Showing titles in History & Criticism

In this unofficial title, Rebecca Jennings takes the most iconic and unforgettable moments from Love Island to remind us dating should be fun—not just tolerable. A witty love letter to Love Island superfans, hopeless romantics, and serial swipers, Be the Bombshell will teach you to demand what you want unapologetically and to tell the difference between what’s worth the compromise and what’s settling for less than you deserve.

For over a century, cinephiles and film scholars have had to grapple with an ugly artifact that sits at the beginnings of film history. D. W. Griffith's profoundly racist epic, The Birth of a Nation, inspired controversy and protest at its 1915 release and was defended as both a true history of Reconstruction (although it was based on fiction) and a new achievement in cinematic art. Paul McEwan examines the long and shifting history of its reception, revealing how the film became not just a cinematic landmark but also an influential force in American aesthetics and intellectual life.

गुप्त तळघराचा माग सांगणाऱ्या कोळ्यांना बघून घाबरण्यासाठी रॉन झालेल्या रूपर्ट ग्रिंट याला अजिबातच अभिनय करावा लागला नाही! कारण नुसत्या कोळ्याच्या कल्पनेनेसुद्धा रुपर्टला घाम फुटतो! हॅरी पॉटर चित्रपटात काम केलेल्या कलाकारांची रहस्य जाणून घेण्यासाठी ऐका - मेकिंग ऑफ क्लासिक्स' .

Film historian David Thomson, leads us into this very delicate subject. While unpacking classics such as Seven, Strangers on a Train, The Conformist, The Godfather, and The Shining, he offers a disconcerting sense of how the form of movies makes us accomplices in this sinister narrative process. Murder and the Movies admits us into what Thomson calls "a warped triangle": the creator working out a compelling death; the killer doing his and her best; and the entranced spectator trying to cling to life and a proper sense of decency.

Maureen O'Hara is the first book-length biography of the screen legend hailed as the "Queen of Technicolor". Following the star from her childhood in Dublin to the height of fame in Hollywood, film critic Aubrey Malone draws on new information from the Irish Film Institute, production notes from films, and details from historical film journals, newspapers, and fan magazines.

Werner Herzog is the undisputed master of extreme cinema: building an opera house in the middle of the jungle; walking from Munich to Paris in the dead of winter; descending into an active volcano; living in the wilderness among grizzly bears - he has always been intrigued by the extremes of human experience. From his early movies to his later documentaries, he has made a career out of exploring the boundaries of human endurance: what we are capable of in exceptional circumstances and what these situations reveal about who we really are. But these are not just great cinematic themes.

Baudrillard & Lacan: At the (Exploitation) Movies! uncovers the multifaceted complexity situated in several previously neglected exploitation masterpieces. It examines: *Joe D’Amato’s Porno Holocaust & Emanuelle in America *Jess Franco’s Jungfrauen-Report *Christploitation Classic A Thief in the Night *Harmony Korine’s Gummo *Naziploitation Comedy Liebes Lager *Tim Heidecker’s Urinal Street Station *And Much More! Written for lovers of the Video Nasties, Grindhouse, Mondo, Postmodern Theory, and all things Weird and Sleazy. A truly fun and entertaining gambol through the bizarre ...

Amidst claims of a new "post-truth" era, documentary filmmaking has experienced a golden age. Today, more documentaries are made and widely viewed than ever before, illuminating our increasingly fraught relationship with what's true in politics and culture. Screening Reality is a widescreen view of how American "truth" has been discovered, defined, projected, televised, and streamed during more than 100 years of dramatic change, through World Wars I and II, the dawn of mass media, the social and political turmoil of the 60s and 70s, and the communications revolution....

Damn good coffee, cherry pie, and the “big bang of auteur television”―why Twin Peaks deserves to be a pop culture classic In 1990, avant garde filmmaker David Lynch (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet) and acclaimed television writer Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues) teamed up to create a television show that would redefine what the medium could achieve in a one-hour drama.

The one and only Zadie Smith, prize-winning, best-selling author of White Teeth, is back with a second unmissable collection of essays. No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for the unstoppable Zadie Smith. From social media to the environment, from Jay-Z to Karl Ove Knausgaard, she has boundless curiosity and the boundless wit to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and political debate all get the Zadie Smith treatment, dissected with razor-sharp intellect.

What would happen to international politics if the dead rose from the grave and started to eat the living? Daniel Drezner's groundbreaking book answers the question that other international relations scholars have been too scared to ask. Addressing timely issues with analytical bite, Drezner looks at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies.

In this audiobook, Simon Louvish traces the early lives of Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy and the surrounding minstrel and variety theater, which influenced all of their later work. Louvish examines the rarely seen solo films of both our heroes, prior to their serendipitous pairing in 1927, in the long-lost short Duck Soup. The inspired casting teamed them until their last days. Both often married, they found balancing their personal and professional lives a nearly impossible feat.

Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy is the first collection to bring a sustained scholarly perspective to the iconic filmmaker and his legacy beyond the Star Wars films. Edited by Richard Ravalli, this volume analyzes Lucas's overall contribution and importance to the film industry, diving deep into his use and development of modern special effects technologies, the history of his Skywalker Ranch production facilities, and more.

Christopher Naylor reads the inside story of how the BBC created and launched Doctor Who. In early 1963, a chain of events led to the creation of what would become one of the best-loved, and most successful, of all British television programmes. This is the tale of how Doctor Who embarked upon its epic journey - one which still continues today. It is also the story of the people involved, from Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson to Verity Lambert, Waris Hussein and William Hartnell.

According to Cox, the key to understanding The Prisoner is to view the series in the order in which the episodes were made - and not in the rearranged order of the UK or US television screenings. In this book he provides an innovative and controversial "explanation" for what is perhaps the best, the most original, and certainly the most perplexing TV series of all time.

Having saved virtually every letter her father wrote to her between the years 1938, when she was 11 years old, and 1967, Miriam Marx' letters from her famous father Groucho show an extraordinary father-daughter relationship.

The Twin Peaks Unwrapped Podcast has over 200 episodes, and now they have a book. Hosts Ben Durant & Bryon Kozaczka have interviewed just about every actor on Twin Peaks. They have spoken with all the writers, fans and crazy theorists over their 200 episodes. This book compiles all they have unwrapped about David Lynch & Mark Frost's Twin Peaks over the past few years. There also is a ton of new content from people who have not guested on the show like a Special Agent that we all know and love: Agent Cooper. Kyle MacLachlan talked with Ben and Bryon for the book. This book starts with the ...

Fifty years ago, a little boy was cast in a movie with some of Hollywood's brightest stars. The movie: It's a Wonderful Life; the boy: Jimmy Hawkins; today, he tells his story. Through personal recollection, careful research, and interviews with cast and crew, actor Jimmy Hawkins, who played four-year-old Tommy Bailey, takes you behind the scenes for a first-hand look at the American movie classic It's a Wonderful Life.

Jean Renoir's career almost spans the history years of cinema - from the early silent movies, to the naturalism of the talkies, committed cinema, film noir, Hollywood studio productions, the Technicolor-period comedies and fast television techniques. His film The Grand Illusion remains one of the greatest movies about the effects of war.

As any actor, producer, director, or screenwriter can attest, working in the movie business isn't easy. After Jack Nicholson filmed his first screen test for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, studio mogul Louis B. Mayer politely told him afterwards: "I don't know what we can use you for, but if we ever do need you, we'll need you real bad.” In the late 1960s, Paul, John, George, and Ringo–better known as The Beatles–were set to star in a movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, until Tolkien objected over the loudness of their music.