Performing Arts : Film

Who was Hitchcock? A fat man who played practical jokes on people? A control freak who humiliated others to make himself look better? A little boy afraid of the dark? One of the greatest storytellers of the century? He was all of these and more - twenty years after his death, he is still a household name; most people in the Western world have seen his film, and he popularised the action movie format we see every week on the cinema screen. He was both a great artist and dynamite at the box office. What's in this Pocket Essential guide? As well as an introductory essay, each of Hitchcock's films is individually reviewed and analysed. In addition, the effect he has had on the industry is explained - virtually every big action movie of the past three decades has been influenced by his work. And there's a handy multimedia reference guide. more...

Price: $9.99

Both a work of feminist film criticism and an analysis of popular culture, this provocative book examines from a cultural studies perspective top film melodramas such as From Here to Eternity, A Streetcar Named Desire and East of Eden . more...

Price: $39.95

Focusing on a variety of filmmaker's use of narrative allegories for the “conservative modernization” Brazil and other nations underwent in the 1960s and 1970s, Ismail Xavier examines the way Cinema Novo transformed Brazil's cultural memory. Includes discussions of Black God, White Devil, Land in Anguish, Red Light Bandit, Macunaíma, Antônio das Mortes, The Angel Is Born, and Killed the Family and Went to the Movies. more...

Price: $67.50

Probably no decade saw as many changes in the Hollywood film industry and its product as the 1930s did. At the beginning of the decade, the industry was still struggling with the transition to talking pictures. Gangster films and naughty comedies starring Mae West were popular in urban areas, but aroused threats of censorship in the heartland. Whether the film business could survive the economic effects of the Crash was up in the air. By 1939, popularly called “Hollywood’s Greatest Year,” films like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz used both color and sound to spectacular effect, and remain American icons today. The “mature oligopoly” that was the studio system had not only weathered the Depression and become part of mainstream culture through the establishment and enforcement of the Production Code, it was a well-oiled, vertically integrated industrial powerhouse. The ten original essays in American Cinema of the 1930s focus on sixty diverse films of the decade, including Animal Crackers, Dracula, The Public Enemy, Trouble in Paradise, 42nd Street, King Kong, Imitation of Life, It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Swing Time, Nothing Sacred, Jezebel, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Stagecoach. more...

Price: $17.00

During the 1980s, American cinema underwent enormous transformations. Blockbusters like Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and The Empire Strikes Back grabbed huge revenues for the studios. At the same time, the growth of home video led to new and creative opportunities for independent film production, resulting in many of the decade’s best films. Both large- and small-scale filmmakers responded to the social, political, and cultural conditions of the time. The two-term presidency of Ronald Reagan spawned a new Cold War with the Soviet Union, which Hollywood film both embraced and critiqued. Also during this time, Hollywood launched a long-awaited cycle of films about the Vietnam War, exploring its impact both at home and abroad. But science fiction remained the era’s most popular genre, ranging from upbeat fantasies to dark, dystopic visions. Bringing together original essays by ten respected scholars in the field, American Cinema of the 1980s examines the films that marked the decade, including Ordinary People, Body Heat, Blade Runner, Zelig, Platoon, Top Gun, Aliens, Blue Velvet, RoboCop, Fatal Attraction, Die Hard, Batman, and sex, lies & videotape. more...

Price: $17.00