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Successful in both Japan and the West, Akira had a huge impact on the international growth in popularity of manga and anime. Closely analysing the film and its key themes, Colin O'Dell and Michelle Le Blanc assess its historical importance, its impact on the Western perception of anime, and its influence on science fiction cinema.
** New edition of this popular guide, updated and expanded to include Studio Ghibli's latest box office smash, The Boy and the Heron ** The animations of Japan's Studio Ghibli are among the most respected in the movie industry. Their films rank alongside the most popular non-English language films ever made, with each new release a guaranteed box office hit. Yet this highly profitable studio has remained fiercely independent, producing a stream of imaginative and individual animations. The studio's founders, Hayao Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata, have created timeless masterpieces. Their films are distinctly Japanese but the themes are universal: humanity, community and a love for the en...
Internationally renowned, David Lynch is America's premier purveyor of the surreal, an artist whose work in cinema and television has exposed the world to his highly personalised view of society. This book examines his entire work, from the cult surrealism of his debut feature Eraserhead to his latest mystery, Inland Empire, considering the themes, motifs and stories behind his incredible works. In Lynch's world the mundane and the fantastical collide, often with terrifying consequences. It is a place where the abnormal is normal, where the respectable becomes sinister, where innocence is lost and redemption gained at a terrible price. And there's always music in the air. From the deserts of a distant world to an ordinary backyard, at the breakneck speed of Lost Highway or the sedate determination of The Straight Story, readers will experience amateur sleuths, messiahs, giants and dwarves, chanteuses, psychopaths, cherry pie and damn fine coffee. David Lynch is your guide to this other world... and this is your guide to David Lynch.
This guide to anime offers an overview of the art form, looking at its development in Japan and its export to other cultures. It includes a history of Japanese animation from early examples to the relaunch of animation as a viable commercial entity and its enormous rise in popularity after WWII. Anime explains the difference between manga and anime, offering a brief history of manga including its development from traditional art form (woodblock prints) to massive commercial success with millions of readers in Japan and worldwide. Odell and Le Blanc also consider anime style and genres, its market and importance in Japanese culture, and its perception in the West including controversy, such as criticisms of sex and violence in anime that affect other national markets, including the UK (notably Urotsukidoji) and the USA, where it is considered a 'kids only' market.
Exploring the genre's key directors and films, The Kamera Book of Horror Films will take you on a journey into the realm of fear, from horror cinema's beginnings in the late 19th century to the latest splatter films, taking in Spanish werewolves, Chinese vampires, Italian zombies, demons from Britain, killers in America and evil spirits in Japan. Amongst the many films discussed are the popular Dracula, Frankenstein, Scream, Halloween, The Sixth Sense, Ringu and Evil Dead, and the more unusual The Living Dead Girl, Rouge, Les Yeux sans Visage, Nang Nak and Black Cat. Book jacket.
Tension. Fear. Exhilaration. Atmospheric synthesizers. You're in John Carpenter territory. One of the most iconic directors of American cinema John Carpenter has astonished audiences the world over with his tightly crafted horror, thriller and science-fiction films. Not just a director, Carpenter's talents also extend to writing the screenplays and soundtracks to many of his films. From the existential comedy classic Dark Star through to the terrifying smash hit Halloween, the taut siege of Assault on Precinct 13 to the visceral Vampires there's action and tension all around. But it's not all ghosts from The Fog or horrific mutations in The Thing, there's time for romance in the science-fiction road movie Starman and even for The King himself in the superior bio-pic Elvis - The Movie. John Carpenter's films are always memorable, distinctive and unashamed of their genre roots. The John Carpenter Kamera Book explores his films and his work as a director, composer, writer and producer. It examines Carpenter's influences and style and the films that have, in turn, been influenced by him. An indispensable guide to the ultimate cult auteur.
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Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. John Carpenter has been setting trends and exciting audiences for a quarter of a century. His first two features were a double-whammy virtually unparalleled in modern cinema--the urban re-working of "Rio Bravo, Assault on Precinct 13, " followed by the first and defining slasher movie, "Halloween." Since then Carpenter has worked with low and big budgets, directed stars and unknowns, and enjoyed commercial success and suffered critical failure. But he has consistently produced a stream of entertaining, unpretentious movies some of which--particularly "Escape from New York" and "The Thing"--are now regarded as modern classics. In their Pocket Essential to John Carpenter, Michelle le Blanc and Colin Odell examine and analyze every film by this prolific director.
MTV utterly changed the movies. Since music television arrived some 30 years ago, music videos have introduced filmmakers to a new creative vocabulary: speeds of events changed, and performance and mood came to dominate over traditional narrative storytelling. Popular Music and the New Auteur charts the impact of music videos on seven visionary directors: Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, David Lynch, Wong Kar-Wai, the Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Anderson. These filmmakers demonstrate a fresh kind of cinematic musicality by writing against pop songs rather than against script, and allowing popular music a determining role in narrative, imagery, and style. Featuring important new theoretical work by some of the most provocative writers in the area today, Popular Music and the New Auteur will be required reading for all who study film music and sound. It will be particularly relevant for readers in popular music studies, and its intervention in the ongoing debate on auteurism will make it necessary reading in film studies.