated, romantic and sexually frank, crazily breakneck and endlessly witty, his movies continue to influence filmmakers and remain popular to this day. Yet despite this acclaim, Sturges's achievements remain underappreciated: he is too often categorized as a dialogue writer and plot engineer more than a director, or belittled as an irresponsible spinner of laughs. In Crooked, but Never Common, Stuart Klawans combines a critic's insight and a fan's enthusiasm to offer deeper ways to think about and enjoy Sturges's work. He provides an in-depth appreciation of all ten of the writer-director's major movies, presenting Sturges as a filmmaker whose work balanced slapstick and social critique, American and European traditions, and cynicism and affection for his characters. Tugging at loose threads--discontinuities, puzzles, and allusions that have dangled in plain sight--and putting the films into a broader cultural context, Klawans reveals structures, motives, and meanings underlying the uproarious pleasures of Sturges's movies. In this new light, Sturges emerges at last as one of the truly great filmmakers--and funnier than ever.
Immortal Films
Casablanca is one of the most celebrated Hollywood films of all time, its iconic romance enshrined in collective memory across generations. Drawing from archival materials, industry trade journals, and cultural commentary, Barbara Klinger explores the history of Casablanca's circulation in the United States from the early 1940s to the present by examining its exhibition via radio, repertory houses, television, and video. By resituating the film in the dynamically changing industrial, technological, and cultural circumstances that have defined its journey over eight decades, Klinger challenges our understanding of its meaning and reputation as both a Hollywood classic and a cult film. Through this single-film survey, Immortal Films proposes a new approach to the study of film history and aesthetics and, more broadly, to cinema itself as a medium in constant interface with other media as a necessary condition of its own public existence and endurance.
The Magician-The Series
This is a reference book of the television series The Magician, which ran between 1973 and 1974. The series starred Bill Bixby as magician Anthony Blake. All 21 episodes are included, as well as the pilot film. The book includes all episodes in original broadcast date order, numerous photographs, complete cast listings, directorial credits, and a story synopsis for each episode.
Black Oscars
Black Oscars is a timely exploration of the complicated legacy of the Academy Awards and African American participation in film. Reflecting on how the Oscars have recognized Black actors from the award's inception to the present, this book is an indispensable guide to understanding race in mainstream Hollywood and American history.
The Batman: The Official Script Book
You're a part of this too. Dive deeper into Matt Reeves' remarkable film The Batman with this one-of-a-kind edition of the screenplay. Experience The Batman in an all-new way, with this deluxe version of the film's thrilling script. Follow the Caped Crusader early in his career as he faces off against sinister serial killer The Riddler and reckons with the sins of the Wayne family's past. Featuring film stills that add visual depth to the story, The Batman: The Official Script Book is an immersive tribute to the Dark Knight's journey from the page to the screen. - EXPERIENCE THE BATMAN IN AN ALL-NEW WAY: The vision of screenwriters Matt Reeves and Peter Craig will immerse you in the seedy, striking, noir-inspired narrative of The Batman. - CREATE A MOVIE IN YOUR MIND: Beautifully rendered film stills combine with the screenplay to make movie magic in your mind's eye.
Necrofania
?nigma, The Antichrist, The Corpse Packs His Bags, Don't Go In The House, The Evictors, The Nesting, The Shiver of the Vampires. This is just a handful of the horror movies discussed in this book. When the horror site terrorflicks.com folded, all of the material disappeared from the internet. This little publication contains all of the reviews popular critic Pidde Andersson wrote for the site, plus some new additional material. Reviews of older cult classics, a couple of newer movies. Fun, initiated, entertaining - these are movie reviews from beyond the grave!
Coproducing Europe
Up until the 1990s, when the EU launched film policies intended to encourage political and cultural collaboration among its member states, film coproductions were limited to specific industries and mostly based on the cultural and national values of individual nations. Coproducing Europe explores the impact of these EU policies on the coproduction networks that now serve as a driving force in contemporary creative economies. By focusing on regional film markets in Thessaloniki, Sarajevo and Tbilisi, this comparative ethnography looks beyond the economic nature of film coproductions to their role in Europeanization, memories of the Cold War and preconstructed political agendas.
