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Film Noir
by William LuhrFilm Noir offers new perspectives on this highly popular and influential film genre, providing a useful overview of its historical evolution and the many critical debates over its stylistic elements.Brings together a range of perspectives on a topic that has been much discussed but remains notoriously ill-definedTraces the historical development of the genre, usefully exploring the relations between the films of the 1940s and 1950s that established the "noir" universe and the more recent films in which it has been frequently revivedEmploys a clear and intelligent writing style that makes this the perfect introduction to the genreOffers a thorough and engaging analysis of this popular area of film studies for students and scholarsPresents an in-depth analysis of six key films, each exemplifying important trends of film noir: Murder, My Sweet; Out of the Past; Kiss Me Deadly; The Long Goodbye; Chinatown; and Seven
Film Noir: On Classic Film Noir (Inside Film)
by Andrew SpicerFilm Noir is an overview of an often celebrated, but also contested, body of films. It discusses film noir as a cultural phenomenon whose history is more extensive and diverse than American black and white crime thrillers of the forties. An extended Background Chapter situates film noir within its cultural context, describing its origin in German Expressionism, French Poetic Realism and in developments within American genres, the gangster/crime thriller, horror and the Gothic romance and its possible relationship to changes in American society. Five chapters are devoted to ‘classic’ film noir (1940-59): chapters explore its contexts of production and reception, its visual style, and its narrative patterns and themes chapters on character types and star performances elucidate noir’s complex construction of gender with its weak, ambivalent males and predatory femmes fatales and also provide a detailed analysis of three noir auteurs, - Anthony Mann, Robert Siodmak and Fritz Lang Three chapters investigate ‘neo-noir’ and British film noir: chapters trace the complex evolution of ‘neo-noir’ in American cinema, from the modernist critiques of Night Moves and Taxi Driver, to the postmodern hybridity of contemporary noir including Seven, Pulp Fiction and Memento the final chapter surveys the development of British film noir, a significant and virtually unknown cinema, stretching from the thirties to Mike Hodges’ Croupier Films discussed include both little known examples and seminal works such as Double Indemnity, Scarlet Street, Kiss Me Deadly and Touch of Evil. A final section provides a guide to further reading, an extensive bibliography and a list of over 500 films referred to in the text. Lucidly written, Film Noir is an accessible, informative and stimulating introduction that will have a broad appeal to undergraduates, cinéastes, film teachers and researchers.
Film Noir, American Workers, and Postwar Hollywood: Film Noir, American Workers, And Postwar Hollywood (Working in the Americas)
by Dennis BroeFilm noir, which flourished in 1940s and 50s, reflected the struggles and sentiments of postwar America. Dennis Broe contends that the genre, with its emphasis on dark subject matter, paralleled the class conflict in labor and union movements that dominated the period.By following the evolution of film noir during the years following World War II, Broe illustrates how the noir figure represents labor as a whole. In the 1940s, both radicalized union members and protagonists of noir films were hunted and pursued by the law. Later, as labor unions achieve broad acceptance and respectability, the central noir figure shifts from fugitive criminal to law-abiding cop.Expanding his investigation into the Cold War and post-9/11 America, Broe extends his analysis of the ways film noir is intimately connected to labor history. A brilliant, interdisciplinary examination, this is a work that will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.
Film Noir and Los Angeles: Urban History and the Dark Imaginary (Routledge Advances in Film Studies)
by Sean W. MaherThis book combines film studies with urban theory in a spatial exploration of twentieth century Los Angeles. Configured through the dark lens of noir, the author examines an alternate urban history of Los Angeles forged by the fictional modes of detective fiction, film noir and neo noir. Dark portrayals of the city are analyzed in Raymond Chandler’s crime fiction through to key films like Double Indemnity (1944) and The End of Violence (1997). By employing these fictional elements as the basis for historicising the city’s unrivalled urban form, the analysis demonstrates an innovative approach to urban historiography. Revealing some of the earliest tendencies of postmodern expression in Hollywood cinema, this book will be of great relevance to students and researchers working in the fields of film, literature, cultural and urban studies. It will also be of interest to scholars researching histories of Los Angeles and the American noir imagination.
Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood (Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television)
by Nathaniel DeyoBuilt around close readings of 11 noir films, this book seeks to refresh our understanding of “film noir” by returning to the films themselves. Pushing against totalizing or generalizing approaches, which may have the unintended effect of flattening out significant distinctions and differences between individual approaches, Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood argues for the importance of staying attuned the varied and variegated formal, aesthetic and thematic strategies at work in individual films. By focusing on these strategies, the book invites readers to consider anew the enabling possibilities of Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era.
Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity
by Edward DimendbergFilm noir remains one of the most enduring legacies of 1940s and '50s Hollywood. Populated by double-crossing, unsavory characters, this pioneering film style explored a shadow side of American life during a period of tremendous prosperity and optimism. Edward Dimendberg compellingly demonstrates how film noir is preoccupied with modernity--particularly the urban landscape. The originality of Dimendberg's approach lies in his examining these films in tandem with historical developments in architecture, city planning, and modern communications systems. He confirms that noir is not simply a reflection of modernity but a virtual continuation of the spaces of the metropolis. He convincingly shows that Hollywood's dark thrillers of the postwar decades were determined by the same forces that shaped the city itself. Exploring classic examples of film noir such as The Asphalt Jungle, Double Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly, and The Naked City alongside many lesser-known works, Dimendberg masterfully interweaves film history and urban history while perceptively analyzing works by Raymond Chandler, Edward Hopper, Siegfried Kracauer, and Henri Lefebvre. A bold intervention in cultural studies and a major contribution to film history, Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity will provoke debate by cinema scholars, urban historians, and students of modern culture--and will captivate admirers of a vital period in American cinema.
Film Noir Production: The Whodunit of the Classic American Mystery Film
by David LandauDavid Landau’s Film Noir Production: The Whodunit of the Classic American Mystery Film is a book meant for those who like a good story, one the Noir Films always delivered, concentrating on the characters more than anything else. Readers will find in these pages many behind-the-scenes tales of the productions of certain hard-boiled film classics and the prime players involved in their creation, from Darryl Zanuck and Raymond Chandler to John Seitz and Billy Wilder. This book features: A clear understanding of how movies are actually made and all the creative artists that contribute, creating a better appreciation for the many talented artistic collaborators that worked in the Hollywood Studio System and who together created film noir. A behind-the-scenes look at the making of a classic film noir movie that typifies the chapter’s subject, allowing the reader to view that film in a new light and think about it from a new prospective. Appendices of suggested films to screen, film noir books for further reading, and downloadable files containing discussion points and class assignments for each chapter. An informative and conversational writing style, making the subject matter easy to digest and fun to read. This book is an indispensible companion text for anyone studying or interested in film noir, film history, the bygone days of the Hollywood film factories or how movies are actually made.
Film Noir Prototypes: Origins of the Movement
by Alain Silver James UrsiniFilm noir is one of the most enduring and popular genres in cinema. But it did not spring up spontaneously, fully formed. Rather, its origins can be traced to sources as varied as Victorian literature, German Expressionism, and American art and photography. In this comprehensive collection of essays that's packed with illustrations and artwork, a team of eminent scholars and film writers present thorough analyses of the influence of prototypes on the classic period of film noir. Some essays focus on particularly influential genres, such as the rogue cop film and "gothic" thrillers; while others discuss the choices of individual filmmakers, including John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, in their most well-loved films. The editors and all of the featured contributors Sheri Chinen Biesen, Todd Erickson, Richard Edwards, Julie Grossman, Robert Miklitsch, Homer Pettey, Robert Porfirio, Tom Ryall, Marlisa Santos, Jesse Schlotterbeck, and Tony Williams are noted scholars in the field of film noir, most of whom have written book-length studies of their own. From the gangster and horror genres to social realism and Hitchcock's spy films of the 1930s, Film Noir Prototypes offers compelling accounts of the genre's influences.
