This in-depth study of Mexican film director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu explores his role in moving Mexican filmmaking from a traditional nationalist agenda towards a more global focus. Working in the United States and in Mexico, Inarritu crosses national borders while his movies break the barriers of distribution, production, narration, and style. His features also experiment with transnational identity as characters emigrate and settings change.In studying the international scope of Inarritu's influential films "Amores Perros, 21 Grams, " and "Babel, " Celestino Deleyto and Maria del...
This in-depth study of Mexican film director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu explores his role in moving Mexican filmmaking from a traditional national...
Steven Soderbergh's feature films present a diverse range of subject matter and formal styles: from the self-absorption of his breakthrough hit "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" to populist social problem films such as "Erin Brockovich," and from the modernist discontinuity of "Full Frontal" and filmed performance art of "Gray's Anatomy" to a glossy, star-studded action blockbuster such as "Ocean's Eleven." Using a combination of realism and expressive stylization of character subjectivity, Soderbergh's films diverge from the contemporary Hollywood mainstream through the statements they offer on...
Steven Soderbergh's feature films present a diverse range of subject matter and formal styles: from the self-absorption of his breakthrough hit "Sex, ...
In just over a decade, Francois Ozon has earned an international reputation as a successful and provocative filmmaker. A student of Eric Rohmer and Jean Douchet at the prestigious Femis, Ozon made a number of critically acclaimed shorts in the 1990s and released his first feature film "Sitcom" in 1998. Two additional shorts and eleven feature films have followed, including international successes "8 femmes" and "Swimming Pool" and more recent releases such as "Angel, Ricky, " and "Le refuge." Ozon's originality lies in his filmmaking style, which draws on familiar cinematic traditions (the...
In just over a decade, Francois Ozon has earned an international reputation as a successful and provocative filmmaker. A student of Eric Rohmer and...
Since the late 1980s, Hal Hartley has challenged standards of realist narrative cinema with daring narrative constructions, character development, and the creation of an unconventional visual world. In this pioneering critical overview of his work and its cultural-historical context, Mark L. Berrettini discusses seven of Hartley's feature films, including "The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, Amateur, Henry Fool, Fay Grim, " and "The Book of Life."Drawing on journalism, theories of representation, narrative and genre, and cinema history, Berrettini discusses the absurdist-comedic...
Since the late 1980s, Hal Hartley has challenged standards of realist narrative cinema with daring narrative constructions, character development, ...
Scandinavia's foremost living auteur and the catalyst of the Dogme95 movement, Lars von Trier is arguably world cinema's most confrontational and polarizing figure. Willfully devastating audiences, he takes risks few filmmakers would conceive, mounting projects that somehow transcend the grand follies they narrowly miss becoming. Challenging conventional limitations and imposing his own rules, he restlessly reinvents the film language. The Danish director has therefore cultivated an insistently transnational cinema, taking inspiration from sources that range from the European avant-garde...
Scandinavia's foremost living auteur and the catalyst of the Dogme95 movement, Lars von Trier is arguably world cinema's most confrontational and p...
In this much needed examination of Mike Leigh, Sean O'Sullivan reclaims the British director as a practicing theorist--a filmmaker deeply invested in cinema's formal, conceptual, and narrative dimensions. In contrast with Leigh's prevailing reputation as a straightforward crafter of social realist movies, O'Sullivan illuminates the visual tropes and storytelling investigations that position Leigh as an experimental filmmaker who uses the art and artifice of cinema to frame tales of the everyday and the extraordinary alike.
O'Sullivan challenges the prevailing characterizations of Leigh...
In this much needed examination of Mike Leigh, Sean O'Sullivan reclaims the British director as a practicing theorist--a filmmaker deeply invested ...
This volume is the first book-length study of the extensive career and prolific works of D.A. Pennebaker, one of the pioneers of direct cinema, a documentary form that emphasizes observation and a straightforward portrayal of events. With a career spanning decades, Pennebaker's many projects have included avant-garde experiments (Daybreak Express), ground-breaking television documentaries (Primary), celebrity films (Dont Look Back), concert films (Monterey Pop), and innovative fusions of documentary and fiction (Maidstone).Exploring the concept of "performing the real," Keith Beattie...
This volume is the first book-length study of the extensive career and prolific works of D.A. Pennebaker, one of the pioneers of direct cinema, a d...
As a pioneer of the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette was one of a group of directors who permanently altered the world's perception of cinema by taking the camera out of the studios and into the streets. His films, including "Paris nous appartient, Out 1: Noli me tangere, Celine et Julie vont en bateau--Phantom Ladies Over Paris, La belle noiseuse, Secret defense, " and "Va savoir" are extraordinary combinations of intellectual depth, playfulness, and sensuous beauty.In this study of Rivette, Mary M. Wiles provides a thorough account of the director's career from the burgeoning French New...
As a pioneer of the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette was one of a group of directors who permanently altered the world's perception of cinema by ta...
This study investigates the controversial motion pictures written and directed by the independent filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, one of the most acclaimed Korean auteurs in the English-speaking world. Propelled by underdog protagonists who can only communicate through shared corporeal pain and extreme violence, Kim's graphic films have been classified by Western audiences as belonging to sensationalist East Asian "extreme" cinema, and Kim has been labeled a "psychopath" and "misogynist" in South Korea.Drawing upon both Korean-language and English-language sources, Hye Seung Chung challenges these...
This study investigates the controversial motion pictures written and directed by the independent filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, one of the most acclaimed K...
American director Philip Kaufman is hard to pin down: a visual stylist who is truly literate, a San Franciscan who often makes European films, he is an accessible storyteller with a sophisticated touch. Celebrated for his vigorous, sexy, and reflective cinema, Kaufman is best known for his masterpiece "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and the astronaut saga "The Right Stuff. "His latest film," "Hemingway & Gellhorn" "(premiering May 2012 on HBO), stars Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen.In this study, Annette Insdorf argues that the stylistic and philosophical richness of Kaufman's cinema...
American director Philip Kaufman is hard to pin down: a visual stylist who is truly literate, a San Franciscan who often makes European films, he i...