Top Gun Memos
TOP GUN MEMOS: The Making and Legacy of an Iconic Movie tells the comprehensive story of the long-lived movie "Top Gun" through the eyes of the people on the ground - and in the air - who made it. It drills down on the art and artistry present in its scenes, while also looking unflinchingly at dangerous situations that arose during filming. The book covers how the 1986 movie was made, starting at inception and traveling through green light, prep, principal photography, wrap, post-production, and launch. The next chapters cover the longevity of the film, its fans, and its legacy, answering why this movie became iconic when so many other great films remain quietly on the lists of the years they were released. Top Gun Memos relies on interviews with 90 people and more than 1,250 pages of studio, production, government, and other documents, identified in more than 500 footnotes. That's especially important with a film as popular as "Top Gun," given widespread misinformation on the Internet. The book is filled with behind-the-scenes stories above everything from the famous jacket to the stuntman on the motorcycle racing the F-14, from shooting on the USS Enterprise to aerial scenes shot above Fallon, Nev. These stories, often entertaining and fun, are recalled by movie crew and members of the Navy who contributed mightily to the success of "Top Gun."Top Gun Memos also reports thoroughly about three dangerous situations that arose during production. Tom Cruise was nearly killed while filming the rescue scenes, something that received little attention at the time despite Navy commendations for the men who saved him. There was is an incident during aerial photography when an F-14 came too close to crew filming on a hilltop, sending people and gear flying. The book looks at the life and death of Art Scholl, one of America's best known stunt pilots, who crashed while shooting plate footage for "Top Gun."The book goes a long way in explaining what happened to revered director Tony Scott, who jumped off a bridge in 2012, just as he, Tom Cruise, and Jerry Bruckheimer embarked on the long-awaited sequel to "Top Gun: Maverick." It also includes a chapter on Scott's legacy and significant contributions to film...........Partial list of people interviewed for the book: Donna Scott, wife of Director Tony Scott; Filmmakers: Executive Producer Bill Badalato; Cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball; First Assistant Director Dan Kolsrud; Second Assistant Director Sharon Mann; Production Designer John DeCuir Jr.; Casting Director Margery Simkin; Costume Designer Jimmy Tyson; Prop Master Mark Wade; Locations Manager Fred Baron; Transportation Coordinator Randy Peters; Harold Faltermeyer, musician and composer; Supervising Sound Editor Cecilia Hall; Editors Billy Weber and Chris Lebenzon; Gary Gutierrez, special photographic effects; Navy: Admiral USNR (Ret.) Pete Pettigrew; Admiral USN (Ret) Robert F. Willard; and former Navy aviators Lloyd 'Bozo' Abel, Dave 'Bio' Baranek, and John Semcken.
There’s a Body in the Window Seat!
There's a Body in the Window Seat! is a detailed history of one of the most beloved American murder-mysteries and comedies, Arsenic and Old Lace.
Immortal Films
Casablanca is one of the most celebrated Hollywood films of all time, its iconic romance enshrined in collective memory across generations. Drawing from archival materials, industry trade journals, and cultural commentary, Barbara Klinger explores the history of Casablanca's circulation in the United States from the early 1940s to the present by examining its exhibition via radio, repertory houses, television, and video. By resituating the film in the dynamically changing industrial, technological, and cultural circumstances that have defined its journey over eight decades, Klinger challenges our understanding of its meaning and reputation as both a Hollywood classic and a cult film. Through this single-film survey, Immortal Films proposes a new approach to the study of film history and aesthetics and, more broadly, to cinema itself as a medium in constant interface with other media as a necessary condition of its own public existence and endurance.
