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A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema
by Kendall R. Phillips&“An illuminating history . . . it&’s clear that the right story can still terrify us; A Place of Darkness is a primer on how the movies learned to do it.&” —NPR Horror is one of the most enduringly popular genres in cinema. The term &“horror film&” was coined in 1931 between the premiere of Dracula and the release of Frankenstein, but monsters, ghosts, demons, and supernatural and horrific themes have been popular with American audiences since the emergence of novelty cinematographic attractions in the late 1890s. A Place of Darkness illuminates the prehistory of the horror genre by tracing the way horrific elements and stories were portrayed in films prior to the introduction of the term &“horror film.&” Using a rhetorical approach that examines not only early films but also the promotional materials for them and critical responses to them, Kendall R. Phillips argues that the portrayal of horrific elements was enmeshed in broader social tensions around the emergence of American identity and, in turn, American cinema. He shows how early cinema linked monsters, ghosts, witches, and magicians with Old World superstitions and beliefs, in contrast to an American way of thinking that was pragmatic, reasonable, scientific, and progressive. Throughout the teens and twenties, Phillips finds, supernatural elements were almost always explained away as some hysterical mistake, humorous prank, or nefarious plot. The Great Depression of the 1930s, however, constituted a substantial upheaval in the system of American certainty and opened a space for the reemergence of Old-World gothic within American popular discourse in the form of the horror genre, which has terrified and thrilled fans ever since. &“[A] fascinating read.&” —Sublime Horror
A Pocket Guide to Analyzing Films
by Robert SpadoniThe perfect concise guide to the formal analysis of film. Designed to be used by readers at many levels of knowledge, this book moves systematically through the elements that make up most films, focusing on aspects of the art of cinema that are common across history and national cinemas. From form and narrative to mise-en-scène and cinematography to editing and sound, Robert Spadoni introduces and explains the principles and conventions of film in engaging, straightforward language. In addition to illustrating film techniques with almost 200 images--most of them in color--the book explains ways to find patterns and meaning in films through such concepts as motifs, development, and motivation. Thumbnail readings of exemplary films further lay out the essentials of formal analysis. Film illustrations include frame enlargements from Stagecoach, Psycho, Jeepers Creepers, Persepolis, Groundhog Day, Take Shelter, and more. Modestly priced and packed with images, A Pocket Guide to Analyzing Films is ideal for students in a wide range of film courses who are looking for an easy-to-read guide to film analysis to accompany and enhance their course materials.
A Pocketful of Happiness: A Memoir
by Richard E. Grant&“One of the bravest, strongest, funniest memoirs I&’ve ever read.&” —Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry &“A moving and entertaining celebration of life and love." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Academy Award–nominated actor Richard E. Grant&’s memoir about finding happiness in even the darkest of days.Richard E. Grant emigrated from Swaziland to London in 1982, with dreams of making it as an actor. Unexpectedly, he met and fell in love with a renowned dialect coach Joan Washington. Their relationship and marriage, navigating the highs and lows of Hollywood, parenthood, and loss, lasted almost forty years. When Joan died in 2021, her final challenge to him was to find a &“pocketful of happiness in every day.&” This honest and frequently hilarious memoir is written in honor of that challenge—Richard has faithfully kept a diary since childhood, and in these entries he shares raw detail of everything he has experienced: both the pain of losing his beloved wife, and the excitement of their life together, from the role that transformed his life overnight in Withnail and I to his thrilling Oscar Award nomination thirty years later for Can You Ever Forgive Me? Told with candor in Richard&’s utterly unique style, A Pocketful of Happiness is a powerful, funny, and moving celebration of life&’s unexpected joys.
A Poetics for Screenwriters
by Lance LeeWriting successful screenplays that capture the public imagination and richly reward the screenwriter requires more than simply following the formulas prescribed by the dozens of screenwriting manuals currently in print. Learning the "how-tos" is important, but understanding the dramatic elements that make up a good screenplay is equally crucial for writing a memorable movie. In A Poetics for Screenwriters, veteran writer and teacher Lance Lee offers aspiring and professional screenwriters a thorough overview of all the dramatic elements of screenplays, unbiased toward any particular screenwriting method.<P><P> Lee explores each aspect of screenwriting in detail. He covers primary plot elements, dramatic reality, storytelling stance and plot types, character, mind in drama, spectacle and other elements, and developing and filming the story. Relevant examples from dozens of American and foreign films, including Rear Window, Blue, Witness, The Usual Suspects, Virgin Spring, Fanny and Alexander, The Godfather, and On the Waterfront, as well as from dramas ranging from the Greek tragedies to the plays of Shakespeare and Ibsen, illustrate all of his points.<P> This new overview of the dramatic art provides a highly useful update for all students and professionals who have tried to adapt the principles of Aristotle's Poetics to the needs of modern screenwriting. By explaining "why" good screenplays work, this book is the indispensable companion for all the "how-to" guides.
