Studying Hot Fuzz

Studying Hot Fuzz

Author: Neil Archer

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 0993238416

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Neil Archer considers to what extent a modestly funded film such as this can be considered ‘British’ at all


Studying Ida

Studying Ida

Author: Sheila Skaff

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2018-07-24

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 1800347189

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Paweł Pawlikowski’s Academy Award-winning 2013 film Ida has drawn acclaim and controversy. Sheila Skaff explains the film's historical setting and provides political and cultural analysis to aid the reader in understanding the film’s setting and narrative. Skaff also touches on the influence of the film on current events in Poland.


Studying Feminist Film Theory

Studying Feminist Film Theory

Author: Terri Murray

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2019-12-17

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 1800347243

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This book is aimed at helping media and film studies teachers introduce the basics of feminist film theory. No prior knowledge of feminist theory is required, the intended readers being university undergraduate teachers and students of film and media studies. Areas of emphasis include spectatorship, narrative, and ideology. Many illustrative case studies from popular cinema are used to offer students an opportunity to consider the connotations of visual and aural elements of film, narrative conflicts and oppositions, the implications of spectator “positioning” and viewer identification, and an ideological critical approach to film. Explanations of key terminology are included, along with classroom exercises and practice questions. Each chapter begins with key definitions and explanations of the concepts to be studied, including some historical background where relevant. Case studies include film noir, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days and the work of directors Spike Lee, Claire Denis, and Paul Verhoeven. Studying Feminist Film Theory is a revised and expanded version of Feminist Film Studies: A Teacher’s Guide, published by Auteur in 2007.


Studying The Hurt Locker

Studying The Hurt Locker

Author: Terence McSweeney

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2019-07-02

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 1800347219

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In this vibrant and dynamic book-length study drawing on a broad tapestry of research, Terence McSweeney offers an exploration of The Hurt Locker (2009), its stylistic and narrative devices, its cultural impact, its reception, and its relationship to the genre of the war film. McSweeney places the film in a richly textured historical, political, and industrial context, arguing that The Hurt Locker is part of a long tradition of films about American wars that play a considerable role in how audiences come to understand the conflicts that they depict. Thus, films about a nation’s wars are never “only a movie” but rather should be considered a cultural battleground themselves on which a war of representation is waged.


Studying Hammer Horror

Studying Hammer Horror

Author: Victoria Walden

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2016-06-07

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 1800347367

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When Hammer Productions was formed in the 1920s, no one foresaw the impact this small, independent studio would have on the international film market. Christopher Lee's mesmerizing, animalistic, yet gentlemanly performance as Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Mummy were celebrated worldwide, and the Byronic qualities of Peter Cushing's Dr. Frankenstein, among his many other Hammer characters, proved impossible to forget. Hammer maintained consistent period settings, creating a timeless and enchanting aesthetic. Studying Hammer Horror treats Hammer as a quintessentially British product and through a study of its work investigates larger conceptions of national horror cinemas. The book examines genre, auteur theory, stardom, and representation within case studies of Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Twins of Evil (1971), and Hammer's latest film, Beyond the Rave (2008). Walden weighs Hammer's impact on the British film industry, past and present. Intended for students, fans, and general readers, this book transcends superficial preconceptions of Hammer horror in order to reach the essence of Hammer.


Studying Talk to Her

Studying Talk to Her

Author: Emily Hughes

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2015-05-01

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 1800346840

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Provides an in-depth analysis of Talk to Her, including both the formal elements of the film (its narrative, genre, and auteur study) and the themes and issues it raises.


Studying Shakespeare on Film

Studying Shakespeare on Film

Author: Rebekah Owens

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1800347650

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Aimed at newcomers to literature and film, this book is a guide for the analysis of Shakespeare on film. Starting with an introduction to the main challenge faced by any director—the early-modern language—it presents case studies of the twelve films most often used in classroom teaching, including Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and The Tempest.


Studying Waltz with Bashir

Studying Waltz with Bashir

Author: Giulia Miller

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 1800347022

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On its release in 2008, Ari Folman's animated documentary Waltz with Bashir was heralded as a brilliant and original exploration of trauma, and trauma's impact on memory and the recording of history. But it is surprising that although the film is seen through the eyes of one particular soldier, a viewpoint portrayed using highly experimental forms of animation, this has not prevented Waltz with Bashir from being regarded as both an "autobiographical" and "honest" account of the director's own experiences in the 1982 Lebanon war. In fact, the film won several documentary awards, and even those critics focusing on the representation of trauma suggest that this trauma must be authentic. In this sense, it is the documentary form rather than the animation that has had the most influence upon critics. As Studying Waltz with Bashir will show, it is the tension between the two forms that makes the film so complex and interesting, allowing for multiple themes and discourses to coexist, including Israel's role during the Lebanon War and the impact of trauma upon narrative, but also the representation of Holocaust memory and its role in the formation of Israeli identity. In addition to these themes that coexist by virtue of the film's unusual animated documentary format, Waltz with Bashir can also be discussed in relation to a broad range of contexts; for example, the representation of war in film, the history of Israeli Holocaust cinema, and recent trends in experimental animation, such as Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006), as well as Folman's most recent live action/animation work The Congress (2013).


Studying The Lord of the Rings

Studying The Lord of the Rings

Author: Anna Dawson

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2021-07-23

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1800345615

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Unquestionably the first cinematic phenomenon of the twenty-first century, Peter Jackson's trilogy was a project of enormous artistic vision and financial risk. It is also a rich text for those studying film and media, perhaps for the first time. Studying The Lord of the Rings is the first book to consider the films in these terms, looking in turn at each of the major concepts: their complex origins and narrative structure; issues of representation masculinity, femininity and race; their generic patterns (to which genre do the films belong?) and thematic concerns; their industrial context from theatrical release to DVD extended editions; film language fusing classical mise-en-scène with cutting-edge technological practice. The aim throughout is to highlight critical debates and key terms, to relate these to the texts and to explore their stylistic and cultural impact. This Student Edition (a previously published Instructor's Edition is available) brings the story up to date with reflections on The Hobbit films.


Beyond a Joke

Beyond a Joke

Author: Neil Archer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-10-27

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1786720906

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At the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics, a global audience of nearly one billion viewers were treated to the unprecedented sight of James Bond meeting Queen Elizabeth II. Shortly after, the 'Queen' hurled herself out of a helicopter, her Union Jack parachute guiding her down to the Olympic Stadium. What it is about moments such as these that define both a particular idea of Britishness and a particular type of British film comedy? How has British cinema exploited parody as a means of negotiating its sense of identity? How does this function within a globalized marketplace and in the face of dominant Hollywood cinema? Beyond a Joke explores the myriad ways British film culture has used forms of parody, from the 1960s to the present day. It provides a contextual and textual analysis of a range of works that, while popular, have only rarely been the subject of serious academic attention – from Morecambe and Wise to Shaun of the Dead to the London 2012 Olympics' opening ceremony. Combining the methodologies both of film history and film theory, Beyond a Joke locates parody within specific industrial and cultural moments, while also looking in detail at the aesthetics of parody as a mode. Ultimately, such works are shown to be a form of culturally specific film or televisual product for exporting to the global market, in which 'Britishness', shaped in self-mocking and ironic terms, becomes the selling point. Written in an accessible style and illustrated throughout with a diverse range of examples, Beyond a Joke is the first book to explore parody within a specifically British context and makes an invaluable contribution to the scholarship on both British and global film culture.