Sophia Burset’s Transition in Orange Is The New Black. Season 1, Episode 3 Lesbian Request Denied
Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: The following paper will deal with the topic of transgender in the context of the literature seminar "Doing (Trans-)Gender". The primary source will be the Netflix series "Orange Is The New Black", created by Jenij Kohan and published in 2013, which deals with the topic "transgender". The series is about the women's prison of Litchfield, its inmates and their different stories. This paper will focus on how the transition of the transgender character Sophia Burset is represented in Season 1 Episode 3 "Lesbian Request Denied". First, the theoretical background and approaches on the issue of transgender will be explained. This includes definitions of certain terms and explanations related to transition. It follows a narrative analysis, which means the analysis and interpretation of certain scenes of the episode that deal with the issue of transition on the basis of the theoretical approach explained in the previous chapter. A conclusion and final thoughts will be given at the end of the term paper.
The Canadian Mounted
The Prop Book That Keeps on Popping Up!Yes, the cover of this book looks a lot like the one Del Griffith (John Candy) is reading at the New York airport in the 1987 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles. That same book also appears in 2018's Deadpool 2. It was long believed that this was a prop book. But it was a real book published in the 1980s and from a company that went out of business before the end of the decade.This re-imagined incarnation of The Canadian Mounted explores the use of this prop book and many other intriguing, insightful and entertaining behind-the-scenes details as they relate to the classic 1987 John Hughes film.Created for fans of the movie and of John Hughes, this book explores and shares stories related to the writing and making of the film, curious tales and collected trivia associated with it, including: The incident that inspired Hughes to write the original scriptDel-ismsThe film's eclectic sound-trackMissing Oxford commasDeleted scenesRyan Reynolds' adoration of fellow Canadian John CandyGeneral triviaAnd more...If you love and regularly re-watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles, then this is a book you must read.
Scriptcake Secrets
"This was a quick read, but I found myself slowing down to savor Lovinder Gill's clear, crisp sentences that spoke directly to the writer inside me. Some of his insights on structure and character have won a permanent place in my inventory of writing truths and will have veteran screenwriters reaching for their unproduced screenplays to correct their unconscious mistakes. For the novice screenwriter or storyteller in any medium, this book will save years of wandering in the wilderness and will give you the tools to tell compelling, emotion-based stories." Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer's Journey"This book is not merely instructional, it is inspirational. I think it might be the best book on screenwriting I have read. The content is great but it is presented in such a clear, compelling way that it is really hard to put down. I have read a lot of screenwriting books, but this one is not just rich with great lessons, it is passionately user-friendly." David J. Greenberg, author of Screenwriting for Micro-Budget FilmsA professional screenwriting instructor shepherds would-be scribes around common hazards of his chosen field in this debut writing guide. Gill has taught screenwriting for 20 years at such institutions as Drexel University in Pennsylvania and Glendale Community College in Arizona, and he's noticed a common pattern among his students. First-time screenwriters are generally excited and full of ideas-until they hit a wall: "It feels good until they get somewhere between pages 20-30," he notes. "Then, they run out of things to write about. Why is there nowhere else to go? Why is it so short? Where is the rest of the story? What do they do now?" There are plenty of possible reasons why screenwriters can feel stuck or why their screenplay isn't working, but Gill asserts that he's figured out the 10 most common mistakes that account for most of their woes. From the pitfalls of the concept-only screenplay-featuring an idea, but no story-to the clutter of unnecessary characters and pointless scenes, Gill takes the reader through each mistake in turn, explaining how they come about and how writers can fix them, cut them, or avoid them entirely. Gill's prose is smooth and conversational, and he has a way of explaining his concepts that will stick in readers' memories. For example, he warns screenwriters not to select their genre before figuring out the emotional arc of the story-a mistake he describes as "writing from the outside in" "Choosing a concept (or even a genre) first is like creating cake-shaped icing (concept) that you hope the actual cake (story) will fit into." The book is divided into problems in the first half and fixes in the second, effectively breaking things down before building readers back up. Scattered throughout are 44 "screenwriting truths" that offer quick bits of wisdom. Readers frustrated with their past screenwriting efforts will certainly come away with a new way of approaching future scripts.A comprehensive and well-presented set of writing tips. Kirkus Review
The Classic Film Series
The Classic Film Series highlights movies from the past, forgotten, overlooked and cherished alike, selected for their influence, relevance and worth. In this edition, writer, musician and filmmaker Chris Wade looks at the collaborations of Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, two of the most legendary giants of Italian cinema. As director, visionary and auteur, Fellini weaved the ultimate personal dreamscapes, and he was at his best when Mastroianni was his on screen alter ego. Their films together, including La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and City of Women, are surreal, magical and intoxicating journeys into the depths of Fellini 's psyche. All these movies, a list which also includes Ginger and Fred and Intervista, are explored in this compact edition, which also features an interview with Bernice Stegers, who played a vital role in City of Women.
