Since the cinema first began to be taken seriously as an art form, there has been a constant debate on the question: who is the real creator of the film, the writer or the director? This study of a group of key film-makers in the sixties suggests that during this decade there was an emergence of a generation of film-makers who conceived a whole film in their minds just as an architect conceives a whole cathedral or a composer a whole symphony.
The book presents detailed critical studies of the work of six commanding figures in the international cinema: four who have made their major...
Since the cinema first began to be taken seriously as an art form, there has been a constant debate on the question: who is the real creator of the...
During the interwar period cinema and literature seemed to be at odds with each other, part of the continuing struggle between mass and elite culture which so worried writers such as Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot and the Leavises. And this cultural divide appeared to be sharp evidence of a deeper struggle for control of the nation's consciousness, not only between dominant and oppositional elements within Britain, but between British and American vales as well.
On the one hand, films like Sing As We Go, Proud Valley, and The Stars Look Down consolidated the...
During the interwar period cinema and literature seemed to be at odds with each other, part of the continuing struggle between mass and elite cultu...
This book examines the development of cinematic form and culture in Russia, from its late nineteenth-century beginnings as a fairground attraction to the early post-Revolutionary years.
The author traces the changing perceptions of cinema and its social transition from a modernist invention to a national art form. He explores reactions to the earliest films from actors, novelists, poets, writers and journalists. His richly detailed study of the physical elements of cinematic performance includes the architecture and illumination of the cinema foyer, the speed of projection and film...
This book examines the development of cinematic form and culture in Russia, from its late nineteenth-century beginnings as a fairground attraction ...
Of all the pioneers of the cinema, the Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein has exerted the most enduring hold on the popular imagination. This book offers a unique portrait of the director based on the personal recollections of those who knew him. Originally published in 1976, it is illustrated with over forty photographs, stills and drawings, among them Eisenstein's delightful childhood sketches and some of his designs for the theatre and the cinema.
The recollections were mostly originally recorded by Norman Swallow for a film made for the BBC over a period of two years in...
Of all the pioneers of the cinema, the Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein has exerted the most enduring hold on the popular imagination. This b...
Bringing together the work of leading film historians, originally published in 1981, this book illustrates the breadth of methodological approaches adopted by the field and the variety of its interests. Dealing with a period from about 1924-1945, it considers feature films in particular, showing their potential as historical source material, and discussing how they provide a clearer understanding of the societies and intellectual trends they both reflected and affected. By using films as historical documents, the articles demonstrate how important new insights may be gained into the...
Bringing together the work of leading film historians, originally published in 1981, this book illustrates the breadth of methodological approaches...
Best known for his documentaries such as Drifters, North Sea, and Housing Problems, John Grierson was the most important figure in the British documentary film movement and one of the most influential of British film theorists.
This major assessment of Grierson and the documentary film movement examines the intellectual and aesthetic influences on his work, focusing on the material he produced in the inter-war years and comparing the idealistic strain of Grierson's social commentary with other social reformists such as the Next Five Years Group and writers like...
Best known for his documentaries such as Drifters, North Sea, and Housing Problems, John Grierson was the most important figur...
Taking the subject chronologically from the 1890s to when the book was initially published in 1989, this book analyses those films specifically concerned with working-class conditions and struggle, and discusses them within the context of the debate on the social significance of the feature film. It concentrates on films which depict labour organizations and political activists, as well as life in working-class communities and actors with working-class identities such as James Cagney.
Reviews of the original edition:
'...fills a gap in film studies...the study of...
Taking the subject chronologically from the 1890s to when the book was initially published in 1989, this book analyses those films specifically con...
Originally published in 1994, this important book traces the rise of film propaganda in the 20th Century, discussing specifically how film can be used to manipulate public perception and opinions. Two distinct areas are covered: war propaganda, including feature and documentary films regarding warfare; and civilian propaganda, including films that address a variety of political subjects. Although the focus is American film and American politics, this book offers insights for all those interested in the affect of film on the minds of citizens of any country or state.
Originally published in 1994, this important book traces the rise of film propaganda in the 20th Century, discussing specifically how film can be u...
Semiotics offers a systematic approach to analysing the stylistic structure of film. When this study was originally published in 1983 this was a recent addition to the methods of film study and it presents an explanation of film semiotics with direct application to comparative film research. It takes as its representative subject one trilogy of films and applies semiology, with careful textual analysis. The book begins with a basic introduction to semiotics and the ideas of Christian Metz on cinesemiotics. It then presents a syntagmatic analysis of each of the three Dollars films, with an...
Semiotics offers a systematic approach to analysing the stylistic structure of film. When this study was originally published in 1983 this was a re...
A historian s view of the relationship between American history and the American film industry, this book is a witty and perceptive account of Hollywood and its films in the years from the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe to the end of the war in Korea, It describes how film makers and their industry were shaped by and responded to the strong political and social stimuli of wartime America.
The author examines the recurring question of whether the movies were a reflection of the society in which they were produced, or whether by virtue of their undeniable propaganda power the...
A historian s view of the relationship between American history and the American film industry, this book is a witty and perceptive account of Holl...
