Collected interviews with the writer/directors whose films include Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? ...More

"Wong Kar-Wai traces this immensely exciting director's perennial themes of time, love, and loss, and examines the political implications of his films, especially concerning the handover of former British colony Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. This book is the first in any language to cover all of Wong's work, from his first film, "As Tears Go By, to his most recent, the still unreleased 2046. It also includes his best-known, highly honored films, "Chungking Express, Happy Together, and above all, "In the Mood for Love. Most importantly, Peter Brunette describes the ways in which Wong's supremely visual films attempt to create a new form of cinema by relying on stunning, suggestive visual images and audio tracks to tell their story, rather than on traditional notions of character, dialogue, and plot. The question of Wong Kar- ...More

This critical study of the art of Hayao Miyazaki, director of the Academy Award]-winning "Spirited Away," begins with an analysis of the visual conventions of manga, Japanese comic books, and anime; an overview of Japanese animated films; and a consideration of the techniques deployed by both traditional cell and computer animation. ...More

In The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese, an impressive cast of contributors explores the complex themes and philosophical underpinnings of Martin Scorsese's films. ...More

Legendary filmmaker John Ford made some 50 Westerns in a career that spanned more than half a century. From the silent classic "Straight Shooting in 1917 to 1964's "Cheyenne Autumn, and including such cinematic gems as "Stagecoach, "My Darling Clementine, "Fort Apache, and "The Searchers, Ford's Westerns have entered movie history as imperishable examples of the human spirit. This groundbreaking book is the first to take a visual approach to these films, relating them to the paintings and sculptures of Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and other artists.
Ford also drew inspiration from the primal beauty of the American landscape; so many of his films, such as "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and "Wagon Master, are set against the untamed wilderness of the Southwest's Monument Valley tha ...More

Photographer Brian Hamill has enjoyed a remarkable, nearly twenty-year professional association with Woody Allen: he has been the unit still photographer on all of Allen's projects since Annie Hall (1977), and so has had a very special vantage point - at the center of the bustle and swirl that is a professional film set. The two hundred photographs collected here (drawn from almost a hundred thousand) document that entire period and distill a legendary career in the cinema. We see Allen in his element - on location, on set, behind and in front of the camera, and collaborating with crew, including master cinematographers Gordon Willis, Carlo Di Palma, and Sven Nykvist. Over the years, Allen has been able to gather some extraordinary ensemble casts, and in his photos Hamill has captured dozens of these star performers. What sets this book a ...More

Revealing the facts rather than the myths behind Orson Welles's Hollywood career, this groundbreaking history fills in the gaps behind the drama of one of the most well-known American filmmakers, delving into his enemies, his unwavering faith in his audience, and the brilliance of his films. ...More

Woody Allen, who first became famous as a stand up comedian and a writer of comedy routines, has also had a distinguished career as a playwright and screenwriter/director. Allen owes his celebrity status primarily to his critically acclaimed films, such as "Manhattan, Hannah and her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors." In Woody Allen: A Casebook, editor Kimball King, who is also General Editor of the Casebook Series, has selected major plays and films by Woody Allen and has chosen well-known scholars to examine their complexities in detail. Allen's sophisticated movie musical scores as well as his thoughtful studies of American character and life are analyzed by contemporary critics, such as William Hutchings, Tom Sahy, and King himself. The result is a volume that surveys artistic highpoints of the Allen canon and illustrates the creat ...More

hitchcock at work is a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes study of the work of the 'Master of Suspense', Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). It examines the whole of the director's career, from the early films made in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s, to his move to Hollywood where he became co-producer as well as director of his films.

Film expert bill krohn looks beyond the usual anecdotal sources about Hitchcock, paying unprecedented attention to the director's personal papers and the archives of the film studios he worked for -- shooting schedules, storyboards, budgets, memos, letters and transcripts of discussions with key collaborators. The result is a major reassessment of the working methods of the director, one which explodes many of the myths -- often promulgated by Hitchcock himself -- that have warped previous criticism. By interpreti ...More

Since his first feature movie, She's Gotta Have It (1986), gave him critical and commercial success, Spike Lee has challenged audiences with one controversial film after another, sparking debates about race, sex, American politics and film production, and garnering award nominations along the way.