The Big Bang Theory
The definitive, behind-the-scenes look at the most popular sitcom of the last decade, The Big Bang Theory, packed with all-new, exclusive interviews with the producers and the entire cast - from journalist and the host of The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast, Jessica Radloff.The Big Bang Theory is a television phenomenon. To the casual viewer, it's a seemingly effortless comedy, with relatable characters tackling real-life issues, offering a kind of visual comfort food to its millions of dedicated fans. But the behind-the-scenes journey of the show from a failed pilot to a global sensation is a fascinating story that even the most die-hard fans don't know in its entirety. The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series is a riveting, entertaining look at the sitcom sensation, with the blessing and participation of co-creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, executive producers Steve Molaro and Steve Holland, as well as Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Melissa Rauch, Mayim Bialik, and more. Glamour senior editor Jessica Radloff, who has written over 150 articles on the series (and even had a cameo in the finale!), gives readers an all-access pass to its intrepid producing and writing team and beloved cast. It's a story of on-and-off screen romance told in hilarious and emotional detail, of casting choices that nearly changed everything (which even some of the actors didn't know until now), of cast members bravely powering through personal tragedies, and when it came time to announce the 12th season would be its last, the complicated reasons why it was more difficult than anyone ever led on. Through hundreds of hours of interviews with the sitcom's major players, Radloff dives into all this and much more. The book is the ultimate celebration of this once-in-a-generation show and a must-have for all fans. AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A USA TODAY BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2022 BY GLAMOUR "Talking with Jessica, I realized how easy it had been for me to kind of put all 12 years of my time on Big Bang Theory under one general umbrella, as it were. The questions she asked and the information she'd reveal to me from someone else she'd interviewed forced me into a frame of mind where each season - and sometimes each episode - became it's own, separate entity again. . . Frankly, it turned into a version of therapy I hadn't realized I'd needed and couldn't have known how much I'd enjoy." --Jim Parsons
David Lynch
This book distinguishes itself from earlier books on David Lynch by taking in-depth consideration of his entire oeuvre. Besides his films and the Twin Peaks series, David Lynch: Blurred Boundaries includes discussions of Lynch's paintings and drawings, music videos, commercials, short experimental works, digital projects on the YouTube channel David Lynch Theater and the Internet documentary The Interview Project, as well as the exhibition The Air is on Fire, which Jerslev regards as one of Lynch's main works. David Lynch: Blurred Boundaries offers a view of Lynch's total work, in which one medium or genre is no more important than the other. It discusses the ways in which Lynch has worked throughout his career with different art forms and has right from the start experimented with the blurring of boundaries between media and genres. And it discusses ways Lynch creates atmospheres by different audio-visual and visual means.
A Little Book about Movies
The greatest movies endure for many reasons: they give us comfort, laughter, drama and suspense. They thrill us with their powerful storytelling and bring us fabulous characters that linger on in the imagination. And then, of course, they showcase the astonishing skill of the moviemaker. The Little Book About Movies is a celebration of filmmaking and the power of cinema to challenge, inspire and change us. Inside you'll find fabulous quotes from some of the world's best filmmakers and actors, as well as stirring lines from some of the finest movies ever made. Whether you're hoping to revisit some of cinema's greatest moments or looking for fresh viewing inspiration, this little volume is the perfect treat for any movie lover. SAMPLE QUOTES: 'Hollywood is great. I also think it's stupid and small-minded and shortsighted' - David Fincher 'When I went to Hollywood, I had to work out in a gym. The idea was that I should look like Daniel Craig, though they hadn't even heard of him at that point' - Roger Moore 'Acting is about acting, not about being a movie star' - Christian Bale 'Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo' - Mary Pickford
Cinema Speculation
Instant New York Times bestsellerThe long-awaited first work of nonfiction from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: a deliriously entertaining, wickedly intelligent cinema book as unique and creative as anything by Quentin Tarantino.In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans--and all movie lovers--could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining. At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT's and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.