The Film of the Islamic State: The Cinefication of Jihadi Video (Aktivismus- und Propagandaforschung)
by Yorck BeeseThe film of the so-called Islamic State is part of the still relatively opaque history of radical Sunni Islamist video propaganda, a field in which it is simultaneously its strongest exponent. Through its imports of aesthetics in the age of digitalization and the concurrent de-professionalization of film, this violent propaganda film has interestingly drawn attention for its seeming likeness to Hollywood film, an odd comparison that the Islamic State itself opposes through its own filmic antagonisms to commercial cinema. In an intermittent attempt at attacking cinematic illusionism, it has made increasing use of cinematic devices in order to communicate its violent and anti-humanist ideology – and has thereby entered a state of filmic self-contradiction. This book analyzes and uncovers the mechanisms and dynamics of ideological communication in the Islamic State’s videos through a combined historical and neoformalist approach, making them predictable for future researchers.
Film*ol*o*gy
by Chris BarsantiSure, you love the movies. But how much do you really know about the ones that really made a difference? Whether it's Birth of a Nation, the brilliant silent film that fanned the flames of racism; Easy Rider, the clarion call for a generation; or Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino's bloody take on art as propaganda, Filmology gives you the most entertaining crash course in good film ever produced-one movie a day. This is not just another greatest-movies celebration. Pairing cinema's lesser-seen gems alongside blockbusters, great early works from the pioneers of film alongside often-overlooked films from great directors, noted film critic Chris Barsanti unveils the movies that you must see-for your viewing pleasure. Filmology: So you can watch your way to an education in film!
Film on Video: A Practical Guide to Making Video Look like Film
by Jonathan KempFilm on Video: A Practical Guide to Making Video Look like Film is an accessible guide to making video captured on a camcorder, DSLR camera, smartphone, action camera or cinema camera look like it was shot on motion-picture celluloid film. Chapter by chapter, Jonathan Kemp introduces the reader to a key characteristic of celluloid film, explains the historical and practical reasons why it exists, before providing a simplified method for best replicating that characteristic on a digital camera. The book includes various practical exercises throughout that are designed to underline the takeaway principles of each chapter and features case studies on specific cameras including the Sony NX5 Camcorder, Canon 5D Mk IV, Canon 4000D, iPhone X, GoPro Hero 6, Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K and Canon C200. Ideal for students studying film and media production and filmmaking newcomers who want to get up to speed quickly, this is an indispensable guide to how the numerous settings on a digital camera can be used to create footage that more closely resembles the film ‘look’.
Film Performance: From Achievement to Appreciation (Short Cuts)
by Andrew KlevanPerformers make a crucial contribution to the achievement of narrative films. By moving through exemplary sequences, this book closely follows the movement and behaviour of screen performers – Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Widmark – and by emphasising their relationship to other aspects of film style – camera, location and plot – it develops accounts that are specific and involved. This study concentrates on films from the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood and moment-by-moment descriptions enable fresh interpretations to emerge and evolve. These reveal the significance and intensity of a performer’s engagement with the world of a film.
A Film-Philosophy of Ecology and Enlightenment (Routledge Research in Aesthetics)
by Rupert ReadInspired by the philosophy of Wittgenstein and his idea that the purpose of real philosophical thinking is not to discover something new, but to show in a strikingly different light what is already there, this book provides philosophical readings of a number of ‘arthouse’ and Hollywood films. Each chapter contains a discussion of two films—one explored in greater detail and the other analyzed as a minor key which reveals the possibility for the book's ideas to be applied across different films, registers, and genres. The readings are not only interpretive, but they offer a way of thinking and feeling about, with, and through films which is genuinely transformative. Rupert Read’s main contention is that certain films can bring about a change in how we see the world. He advocates an ecological approach to film-philosophy analysis, arguing that film can re-shape the viewer’s relationship to the environment and other living beings. The transformative 'wake-up call' of these films is enlightenment in its true sense. The result is a book that ambitiously aims to change, though film, how we think of ourselves and our place in the world, at a time when such change is more needed than ever before.
