The plots of many films pivot on the moment when a dowdy girl with bad hair, ill-fitting outdated clothing, and thick glasses is changed into an almost unrecognizable glamour girl. Makeover scenes such as these are examined beginning with 1942's Now, Voyager. The study examines whether the film makeover is voluntary or involuntary, whether it is always successful, how much screen time it takes up, where in the narrative structure it falls, and how the scene is actually filmed. Films with a Pygmalion theme, such as My Fair Lady, Vertigo, and Shampoo, are examined in terms of gender relations:...

The apocalypse on the big screen has expanded beyond familiar end-of-the-world movies. Romantic comedies, teen adventures, even children's films often feature apocalyptic imagery--disintegrating cities, extreme weather events, extinctions, rogue military forces, epidemics, zombie armies and colliding worlds. Using sophisticated CGI effects, filmmakers are depicting the end of the world with ever more stunning realism. In this collection of new essays, contributors explore the phenomenon of the cinematic apocalypse and its origins in both our anxieties and real-world events, and identify some...