Kategoria BISAC: Performing Arts >> Film - Reference

World War II Films of the 1940s has been written to provide a comprehensive study of more than two dozen films, made in Great Britain and America from 1940-49. Included are films dealing with the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Complete cast lists are provided, along with film director credits, running time, and synopses of each motion picture. A number of vever before seen photographs are also included. This book is the first in a series of four books dealing with the Second World War.

In this book the author takes a fresh look at horror film series as series and presents an understanding of how the genre thrived in this format for a large portion of its history. It sheds light on older films such as the Universal and the Hammer series films on Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy as well as putting more recent series into perspective, such as The Nightmare on Elm Street films. A well rounded review of these films and investigation into their success as a format, this useful volume, originally published in 1991, offers an attempt to understand the marriage of horror and...

If Greek tragedy is sometimes regarded as a form long dead and buried, both theatre producers and film directors seem slow to accept its interment. Originally published in 1986, this book reflects the renewed interest in questions of staging the Greek plays, to give a comprehensive account and critical analysis of all the important versions of Greek tragedy made on film. From the 1927 footage of the re-enactment of Aeschylus' Prometheus in Chains at the Delphi Festival organised by Angelos Sikelianos to Pasolini's Notes for an African Oresteia, the study encompasses the...

Originally published in 1964, this book tells the history of the British cinematograph industry for the first time. It describes moments of splendid triumph and others of shattering failure. The mood switches from reckless optimism to demoralising pessimism, from years in which British films won the highest international awards to those when they were dismissed with scorn.

It recalls a score of productions still ranked among the world's best, and the stars whose reputation was established in them. Attention is focused on the directors, those who kept to the fore during two and three...

This study analyses the historical development of South African cinema up to he book's original publication in 1988. It describes the films and comments on their relationship to South African realities, addressing all aspects of the industry, focusing on domestic production, but also discussing international film companies who use South Africa as a location. It explores tensions between English-language and Afrikaans-language films, and between films made for blacks and films made for whites.

Going behind the scenes the author looks at the financial infrastructure, the marketing...

As Charlton Heston put it: 'There's a temptingly simple definition of the epic film: it's the easiest kind of picture to make badly.' This book goes beyond that definition to show how the film epic has taken up one of the most ancient art-forms and propelled it into the modern world, covered in twentieth-century ambitions, anxieties, hopes and fantasies. This survey of historical epic films dealing with periods up to the end of the Dark Ages looks at epic form and discusses the films by historical period, showing how the cinema reworks history for the changing needs of its audience, much...

Between 1952 and 1962, when this book was originally published, the number of people visiting British cinemas had fallen by nearly two thirds and was little more than half the pre-war total. Nearly 1500 of the 4500 cinemas functioning in 1955 had closed five years later, and the author here predicts a further substantial fall.

The causes of this drastic decline are traced to the competition of television but also to the dramatic halving of the number of new American films and to the difficulty of transferring a cinema's 'congregation' when it is closed. This decline has few...

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...

Providing textual analysis of 12 feature films written and directed by filmmakers who explore aspects of the Chicano cultural movement, this book discusses films including Cheech and Chong's Still Smokin' (1983), El Norte (1985), and Break of Dawn (1988). The text analyzes the portrayal of Chicano, or Mexican American, identity in films by chicanos. Part historiography, part film analysis, part ethnography, this book offers a compelling story of how Chicanos challenge, subvert and create their own popular portrayals of Chicanismo.

Historical stereotypical images...

This is a comprehensive survey of the relationship between film and literature. It looks at the cinematic adaptations of such literary masters as Shakespeare, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and D.H. Lawrence, and considers the contribution to the cinema made by important literary figures as Harold Pinter, James Agree and Graham Greene. Elsewhere, the book draws intriguing analogies between certain literary and film artists, such as Dickens and Chaplin, Ford and Twain, and suggests that such analogies can throw fresh light on the subjects under review. Another chapter considers the film genre...

Mystery films are primarily concerned with solving crimes, most often murders. Detectives are generally heavily featured, whether they are of the private variety or those who work for a police force of some kind. This central character frequently investigates an unsolved crime and unmasks the perpitrator. These films in general conceal the identity of the guilty party almost right up to the end, although some of them will allow the viewer to identify the culprit right from the start and then watch as the police or detective tries to trip him up.

Covering more than 2,500 characters, creatures, planets, vehicles, Droids(TM), weapons, technology, and more from the Star Wars(TM) universe, this visual tour is the ultimate compendium for the epic saga and beyond.

Take a stunning visual tour of Star Wars with DK's comprehensive pictorial guide to the galaxy far, far away

From lightsabers to beasts to food and clothing, Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia is a virtual museum in a book. Explore beautiful galleries with more than 2,500 images, and discover facts about Star Wars culture, science, and...

When a scientific expedition to an uncharted island awakens titanic forces of nature, a mission of discovery becomes an explosive war between monster and man. Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly star in a thrilling and original new adventure that reveals the untold story of how Kong became King.

The Art and Making of Kong: Skull...