A Portrait Of Leni Riefenstahl
by Audrey SalkeldLeni Riefenstahl will always be remembered for her brilliant film of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin - still rated as one of the best documentaries ever made. Before that she was acclaimed for her roles in silent feature films, when German cinema was in its artistic heyday in the 1920s. She pioneered the box office success of such classic mountaineering dramas as The White Hell of Piz Palu and then began to direct her own films. The Blue Light was admired by Hitler and led to her filming the Wagnerian Nuremberg Rally of 1934. After the war she was shunned by the film industry, despite a court in 1952 proclaiming her not guilty of supporting the Nazis in a punishable way. Her undoubted charisma led to many affairs and grandiose schemes - deep sea diving in her seventies and still filming wildlife in her nineties. Audrey Salkeld has sifted the fact from the legend and gives us a moving portrait of the great movie `star' who suffered more in the `wilderness' than her enduring fame suggests.
A Portrait of Joan: The Autobiography of Joan Crawford
by Joan CrawfordOne of Hollywood’s greatest stars recalls her fabulous life: at nine, scrubbing floors in a Kansas City school; at twenty, motion picture stardom and marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; in 1945, the Academy Award for her sensational comeback-triumph in Mildred Pierce; and today, a glamorous “double life” as Hollywood star and corporation executive.Richly illustrated with photographs throughout.
A Portrait of Mendelssohn
by Clive BrownClive Brown draws a different picture of Felix Mendelssohn's personality and work.
A Portrait of an Idiot as a Young Man: Part memoir, part explanation as to why men are so rubbish
by Jon HolmesWhen Jon Holmes became a father (twice), he was asked to fill in a form detailing his family medical history. Except he couldn't, because he has no idea who his family are. Born to an unnamed, unmarried mother and an unknown father and given up for adoption at four weeks old, Jon decided to document his own history, so that one day he could pass it on to his children. It's a story of how boys grow up to become (stupid) men, of sexual misadventure, of being accidentally shot in the face, of spiders, a ghost, a fatally injured gerbil, American road trips that went wrong, becoming inadvertently locked in Graham Norton's toilet with an Oscar nominated screenwriter, being removed from Mrs Thatcher's vicinity by her security detail and having loving parents who did their best to bring up a child that wasn't theirs. Part memoir, part hilarious insight into why men are so inept, this is the true story of how an unwanted baby in the Midlands went on to become a wanted man in the state of Texas, and everything that happened in between.His children will never be allowed to read it.
A Portrait of the Auteur as Fanboy: The Construction of Authorship in Transmedia Franchises
by Anastasia Salter Mel StanfillIncreasingly over the past decade, fan credentials on the part of writers, directors, and producers have come to be seen as a guarantee of quality media making—the “fanboy auteur.” Figures like Joss Whedon are both one of “us” and one of “them.” This is a strategy of marketing and branding—it is a claim from the auteur himself or industry PR machines that the presence of an auteur who is also a fan means the product is worth consuming. Such claims that fan credentials guarantee quality are often contested, with fans and critics alike rejecting various auteur figures as the true leader of their respective franchises. That split, between assertions of fan and auteur status and acceptance (or not) of that status, is key to unravelling the fan auteur.In A Portrait of the Auteur as Fanboy: The Construction of Authorship in Transmedia Franchises, authors Anastasia Salter and Mel Stanfill examine this phenomenon through a series of case studies featuring fanboys. The volume discusses both popular fanboys, such as J. J. Abrams, Kevin Smith, and Joss Whedon, as well as fangirls like J. K. Rowling, E L James, and Patty Jenkins, and dissects how the fanboy-fangirl auteur dichotomy is constructed and defended by popular media and fans in online spaces, and how this discourse has played in maintaining the exclusionary status quo of geek culture. This book is particularly timely given current discourse, including such incidents as the controversy surrounding Joss Whedon’s so-called feminism, the publication of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and contestation over authorial voices in the DC cinematic universe, as well as broader conversations about toxic masculinity and sexual harassment in Hollywood.
