Showing titles in History & Criticism

This updated and expanded edition of A Short History of Film provides an accessible overview of the major movements, directors, studios, and genres from the 1880s to the present. Succinct yet comprehensive, this edition provides new information on contemporary horror, comic book, and franchise films; issues surrounding women and minority filmmakers; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on movies worldwide; the shift from film to digital production; the rising use of artificial intelligence in cinema; and the impact of streaming on the industry.

Grand spécialiste de l'œuvre de J.R.R Tolkien, Ilan Ferry nous entraîne dans les entrailles de ce chef-d'œuvre pour révéler les références mythologiques qui abondent au fil des pages. Bien sûr, les liens entre les Elfes, les Orques, les Hobbits et toutes les autres créatures merveilleuses qui peuplent la Terre du Milieu avec les mythologies nordiques sont presque évidents. Mais à quoi font référence exactement les Mages Blancs et le terrible Sauron ? Pourquoi J.R.R Tolkien a-t-il imaginé son alphabet elfique et runique ?

Que serait un grand film sans son grand méchant ? Un mauvais film selon Jérémie Gallen, créateur de la chaîne YouTube Va te faire suivre. Si ces méchants nous fascinent autant, c'est peut-être parce qu'ils sont l'incarnation d'une partie de notre personnalité. La part la plus sombre et, par voie de conséquence, le symbole de notre humanité la plus imparfaite. Voldemort, Dark Vador, la Reine-sorcière… ne sont-ils pas les vraies stars de Harry Potter, Star Wars, ou Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains ? Aussi effrayants soient-ils, ils suscitent notre empathie et font briller les héros de ces sagas !

¿Qué tienen ellas para dar de comer de su mano a auténticas fieras humanas? ¿Con qué poderosa luz los deslumbran hasta hacerles olvidarse de sí mismos? ¿Cómo esos dragones son sometidos por las que parecen llevarlos atados con un lazo de sutileza? Estas páginas buscan acercarse a ese secreto, conmovedor o perturbador, aunque para ello debamos primero descubrir las condiciones que producen unos monstruos con rostro humano, mezcla de terror y poesía, lo mejor y lo peor de la civilización.

Global entertainment has entered a new era where algorithms, data, and creator-driven platforms dictate success. The Algorithm Always Wins reveals how technology has permanently reshaped the business and creative engines of Hollywood, shifting power from studios to platforms and from gatekeepers to creators. Emmy-winning producer, lawyer, and investment banker Philip Alberstat takes readers behind the scenes of this transformation, showing how attention has become the world’s most valuable currency and how creators now operate as full-scale studios in their own right.

Guillermo del Toro's cult masterpiece, Pan's Labyrinth (2006), won a total of 76 awards and is one of the most commercially successful Spanish-language films ever made. Blending the world of monstrous fairytales with the actual horrors of post-Civil War Spain, the film's commingling of real and fantasy worlds speaks profoundly to our times. This study of Guillermo del Toro's cult masterpiece places 'Pan's Labyrinth' in its cultural and historical contexts, and provide an illuminating analysis of the film's techniques, themes and meanings.

In this compelling study, Joshua Clover undertakes the task of decoding the film. Examining The Matrix's digital effects and how they were achieved, he shows how the film represents a melding of cinema and video games (the greatest commercial threat to have faced Hollywood since the advent of television) and achieves a hybrid kind of immersive entertainment. He also unpacks the movie's references to philosophy, showing how The Matrix ultimately expresses the crisis American culture faced at the end of the 1990s.

Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) brings two Americans together in Tokyo, each experiencing a personal crisis. Both are distant — emotionally and spatially — from their spouses. They are lost until they develop an intimate connection. In the film’s poignant, famously ambiguous closing scene, they find each other, only to separate. In this close look at the multi-award-winning film, Suzanne Ferriss mirrors Lost in Translation’s structuring device of travel: her analysis takes the form of a trip, from planning to departure...

In the golden age of American cinema, when Hollywood stood as a symbol of glamour, freedom, and creativity, a shadow descended over its bright lights. In the tense years following World War II, fear replaced trust, and suspicion replaced truth. The Cold War had begun—and in its early years, paranoia found a stage in Hollywood itself. Behind the Curtain takes listeners deep into one of the darkest chapters of American cultural history—a time when actors, writers, directors, and musicians were silenced, exiled, or destroyed by accusations that required no proof.

