""Every time I make a movie, everybody says it's the most expensive film in the film industry.""- James Cameron
From "Aliens" to " Titanic," James Cameron's films have spanned genres, broken box-office records, cleaned up at the Oscars, and turned body-builders into movie stars. Despite Cameron's undeniable influence on the high-concept postmodern blockbuster that dominated the 1980s and 90s, there has until recently been little academic attention to his work.
Alexandra Keller provides the first critical study of James Cameron as an auteur. Considering in particular his treatment of...

Featuring excerpts from interviews and frame-by-frame analysis of important scenes from films such as Terminator, Aliens, True Lies, and Titanic, Alexandra Keller provides the first critical study of James Cameron as an auteur.

Considering in particular his treatment of gender and preoccupation with capital, both in his films and his filmmaking practice, Keller offers an overview of Cameron's work and its significance within cinematic history.

Sections in the book include:

• Chronology
• Key Debates
• Key...

Horror cinema is a hugely successful, but at the same time culturally illicit genre that spans the history of cinema. It continues to flourish with recent cycles of supernatural horror and torture porn that span the full range of horror styles and aesthetics. It is enjoyed by audiences everywhere, but also seen as a malign influence by others.

In this Routledge Film Guidebook, audience researcher and film scholar Brigid Cherry provides a comprehensive overview of the horror film and explores how the genre works. Examining the way horror films create images of gore and the...

The term "film noir" still conjures images of a uniquely American malaise: hard-boiled detectives, fatal women, and the shadowy hells of urban life. But from its beginnings, film noir has been an international phenomenon, and its stylistic icons have migrated across the complex geo-political terrain of world cinema. This book traces film noir's emergent connection to European cinema, its movement within a cosmopolitan culture of literary and cinematic translation, and its postwar consolidation in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

The authors examine...

This introduction to documentary covers its history, cultural context and development, and the approaches, methods and functions inherent to non-fiction filmmaking. Saunders examines the many methods by which documentary conveys meaning, whilst exploring its differing societal purposes.

Dave Saunders' spirited introduction to documentary covers its history, cultural context and development, and the approaches, controversies and functions pertaining to non-fiction filmmaking. Saunders examines the many methods by which documentary conveys meaning, whilst exploring its differing societal purposes.

After a historical consideration of international documentary production, the author examines the impact of recent technological developments on the production, distribution and viewing of non-fiction. In addition, he explores the increasingly hazy distinctions between...

Romantic comedy is an enduringly popular genre which has maintained its appeal by constantly evolving, from the screwball comedy to the recent emergence of the bromance.

Romantic Comedy examines the history of the genre, considering the social and cultural context for key developments in new genre cycles. It studies the key themes and issues at work within romantic comedy films, focusing in particular on the representation of gender and how the genre acts as a barometer for gender politics in the course of the twentieth century.

Claire Mortimer provides the reader...

It is a common assertion that the history of America is written in its Westerns, but how true is this? This guidebook discusses the evolution of the Western through history and looks at theoretical and critical approaches to Westerns such as genre analysis, semiotics, representation, ideology, discourse analysis, narrative, and realism.

Looks at the key aesthetics, themes, debates and issues at work within this increasingly popular genre and examines influential films and franchises that illustrate these concerns. Recent case study film series discussed will include: Harry Potter (Various, 2001-ongoing) Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003) Pirates of the Caribbean (Gore Verbinski 2003-2007) The Chronicles of Narnia (Various, 2005-ongoing) The authors also consider fantasy film and its relationship to myth, legend and fairytale, examining its important role in contemporary culture. The book provides an historical...

Crime films have, since the earliest days of cinema, been popular with audiences, industry and critics alike and encompassed a diverse range of subjects, styles and themes. The genre provides a range of pleasures for the spectator, from taking on the role of the detective in the pursuit of clues in the 'whodunit', to the more illicit thrills of identification with an anti hero. In the many incarnations of the crime film such as the gangster, film noir, political and detective thrillers, the genre explores the anxieties of different historical moments. Sarah Casey Benyahia provides an...