A Post-Nationalist History of Television in Ireland
by Edward BrennanThis book explores the question of how society has changed with the introduction of private screens. Taking the history of television in Ireland as a case study due to its position at the intersection of British and American media influences, this work argues that, internationally, the transnational nature of television has been obscured by a reliance on institutional historical sources. This has, in turn, muted the diversity of audience experiences in terms of class, gender and geography. By shifting the focus away from the default national lens and instead turning to audience memories as a key source, A Post-Nationalist History of Television in Ireland defies the notion of a homogenous national television experience and embraces the diverse and transnational nature of watching television. Turning to people’s memories of past media, this study ultimately suggests that the arrival of the television in Ireland, and elsewhere, was part of a long-term, incremental change where the domestic and the intimate became increasingly fused with the global.
A Prairie Devotional: Inspired by the Beloved TV Series
by Wendi Lou LeeIn A Prairie Devotional, former child actress Wendi Lou Lee, who played Grace Ingalls on the TV show Little House on the Prairie, shares unique stories and spiritual insights that give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the hearts and souls of the series' beloved characters.With more than 90 devotionals, A Prairie Devotional offers readers:A spiritual resource based on rich themes of faith and familyUnique insights and life lessonsHeartwarming stories and personal anecdotesBehind-the-scenes glimpses into the lives of the charactersQuotes from Little House on the PrairieA blend of faith and prairie lifeScripture versesThought-provoking questions for deeper reflectionIn A Prairie Devotional, Wendi Lou Lee invites reflection on the ideas that made the TV series so popular: soothing broken relationships, keeping your head up in challenging situations, and relying on God's guidance when life looks impossible. A Prairie Devotional is an inspirational compilation of heartwarming material that lifelong fans will love.
A Preparation for Death
by Greg BaxterIn his early thirties, Greg Baxter found himself in a strange place. He hated his job, he was drinking excessively, he was sabotaging his most important relationships, and he was no longer doing the thing he cared about most: writing. Strangest of all, at this time he started teaching evening classes in creative writing - and his life changed utterly.A Preparation for Death is a document of the chaos and discovery of that time and of the experiences that led Greg Baxter to that strange place - an extraordinarily intimate account of literary failure (and its consequences), personal decay, and redemption through reading, writing, and truth-telling. 'Brilliant and wonderfully original ... Yes, this is a book about drinking and shagging. But rarely have these things been written about so well' William Leith, Literary Review'Baxter is a serious, thoughtful writer, bend on emotional truth and artistry. He has written an unusual, provocative book' Suzi Feay, Financial Times'Brave, honest and propulsive' Metro'The triumph is the steely courage it takes to put a life down with such uncompromising clarity' Hugo Hamilton, Irish Times'This is an occasionally infuriating and completely wonderful book. I read it in one sitting, unsettled and delighted by its ferocity' Anne Enright
A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce
by Mark Tabb Alec BaldwinAlec Baldwin, one of the best-known actors and Kim Basinger, the Academy Award-winning actress, have a daughter named Ireland. Theirs seemed to be the model of a successful Hollywood marriage until their divorce in 2002. Their split---specifically the custody battle surrounding Ireland---would be the subject of media attention for years to come. This is an important, informative, and deeply felt book on a contentious subject that offers hope of finding a better way.
A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce
by Mark Tabb Alec BaldwinIn this New York Times bestseller, an award-winning actor offers practical guidance to help others avoid the anguish he endured during his divorce.An Academy and Tony Award nominee and a recipient of Golden Globe, SAG, and Television Critics Association Awards for best actor in a comedy, Alec Baldwin is one of the best-known, most successful actors in the world. His relationship with Kim Basinger, the Academy Award–winning actress, lasted nearly a decade. They have a daughter named Ireland, and for a time, theirs seemed to be the model of a successful Hollywood marriage. But in 2000 they separated and in 2002 divorced. Their split—specifically the custody battle surrounding Ireland—would be the subject of media attention for years to come.In his own life and others', Baldwin has seen the heavy toll that divorce can take—psychologically, emotionally, and financially. He has been extensively involved in divorce litigation, and he has witnessed the way that noncustodial parents, especially fathers, are often forced to abandon hopes of equitable rights when it comes to their children. He makes a powerful case for reexamining and changing the way divorce and child custody is decided in this country and levels a scathing attack at what he calls the “family law industry.”When it comes to his experiences with judges, court-appointed therapists, and lawyers, Baldwin pulls no punches. He casts a light on his own divorce and the way the current family law system affected him, his ex-wife, and his daughter, as well as many other families. A Promise to Ourselves is an important, informative, and deeply felt book on a contentious subject that offers hope of finding a better way.
