The Thought of Stanley Cavell and Cinema
Stanley Cavell was, by many accounts, America's greatest philosophical thinker of film. Like Bazin in France and Perkins in England, Cavell did not just transform the American capacity to take film as a subject for philosophical criticism; he had to first invent that legitimacy. Part of that effort involved the creation of several key now-canonical texts in film studies, among them the seminal The World Viewed along with Pursuits of Happiness and Contesting Tears. The present collection offers,...
Cultural Metamorphoses in Contemporary Italian Cinema
by Roberta Di Carmine
Cultural Metamorphoses in Contemporary Italian Cinema explores four different areas of study in contemporary Italian cinema: the migrants’ social struggle, the decline of the middle class, the isolation of the elderly, and gender inequality. This book focuses on four films produced between 2007 and 2013, specifically Io sono Li (Shun Li and the Poet, 2011), Giorni e nuvole (Days and Clouds, 2007), Pranzo di ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch, 2008), and Viaggio sola (A Five Star Life, 2013), examining...
Ishiro Honda was arguably the most internationally successful Japanese director of his generation, with an unmatched succession of science fiction films that were commercial hits worldwide. From the atomic allegory of Godzilla and the beguiling charms of Mothra to the tragic mystery of Matango and the disaster and spectacle of Rodan, The Mysterians, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and many others, Honda's films reflected postwar Japan's real-life anxieties and incorporated fantastical special effects, a...
Lukas Moodysson’s Show Me Love (Nordic Film Classics)
by Anna Westerstahl Stenport
Lukas Moodysson is one of the most accomplished and unconventional filmmakers of his generation in Sweden. Moodysson, now well known for his English-language film Mammoth (2009) as well as his heartbreaking indictment of sex-trafficking in Sweden, Lilya 4-Ever (2002), debuted as a writer and director while still in his twenties with Show Me Love (1998). The film received four Guldbaggar--the Swedish equivalent of the Academy Awards--including best film, best director, best screenplay, and best a...
Leni Riefenstahl and Olympia (The Scarecrow Filmmakers, #13)
by Cooper C Graham
New in Paper! Leni Riefenstahl's four-hour film, Olympia, a major propaganda achievement of Nazi Germany in the 1930's, deals with the Eleventh Olympic Games that were held in Berlin in 1936. Olympia is also perhaps the best German film produced during the National Socialist period. Graham has scrutinized the history of the film and shows that it was deeply involved with the regime, both in its stages of production and in its later distribution. He also argues that the film can be regarded as a...
Lady Inger of Ostrat; The Vikings at Helgeland; The Pretenders (1904)
by Henrik Ibsen
Twenty years after its release, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut remains a complex, visually arresting film about marriage, jealousy, domesticity, adultery, sexual disturbance, and dreams. This was the final enigmatic work from its equally enigmatic creator. It has left an indelible mark on our popular culture and remains as relevant as ever. Much maligned and much misunderstood when it first came out, Eyes Wide Shut has since been the subject of an animated debate and discussion among critics,...
From Perversion to Purity
Catherine Deneuve is indisputably one of the world’s most celebrated actresses, both in her native France and throughout the world. Her career has spanned five decades during which she has worked with the most significant of French auteurs, as well as forging partnerships with international directors such as Bunuel and Polanski. The Deneuve star persona has attained such iconic status that it can now symbolise the very essence of French womanhood and civic identity. In this wide-ranging and aut...
John Cassavetes (Conversations with Filmmakers (Hardcover)) (Conversations with Filmmakers)
American filmmaker John Cassavetes (1929-1989) made only nine independent films during a quarter century, but those films have affected the cinema culture of the 1960s to the 1980s in unprecedented ways. With a close nucleus of actors and crew members on his team, including his wife Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, and Ben Gazzara, Cassavetes created films that explored the gritty side of human relationships. He staunchly advocated the right of actors and filmmakers to full artistic freedom over their...