This forward-looking exploration of contemporary American film across the last 40 years identifies and examines the specific movies that changed the film industry and shaped its present and future.Since the mid-1970s, American cinema has gone through enormous changes, such as the birth of the modern summer blockbuster, the rise of the independent film industry, ongoing technological advancements in special effects, and the ever-evolving models for film distribution...

A "meticulous history" of the classic suspense film based on exclusive interviews with the director, writers, cast, and crew ( The New York Times Book Review).First released in June 1960, Psycho altered the landscape of horror films forever. But just as compelling as the movie itself is the story behind it, which has been adapted as a movie starring Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville, and Scarlett Johansson as Jane...

Complete guide for Producers for film and tv projects

Drawing on the extraordinary collection of The Library of Congress, one of the greatest repositories for silent film and memorabilia, Peter Kobel has created the definitive visual history of silent film. From its birth in the 1890s, with the earliest narrative shorts, through the brilliant full-length features of the 1920s, Silent Movies captures the greatest directors and actors and their immortal films.Silent Movies also looks at the technology of early film, the...

Richard Crouse film critic and host of television’s award-winning Reel to Real takes you on a journey through 70 years of cinema history choosing his favorite overlooked films. From the sublime – Monsoon Wedding – to the ridiculous – Eegah! The Name Written in Blood – The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen covers a wide spectrum of films from the 1930s through to present day. Complementing the reviews are detailed descriptions of the movie’s plots trivia and interviews with the actors and f...

From Metropolis to the pre-Technicolor Oz, take a fantastical journey through the wildest frontiers of the silent films of the silver screen.Ancient Rockets brings you the earliest (and cheesiest) special effects, the best and worst directors, the tour de forces and the utter trainwrecks. Forty-nine cinematic odysseys will take you on A Trip to the Moon and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, swinging upon jungle vines with Tarzan and into the terrifying laboratory of D...

Film Theory addresses the core concepts and arguments created or used by academics, critical film theorists, and filmmakers, including the work of Dudley Andrew, Raymond Bellour, Mary Ann Doane, Miriam Hansen, bell hooks, Siegfried Kracauer, Raul Ruiz, P. Adams Sitney, Bernard Stiegler, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. This volume takes the position that film theory is a form of writing that produces a unique cinematic grammar; and like all grammars, it forms part of the system of rules t...

Although relatively small, the northern countries of Scandinavia have made a disproportionately large contribution to world cinema. Indeed, some of their films are among the best known of all times, including The Seventh Seal, Dancer in the Dark, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And Scandinavian directors are also among the best known, just to mention Ingmar Bergman and Lars von Trier. But there is much more to the cinema of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland than that, and t...

Gus Van Sant’s film and the ’90s cult of the alternativeGus Van Sant’s 1991 indie darling My Own Private Idaho perplexed and provoked, inspiring a new ethos for a new decade: being different was better than being good. Gentlemen of the Shade examines how the film was a coming-of-age for a generation of young people who would embrace the alternative and bring their outsider perspectives to sustainability, technology, gender constructs, and social r...

Emerging filmmakers need to know the basics of their art form: the language of the camera, and lenses, the different crew roles, the formats, the aspect ratios. They also need to know some bare-bones theory: what an auteur is, what montage is, what genres are. Most important, all filmmakers require serious grounding in film. You cannot be a great artist if you aren't versed in great art. An Introduction to Film covers all these aspects, from a director and filmmaker's perspective. Accordin...

Responsible for hiring all members of cast and crew from the director onwards, the producer's role is central to the making of any film and responsibilities can include everything from script development to securing financing to masterminding a film's marketing campaign. While few film producers are household names, they wield a degree of control that only the biggest-name directors can aspire to. As with all of the FilmCraft titles, this book is based on new indepth interviews and feature...

With its sprawling celebrity homes, the Walk of Fame and the iconic sign on the hill, Hollywood is truly the land of stars. Glamorous and larger-than-life, many of the most memorable motion pictures of all time have emanated from its multimillion-dollar film industry, which exports more films per capita than that of any other nation. Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood lays out the cinematic history of Tinseltown – the industry, the audiences and, of course, the stars – ...