Dear Screen-L:
The British Film Institute is pleased to announce the publication of:
100 Road Movies
The Big Lebowski
100 European Horror Films
On Kubrick
City Lights
Lawrence of Arabia
Pedro Almodovar
100 Road Movies
A film programmer, filmmaker and writer, Jason
Wood's previous publications include _100
American Independent Films_ (2004), _Nick
Broomfield: Documenting Icons_ (2005), and _The
Faber Book of Mexican Cinema_ (2006).
http://go.ucpress.edu/Wood
From the earliest days of American cinema, the
road movie has been synonymous with American
culture. But the road movie is not uniquely
American, and other national cinemas have offered
their own take, adapting it to reflect their own
sensibilities and geographies. Whatever its
nationality, the road movie has presented a means
by which to challenge and confront convention,
remaining an ever-changing, fascinating metaphor
for life. Beginning with an expansive essay
tracing their historical development, _100 Road
Movies _is an entertaining but comprehensive
guide to one of the most enduring and popular
movie sub-genres. Film entries include _The
Grapes of Wrath, Easy Rider, Two-Lane Blacktop,
Stranger Than Paradise, _and _The Motorcycle
Diaries. _
The Big Lebowski
J. M. Tyree is a Stegner Fellow in Fiction at
Stanford University. Ben Walters is deputy Film
Editor at _Time Out London_.
http://go.ucpress.edu/Tyree
Since its release nearly ten years ago, _The Big
Lebowski _has become a cult classic with a
worldwide following. One of the high-water marks
of 1990s genre recycling and pastiche, _The Big
Lebowski _is littered with playful and subversive
references to film history and jokes that become
funnier with repetition. Yet underneath the
film's breakneck pacing and foul-mouthed
characters is a surprisingly humane account of
what fools we mortals be.
In this study, _The Big Lebowski _is set into the
context of 1990s Hollywood cinema, anatomized for
its witty relationship with the classics it
satirizes, and discussed in terms of its key
theme: the hopeless flailing of ridiculously
unmanly men in the world of discombobulated,
mixed-up, or put-on identities that is Los
Angeles.
100 European Horror Films
Steven Jay Schneider is a PhD candidate in Cinema
Studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
http://go.ucpress.edu/Schneider100
From bloodsucking schoolgirls to flesh-eating
zombies, and from psychopathic killers to beasts
from hell, _100 European Horror Films_ provides a
lively and illuminating guide to a hundred key
horror movies from the 1920s to the present day.
Alongside films from countries particularly
associated with horror production-notably
Germany, Italy, and Spain-and movies by key
horror filmmakers such as Mario Bava, Dario
Argento, and Lucio Fulci, _100 European Horror
Films_ also includes films from countries as
diverse as Denmark, Belgium, and the Soviet
Union, and filmmakers such as Bergman, Polanski
and Claire Denis, more commonly associated with
art cinema. The book features entries
representing key horror subgenres such as the
Italian "giallo" thrillers of the late 60s and
70s, psychological thrillers, and zombie,
cannibal, and vampire movies.
On Kubrick
James Naremore is Emeritus Chancellors' Professor
of Communication, Culture and English, Indiana
University. Previous publications include _More
than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts_
(University of California Press, 1998).
http://go.ucpress.edu/Naremore
_On Kubrick_ is a critical study of Stanley
Kubrick's career, beginning with his earliest
feature, _Fear and Desire_ (1953), and ending
with his posthumous production of _A.I.,
Artificial Intelligence_ (2001). Organized in six
parts ("The Taste Machine," "Young Kubrick,"
"Kubrick, Harris, Douglas," "Stanley Kubrick
Presents," "Late Kubrick," and "Epilogue"), it
offers provocative analysis of each of Kubrick's
films together with new information about their
production histories and cultural contexts. Its
ultimate aim is to provide a concise yet thorough
discussion that will be useful as both an
academic text and a trade publication.
City Lights
Charles Maland is Professor of Cinema Studies,
American Studies and English at the University of
Tennessee.
http://go.ucpress.edu/Maland
Despite its long and difficult production
history, in 1967 Charlie Chaplin told an
interviewer, "I think I like _City Lights_ the
best of all my films."
Aesthetically, technologically, and culturally,
_City Lights_ is a key transitional film in
Chaplin's body of work, as the
director/writer/actor responded for the first
time to sound films and stepped in the direction
of the social commentary that would become more
overt in _Modern Times_ (1936) and _The Great
Dictator_ (1940). Based on extensive archival
research of Chaplin's production records, Charles
Maland's _City Lights_ offers a careful history
of the film's production and reception, as well
as a close examination of the film itself, with
special attention to the sources of the final
scene's emotional power.
Lawrence of Arabia
Kevin Jackson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Arts and a Companion of the Guild of St George.
His previous publications include _Withnail & I_
(2004).
http://go.ucpress.edu/Jackson
_Lawrence of Arabia_ is widely considered one of
the ten greatest films ever made-though more
often by film goers and filmmakers than by
critics. This study argues that the film is a
unique blend of visionary image-making, narrative
power, mythopoetic charm and psychological
acuteness; far from being a _Boy's Own Tale, _it
is one of popular cinema's greatest tragedies.
This volume brings together a critical analysis
of the film and an account of its tangled
production history-combining these elements with
the story of attempts by Alexander Korda and
others to bring Lawrence's story to the screen.
Pedro Almodóvar
Ernesto R. Acevedo-Muñoz is Associate Professor
of Film Studies, Comparative Literature &
Humanities, University of Colorado, Boulder.
http://go.ucpress.edu/Acevedo-MunozAlmodovar
The book provides a detailed introduction to the
essential themes, style, and aesthetics of Pedro
Almodóvar's films, put in the context of Spain's
profound cultural transitions since 1980. With
precise and close analysis, the book covers the
major concerns of the most successful of all
Spanish film directors and makes direct, clear
connections to the logic of Almodóvar's aesthetic
and stylistic choices. By spanning the entirety
of Pedro Almodóvar's feature-making career, the
book emphasizes the director's sensibility to
make the outrageous believable and to always give
a unique spin to the issues of Spanish history,
culture and identity.
British Film Institute books are distributed in
North America and Asia by the University of
California Press.
--
Lolita Guevarra
Electronic Marketing Coordinator
University of California Press
Tel. 510.643.4738 | Fax 510.643.7127
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