Movie Greats by Philip Gillett

Why are some films regarded as classics, worthy of entry into the canon of film history? Which sorts of films make the cut and why? Movie Greats questions how cinema is ranked and, in doing so, uncovers a history of critical conflict, with different aesthetic positions battling for dominance.

The films examined range across the history of cinema: The Battleship Potemkin, The 39 Steps, Modern Times, Citizen Kane, It's a Wonderful Life, Black Narcissus, The Night of the Hunter, Lawrence of Arabia, 8 1/2, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Godfather, Raging Bull, The Piano and Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

Each chapter opens with a brief summary of the film’s plot and goes on to discuss the historical context, the key individuals who made the film, and initial and subsequent popular and critical responses.

Students studying the history of film, canon formation or film aesthetics will find this book relevant, provocative and absorbing.

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The Cinema Of Abbas Kiarostami by Alberto Elena, Belinda Coombes

"Abbas Kiarostami's films have taken their place alongside the masterworks of world cinema. He remains the most influential film-maker of post-revolutionary Iran and has produced a body of work that is as rooted in native land as it is universal in appeal." Respected cinema historian Alberto Elena uses Iranian sources wherever possible to frame Kiarostami's oeuvre within the context of the rich artistic and intellectual Persian tradition that has nourished the director. He examines his blending of fiction and reality, and his recurring themes of death, meaning in life, isolation, solidarity and the lives of women. The result is a retrospective that reveals exactly how this most Iranian of directors has come to assume a place in the pantheon of international cinema, from his early days as an illustrator and graphic designer, and his collaborative work and influences to his current master-status.


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The Films of Robert Wise by Richard Keenan

From his early days as a film editor at RKO studios, where he helped Orson Welles shape Citizen Kane, to his success as a director and producer of musical blockbusters of the 1960s, Robert Wise's film career was long and illustrious. Unlike contemporaries, such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, or Howard Hawks, however, Wise's films lack a clearly discernible characteristic. Furthermore, Wise never specialized in one or two genres, but brought his directing skills to all manner of films. His work as a director resists auteur categorization, a large reason why some critics have been unduly negative in their consideration of his work. In The Films of Robert Wise, Richard Keenan examines the nearly forty features that represent the director's career. From Curse of the Cat People in 1944 to A Storm in Summer in 2001, Keenan offers a reappraisal of Wise's films so that the true quality of his work can be better appreciated. Wise was a conscientious craftsman who saw his work not primarily as a vehicle for his own ideas and visual style, but as an opportunity to present narrative that--quite simply--engages, informs, and entertains. It was this perspective that helped produce a number of memorable films over the years, including classics like Born to Kill, The Set-Up, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and I Want to Live!. Wise also won a pair of Oscars for two of the most memorable--not to mention successful--musicals of all time West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Drawing on more than thirty hours of interviews with Wise--as well as additional interviews with a number of his collaborators--Keenan reveals both Wise the craftsman and the artist. In doing so, The Films of Robert Wise finally confers upon this underappreciated director the recognition he deserves.


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The Films of Roberto Rossellini by Peter Bondanella, Ray Carney (Editor)

'The Films of Roberto Rossellini' traces the career of one of the most influential Italian filmmakers through close analysis of the seven films that mark important turning points in his evolution.



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The Films Of Jean-Luc Godard by David Sterritt

In this study, David Sterritt offers an introductory overview of Godard's work as a filmmaker, critic, and video artist. In subsequent chapters, he traces Godard's visionary ideas through six of his key films, including Breathless, My Life to Live, Weekend, Numéro deux, Hail Mary, and Nouvelle vague. Also included is a concise analysis of Godard's work in video, television, and mixed-media formats. Linking Godard's works to key social and cultural developments, The Films of Jean-Luc Godard explains their importance in modernist and postmodernist art of the past half century.


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The Films of Paul Morrissey by Maurice Yacowar

The Films of Paul Morrissey is the first appraisal of one of the major figures of American independent cinema. An innovator in the narrative cinema that emerged from Andy Warhol's Factory, Morrissey, as established in this study, was also the force who shaped the most important films that have heretofore been attributed to Warhol. The director's experiments in the use of non-professional actors, controversial subject matter, and language are demonstrated through analysis of his most accomplished achievements, including Mixed Blood, 40 Deuce, and Spike of Bensonhurst. The Films of Paul Morrissey furthermore reveals the director's challenge to the moral, social and political values of contemporary liberalism.


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The Films of Joseph Losey by James Palmer, Michael Riley

The Films of Joseph Losey examines the career of the expatriate director through a close analysis of five of his most important and challenging films. When his leftist politics made him a target of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities in 1951, the blacklisted Losey left America and continued his film career in England. Concerned mainly with the use and abuse of power inherent in intimate relationships, Losey also examined these issues as manifested in institutions and social classes. His finest films attack the injustices and hypocrisy rooted in the privileges of the English class system and frequently depict the moral failure of characters who betray their best instincts. The Films of Joseph Losey also examines Losey's close working relationships with playwright/screenwriter Harold Pinter and actor Dirk Bogarde, his experimental form of storytelling, the psychological complexity of characters acting as narrator of their own stories, and the intricate handling of time in the structure of his films. Close studies of King and Country, The Servant, Accident, The Go-Between, and The Romantic Englishwoman confirm Losey's stature as a director of powerful and compelling films of both moral importance and great formal complexity.



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The Films of Ingmar Bergman by Jesse Kalin, Ray Carney (Editor)

This concise overview of the career of one of the modern masters of world cinema defines Ingmar Bergman's conception of the human condition as a struggle to find meaning in life as it is played out. After examining six existential themes explored repeatedly in Bergman's films--judgment, abandonment, suffering, shame, a visionary picture, and a turning toward or away from others--Jesse Kalin shows how these themes are expressed in eight of his films, including well known favorites such as Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, and Fanny and Alexander. Other important but lesser known films covered include Naked Night, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage.


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