Film History

Der Untergang der "Wilhelm Gustloff" war die größte Schiffskatastrophe aller Zeiten: Über 9.300 Menschen, darunter 5.000 Kinder, verloren am 30. Januar 1945 im eisigen Wasser der Ostsee ihr Leben. Zeitzeugen lassen die Geschichte des seinerzeit größten Dampfers der Erde noch einmal lebendig werden: Von ihren Fahrten als Urlaubsschiff der Organisation "Kraft durch Freude" bis zum Rettungseinsatz im Osten.

Having saved virtually every letter her father wrote to her between the years 1938, when she was 11 years old, and 1967, Miriam Marx' letters from her famous father Groucho show an extraordinary father-daughter relationship.

The untold, intimate story of how three young visionaries—Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg—revolutionized American cinema, creating the most iconic films in history while risking everything, redefining friendship, and shaping Hollywood as we know it. In the summer of...

Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan. When we watch these remarkable actors in a performance, we see only Sophie, Stanley Kowalski, Hannibal Lecter, or Cassie from Promising Young Woman. How are they able to transform our world in this way? How and why do they do what they do? In Acting Naturally, David Thomson sheds light on the actors who have shaped the film industry. He shrewdly analyzes these stars, revealing how a sly smile, an extra-long pause, even a small gesture of the hand can draw in an audience.

The Ultimate History of the '80s Teen Movie goes behind the scenes of a genre where cult hits mingled with studio blockbusters, where giants like Spielberg and Coppola rubbed shoulders with baby-faced first-timers, and where future superstars Sean, Demi, and Tom all got their big break. Music, comedy, and politics all play a part in the surprisingly complex history of the '80s teen movie. And while the films might have been aimed primarily at adolescents, the best tackle universal issues and remain relevant to all ages.

Animators work within a strictly defined, limited space that requires difficult artistic decisions. The blank frame presents a dilemma for all animators, and the decision of what to include and leave out raises important questions about artistry, authorship, and cultural influence. In Animating Space: From Mickey to WALL-E, renowned scholar J. P. Telotte explores how animation has confronted the blank template, and how responses to that confrontation have changed.

Rollyson fully explores Brennan's work with Hollywood's greatest directors, such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Fritz Lang. As a father and grandfather, Brennan instilled generations of his family with an outlook on the American Dream that remains a sustaining feature of their lives today. His conservative politics, which grew out of his New England upbringing and his devout Catholicism, receive meticulous attention and a balanced assessment in A Real American Character.

The incomparable Simone Signoret (1921 - 1985), one of the grand actresses of the twentieth century and one of France's most notable stars, considered herself the "oldest discovery" in Hollywood. After years of blacklisting during the McCarthy era, she was 38 years old when she entered Hollywood through the back door in the 1959 British blockbuster Room at the Top. Her portrayal of the endearing Alice Aisgill earned her the Academy Award in 1960, the first French actor to win a coveted Oscar.

The Camera Lies unpacks Hitchcock's legacy both as a director who continuously taught audiences to distrust appearance and as a man with an uncanny insight into the human capacity for deceit and misinterpretation.

Dana Andrews (1909-1992) worked with distinguished directors such as John Ford, Lewis Milestone, Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, William A. Wellman, Mervyn Le Roy, Jean Renoir, and Elia Kazan. He played romantic leads alongside the great beauties of the modern screen, including Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Greer Garson, Merle Oberon, Linda Darnell, Susan Hayward, Maureen O'Hara, and most important of all, Gene Tierney, with whom he did five films.

One of the world's most iconic movie stars, Kirk Douglas has distinguished himself as a producer, philanthropist, and author of ten works of fiction and memoir. Now, more than fifty years after the release of his enduring epic Spartacus, Douglas reveals the riveting drama behind the making of the legendary gladiator film. Douglas began producing the movie in the midst of the politically charged era when Hollywood’s moguls refused to hire anyone accused of Communist sympathies.

