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Religion has had been foundational in shaping Italy. Home to the Vatican State, the Italian peninsula is the religious centre for one billion Catholics globally. It is also increasingly home to those of other faiths, especially Islam. Italy's development as a contemporary post-secular and multi-religious society is fraught and fascinating. The recent return of religious discourse from the margins of Western society to a central position is a sign of what German philosopher, J?rgen Habermas, has defined as the post-secular condition. Habermas and others have questioned what most people in the West had, up to a few years ago, taken for granted: the unstoppable forward march of secularization a...
"In Pier Angeli, a nineteen-year-old Italian girl, Hollywood has found an actress who eludes the town's traditional classifications and whose unvarnished beauty and instinctive talent have already caused her to be called 'Little Garbo'"--Theodore Strauss in Collier's, April 1952. This work is the first full-length biography of actress Anna Maria Pierangeli, from her early life in Italy to her death at the age of 39. She was discovered by Vittorio De Sica and soon after starred in her first film, Domani e troppo tardi (Tomorrow Is Too Late), which began her meteoric rise to fame in Italy. She arrived in Hollywood in 1950 at the age of 18, and the first thing MGM did was change her name to Pier Angeli and predict great things for its newest actress. The book covers her seven year career with MGM, her two unhappy marriages to Vic Damone and Armando Trovajoli, her love for her children Perry and Andrew, her brief and stormy relationship with James Dean, her dependent relationships with her mother and such stars as Kirk Douglas, Richard Attenborough and Debbie Reynolds, and the mystery surrounding her death.
This book seeks to redefine, recontextualize, and reassess Italian neorealism - an artistic movement characterized by stories set among the poor and working class - through innovative close readings and comparative analysis.
Science-fiction, fantasy and horror movies cover a broad canvas including Frankenstein and Tod Slaughter, Dracula and Donald Duck, moon men and mad doctors, gorillas and crazy scientists, talking mules and helpful angels. Other categories covered in this book include Alien Encounters, Lost Worlds, Space Travel, Monsters, Creepy Old Houses, Phantom Killers, Mystery Thrillers, Animated Cartoons, and Horror Spoofs such as "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein."
This comprehensive analysis of Boris Karloff's life and career incorporates criticism, in-depth production information and discussions of cinematic themes and characters, with an account of the historical periods and events depicted in the films and the Hollywood era in which they were produced. Each of Karloff's horror films is examined at length, as well as his contributions to other media. Over 100 posters, portraits, film scenes and candid photos illustrate the text, and numerous contemporaries (Evelyn Karloff, Laurence Olivier, Henry Brandon, Ian Wolfe, Zita Johann, others) are quoted throughout.
Produced in Italy from the turn of the 20th century, "sword and sandal" or peplum films were well received in the silent era and attained great popularity in the 1960s following the release of Hercules (1959), starring Mr. Universe Steve Reeves. A global craze for Bronze Age fantasy-adventures ensued and the heroic exploits of Hercules, Maciste, Samson and Goliath were soon a mainstay of American drive-ins and second-run theaters (though mainly disparaged by critics). By 1965, the genre was eclipsed by the spaghetti western, yet the 1960s peplum canon continues to inspire Hollywood epics. This filmography provides credits, cast and comments for dozens of films from 1908 through 1990.
Among Golden Age Hollywood film stars of European heritage known for playing characters from the East--Chinese, Southeast Asians, Indians and Middle Easterners--Anglo-Indian actor Boris Karloff had deep roots there. Based on extensive new research, this biography and career study of Karloff's "eastern" films provides a critical examination of 41 features, including many overlooked early roles, and offers fresh perspective on a cinematic luminary so often labeled a "horror icon." Films include The Lightning Raider (1919), 14 silent films from the 1920s, The Unholy Night (1929), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), The Mummy (1932), John Ford's The Lost Patrol (1934), the Mr. Wong series (1938-1940), Targets (1968), and Isle of the Snake People (1971), one of six titles released posthumously.