Spike Lee has directed, written, produced, and acted in dozens of films that present an expansive, nuanced, proudly opinionated, and richly multifaceted portrait of American society. As the only African-American filmmaker ever to establish a world-class career, Lee has paid acute attention to the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities. But white men and women also play important roles in his movies, and his interest in class, race, and urban life hasn’t prevented his films from ranging over...
A Companion to Wong Kar-wai (Wiley Blackwell Companions to Film Directors, #14)
With 25 essays that embrace a wide spectrum of topics and perspectives including intertextuality, transnationality, gender representation, repetition, the use of music, color, and sound, depiction of time and space in human affairs, and Wong's highly original portrayal of violence, A Companion to Wong Kar-Wai is a singular examination of the prestigious filmmaker known around the world for the innovation, beauty, and passion he brings to filmmaking. Brings together the most cutting edge, in-de...
Splice Volume 5 Issue 3 is a 'War'-themed issue, which recognises the variety of approaches taken to this long-lasting film genre. The conventions of the World War II movie are discussed in the lengthy opening article, which covers the terrain from John Ford's 'Why We Fight' information/propoganda films of the 1940s to Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Another article considers the representation of the journalist and photo-journalist in the war film, from Apocalypse Now and Vietnam to L...
Horror and exploitation films have played a pioneering role in both American and world cinema, with a number of controversial and surreal movies produced by renegade filmmakers. This collection of interviews sheds light on the work of 23 directors from across the globe who defied the conventions of Hollywood and commercial cinema. They include Alfred Sole (Alice, Sweet, Alice), Romano Scavolini (Nightmares in a Damaged Brain), Stu Segall (Drive-in Massacre), Joseph Ellison (Don't Go in the Ho...
In 1953, a nine-year-old boy watched a prehistoric film called Beast From 20,000 Fathoms featuring the special effect magic of Ray Harryhausen. Enthralled by the movie but unsatisfied with what was available for at-home movie consumption, he decided to make his own science fiction thriller from dinosaurs to superheroes. This volume takes a firsthand look at the movie-making career of Don Glut. Beginning with his first movie, Diplodocus At Large, at age nine, it explores Glut's various attempt...
When Joss Whedon's television show Firefly (2002-2003) was cancelled, devoted fans cried foul and demanded more--which led to the 2005 feature film Serenity. Both the series and the film were celebrated for their melding of science fiction and western iconography, dystopian settings, underdog storylines, and clever fast-paced dialogue. Firefly has garnered a great deal of scholarly attention--less so, Serenity. This collection of new essays, the first focusing exclusively on the film, exa...
Tony Richardson (Bio-Bibliographies in the Performing Arts)
by Don Radovich
Film and theatre director Tony Richardson's death in 1991, the publication of his memoirs in 1993, and the posthumous release of his final movie, Blue Sky in 1994 have resulted in the beginning of a critical reevaluation of Richardson's career. The first major reference on Richardson's life and work in British and American theatre and film, this book is a necessary first step in that reevaluation. Richardson's life and work are summarized in a brief opening biography. A chronology then outlin...
The revealing biography of this highly productive and radical film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was the most innovative practitioner of New German Cinema. He worked at breakneck speed and in fourteen years made forty-four films, including Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1973) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978). Fassbinder ruthlessly attacked both German bourgeois society and the larger limitations of humanity, and his films detail the desperate yearning for love and freedom and the many way...
The second in a series: the master filmmaker’s prose scenarios for four of his notable films On the first day of editing Fata Morgana, Werner Herzog recalls, his editor said: “With this kind of material we have to pretend to invent cinema.” And this, Herzog says, is what he tries to do every day. In this second volume of his scenarios, the peerless filmmaker’s genius for invention is on clear display. Written in Herzog’s signature fashion—more prose poem than screenplay, transcribing the vision...
John Boorman has written and directed more than 25 television and feature films, including such classics as Deliverance, Point Blank, Hope and Glory, and Excalibur. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards, including twice for best Director (Deliverance and Hope and Glory). In the first full-length critical study of the director in more than two decades, author Brian Hoyle presents a comprehensive examination of Boorman's career to date. The Cinema of John Boorman offers a film-by-film app...
Widely regarded as one of cinema's most accomplished directors, David Lean helmed such classics as Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist. He twice received the Academy Award for best director, and two of his films, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia won the Oscar for best picture. Both are featured on the American Film Institute's Top 100, with Lawrence of Arabia at number seven. Despite the awards and accolades for these motion pictures, many critics often look...
In 1968, when 2001: A Space Odyssey was released, the world was watching and waiting for man to take his first step on the moon. Stanley Kubrick's seminal film, with its innovative special effects and haunting score, offered audiences what felt like a realistic glimpse of the future.It served, more importantly, as a humbling testament to the limitations of human capabilities in the face of other life forms. From the dawn of man to outer space to contact with mysterious alien forces, 2001 takes t...
The Universe of Jan Svankmajer
by Kurt Bracharz, Thomas Macho, and Gerald Matt
Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie (The Scarecrow Filmmakers)
by Tony Lee Moral
An extensive look into the making of Alfred Hitchcock's most controversial film, Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie investigates the causes of the film's critical and commercial failure, the cultural and political factors governing the film's production, and the relevance the film has for today's artists and filmmakers.
"This expansive anthology explores the writings that underscore George Kuchar's work and life. The most comprehensive collection of writings on the artist to date, this volume features film scripts, comics, drawings, paintings, correspondence, autobiographical musings, tales of UFO encounters, student recommendation letters, emails, photos, film stills, and a wide range of ephemeral, often hysterical autobiographical and critical writings by the late auteur behind such underground film classics...