Film Policy: International, National and Regional Perspectives (Culture: Policy and Politics)
by Albert MoranFilm Policy is the first comprehensive overview of the workings of the international film industry. The authors examine film cultures and film policy across the world, explaining why Hollywood cinema dominates the global film market, and the effects of the rise of television and video on the international industry. In a series of case studies drawn from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia, the authors explore the relationship between Hollywood cinema product and national film cultures, and trace the development of international and national film policies, looking at issues of financing, regulation, protectionism and censorship.
Film Production Management
by Bastian CleveFilm Production Management will tell you in step-by-step detail how to produce a screenplay and get it onto the big screen. Whether you are an aspiring or seasoned film professional, this book will be an indispensable resource for you on a day-to-day basis. This updated edition remains true to the practical, hands-on approach that has made previous editions so successful, and has been updated with revised forms, permits, and budgets applicable to all productions; contains important information on standards and typical processes and practices; includes the latest information available on technological advances such as digital FX; and discusses the impact of the Internet on filmmaking. Film production professionals at all levels of experience will benefit from the information in this handbook to film production management.
Film Production Management: How to Budget, Organize and Successfully Shoot your Film
by Bastian CleveThis new and updated fourth edition of Film Production Management provides a step-by-step guide on how to budget, organize, and successfully shoot a film and get it onto the big screen. Whether you are a film student or film production professional just getting started in the industry, this book is an indispensable resource for day-to-day business on the set. Written by veteran filmmaker Bastian Clevé, this book will teach you how to: Break down a screenplay Organize a shooting schedule Create a realistic budget Find and secure locations Network with agents to find actors Hire a crew and communicate effectively with unions The new edition features updated information on contracts, permits, and insurance; special tips for low-budget filmmaking; new information on digital workflows and production software; advice on green production practices; and expanded coverage of the role of the line producer.
Film Professionals in Nazi-Occupied Europe: Mediation Between the National-Socialist Cultural “New Order” and Local Structures
by Pavel Skopal Roel Vande WinkelThis book analyses the film industries and cinema cultures of Nazi-occupied countries (1939-1945) from the point of view of individuals: local captains of industry, cinema managers, those working for film studios and officials authorized to navigate film policy. The book considers these people from a historical perspective, taking into account their career before the occupation and, where relevant, pays attention to their post-war lives. The perspectives of these historical agents” contributes to an understanding of how top-down orders and haphazard signals from the occupying administration were moulded, adjusted and distorted in the process of their translation and implementation. This edited collection offers a more dynamic and less deterministic approach to research on the international expansion of Third-Reich cinema in World War Two; an approach that strives to balance the role of individual agency with the structural determinants. The case studies presented in this book cover the territories of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and the Soviet Union.
Film Programming
by Peter BosmaThis book explores artistic choices in the field of cinema exhibition, focusing on film theatres, film festivals, and film archives, setting the various issues of film curating in their international context. The availability of artistic and commercial film has increased overwhelmingly as a result of the digitization of the infrastructure of distribution and exhibition; in this overflow of supply a reasoned and well-grounded selection is necessary more than ever. The conventional structures of the film trade are in a process of transformation and, in the digital age, supply and demand can meet without the intervention of traditional gatekeepers; everybody can be a film curator, in a passive or active way. This volume addresses three kinds of readers: those who want to become film curators themselves, or do research of the phenomenon of film curating, and those who are critical cinema visitors who want to investigate the story behind the process of selection of the available film supply and the way to present these films.
