A comprehensive introduction to film history, The Film Genre Book allows the reader to create their own narrative of film through history by focusing on seven genres, highlighting a key film from each genre over a ninety-year period--sixty-three films discussed in detail. The reader can trace the developments in a particular genre over time or compare films in a particular decade from the different genres. Each case-study considers issues of historical context, representation and the close textual analysis of significant scenes. Analysing films as diverse as Bambi and Pan's...

The disaster film taps into our fear of events beyond our control, ones that are often rooted in real-life experience, making the genre a particularly potent mixture of entertainment and grounded events. Studying Disaster Films provides a comprehensive introduction to a sub-genre that has flourished since the 1970s, fully accounting for the genre's origins and focusing on key films, including Airport, The Towering Inferno, The Day After Tomorrow, and, most recently, Cloverfield. Each case study presents a complete examination of the film, covering...