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Banned soon after its first midnight screenings, the prints seized and the organizers arrested, Jack Smith’s incendiary Flaming Creatures (1963) quickly became a cause célèbre of the New York underground. Championed and defended by Jonas Mekas and Susan Sontag, among others, the film wildly and gleefully transgresses nearly every norm of Hollywood morality and aesthetics. In a surreal and visually dense series of episodes, the titular “creatures” reenact scenes drawn from the collective cinemati...

This is a book for cinephiles, pure and simple. Author and filmmaker, Jim Piper, shares his vast knowledge of film and analyzes the most striking components of the best movies ever made. From directing to cinematography, from editing and music to symbolism and plot development, The Film Appreciation Book covers hundreds of the greatest works in cinema, combining history, technical knowledge, and the art of enjoyment to explain why some movies have become the most treasured and entertaining works...

The Calling Blighty series of films produced by the Combined Kinematograph Service produced towards the end of the Second World War were one-reel films in which soldiers gave short spoken messages to the camera as a means of connecting the front line and the home front. These are the first ever films where men speak openly in their regional accents, and they have profound meaning for remembrance, documentary representation and the ecology of film in wartime. Of the 400 films (or 'issues') made,...

The American popular imagination has long portrayed World War II as the "good war," fought by the "greatest generation" for the sake of freedom and democracy. Yet, combat films and other war media complicate this conventional view by indulging in explosive displays of spectacular violence. Combat sequences, Tanine Allison argues, construct a counter-narrative of World War II by reminding viewers of the war's harsh brutality. Destructive Sublime traces a new aesthetic history of the World War II...

The 1964 comedy film Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb has achieved cult and now iconic status in popular culture. It is also the flagship of an entire genre of Cold War nuclear crisis films, which is employed in numerous academic disciplines to depict what many view as the prime absurdity of the Cold War: nuclear deterrence and its possible failure. The films of the Cold War nuclear crisis genre are regularly used by educators to illustrate nuclear warfare th...

She Animates examines the work of twelve female animation directors in the Soviet Union and Russia, who have long been overlooked by film scholars and historians. Our approach examines these directors within history, culture, and industrial practice in animation. In addition to making a case for including these women and their work in the annals of film and animation history, this volume also makes an argument for why their work should be considered part of the tradition of women's cinema. We of...

Films possess virtually unlimited power for crafting broad interpretations of American history. Nineteenth-century America has proven especially conducive to Hollywood imaginations, producing indelible images like the plight of Davy Crockett and the defenders of the Alamo, Pickett's doomed charge at Gettysburg, the proliferation and destruction of plantation slavery in the American South, Custer's fateful decision to divide his forces at Little Big Horn, and the onset of immigration and industri...

The first full-length study of the iconic 1960s film The Great Escape and its place in Hollywood and American history.Escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) on a stolen motorcycle jumps an imposing barbed wire fence-caught on film, the act and its aftermath have become an unforgettable symbol of triumph as well as defeat for 1960s America. Combining production and reception history with close reading, Dreams of Flight offers the first full-length study of The Great Escape, the classic film bas...

The official companion to the hit TV show, Peaky Blinders, fully illustrated in colour. Packed full of behind-the-scenes stories and interviews with the cast and creators of the show, this is the first official book. ‘A must-read for fans of the ruthless Shelby clan’ Daily Express‘A hoard of information lurks inside the first official companion to the hit drama’ Sunday Express‘A heavyweight hardback in every sense of the word . . . essential reading for fans of the series’ Birmingham Mail Walk t...

Ever since its first performances in 1985, Les Misérables has been a smash success, and is now the longest running musical in the world with an award-winning Hollywood movie to its name. Les Misérables takes a look back through the storied life of this monumental show. Looking at the entirety of the Les Misérables theatre legacy, Benedict Nightingale examines the secret of why this musical has so strongly captured the hearts of the world, tracking back from Victor Hugo's original fiction all t...

Written in an engaging narrative style, this text provides a thorough overview of the fascinating intersection of economics, culture, artistry and technology that has defined American film from its beginnings. The Second Edition features a NEW four-colour design, hundreds of new images, greater emphasis on film analysis, increased coverage of women and minority filmmakers and an epilogue that speculates on the future of film.

Featuring interviews with 27 award-winning and emerging filmmakers, this book is the first comprehensive look at independent filmmaking careers in South East Asia with never-before published insights into the lives and careers of some of the most influential filmmakers in one of the world’s most exciting screen production regions.Celebrating filmmaking in South East Asia, the interviews offer unique perspectives that highlight the various paths filmmakers have taken to establish and develop thei...