A Queer History of Flamenco: Diversions, Transitions, and Returns in Flamenco Dance (1808–2018)
by Fernando López RodríguezA Queer History of Flamenco offers a groundbreaking exploration of flamenco through the lenses of queer theory and cultural studies. Previous histories have provided a largely distorted image about why, where, and how people have done flamenco—as well as who has performed flamenco. Yet feminists, transvestites, butches, femmes, the Spanish Roma, disabled people, guiris, and “incomprehensible” artists have been determined to do things differently without giving up their flamenco status. In this skillful translation of his book Historia queer del flamenco, Fernando López Rodríguez draws on diverse archival materials as well as his own lived experience and artistic practice, unearthing queer flamenco histories, voices, and perspectives that were previously unknown, avoided, or purposely hidden. Tracing flamenco’s development from its birth up to the contemporary era, the book places flamenco within significant historical periods such as the Spanish Civil War, Franco’s dictatorship, the transition to democracy, and the economic crisis of 2008, up to contemporary performances of the late 2010s. In taking a queer approach to History, the author abandons antiquated debates about purities and impurities; anecdotes about the lives of artists that are completely detached from their processes of creation; and myths about geniuses who seem to make art alone and completely detached from their collaborators and the historical, social, economic and artistic moment in which they lived. A Queer History of Flamenco is not only about the present and the queerness of people living, performing, or creating in it, but also about flamenco’s past in which so many queer artists and practices and their lives have remained unearthed and unaddressed.
A Queer History of the Ballet
by Peter StoneleyDesigned for students, scholars and general readers with an interest in dance and queer history, A Queer History of the Ballet focuses on how, as makers and as audiences, queer men and women have helped to develop many of the texts, images, and legends of ballet. Presenting a series of historical case studies, the book explores the ways in which, from the nineteenth century into the twentieth, ballet has been a means of conjuring homosexuality – of enabling some degree of expression and visibility for people who were otherwise declared illegal and obscene. Studies include: the perverse sororities of the Romantic ballet the fairy in folklore, literature, and ballet Tchaikovsky and the making of Swan Lake Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and the emergence of queer modernity the formation of ballet in America the queer uses of the prima ballerina Genet’s writings for and about ballet. Also including a consideration of how ballet’s queer tradition has been memorialized by such contemporary dance-makers as Neumeier, Bausch, Bourne, and Preljocaj, this is an essential book in the study of ballet and queer history.
A Queer Way of Feeling: Girl Fans and Personal Archives of Early Hollywood (Feminist Media Histories #4)
by Diana W. AnselmoA Queer Way of Feeling gathers an unexplored archive of fan-made scrapbooks, letters, diaries, and photographs to explore how girls coming of age in the United States in the 1910s used cinema to forge a foundational language of female nonconformity, intimacy, and kinship. Pasting cross-dressed photos into personal scrapbooks and making love to movie actresses in epistolary writing, girl fans from all walks of life stitched together established homoerotic conventions with an emergent syntax of film stardom to make sense of feeling "queer" or "different from the norm." These material testimonies show how a forgotten audience engendered terminologies, communities, and creative practices that became cornerstones of media fan reception and queer belonging.
A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary: An A–Z of the iconic director and his work, from AK-47 to Zed (Director Dictionaries)
by Helen O'HaraExplore an A-Z of everything you need to know about the masterful movies of Quentin Tarantino, from AK-47 to "Zed's dead, baby" and everything in between.With hundreds of entries covering every facet of Tarantino's work - from inspiration and influences to his most frequent collaborators and little-known cameos - A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary is a stylish guide to the wonderful world of this visionary filmmaker.Written by author and film critic Helen O'Hara (Empire, BAFTA, the Telegraph) and with bespoke illustrations that bring the director's vision to life, this is a one-stop shop for all things Tarantino.
A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary: An A–Z of the iconic director and his work, from AK-47 to Zed (Director Dictionaries)
by Helen O'HaraExplore an A-Z of everything you need to know about the masterful movies of Quentin Tarantino, from AK-47 to "Zed's dead, baby" and everything in between.With hundreds of entries covering every facet of Tarantino's work - from inspiration and influences to his most frequent collaborators and little-known cameos - A Quentin Tarantino Dictionary is a stylish guide to the wonderful world of this visionary filmmaker.Written by author and film critic Helen O'Hara (Empire, BAFTA, the Telegraph) and with bespoke illustrations that bring the director's vision to life, this is a one-stop shop for all things Tarantino.
A Reader in Animation Studies
by Jayne PillingCartoons—both from the classic Hollywood era and from more contemporary feature films and television series—offer a rich field for detailed investigation and analysis. Contributors draw on theories and methodology from film, television, and media studies, art history and criticism, and feminism and gender studies.
