Film History

Only one performance style has dominated the lexicon of the casual moviegoer: "Method acting." The first reception-based analysis of film acting, Imagining the Method investigates how popular understandings of the so-called Method—what its author Justin Rawlins calls "methodness"—created an exclusive brand for white, male actors while associating such actors with rebellion and marginalization. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book maps the forces giving shape to methodness and policing its boundaries.

Wawrczeck zeichnet ein subjektives Porträt eines der größten Künstler des 20. Jahrhunderts. Man sitzt mit ihm vor dem Fernseher, wenn er den ersten Hitchcock-Film sieht, begleitet ihn ins Tonstudio zu den Aufnahmen der "Drei ???" und zieht mit ihm durch die Welt: Von Hamburg über New York, von Bodega Bay nach London, immer auf der Spur von Hitchcocks Meisterwerken. Er erzählt, wie ihm Hitchcocks Filme bei der Suche nach der eigenen Identität halfen und ihm zeigten, dass die Beantwortung der Frage "Bin ich verrückt oder sind es die anderen?" immer vom Standpunkt abhängt.

Reality TV's influence is seismic: twenty-five years ago, the concept didn't exist. Yet today, it is one of the most powerful cultural forces on earth; a multi-billion-dollar machine. Despite that, it is often derided as "trash"; a cultural McDonalds not worthy of examination. The truth is that reality TV offers a profound insight into who we are as human beings, questioning the very nature of what we deem to be entertaining. Writer, broadcaster and reality TV-obsessive Jacques Peretti goes behind the scenes of a world that has entranced and consumed him for two decades.

The legend Newsweek once dubbed “Superflack,” Bobby Zarem knows all of Hollywood’s secrets, and he’s not afraid to share them all. Even if you don’t believe all his dish, you’ll never look at the movie business the same. In light of Peter Bogdanovich’s January 6 death, The Originals releases a never-before-heard 2019 interview in which the Oscar-nominated director narrates his own story. Candid, shocking, and often hilarious, Bogdanovich shares tales of the mistakes that bedeviled his career.

"Anatomía del crimen: Guía de la novela y el cine negros" es una completa guía del escritor de novela negra y, al mismo tiempo, teórico del género Mariano Sánchez Soler, quien ha diseccionado la narrativa criminal, sus orígenes, el salto a la literatura española y su relación con el cine nacional e internacional. Subjetivo, apasionado y visceral, su visión compone una guía completa de este tipo de novelas y películas.

Défier les lois de la physique avec "Ant-Man", et celles de l'anatomie avec "Godzilla". S'aventurer aux abords d'un trou noir... et y plonger avec "Interstellar". Communiquer avec les aliens comme dans "Premier Contact". Se retrouver seul sur Mars et tenter d'y survivre. Étudier Prometheus et s'interroger sur l'origine et l'évolution des espèces extraterrestres.

On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.

From the sleek Aston Martin that spits out bullets, nails, and passengers at the push of a button to the microjet that makes hairpin turns to avoid a heat-seeking missile, the science and technology of James Bond films have kept millions of movie fans guessing for decades. Are these amazing feats and gadgets truly possible? The Science of James Bond takes you on a fascinating excursion through the true science that underlies Bond's most fantastic and off-the-wall accoutrements.

For No Reason at All: The Changing Narrative of the First World War in American Film discusses a variety of Great War-themed films made from 1915 to the present, tracing the changing approaches to the conflict over time.

Thelma & Louise, the 1991 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, has been described as a road movie, a buddy movie, a feminist parable, and only incidentally as a Western. An Oscar winner for first-time screenwriter Callie Khouri, Thelma & Louise catalyzed a national conversation about women, violence, and self-determination in a Hollywood still shrugging off the West of John Wayne and in an America that still viewed women as accessories to the national mythology.

In this intimate and often surprising personal portrait, Joseph McBride challenges the conventional wisdom that Welles' career after Citizen Kane, widely regarded as the greatest film ever made, fell into a long decline. The author shows instead how Welles never stopped directing radical, adventurous films and was always breaking new artistic ground as a filmmaker. McBride is the first author to provide a comprehensive examination of the films of Welles's artistically rich yet widely misunderstood later period in the United States (1970–1985).

Brimming with previously untold stories and insights, How Coppola Became Cage both revels in and demystifies Cage's onscreen eccentricities. No other modern actor has explored such profound creative extremes while bending the boundaries of good taste. Here is the origin story of an actor who truly is wild at heart and weird on top.

Al Jolson, born Asa Yoelson, immigrated from a shtetl in Lithuania to the United States in 1894 after his father secured a job as a rabbi in Washington, D.C. A poor, Yiddish-speaking newcomer navigating a racially segregated and antisemitic America, young Jolson dreamed of becoming a star, and he did. Through Jolson, Bernstein simultaneously breaks open the history and legacy of the cultural sensation The Jazz Singer. Not only was The Jazz Singer the first feature-length film with synchronized music and dialogue, but it was also taboo smashing in its content.

Fascinante ensayo que recorre, no solo la representación del vudú en el cine, desde cintas emblemáticas como El corazón del ángel a La serpiente y el arco iris, sino también los propios orígenes, evolución, idiosincrasia y prácticas del vudú real, de la mano de uno de los mayores expertos en el tema. El texto principal está aderezado con críticas y ensayos sobre el tema de otros autores emblemáticos de la escena hispanohablante contemporánea.

Is theater really dead? Does the theater, as its champions insist, really provide a more intimate experience than film? If so, how have changes in cinematic techniques and technologies altered the relationship between stage and film? What are the inherent limitations of representing three-dimensional spaces in a two-dimensional one, and vice versa? American Drama in the Age of Film examines the strengths and weaknesses of both the dramatic and cinematic arts to confront the standard arguments in the film-versus-theater debate.

Black Panther is one of the most financially successful and culturally impactful films to emerge from the American film industry in recent years. When it was released in 2018 it broke numerous records and resonated with audiences all around the world. In Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon, author Terence McSweeney explores the film from a diverse range of perspectives, seeing it as not only a comic book adaptation and a superhero film, but also a dynamic contribution to the discourse of both African and African American studies.

This young listeners’ edition tells the remarkable story, largely forgotten until now, of the young Jewish women who became resistance fighters against the Nazis during World War II. It has already been optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture....

George Chakiris famously played the angry gang leader Bernardo in the film version of West Side Story (1961), for which he won an Oscar for best supporting actor. My West Side Story is an insider's look at how this theatrical and cinematic landmark evolved from a conversation in Jerome Robbins's Manhattan apartment between him, Arthur Laurents, and Leonard Bernstein to ten Oscars, three Golden Globes, two Tony Awards, and a Grammy.

15 years after Ondi Timoner’s film Dig! shot The Brian Jonestown Massacre to international fame comes the first ever book on the controversial band and their leader, Anton Newcombe, who together have been at the forefront of the resurgence of psychedelic rock in recent decades — and become one of the most infamous and controversial bands around in the process.

¿Sabía que Akira Kurosawa, el director japonés más célebre y admirado, intentó quitarse la vida tras el fracaso comercial de Dodeskaden? ¿Que Martin Sheen sufrió un infarto durante el rodaje de Apocalypse Now, uno de los más infernales que se recuerdan? ¿Sabía que el principal creador del lenguaje cinematográfico era un fervoroso partidario del Ku Klux Klan? ¿Que en 1921 Fatty Arbuckle, uno de los cómicos más célebres de su tiempo, fue acusado de asesinar a la joven actriz Virginia Rappe?