Disaster and Memory

Using the media's coverage of the death of Princess Diana as a departing point, Wheeler Dixon presents a sharply critical assessment of the current state of movies--from the cult of celebrity, to the nature of public surveillance, to the role of print and television media in shaping our shared consciousness--unveiling our fascination with disaster. Dixon argues that movies such as James Cameron's Titanic replay the same Hollywood disaster plotlines with greater wizardry and less humanity than the films of fifty years ago. Contemporary cinema has become simply a memory of itself. Dixon draws on the effects of new technologies, the role of the "star" system, and the development of media conglomerates to explain why Hollywood has become so repetitive. Looking at a wide range of film genres, from obscure horror to blockbuster disaster movies, Dixon weaves together the elements that entice and manipulate audience expectations and emotions. Throughout the book, he examines the role of televisual media (cable, video, instant print magazines, digitally stored photos) in capturing the public's attention, and how these media could instead be used to open movie audiences to new stories and experiences.With its broad scope and frank tone, Disaster and Memory offers a refreshing and controversial perspective on the past, present, and future of Hollywood.

Humor & Entertainment

Dixon, Wheeler Winston

Movies

Columbia University Press

Using the media's coverage of the death of Princess Diana as a departing point, Wheeler Winston Dixon presents a sharply critical assessment of the current state of movies--from the cult of celebrity, to the nature of public surveillance, to the role of print and television media in shaping our shared consciousness--unveiling our fascination with disaster. Dixon argues that movies such as James Cameron's Titanic replay the same Hollywood disaster plotlines with greater wizardry and less humanity than the films of fifty years ago. Contemporary cinema has become simply a memory of itself. Dixon draws on the effects of new technologies, the role of the "star" system, and the development of media conglomerates to explain why Hollywood has become so repetitive. Looking at a wide range of film genres, from obscure horror to blockbuster disaster movies, Dixon weaves together the elements that entice and manipulate audience expectations and emotions. Throughout the book, he examines the role of televisual media (cable, video, instant print magazines, digitally stored photos) in capturing the public's attention, and how these media could instead be used to open movie audiences to new stories and experiences.With its broad scope and frank tone, Disaster and Memory offers a refreshing and controversial perspective on the past, present, and future of Hollywood.

Before turning to filmmaking, François Truffaut was a film critic writing for Cahiers du Cinema during the 1950s. The Early Film Criticism of François Truffaut makes available, for the first time in English, articles that originally appeared in French journals such as Cahiers du Cinema and Arts. Truffaut discusses films by such acknowledged masters as Hitchcock, Huston, Dmytryk, and Lang, but also examines the work of such lesser-known directors as Robert Wise, Don Weis, and Roger Vadim.

Early Film Criticism of Francois Truffaut (Midland Book)

Indiana University Press

In his early reviews of American and European films, François Truffaut ignored the artificial boundaries between Hollywood and 'foreign' films and 'A' and 'B' productions. As these articles make clear, what Truffaut prized most was the cinematic 'truth' in those films he admired; he despised the then-current 'literariness' of French cinema. Truffaut calls here for a New Wave in both production and criticism. His unique, idiosyncratic writing style has been carefully preserved in these translations, allowing the reader access to writings that shaped his later film career and changed the face of modern film criticism.

Early Film Criticism of Francois Truffaut

Truffaut, François

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is an overview of 20th- and 21st-century noir and fatalist film practice from 1945 onwards. The book demonstrates the ways in which American cinema has inculcated a climate of fear in our daily lives, as reinforced, starting in the 1950s, by television, and later videocassettes, the web, and the Internet, to create, by the early 21st century a hypersurveillant atmosphere in which no one can avoid the barrage of images that continually assault our senses. The book begins with the return of American soldiers from World War II, 'liberated' from war in the Pacific by the newly created atomic bomb, which will come to rule American consciousness through much of the 1950s and 1960s and then, in a newer, more small-scale way, become a fixture of terrorist hardware in the post-paranoid ear of the 21st century. Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is constructed in six chapters, each highlighting a particular 'raising of the cinematic stakes' in the creation of a completel

Edinburgh University Press

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is an overview of 20th- and 21st-century noir and fatalist film practice from 1945 onwards. The book demonstrates the ways in which American cinema has inculcated a climate of fear in our daily lives, as reinforced, starting in the 1950s, by television, and later videocassettes, the web, and the Internet, to create, by the early 21st century a hypersurveillant atmosphere in which no one can avoid the barrage of images that continually assault our senses. The book begins with the return of American soldiers from World War II, 'liberated' from war in the Pacific by the newly created atomic bomb, which will come to rule American consciousness through much of the 1950s and 1960s and then, in a newer, more small-scale way, become a fixture of terrorist hardware in the post-paranoid ear of the 21st century. Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is constructed in six chapters, each highlighting a particular 'raising of the cinematic stakes' in the creation of a completely immersible universe of images.

