Not just another film guide-this is a visual road map to the best cinema has to offer. A comprehensive, fun to browse, and easy-to-use source for... everything you need to know about movies and the people behind them. From Hollywood to Bollywood, this book's unique approach will explore every aspect of film and provide pointers on how to watch and understand films of different types, styles, and periods.

Film Fables traces the history of modern cinema, moving effortlessly from Eisenstein's and Murnau's transition from theatre to film to Fritz Lang's... confrontation with television, from the classical poetics of Mann's Westerns to Ray's romantic poetics of the image, from Rossellini's neo-realism to Deleuze's philosophy of the cinema and Marker's documentaries.

From Alien to When a Stranger Calls, many films are based on folklore or employ an urban legend element to propel the narrative. But once those... traditional aspects have been identified, do they warrant further scrutiny? Indeed, why is the study of folklore in popular film important? In Films, Folklore and Urban Legends, Mikel J. Koven addresses this issue by exploring the convergence of folklore with popular cinema studies. Well beyond the identification of traditional motifs in popular cinema, Koven reveals new paradigms of filmic analysis, which open up when one looks at movies through the lens of folklore. In particular, this book focuses on the study of urban legends and how these narratives are used as inspiration for a number of films.Divided into five sections, the book begins with a general survey of the existing literature on folklore/film, predominantly from the perspective of folklore studies. Subsequent chapters address discourses of belief, how urban legends provide the organizing principle of some films, and how certain films "act out" or perform a legend. Movies discussed in this book include Alligator, Candyman, The Curve, Dead Man on Campus, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, Weekend at Bernie's, and The Wicker Man, as well as zombie films, killer bee movies, and slasher films (including Halloween, Black Christmas, The Burning and Terror Train). Koven also devotes attention to key television shows such as The X-Files and Most Haunted.In his analysis, Koven explains not only how film and television narratives are built upon already-existing popular culture beliefs, but also how films and television shows recycle those beliefs back into popular culture. Taken as a whole, Film, Folklore and Urban Legends both stands on its own as the first book-length study of folklore and popular cinema, and as an introductory textbook for the study of folklore and film.

This text looks at film from part to whole--from the shot and the cut to the cultural, political, and economic contexts in which films are made.... "Teaching Film is about getting control of the image and handing that control over to students," argues author Robert Kolker, and that's just what he does in his teaching and writing about film, including in this outstanding textbook and DVD-ROM package. The new edition includes more detailed discussion of the shot, composition, editing, and genre; a thorough discussion of the technical and aesthetic changes resulting from film's digital transformation; and a revised discussion of the cultural context of film. The companion interactive DVD-ROM includes segments from classic and contemporary films, with explanatory text, stills, and animations illustrating key film elements and strategies.

Twelve essays written between 1928 and 1945 that demonstrate key points in the development of Eisenstein’s film theory and in particular his analysis... of the sound-film medium. Edited, translated, and with an Introduction by Jay Leyda; Index; photographs and diagrams.

This text seeks to revise notions of film genre. It connects the roles played by industry critics and audiences in making and re-making genre. In a... critique of major voices in the history of genre theory from Aristotle to Wittgenstein, Altman reveals the conflicting stakes for which the genre game has been played. Recognizing that the very term "genre" has different meaning for different groups, he bases his genre theory on the uneasy competitive yet complimentary relationship among genre users and discusses a range of films from "The Great Train Robbery" to "Star Wars", and from "The Jazz Singer" to "The Player".

This is a concise evaluation of film genre, discussing genre theory and sample analyses of the western, science fiction, the musical, horror, comedy,... and the thriller. It introduces the topic in an accessible way and includes sections on the principles of studying and understanding "the idea of genre"; genre and popular culture; the narrative and stylistic conventions of specific genres; the relations of genres to culture and history, race, gender, sexuality, class and national identity; and the complex relations between genre and authorship. Case studies include: 42nd Street, Pennies from Heaven, Red River, All That Heaven Allows, Night of the Living Dead, Die Hard, Little Big Man, Blue Steel, and Posse.

Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond provides a detailed account of genre history and contemporary trends in film genre, alongside the critical debates... they have provoked. The book ranges widely across the field, dealing separately and in detail with not only classic genres - including the Western, the musical, the war film, the gangster film, and film noir - but also more recent trends such as body-horror, Holocaust film, and the action blockbuster. Throughout the book, genre is presented as a constantly evolving phenomenon. Writing in a sophisticated yet accessible style, Barry Langford shows how notions of genre help shape the ways that filmmakers, critics and audiences view films and how the often complex scholarly debates around genre reflect important differences in the ways cinema is understood in relation to its social and historical contexts. The book encourages students to interrogate and broaden received ideas about genre.Features* Key text suitable for both undergraduate and advanced students* Detailed close analyses of key films (including The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan and Singin' in the Rain)* Comprehensive bibliography and guide to further reading* Up-to-date and theoretically informed.

Since 1986, Film Genre Reader has been the standard reference and classroom text for the study of genre in film, with nearly 20,000 copies in print.... Barry Keith Grant has again revised and updated the book to reflect the most recent developments in genre study. This third edition adds new essays on teen films, the question of genre hybridity, and neo-noir and genre in the era of globalization, along with an updated bibliography. The volume includes over thirty essays by some of film's most distinguished critics and scholars of popular film, including John G. Cawelti, David Desser, Thomas Elsaesser, Steve Neale, Thomas Schatz, Paul Schrader, Steve Neale, Vivian Sobchack, Janet Staiger, Linda Williams, and Robin Wood.

Written by two leading film scholars, Film History: An Introduction is a comprehensive survey of film-from the backlots of Hollywood, across the United... States, and around the world. As in the authors' bestselling Film Art, concepts and events are illustrated with actual frame enlargements, giving students more realistic points of reference than competing books that use publicity stills.

Written by two of the leading scholars in film studies, Film History: An Introduction is a comprehensive, global survey of the medium that covers the... development of every genre in film, from drama and comedy to documentary and experimental. As with the authors' bestselling Film Art: An Introduction (now in its eighth edition), concepts and events are illustrated with frame enlargements taken from the original sources, giving students more realistic points of reference than competing books that rely on publicity stills. The third edition of Film History is thoroughly updated and includes the first comprehensive overviews of the impact of globalization and digital technology on the cinema. Any serious film scholar--professor, undergraduate, or graduate student--will want to read and keep Film History. Visit the authorss blog at http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/

Paperback: 276 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 1 edition (February 1, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10:... 0075548712
ISBN-13: 978-0075548713
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.7 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces

Filming the Gods examines the role and depiction of religion in Indian cinema, showing that the relationship between the modern and the traditional in... contemporary India is not exotic, but part of everyday life. Concentrating mainly on the Hindi cinema of Mumbai, Bollywood, it also discusses India's other cinemas. Rachel Dwyer's lively discussion encompasses the mythological genre which continues India's long tradition of retelling Hindu myths and legends, drawing on sources such as the national epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; the devotional genre, which flourished at the height of the nationalist movement in the 1930s and 40s; and the films made in Bombay that depict India's Islamicate culture, including the historical, the courtesan film and the 'Muslim social' genre. Filming the Gods also examines the presence of the religious across other genres and how cinema represents religious communities and their beliefs and practices. It draws on interviews with film stars, directors and producers as well as popular fiction, fan magazines and the films themselves. As a result, Filming the Gods is a both a guide to the study of film in religious culture as well as a historical overview of Indian religious film.