The release of Star Wars in 1977 marked the start of what would become a colossal global franchise. Star Wars remains the second highest-grossing film in the United States, and George Lucas's six-part
Inspired by an alleged real case of demonic possession in 1949, The Exorcist became an international phenomenon on its release in 1973. A blockbusting adaptation of a best-selling novel, it was praise
Throne of Blood (1957), Akira Kurosawa's reworking of Macbeth, is widely considered the greatest film adaptation of Shakespeare ever made. In a detailed account of the film, Robert N. Watson explore
In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Fear Eats the Soul (Angst Essen Seele Auf, 1974) Emma (Brigitte Mira), a working-class widow and former member of the Nazi party, marries Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a much
Ozu Yasujiro’s moving family drama, Tokyo monogatari/Tokyo Story (1953), is universally acknowledged as one of the most significant Japanese films ever made, and regularly cited as one of the greatest films of all time in polls of leading critics and filmmakers around the world. Telling the story of an elderly couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown-up children, the film contrasts the behaviour of their children, who are too busy to pay their parents much attention, and their widowed daughter-in-law who treats them with hospitable kindness. In its complex portrait of human motivation and lively sense of social space, it offers a profound and poignant insight into the generational shifts of postwar Japan. Alastair Phillips combines a close analysis of the film and its key locations - the city of Tokyo, the town of Onomichi and the coastal resort of Atami - with a discussion of its representation of Japanese society at a time of great cultural change. Drawing upon Japanese
Music video is a popular form worldwide. It is a teachable and accessible topic because the videos are familiar to students, easy to obtain, and short. And because it is always changing, it makes an
Michael Chanan traces the history of the documentary from the first Lumiere films to Grierson and his contemporaries, through to Free Cinema, Cinema verite and Direct Cinema, up to the current resurg
This book, the first of two volumes, provides a major new history of the British 'B' film, tracing the development of the low-budget supporting feature from the 1927 Films Act, which introduced a quo
This, the first book-length study of Hong Kong cult director Wong Kar-wai, provides an overview of his career and in-depth analyses of his seven feature films to date. The study also takes an intrigui
This major new study focuses on film music as a device that controls its audience by using emotion as a powerful tool. Kevin Donnelly emphasizes the manipulative and ephemeral character of film music.
Films like In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, They Live by Night, and most of all Rebel Without a Cause were to ensure cult status for Ray as one of the most revered of all American 'maverick' auteurs
From IBM to MGM: Cinema at the Dawn of the Digital Age uncovers the early history of cinema and computers and looks at how filmmakers first encountered the defining technology of the digital age. In t