It Looks At You: The Returned Gaze of Cinema is a study of one of the most insidious and pervasive phenomena in the study and reception of cinema: the "returned gaze" from the screen, in which the audience is actually surveilled by the film being projected on the screen. Rather than the usual process of watching a film, in those films which return the gaze of the viewer, the film looks at us, confronting our voyeur's embrace of the spectacle it presents. The book cites examples as diverse as Andy Warhol's Vinyl, Laurel and Hardy two-reel comedies, the films of Jean-Marie Straub, Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini, and Wesley E. Barry's Creation of the Humanoids. It also discusses the history of the returned gaze in video, pornography, surveillance systems, and the related plastic arts.

It Looks at You: The Returned Gaze of Cinema (Suny Series in Postmodern Culture)

State Univ of New York Pr

It Looks At You: The Returned Gaze of Cinema is a study of one of the most insidious and pervasive phenomena in the study and reception of cinema: the "returned gaze" from the screen, in which the audience is actually surveilled by the film being projected on the screen. Rather than the usual process of watching a film, in those films which return the gaze of the viewer, the film looks at us, confronting our voyeur's embrace of the spectacle it presents. The book cites examples as diverse as Andy Warhol's Vinyl, Laurel and Hardy two-reel comedies, the films of Jean-Marie Straub, Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini, and Wesley E. Barry's Creation of the Humanoids. It also discusses the history of the returned gaze in video, pornography, surveillance systems, and the related plastic arts.

It Looks at You: The Returned Gaze of Cinema (SUNY Series in Postmo (The Suny Series in Postmodern Culture)

State University of New York Press

The Films of Jean-Luc Godard (Suny Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video)

One of the most important, controversial, and prolific filmmakers in film history, and a founder of French New Wave cinema,Jean-Luc Godard has maintained an unbroken string of films in variousgenres and mediums from the late 1950s onward. Godard has established areputation as a rebel who can work within and outside the system,producing films that are creative, breathtakingly beautiful, and yetcommercial enough to earn back their production costs. In this book,Wheeler Winston Dixon offers an overview of all of Godard's work as afilmmaker, including his work for television and his ethnographic workin Africa. Free from the jargon and value judgments that have marredmuch of what has been written about Godard, this is the only book thatcovers the entirety of Godard's career, from his early film criticismfor Cahiers du Cinema to his more recent video/film work, illustrated with forty-six rare stills and researched in detail.

One of the most important, controversial, and prolific filmmakers in film history, and a founder of French New Wave cinema, Jean-Luc Godard has maintained an unbroken string of films in various genres and mediums from the late 1950s onward. Godard has established a reputation as a rebel who can work within and outside the system, producing films that are creative, breathtakingly beautiful, and yet commercial enough to earn back their production costs. In this book, Wheeler Winston Dixon offers an overview of all of Godard's work as a filmmaker, including his work for television and his ethnographic work in Africa. Free from the jargon and value judgments that have marred much of what has been written about Godard, this is the only book that covers the entirety of Godard's career, from his early film criticism for Cahiers du Cinema to his more recent video/film work, illustrated with forty-six rare stills and researched in detail.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dixon, Wheeler Winston. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dixon, Wheeler Winston

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dixon, Wheeler Winston. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Disaster and Memory

Disaster and Memory

Early Film Criticism of Francois Truffaut (Midland Book)

Early Film Criticism of Francois Truffaut

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia

Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia

It Looks at You: The Returned Gaze of Cinema (Suny Series in Postmodern Culture)

It Looks at You: The Returned Gaze of Cinema (SUNY Series in Postmo (The Suny Series in Postmodern Culture)

The Films of Jean-Luc Godard (Suny Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video)

The Films of Jean-Luc Godard (Suny Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video)