Spike Lee: Interviews collects the best interviews and profiles of America's most prominent African American filmmaker. The collection features interviews with such luminaries as Charlie Rose, Elvis Mitchell, Michael Sragow, and actor Delroy Lindo.

Lee has made a broad range of movies, including documentaries (4 Little Girls), musicals (School Daze), crime dramas (Clockers), biopics (Malcolm X). An early advocate of digital video, he used the technology to film both of his 2000 releases, The Original Kings of Comedy and Bamboozled.

Reactio ...More

The subversive style of the woman who has become one of the world's greatest film directors
From Jane Campion's early award-winning short films on through international sensation "The Piano" and beyond, Kathleen McHugh traces the director's distinctive visual style as well as her commitment to consistently renovating the conventions of " women's films." By refusing to position her female protagonists as victims, McHugh argues, Campion scrupulously avoids the moral structures of melodrama, and though she often works with the narratives, mise-en-scè ne, and visual tropes typical of that genre, her films instead invite a distanced or even amused engagement.
"A volume in the series Contemporary Film Directors, edited by James R. Naremore"
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Stanley Kubrick ranks among the most important American filmmakers of his generation, but his work is often misunderstood because its subject matter is diverse and it seems to lack thematic and tonal consistency. Thomas Nelson's perceptive and comprehensive study rescues Kubrick from the hostility of auteurist critics and discovers the roots of a Kubrickan aesthetic, which Nelson defines as the "aesthetics of contingency". After analyzing how this aesthetic develops and manifests itself in the early works, Nelson devotes individual chapters to Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining. For this expanded edition, he has added chapters on Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, and, following the director's recent death, reconsiders his work as a whole. By placing Kubrick in a historical ...More

In America, few film directors attain the coveted status of auteur. With huge production costs and complex studio systems, it is rare for a single person to gain the level of creative control over all aspects of the filmmaking process -- from screenwriting to editing to the sought-after "final cut" -- that the auteur possesses. Francis Ford Coppola, author Gene Phillips argues, is one of the better known modern exceptions.The force behind such popular and critically acclaimed films as Apocalypse Now and the Godfather trilogy, Coppola has imprinted his distinct style on each of his movies -- and subsequently on the landscape of American popular culture. In Godfather, Phillips argues that Coppola has repeatedly bucked the Hollywood "factory system" in an attempt to create distinct films that reflect his own artistic vision -- often to the d ...More

Many critics and film historians throughout the world praise Martin Scorsese as the greatest living American director. In this collection of interviews covering a period of two decades Scorsese's own words, sometimes emotionally direct and always revealing, trace his astonishing career. Like a Scorsese film, a Scorsese interview is daring and impassioned and is charged with his trademark wit and brilliance. ...More

This completely revised and updated edition of the classic text describes and analyzes every movie made by master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. ...More

The first major English-language study of Jarmusch
At a time when gimmicky, action-driven blockbusters ruled Hollywood, Jim Jarmusch spearheaded a boom in independent cinema by making low-budget films focused on intimacy, character, and new takes on classical narratives. His minimal form, peculiar pacing, wry humor, and blank affect have since been adopted by directors including Sophia Coppola, Hal Harley, Richard Linklater, and Wong Kar-Wai. Juan A. Suarez's "Jim Jarmusch" analyzes the director's work from three mutually implicated perspectives: in relation to independent filmmaking from the 1980s to the present; as a form of cultural production that appropriates existing icons, genres, and motifs; and as an instance of postmodern politics.

A volume in the series Contemporary Film Directors, edited by James R. Naremore
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A provocative and timely reexamination of a great American artist, "Oliver Stone's USA" features essays on the director's many films, including "Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Heaven and Earth, Natural Born Killers, " and "Nixon." 30 photos. ...More

Walker opens an exclusive window onto the craft of one of the most brilliant--and most secretive--filmmakers in history. Photos. ...More