The Master Plan
From acclaimed filmmaker and the bestselling author of Filmmaking Confidential, Steve Balderson's The Master Plan: Sensible & Improved Film Production Scheduling overturns conventional entertainment industry scheduling practices which often result in film productions going over budget, running behind schedule, and exhausting a film's cast and crew. Why do some film shoots have workdays lasting longer than 12, 14 and even 18 hours? Why are casts and crews on some film shoots always exhausted, grouchy, and yelling at each other? Having directed and produced dozens of award-winning feature films, commercials, music videos and television shows (all of which were produced on-time or ahead of schedule, on or under budget, and with no workdays longer than 12 hours), Steve Balderson has found some answers to these troublesome situations and shares his solutions pointedly. You'll learn how to avoid overtime, how to keep from subjecting your casts and crews to exhaustion, and how to make sure you have enough time to capture everything you need while filming your scenes.
Border Witness
What a century of border films teaches about the real and imagined worlds of the US-Mexico borderlands--and how this understanding helps build better relations across boundaries. Border Witness is an account of cultural collision and fusion between Mexico and the United States, as seen on the ground and in films from the past hundred years. Blending film studies with political and cultural geography, Michael Dear investigates the making of cross-border identity and community in the territories between two nations. Border Witness introduces a new "border film" genre just now entering its golden age. A geographer and activist, Dear adopts an accessible and engaged perspective, combining the stories told by these films with insights drawn from his own decades-long research and travel. From early silent films to virtual reality, and from revolution to the present global crisis, border films provide fresh evidence for real and imagined politics and for envisioning future transborder architectures carved from in-between spaces. In an era of global geopolitics that favors walls and war over diplomacy, Dear's insights have relevance for borders around the world.
Research-Based Art Practices in Southeast Asia
This book is the first overall study of research-based art practices in Southeast Asia. Its objective is to examine the creative and mutual entanglement of academic and artistic research; in short, the Why, When, What and How of research-based art practices in the region. In Southeast Asia, artists are increasingly engaged in research-based art practices involving academic research processes. They work as historians, archivists, archaeologists or sociologists in order to produce knowledge and/or to challenge the current established systems of knowledge production. As artists, they can freely draw on academic research methodologies and, at the same time, question or divert them for their own artistic purpose. The outcome of their research findings is exhibited as an artwork and is not published or presented in an academic format. This book seeks to demonstrate the emancipatory dimension of these practices, which contribute to opening up our conceptions of knowledge and of art, bestowing a new and promising role to the artists within the society.
Film Viewing in Postwar Japan, 1945-1968: An Ethnographic Study
Combining film studies and ethnographic research methods within a memory studies framework, Coates examines the impact of cinema cultures on the everyday lives of viewers. Film Viewing in Postwar Japan draws from four years of interviews, participant observation, questionnaire surveys, and written communications with over 100 study participants in the Kansai region of Western Japan. This is an in-depth study of memories of cinema-going among the generations who regularly attended film theatres between 1945-1968, the peak period of production and cinema attendance in Japan. Through investigating the role of film viewership, broadly conceived, in the formation of a postwar sense of self, the reader will benefit from rare access to the voices of grass-roots viewers, who often tell a different version of cinema history and its effects than that available in extant scholarship.
