Unlike the bulk of soft-core pornography, direct-to-video erotic thriller films are made specifically to appeal to women. Nina K. Martin argues that this makes them a valuable resource for investigating female sexuality, subjectivity, and gender construction. The heroines of these productions have overtly sexual adventures, often dabbling in a ......
Josephine Baker (1906-75) was a dancer, singer, actress, author, politician, militant, and philanthropist, whose images and cultural legacy have survived beyond the hundredth anniversary of her birth. Neither merely an exercise in postmodern deconstruction nor a traditional biography, Josephine Baker in Art and Life presents a critical cultural ......
A new take on an eclectic and controversial director.James Morrison's Roman Polanski offers one of the most comprehensive and critically engaged treatments ever written on Polanski's work. Tracing the filmmaker's remarkably diverse career from its beginnings to the present, the book provides commentary on all his major films in their historical, ......
Liberalism, Democracy, and Working People in American Film
From Tom Joad to Norma Rae to Spike Lee's Mookie in Do the Right Thing , Hollywood has regularly dramatized the lives and struggles of working people in America. Ranging from idealistic to hopeless, from sympathetic to condescending, these portrayals confronted audiences with the vital economic, social, and political issues of their times while ......
Having spearheaded the bourgeoning Nouvelle Vague scene in the late 1950s and developed a distinctive style involving still images, Chris Marker (born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve) stands among the most influential filmmakers of the postwar era, yet remains enigmatic. His notorious reclusiveness has led to surprisingly few studies, and ......
In Pedro Almodóvar, Marvin D'Lugo offers a concise, informed, and insightful commentary on the man who has become a preeminent force in modern cinema and by far the best known Spanish filmmaker among English-speaking audiences. D'Lugo follows Almodóvar's career chronologically as he moves from amateur to international celebrity, analyzing the ......
Into the Vortex challenges and rethinks feminist film theory's brilliant but often pessimistic reflections on the workings of sound and voice in film. Including close readings of major film theorists such as Kaja Silverman and Mary Ann Doane, Britta H. Sjogren offers an alternative to image-centered scenarios that dominate feminist film theory's ......
Contrasting strong women and multiculturalism with portrayals of a heroic white male leading the nation into battle, The Prime-Time Presidency explores the NBC drama The West Wing, paying particular attention to its role in promoting cultural meaning about the presidency and U.S. nationalism. Based in a careful, detailed analysis of the ''first ......
Since the earliest days of the silent era, American filmmakers have been drawn to the visual spectacle of sports and their compelling narratives of conflict, triumph, and individual achievement. In Contesting Identities Aaron Baker examines how these cinematic representations of sports and athletes have evolved over time -- from The Pinch Hitter ......