Film Programming: Curating for Cinemas, Festivals, Archives (Short Cuts)
by Peter BosmaThis study explores artistic choices in cinema exhibition, focusing on film theaters, film festivals, and film archives and situating film-curating issues within an international context. Artistic and commercial film availability has increased overwhelmingly as a result of the digitization of the infrastructure of distribution and exhibition. The film trade's conventional structures are transforming and, in the digital age, supply and demand can meet without the intervention of traditional gatekeepers—everybody can be a film curator, in a passive or active way. This volume addresses three kinds of readers: those who want to become film curators, those who want to research the film-curating phenomenon, and those critical cinema visitors who seek to investigate the story behind the selection process of available films and the way to present them.
Film Propaganda and American Politics: An Analysis and Filmography (Routledge Library Editions: Cinema #Vol. 4)
by James Combs Sara T. CombsOriginally published in 1994, this important book traces the rise of film propaganda in the 20th Century, discussing specifically how film can be used to manipulate public perception and opinions. Two distinct areas are covered: war propaganda, including feature and documentary films regarding warfare; and civilian propaganda, including films that address a variety of political subjects. Although the focus is American film and American politics, this book offers insights for all those interested in the affect of film on the minds of citizens of any country or state.
Film Quarterly Fall 2014
by B. Ruby RichFilm Quarterly has published substantial, peer-reviewed writing on cinema and media for nearly sixty years, earning a reputation as the most authoritative academic film journal in the United States, as well as an important English-language voice of cinema studies abroad.
Film Quarterly Spring 2014
by B. Ruby RichFilm Quarterly has published substantial, peer-reviewed writing on cinema and media for nearly sixty years, earning a reputation as the most authoritative academic film journal in the United States, as well as an important English-language voice of cinema studies abroad.
Film Quarterly Summer 2014
by B. Ruby RichFilm Quarterly has published substantial, peer-reviewed writing on cinema and media for nearly sixty years, earning a reputation as the most authoritative academic film journal in the United States, as well as an important English-language voice of cinema studies abroad.
Film, Religion and Activist Citizens: An ontology of transformative acts
by Milja RadovicFilm can be a socio-political and artistic-transformative cultural practice through which acts and activism are performed. Going beyond ideological constructs of activism and legal definitions of citizenship, this book offers a novel approach to understanding the ontology of acts and activist citizenship, particularly in the context of their expression through film. The author approaches film as act and focuses on the scene of film as a space that goes beyond representation, constituting its own reality through which activist citizens emerge. By looking at autonomous creative acts through a range of directors' works from across the world, the author explores both the ontological and ontic dimensions of transformative acts of citizenship. In doing this the author poses the question of whether citizens are stepping out of dominant cultural ideologies to overcome social, ethnic, religious and economic divisions. This book is a fresh exploration of the ontology of acts and is essential reading for any academic interested in religion, theology, film and citizenship studies.
Film Remakes and Franchises (Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture)
by Daniel HerbertContemporary media seems incredibly unoriginal, as Hollywood produces an endless flood of remakes, sequels, reboots, and franchises. We watch as the same stories, characters, and images appear again and again in different films, on new platforms, and as toys and other merchandise. Are these works simply crass commercial products, utterly devoid of creativity, or do they offer filmmakers a unique opportunity to reimagine iconic characters and modern myths? <p><p>Film Remakes and Franchises examines how remakes and sequels have been central to the film industry from its very inception, yet also considers how the recent trends toward reboots and transmedia franchises depart from those historical precedents. Film scholar Daniel Herbert not only analyzes the film industry's increasing reliance on recycled product but also asks why audiences are currently so drawn to such movies. In addition, he explores how contemporary filmmakers have used reboots and franchise movies to inject timely social commentary and diversity into established media properties. <p><p>A lively and accessible overview that covers everything from You've Got Mail to The Force Awakens, Film Remakes and Franchises raises essential questions about the intersection of business and creativity in Hollywood today.