Blossoms & Blood: Postmodern Media Culture and the Films of Paul Thomas Anderson

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Synopsis
This analysis of the films of P. T. Anderson is &“a case study of how even the most self-determined directors are always borne aloft by cultural events&” (Cineaste). From his film festival debut Hard Eight to ambitious studio epics Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson&’s unique cinematic vision focuses on postmodern excess and media culture. In Blossoms and Blood, Jason Sperb studies the filmmaker&’s evolving aesthetic and its historical context to argue that Anderson&’s films create new, often ambivalent, narratives of American identity in a media-saturated world.Blossoms and Blood explores Anderson&’s films in relation to the aesthetic and economic shifts within the film industry and to America&’s changing social and political sensibilities since the mid-1990s. Sperb provides an auteur study with important implications for film history, media studies, cultural studies, and gender studies. He charts major themes in Anderson&’s work, such as stardom, self-reflexivity, and masculinity and shows how they are indicative of trends in late twentieth-century American culture. One of the first books to focus on Anderson&’s work, Blossoms and Blood reveals the development of an under-studied filmmaker attuned to the contradictions of a postmodern media culture. &“Jason Sperb is not a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson. He&’s something much better—an intelligent critic trying to discern what&’s valuable and what&’s not in Anderson&’s body of cinematic work.&” ―Milwaukee Express &“Sperb has complete mastery of the critical and industrial histories of the films.&” —Choice
Copyright:
2013

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
296 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780292752900
Related ISBNs:
9780292752894
Publisher:
University of Texas Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
University of Texas Press
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Biographies and Memoirs
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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