In her insightful study of this classic, Gayatri Chatterjee draws on new research in the Mehboob studio archive to outline the film's eventful production history, the ambitious vision of its director, and the performances of its stars. Rooted both in Hindu mythology and in the collective experience of a newly-independent nation-state on the brink of industrialisation and social change, this family melodrama inexorably towards tragedy and renewal.

As much coverage as Jane Fonda has elicited through the years, the stories often skim past her prime filmmaking core. Fonda on Film spotlights the signature political films Fonda generated in the 1970s—Coming Home, The China Syndrome, 9 to 5, and more—that are still underappreciated even as Fonda endures as one of the world’s most admired and controversial performers. This is a movie book about a mega-celebrity, an origin story voyaging through Fonda’s learning years in the 1960s and the calculated payoff of the 1970s.

Un viaggio tra i grandi temi del cinema di ieri e di oggi in compagnia di una voce decisamente fuori dal coro. Una raccolta di saggi che uniscono la precisione del critico alla fantasia del romanziere e vincono la sfida di rimanere sempre, programmaticamente, "dalla parte del pubblico". Tutte le storie sono già state inventate così come tutti i codici dominanti, e non è stato il cinema a inventare e raccontare per primo.

Siendo la industria del cine chino una de las más importantes en la actualidad, aún es una gran desconocida en nuestro país. Salvo nombres como Zhang Yimou o Jia Zhangke, poco se sabe de un cine que siempre ha colmado los sueños de sus espectadores, desde la glamurosa industria de Shanghai de los años 30 hasta el periodo de ocupación japonesa, desde la instauración de la República Popular en 1949 hasta la apertura de los años 80 pasando por el tormentoso periodo de la Revolución Cultural.

Cuando el profesor Amit Ray quiso convencer a su decano para que le permitiera incluir "Los Simpson" en sus clases argumentó: "Las ideas ya no se escriben en papel. Se escriben en pantallas". Sobre todo en pantallas de televisión, cabría apostillar, ya que son las series de televisión, sobre todo las estadounidenses, las que han propiciado un debate y un diálogo a través de los medios de comunicación, en particular foros, webs y blogs de Internet, en el que se plantean cuestiones tan candentes como la reforma del sistema de pensiones ("El ala oeste de la Casa Blanca"), las relaciones entre padres e hijos ("Los Simpson").

Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling are virtually unknown outside of Hollywood and little-remembered even there, but as General Manager and Head of Publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, they lorded over all the stars in Hollywood’s golden age from the 1920s through the 1940s—including legends like Garbo, Dietrich, Gable and Garland. When MGM stars found themselves in trouble, it was Eddie and Howard who took care of them—solved their problems, hid their crimes, and kept their secrets. They were “the Fixers.”

With the success of the Wonder Woman movies and the results following the outcry of the #MeToo movement, now is the time to highlight the female influences in film history previously left unheard!

Conversations about gender equity in the workplace accelerated in the 2010s, with debates inside Hollywood specifically pointing to broader systemic problems of employment disparities and exploitative labor practices. Compounded by the devastating #MeToo revelations, these problems led to a wide-scale call for change. The Value Gap traces female-driven filmmaking across development, financing, production, film festivals, marketing, and distribution, examining the realities facing women working in the industry during this transformative moment.

This book chronicles the last 16 two reelers and starring feature films of The Three Stooges featuring Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita.

Following her success with Playboy Swings, Patty Farmer looks at Playboy’s relationship with comedians and cartoonists in her new book Playboy Laughs. Playboy Laughs invites listeners onto the sets of the organization’s groundbreaking TV shows, Playboy Penthouse and Playboy After Dark. These popular variety series brought top-tier comedians, impressionists, and monologists—as well as the finest musicians—into people’s homes each week.

From the Emmy Award-winning Squid Game to streaming sensations like The Glory and Crash Landing on You, Korean television has emerged onto the global pop culture scene as compelling television—but what exactly makes these shows so irresistibly bingeable? And what can we learn about our...