Recollecting Lotte Eisner
Recollecting Lotte Eisner provides the first in-depth examination of the remarkable transnational career of film journalist, archivist, and historian Lotte Eisner (1896-1983). From her early years as a film critic in interwar Berlin to her escape from prison in occupied France and from her role as chief curator at the Cin矇math癡que fran癟aise to that as the mythic "collective conscience" of New German Cinema, Eisner was a prolific writer and lecturer and a pivotal voice in early film and media studies. Situated at the juncture of feminist media historiography and disciplinary intellectual history, this groundbreaking book is based on extensive multilingual archival research and the excavation of a rich corpus of previously overlooked materials. Introducing samples of Eisner's writing in translation, this volume makes some of the most important contributions of a foundational scholar in the field of film studies accessible for the first time to an English-language readership.
The Secret Life of Ealing Studios
"This lively, funny, moving history of a movie studio and the people who made it feels uncannily like ... an Ealing comedy." Martin ScorseseA behind-the-scenes account of life at Ealing Studios - one of the great cinematic success stories of post-war Britain, and a byword for a particular strain of comic film-making that continues to inspire imitators over half a century on.This is the only full narrative history of Ealing, focusing on its output in the 1940s and '50s, when the movies made there were in astonishing (and revealing) synchronicity with the national mood. Told through the memories of the people who worked and performed there, The Secret Life of Ealing Studios explores how a small group of maverick film-makers, some of Britain's most fondly-remembered movie stars, and a lot of unsung backroom boys and girls created pictures that presented a unique and enduring view of British identity, and which have since become classics.The films include such evergreens as Hue and Cry, Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Whisky Galore, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers, along with war films such as The Cruel Sea.At the heart of the story is the figure of Michael Balcon - perhaps the closest Britain has ever come to producing a movie mogul in the Hollywood mould - and iconic actors such as Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness, Margaret Rutherford and Sid James.
A pragmatic Analysis of Desire in the Nigerian Home Video
Academic Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Film Science, course: Linguistics, language: English, abstract: The Nigerian home video industry, popularly referred to as, Nollywood, has become a household name both locally and internationally. Despite the setbacks it suffered, Nollywood has soared higher than most expected. It is on this premise that this study exposes the pragmatic undertone of the language use in Nollywood films to show its verisimilitude with normal day-to-day manner of communication. This study is based on the theory of Pragmatics as developed by J L Austin, John Searle and H. P. Grice. This theory is very relevant to this study as it exposes a lot that happens in normal communication - the unsaid but meant. Among the many tools of Pragmatics, Context, Presupposition, Implicature and the Cooperative Principle are employed in this research. It was found out that context plays a crucial role in deciphering meaning in Nollywood films; again, the language use of Nollywood films shows a lot of presuppositions and implicature and that the Cooperative Principle is well illustrated by the language use of Nollywood films.
Planet of the Apes on Film & TV
This is a reference book on the television series Planet of the Apes, also including the nine films and five made for TV films. It includes all films and episodes in date order, complete cast lists, numerous photographs directorial credits, and a story synopsis for each film or television episode.
Recollecting Lotte Eisner
Recollecting Lotte Eisner provides the first in-depth examination of the remarkable transnational career of film journalist, archivist, and historian Lotte Eisner (1896-1983). From her early years as a film critic in interwar Berlin to her escape from prison in occupied France and from her role as chief curator at the Cin矇math癡que fran癟aise to that as the mythic "collective conscience" of New German Cinema, Eisner was a prolific writer and lecturer and a pivotal voice in early film and media studies. Situated at the juncture of feminist media historiography and disciplinary intellectual history, this groundbreaking book is based on extensive multilingual archival research and the excavation of a rich corpus of previously overlooked materials. Introducing samples of Eisner's writing in translation, this volume makes some of the most important contributions of a foundational scholar in the field of film studies accessible for the first time to an English-language readership.