A Reader on International Media Piracy: Pirate Essays (MediaMatters)
by Tilman BaumgärtelPiracy is among the most prevalent and vexing issues of the digital age. In just the past decade, it has altered the music industry beyond recognition, changed the way people watch television, and made a dent in the buisness of the film and software industries. From MP3 files to recipes from French celebrity chefs to the jokes of American stand-up comedians, piracy is ubiquitous. And now piracy can even be an arbiter of taste, as seen in the decision by Netflix Netherlands to license heavily pirated shows., In this unflinching analysis of piracy on the Internet and in the markets of the Global South, Tilman Baumgärtel brings together a collection of essays examining the economic, political, and cultural consequences of piracy. The contributors explore a wide array of topics, which include materiality and piracy in Rio de Janeiro; informal media distribution and the film experience in Hanoi, Vietnam; the infrastructure of piracy in Nigeria; the political economy of copy protection; and much more. Offering a theoretical background for future studies of piracy, A Reader in International Media Piracy is an important collection on the burning issue of the Internet Age. This timely collection featuring both empirical and theoretical essays brings together the latest reflections on piracy and its economic, political, cultural and theoretical consequences.
A Real American Character: The Life of Walter Brennan (Hollywood Legends Series)
by Carl RollysonWalter Brennan (1894-1974) was one of the greatest character actors in Hollywood history. He won three Academy Awards and became a national icon starring as Grandpa in The Real McCoys. He appeared in over two hundred motion pictures and became the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting, which celebrated the actor's unique role as the voice of the American Western. His life journey from Swampscott, Massachusetts, to Hollywood, to a twelve thousand-acre cattle ranch in Joseph, Oregon, is one of the great American stories. In the first biography of this epic figure, Carl Rollyson reveals Brennan's consummate mastery of virtually every kind of role while playing against and often stealing scenes from such stars as Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, and John Wayne. Rollyson fully explores Brennan's work with Hollywood's greatest directors, such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Fritz Lang. As a father and grandfather, Brennan instilled generations of his family with an outlook on the American Dream that remains a sustaining feature of their lives today. His conservative politics, which grew out of his New England upbringing and his devout Catholicism, receive meticulous attention and a balanced assessment in A Real American Character. Written with the full cooperation of the Brennan family and drawing on material in archives from every region of the United States, this new biography presents an artist and family man who lived and breathed an American idealism that made him the Real McCoy.
A Reindeer's First Christmas/New Friends for Christmas (Pictureback(R))
by Joe Mathieu Aristides Ruiz Tish RabeFans of the Cat in the Hat have cause to celebrate this holiday season with two stories based on the one-hour PBS Kids' primetime special The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About Christmas! In A Reindeer's First Christmas, narrator Ralph--a yearling caribou--tells how but for the help of the Cat in the Hat, Sally, Nick, and some new friends, he narrowly misses spending his first Christmas at home and pulling Santa's sled! And in New Friends for Christmas, Sally and Nick learn that with a little help from family and friends--and a spare mini Thinga-ma-jigger--its possible to accomplish almost anything!
A Relevance-Theoretic Approach to Decision-Making in Subtitling
by Łukasz BoguckiThis book aims to investigate the process of decision-making in subtitling of feature films and entertainment series. The author uses Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson,1986) to argue that the technical, linguistic and translational constraints at work in subtitling result in a curtailed target text, and illustrates this argument by invoking examples drawn from the English-Polish subtitles of films and television series available through the subscription service Netflix. After introducing the current state of research on audiovisual translation within and outside the framework of translation studies, he presents the core concepts underpinning Relevance Theory and explains how it can be used to construct a model of the process of subtitling. This book will be of interest to students and scholars working in the fields of translation studies, audiovisual translation studies, and communication studies.
A Revolution for the Screen: Abel Gance's Napoleon (Film Culture in Transition)
by Paul CuffAbel Gance's silent masterpiece, Napoleon, was given a limited run on its debut in 1927, but soon afterwards distributors in France and America, unwilling to deal with its nine-hour running time, subjected it to savage cuts - with devastating results for the movie and for film history. The struggle across ensuing decades to restore and reintegrate Gance's film has formed a backdrop to an array of formal, contextual, and ideological battles. In this book, Paul Cuff takes account of those battles and challenges received opinion on Gance's view of both his film and its subject.|Paul Cuff takes account of the struggle across decades to restore and reintegrate Gance's film Napoleon and challenges received opinion on this work.