Entertainment History

In How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, veteran journalist Chris Taylor traces the series from the difficult birth of the original film through its sequels, the franchise’s death and rebirth, the prequels, and the preparations for a new trilogy. Taylor provides portraits of the friends, writers, artists, producers, and marketers who labored behind the scenes to turn Lucas’s idea into a legend.

Joe Boyd tells of his journey through Sixties music, from tour managing Muddy Waters and Coleman Hawkins, to plugging in Bob Dylan's electric guitar while working as production manager at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, to becoming a leading record producer. His first session was Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood's "Crossroads" followed by Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny and many more.

Noir emerged as a prominent American film genre in the early 1940s, distinguishable by its use of unusual lighting, sinister plots, mysterious characters, and dark themes. From The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Touch of Evil (1958), films from this classic period reflect an atmosphere of corruption and social decay that attracted such accomplished directors as John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles.

Drawing on Daphne du Maurier's short story and contemporary newspaper reports of bird attacks in California, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) featured Tippi Hedren in her first starring role. Camille Paglia's compelling study considers the film's aesthetic, technical and mythical qualities, and analyses its depiction of gender and family relations. A film about anxiety, sexual power and the violence of nature, it is quintessential Hitchcock.

Voici le livre de Loïc Prigent que tout le monde attendait : son histoire de la mode. Dans ce récit savant, personnel et aussi irrésistible que l'achat d'un vêtement superflu et donc indispensable, il dévoile la couture, du XIXe siècle à l'ouverture de la première boutique de Gabrielle Chanel en 1913. Des premiers grands couturiers (Worth) et des premières acheteuses stars (l'impératrice Eugénie) à l'industrie qui s'en mêle et aux débuts de la commercialisation de masse, nous découvrons les dessus et les dessous de cette folie française.

When Miranda Sawyer interviewed Liam Gallagher in 1994, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news all over the world. This fascinating pop history, exploring the moment British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, UNCOMMON PEOPLE takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, films like Trainspotting were international hits, rave became what everybody did - and it felt like the revolution was happening.

Fun, bright, and playful, power pop is a sometimes adored, sometimes maligned, often misunderstood genre of music. From its heyday in the '70s and '80s to its resurgence in the '90s and '00s, power pop has meant many things to many people. In Go All the Way, today's best and brightest writers go deep on what certain power pop bands and songs mean and have meant to them. Whether they love or hate it, Go All the Way is a dive into the Beatles-inspired pop rock of the last five decades.

The Sound of Music is a classic film cherished in the hearts of millions. It won five Oscars, including Best Picture, upon its release in 1965. This tribute to a Hollywood classic is sure to thrill everyone who's ever sung along to "My Favorite Things" at one of the many screenings that still take place today. Through interviews with the cast and crew, in-depth access to memorabilia and personal scrapbooks, and archival research at Fox Studios, author Julia Antopol Hirsch reveals the lively human story behind the making of the von Trapp family film.

At a time when the studio is making a stunning comeback, film historian Thomas Schatz provides an indispensable account of Hollywood's traditional blend of business and art. Working from industry documents, Schatz traces the development of house styles, the rise and fall of careers, and the making - and unmaking - of movies, from Frankenstein to Spellbound to Grand Hotel. The Genius of the System gives the definitive view of the workings of the Old Hollywood and the foundations of the New.

Bond and the Beatles present us with opposing values, visions of the British culture, and ideas about sexual identity. Love and Let Die is the story of a clash between working class liberation and establishment control, and how it exploded on the global stage. It explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.

The Book of Kells is a mystery. It is distinct from all copies of the gospels from the early Middle Ages, not only in the quality and amount of its decoration but also in the peculiarities of the ordering of its contents, the oddness of its apparatus, the appearance of the script, the interplay of text and ornament, and the erratic forms of its Latin. The Book of Kells is probably the most famous manuscript in the world – and Victoria Whitworth's masterly treatment offers something new.

The 1930s was a magical age in Hollywood, with Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis, and Clark Gable lighting up the silver screen. But Deanna Durbin’s fame surpassed them all. Born in Canada, Deanna was “discovered” by star-maker Eddie Cantor, producer Joe Pasternak, and director Henry Koster, and she quickly became the world’s most celebrated star. She saved Universal Studios from ruin, she was a favorite of Winston Churchill and Anne Frank, and she became the highest-paid woman in America.

This updated and expanded edition of A Short History of Film provides an accessible overview of the major movements, directors, studios, and genres from the 1880s to the present. Succinct yet comprehensive, this edition provides new information on contemporary horror, comic book, and franchise films; issues surrounding women and minority filmmakers; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on movies worldwide; the shift from film to digital production; the rising use of artificial intelligence in cinema; and the impact of streaming on the industry.

Ha habido muy pocos grupos de rock españoles tan personales y emocionantes como Extremoduro. Roberto Iniesta, su fundador y emblema, acuñó la expresión «rock transgresivo» para definir el tipo de música que hacían, caracterizada por la unión de una poesía de una fiera visceralidad, sin parangón en el ámbito de la canción popular, y unas estructuras musicales que se rebelaron contra las fórmulas al uso.

Japanese animation—or anime—holds a special place in the hearts of countless fans around the globe. Since the early days of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy to Makoto Shinkai’s astounding success with Your Name, anime has left an undeniable impact on our culture. Anime Impact explores the impression the medium has left on various fans with detailed discussions on television shows and movies from the 1960s all the way to the present.

Few songs have captured the contradictions and ambiguities of the 1960s as memorably as "California Dreamin'," the iconic folk music single that catapulted the Mamas & the Papas into rock and roll history. In All the Leaves Are Brown, author Scott Shea details how John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Michelle Phillips, and "Mama Cass" Elliot became standard-bearers for California counterculture, following their transformation from folk music wannabes to rock sensations and chronicling the tumultuous events that followed their unexpected success.

Seymour Stein is America's greatest living record man. Not only has he signed and nurtured more important artists than anyone alive, now 60 years in the game, he's still the hippest label head, traveling the globe in search of the next big thing. Since the late '50s, he's been wherever it's happening, and along that winding path, he discovered and broke out a skyline full of stars, including Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Madonna, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Seal, and many others.

In this luminous memoir, Rita Moreno shares her remarkable journey from a young girl with simple beginnings in Puerto Rico to Hollywood legend—and one of the few performers, and the only Hispanic, to win an Oscar, Grammy, Tony and two Emmys. Born Rosita Dolores Alverio in the idyll of Puerto...

The animations of Japan's Studio Ghibli are among the most respected in the movie industry. Their delightful films rank alongside the most popular non-English language films ever made, with each new eagerly anticipated release a guaranteed box-office hit. Yet this highly profitable studio has remained fiercely independent, producing a stream of imaginative and individual animations. The studio's founders, the late Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, have created timeless masterpieces. Although their films are distinctly Japanese, their themes are universal.

Lifelong fans and interested newcomers will love this stunning biography of Duran Duran by the bestselling author of Gold Dust Woman and Hammer of the Gods. In Please Please Tell Me Now, bestselling rock biographer Stephen Davis tells the story of Duran Duran, the quintessential band of the...