Horror Noire
From King Kong to Candyman, the boundary-pushing genre of horror film has always been a site for provocative explorations of race in American popular culture. This book offers a comprehensive chronological survey of Black horror from the 1890s to present day. In this second edition, Robin R. Means Coleman expands upon the history of notable characterizations of Blackness in horror cinema, with new chapters spanning the 1960s, 2000s, and 2010s to the present, and examines key levels of Black participation on screen and behind the camera. The book addresses a full range of Black horror films, including mainstream Hollywood fare, art-house films, Blaxploitation films, and U.S. hip-hop culture-inspired Nollywood films. This new edition also explores the resurgence of the Black horror genre in the last decade, examining the success of Jordan Peele's films Get Out (2017) and Us (2019), smaller independent films such as The House Invictus (2018), and Nia DaCosta's sequel to Candyman (2021). Means Coleman argues that horror offers a unique representational space for Black people to challenge negative or racist portrayals, and to portray greater diversity within the concept of Blackness itself. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how fears and anxieties about race and race relations are made manifest, and often challenged, on the silver screen.
The Avatar Television Franchise
Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-08) and its sequel The Legend of Korra (2012-14) are among the most acclaimed and influential U.S. animated television series of the 21st century. Yet, despite their elevated status, there have been few academic works published about them. The Avatar Television Franchise: Storytelling, Identity, Trauma, Fandom and Reception remedies this gap by bringing together a wide range of scholarly writings on these shows. This edited collection is comprised of 13 chapters organized into 4 sections, featuring close readings of key episodes, analyzing how they create meaning as well as illustrating how established theories can guide those readings. Some chapters explore different theories relating to identity as well as considering the repercussions of depicting real-world identities in these shows, while others examine the various manifestations of trauma from throughout the franchise as well as illustrates different scholarly approaches to the topic. Still others utilize fan studies to understand the myriad ways viewers have responded to and interpreted the Avatar franchise.
Hollywood Films in North Africa and the Middle East
Drawing on a broad range of primary sources, from trade and government publications to interviews, Hollywood Films in North Africa and the Middle East traces the circulation of Hollywood films across the region from the early twentieth century to the present. Originally introduced by French distributors, Hollywood films have been a key component of film culture in North Africa and the Middle East. These films became a favored mode of entertainment during the first half of the century as the major US film studios built a strong distribution structure. After World War II, the changing geopolitical context of decolonization pushed US distributors out of the market. Hollywood films, however, have continued to be favored by audiences. Today, in a landscape that also includes Egyptian and Indian films, Hollywood remains a relevant force in the region's film culture, experienced by audiences in myriad ways from the pirate markets of North Africa to state-of-the-art theatres in the United Arab Emirates.
Monsters, Makeup & Effects 2
Gizmo. Michael Myers. Hellboy. Predator. Pinhead. Twisty the Clown. Spielberg's dinosaurs. Brundlefly. This is just a sampling of the iconic characters that have continued to thrill fans both on the big and small screens for decades now that you'll read about in Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume 2. For this second installment of her ongoing interview series, journalist and FX historian Heather Wixson celebrates the lives and careers of 20 more special effects artists who have left their indelible mark on the world of entertainment, and many are still working hard in the industry today. Featuring in-depth conversations and hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume 2 furthers the exploration of the influence felt by the work of these brilliant artists whose ingenuity and creativity were behind the creation of so many seminal creatures and characters that have captured our imaginations, left us in awe and genuinely excited us as moviegoers. In simpler terms, these are the artists who were able to make the impossible possible, and these interviews are a celebration of all of the incredible contributions that these artists have made throughout their careers and the passion that has fueled their creative endeavors, both inside and outside of the makeup studio. Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume 2 features extensive interviews with: Steve WangChris WalasMike ElizaldeEryn Krueger MekashKazu HiroTodd MastersPhil TippettMich癡le BurkeRobert BurmanChristopher NelsonRichard LandonGuy HimberShane MahanStuart ConranJoey OroscoNorman CabreraJohn DodsBruce Spaulding FullerDavid GrassoAnd a tribute to John Carl Buechler
Understanding the Villain? Developing Empathy for Arthur Fleck in the Film Joker
Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Film Science, grade: 1,0, University of Cologne (Englisches Seminar II), course: Literary Studies in Practice, language: English, abstract: He is known as one of the most terrifying anti-heroes in the Comic and Film Industry, crazy, mad, out of his mind, recognized by his unforgettable laughter and his remarkable outward appearance: The Joker. However, Todd Phillips has humanised this villain and given him a story that not only amazes but also touches the audience. He manages to make anyone, who previously only saw the murderous clown as a monster and Batman's worst rival, sympathise and feel empathy, forgetting for a brief moment the fictional character's outrages yet to come.
