Steven Spielberg's second feature, released in 1975, was an adaptation of a best-selling trash novel about a killer shark's effect on a New England tourist town. Under extreme pressure on a catastroph
Roger Luckhurst's study of Kubrick's dark masterpiece 'The Shining' illuminates the film's themes, tropes and resonances through a detailed analysis of sequences and performances. Taking the maze as a
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-86) was one of the great poets of world cinema. A fiercely independent artist, Tarkovsky crafted films of beauty and depth. These qualities are present in abundance in Andrei Ru
When it was released in 1995, Dead Man puzzled many audiences and critics. Jim Jarmusch's reputation was for directing slick, hip contemporary films. And Dead Man was a black-and-white Western. As ti
For many, Quentin Tarantino's films, especially Pulp Fiction (1994), defined American cinema in the 1990s. The films are hard, fast, funny, stylish, and filled with clever allusions to other films an
Stanley Kubrick died on 7 March 1999 at his Hertfordshire home, having finished the editing of his last film. Eyes Wide Shut was released later that year. Adapted from a 1926 story by Viennese novelis
Successful in both Japan and the West, Akira had a huge impact on the international growth in popularity of manga and anime. Closely analysing the film and its key themes, Colin O'Dell and Michelle Le
It is becoming clearer and clearer that Groundhog Day (1993), directed by Harold Ramis, is one of the masterpieces of 1990s Hollywood cinema. One of the first films to use a science-fiction premise as
Shakespeare's plays have inspired British Oscar-winners and spaghetti Westerns, Bollywood thrillers, and Soviet epics. Covering twenty plays, Daniel Rosenthal's selection of 100 Shakespeare films spa
Andrew Pulver’s study of Night and the City argues that it is one of the most important noir films ever made. Drawing from biographies, journals and interviews, Pulver traces the film’s d
Unforgiven is dedicated to Don Siegel and Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood's two cinematic mentors, who represent, respectively, the legacy of the classic Hollywood Western and the radical updating of the
Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks in 1938, is one of the greatest screwball comedies and a treasure from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Cary Grant plays a naive and repressed palaeosaurologist
Chris Marker's La Jetée is 28 minutes long and almost entirely made up of black-and-white still images. Since its release in 1964, this legendary French film – which Marker described as a 'photo-novel
'I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody.' So speaks the haunted former boxer Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) to his brother Charley (Rod Steiger) in a scene from On the Waterfront (Eli
One of the most daring films of the 1950s, the dark satire Sweet Smell of Success, took on McCarthyism at a time when film studios were cringing under the repressive eye of the censors and an equally
"Jean Renoir's cinematic masterpiece La Grande Illusion (1937) tells the story of two French prisoners-of-war escaping through Germany towards France during the First World War. Its themes of loyaltie
Long considered an unpolished gem of film noir, the private treasure of film buffs, cinephiles and critics, Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour (1945) has recently earned a new wave of recognition. In the words o
Despite its long and difficult production history, in 1967 Charlie Chaplin told an interviewer, "I think I like City Lights the best of all my films."Aesthetically, technologically, and culturally, C
Offering a fresh perspective on The General, arguably one of the most successful American films of the silent era, this insightful text analyses its initial critical reception and the thematic and sty
From the earliest days of American cinema, the road movie has been synonymous with American culture. But the road movie is not uniquely American, and other national cinemas have offered their own take
