This groundbreaking study engages with the theoretical aspects of realism - a long neglected area in film studies. Contributes to an understanding of how popular films use realist forms to address contentious social and political issues such as social exclusion, war and violence. Focusing on key moments in film history the authors examine the uses of realism in national cinemas as a context for their in-depth analysis of contemporary popular films. A series of case studies examines the hybrid styles of realism used in recent filmmaking practice and the politics of these forms in relation to...

Stars are central to the cinema experience, and this collection offers a variety of fresh and informed perspectives on this important but sometimes neglected area of film studies.This book takes as its focus film stars from the past and present, from Hollywood, its margins and beyond and analyses them through a close consideration of their films and the variety of contexts in which they worked.
The book spreads the net wide, looking at past stars from Rosalind Russell and Charlton Heston to present day stars including Sandra Bullock, Jackie Chan and Jim Carrey, as well as those figures...

A fascinating multi-dimensional investigation of popular film as a commercial, cultural and social phenomenon, focusing on well known and controversial films, and on important - and marketable - issues such as sex and violence. Traces the circulation in Britain of three Hollywood films - Basic Instinct, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Natural Born Killers - from marketing and critical reception to consumption. Draws on economic and discursive contexts and original audience research to trace how meanings, pleasures and uses are derived from popular film. First in the field to look at how Hollywood...

This is the first collection in English to focus exclusively on the various forms of popular film produced in Spain and to acknowledge the variety, range and depth of Spanish cinema.
Contributors from across Hispanic, media and cultural studies explore a range of genres, from the musicals of the 1930s and 1940s to contemporary horror movies, historical epics of the 1940s and 1950s and contemporary representations of the Spanish Civil War. The book includes reappraisals of key popular directors such as Luis Garcia Berlanga and Antonio Mercero as well as critical analyses of celebrated...

The first full length academic study of Hepburn's star persona and films featuring reseach into the experience of British women who have admired her in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1990s. Examines the historical specificity of discourses of feminity circulating around Hepburn and her female fans, suggesting that the flexibility of Hepburn's image has contributed to her enduring appeal. Makes a significant contribution to the growing field of star studies. Argues that class and gender are siginifcant factors in the relatonship between stars and audiences.

One of the first books to put memory at the centre of analysis when exploring the relationship between film culture and the past. Provides a sustained, interdisciplinary perspective on memory and film from early cinema to the present, drawing from film studies, American studies and cultural studies. Adopts a resolutely cultural perspective and unlike psychoanalytic or formalist approaches to memory, explores questions of culture, power and identity. Contributes to the growing debate about the status and function of the past in cultural life and discourse, discussing issues of memory in film,...

Concentrates on the analysis of cult movies, how they are defined, who defines them and the cultural politics of these definitions. Raises issues about the perception of it as an oppositional form of cinema, and of its strained relationships to mainstream cinema and the processes of institutionalisation and classification. Claims that the history of academic film studies and that of cult movie fandom are inextricably intertwined and raises fundamental questions about both cult movies themselves, and film studies as a discipline. Updates work on cult movies at a time when cult films and TV...

New Hollywood Violenceis a groundbreaking collection of essays devoted to an interrogation of various aspects, dimensions, and depictions of violence in New Hollywood filmmaking. "New Hollywood" refers to the return to genre filmmaking following America's flirtation with European art cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and is characterized by vast production budgets and special effects. Focusing on the motivations, the formal and stylistic qualities and the cultural politics of violence as well as the effects on viewers, the collection is divided into four sections: "Surveys and...

Since the 1970s Hollywood cinema has been the site of remarkable developments in film sound. New revolutionary sound technologies have been developed, a new generation of filmmakers have learned to use them as powerful storytelling tools, and audiences have enjoyed a different way of experiencing films, both theatrically and at home.For the first time, through historical analysis and interviews with key players, such as Ray Dolby (founder and creator of Dolby Laboratories), Ioan Allen (the initiator of the Dolby Stereo programme), sound designer Gary Rydstrom (Titanic, Terminator 2, Toy...

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of interest in the 'spatialities of cinema' across the social sciences and humanities, yet to date critical inquiry has tended to explore this issue as a question of the 'city' and the 'urban'. For the first time, leading scholars in geography, film and cultural studies have been drawn together to explore the multiple ways in ideas of cinema and countryside are co-produced: how 'film makes rural' and 'rural makes film'. From the expanse of the American great west to the mountainous landscapes of North Korea, Cinematic Countrysides draws on a range of...