Whiteness at the End of the World
The use of Christian apocalyptic myths has changed significantly over the centuries. Initially used by genuinely disenfranchised groups, they are used today as a response to more egalitarian treatment of minorities in American society. The apocalyptic framework allows the patriarchy to frame itself as the victim who must restore America to a past where white male power went uncontested. This kind of white anxiety over increasing minority rights frequently manifests itself in contemporary apocalyptic media, which often depicts a white male hero facing a wide array of threatening "Others." Taking a unique look at the parallels between apocalypticism and American frontier mythology, as well as conspiracy theories and the post-apocalyptic obsession with repurposed objects, Whiteness at the End of the World analyzes many well-known films from the past fifty years, from Planet of the Apes to I Am Mother. It offers unique, clearly presented insights into recurring patterns that appear in an extraordinarily ubiquitous genre that has only increased in popularity, and whose themes of racial anxiety are increasingly pertinent in our increasingly contentious political climate.
Monsters, Makeup & Effects 2
Gizmo. Michael Myers. Hellboy. Predator. Pinhead. Twisty the Clown. Spielberg's dinosaurs. Brundlefly. This is just a sampling of the iconic characters that have continued to thrill fans both on the big and small screens for decades now that you'll read about in Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume 2. For this second installment of her ongoing interview series, journalist and FX historian Heather Wixson celebrates the lives and careers of 20 more special effects artists who have left their indelible mark on the world of entertainment, and many are still working hard in the industry today. Featuring in-depth conversations and hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume 2 furthers the exploration of the influence felt by the work of these brilliant artists whose ingenuity and creativity were behind the creation of so many seminal creatures and characters that have captured our imaginations, left us in awe and genuinely excited us as moviegoers. In simpler terms, these are the artists who were able to make the impossible possible, and these interviews are a celebration of all of the incredible contributions that these artists have made throughout their careers and the passion that has fueled their creative endeavors, both inside and outside of the makeup studio. Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume 2 features extensive interviews with: Steve WangChris WalasMike ElizaldeEryn Krueger MekashKazu HiroTodd MastersPhil TippettMich癡le BurkeRobert BurmanChristopher NelsonRichard LandonGuy HimberShane MahanStuart ConranJoey OroscoNorman CabreraJohn DodsBruce Spaulding FullerDavid GrassoAnd a tribute to John Carl Buechler
Scenes Issue 7
CONTENTS ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST Celebrating a seventies masterpiece A TRIBUTE TO JAMES CAAN Remembering the late and great star MATT DILLON Exploring the career of a movie idol SHARON STONE The Last of the Great Movie Stars? DONALD SUTHERLAND A curious but brilliant filmography TOMMY LEE JONES His finest roles in close-up THE ONION FIELD Becker, Wambaugh and Woods on their 1979 masterpiece END OF THE ROAD Shining the spotlight on a lost gem, with Harris Yulin and Stacy Keach
The Sense of Place in Contemporary Cinema
What purpose does place serve in films? When it is not just a background to actions, or indistinguishable from the landscape, or a simple space to walk through, a kind of neutral territory? Such filmmakers as Chantal Akerman, Lisandro Alonso, Pedro Costa, Bruno Dumont, B矇la Tarr, Avi Mograbi, Tariq Teguia, Philippe Grandrieux, Dani癡le Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub and Sharunas Bartas, chose not to focus solely the cinematic narration on the fate of the characters. They showed telluric spatialities, inhabited territories, existential matrices where ways of doing and of living were mobilized, where forces of emancipation and existential weaknesses were carried out. Welcoming rooms, remarkable transitions, havens for individual and communal destinies: place in cinema sometimes implies the insecurity of an unfinished project, sometimes the solidity of fortifications. The Sense of Place in Cinema demonstrates the importance of place and its aesthetic potentialities in film.