In his first memoir, Ander Monson guides listeners through a scene-by-scene exploration of the 1987 film Predator, which he has watched 146 times. Some fighters might not have time to bleed, but Monson has the patience to consider their adventure, one frame at a time. He turns his obsession into a lens through which he poignantly examines his own life, formed by mainstream white male American culture.

Sausages: The Making of Dog Soldiers is a celebration of Neil Marshall’s debut soldiers versus werewolves movie. To coincide with the 20-year anniversary, it takes a deep dive look behind the scenes at the cult classic. As well as a full retrospective, you will find interviews with the cast and crew, original shot list, excerpts from the script and more. Encompassing the tone of Dog Soldiers, Sausages is the perfect companion to this fan-favourite film. Includes a foreword from genre icon Joe Dante and afterword from legendary director John Landis.

Am 4. Februar 1938 wurde der spätere Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel zum Chef des neugeschaffenen Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht ernannt. In dieser Funktion war er Adolf Hitler unmittelbar unterstellt. Keitel zählte zweifellos zu den engsten militärischen Mitarbeitern Hitlers, doch ein Generalstabschef der Wehrmacht mit weitreichenden Befehlsbefugnissen über die Armeen, wie es die Anklage im Nürnberger Hauptkriegsverbrecherprozess behauptete, war er zu keiner Zeit.

Deutschland im Mai 1945. Der Krieg ist verloren: Trümmer und Ruinenfelder, so weit das Auge reicht. Während die Alliierten den Sieg feiern, suchen russische Spezialeinheiten in Berlin nach den Überresten von Feind Nummer 1: Adolf Hitler. Dieser hatte sich am 30. April gemeinsam mit seiner kurz zuvor angetrauten Ehefrau das Leben genommen. Unmittelbar nach dem Tod hatten die letzten Getreuen die Leichen ins Freie getragen und verbrannt. Dass es überhaupt eine Frau an Hitlers Seite gab, ist nicht nur für die Sieger eine Überraschung.

I was a “Monster Kid” and “The Weird Kid, The Horror Movie Kid.” I found out early…horror is always personal. Now I make horror for a living. It shouldn’t just be WATCHED. Horror should be ENJOYED. This isn’t some stuffy analysis telling you what’s good or bad. Instead, it’s a tour of the 1930s through the 1980s—a personal account of how the best and worst of this era gave us so many memories and experiences that impacted our own lives. It’s fun…just how horror should always be.

Go deeper inside the hit TV show The Boys and its characters with psychologists, media experts, filmmakers, and more—including the original comic series' cocreator and the actors behind Soldier Boy and Stormfront. Supes Ain't Always Heroes offers a fresh look at The Boys, delving into the show's unflinching depiction of celebrity, politics, social media, corporate greed, racism, sexism, and more.

David Bordwell argues that the principles of visual storytelling created in the studio era are alive and well, even in today's bloated blockbusters. American filmmakers have created a durable tradition - one that we should not be ashamed to call artistic, and one that survives in both mainstream entertainment and niche-marketed indie cinema. Bordwell traces the continuity of this tradition in a wide array of films made since 1960.

Bizarre, brilliant and filled with things you didn't know you didn't know - The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything evokes a sense of wonder at the scale of this planet, and the universe in which it sits. The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything is a treasure trove of random knowledge. Covering...

Robert Altman and the Elaboration of Hollywood Storytelling reveals an Altman barely glimpsed in previous critical accounts of the filmmaker. This re-examination of his seminal work during the "Hollywood Renaissance" or "New Hollywood" period of the early 1970s (including M*A*S*H and Nashville) sheds new light on both the films and the filmmaker, reframing Altman as a complex, pragmatic innovator whose work exceeds, but is also grounded in, the norms of classical Hollywood storytelling rather than someone who rejected those norms in favor of modernist art cinema.