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Michel Tournier defines the supreme mission of a writer to be the creation of a mythology which allows for interaction with his readers, who seem to be losing their critical faculties in our contemporary, postmodern world dominated by consumption and dizzying technological advances. Our contemporary society has changed due to the end of the modern era with its reigning ideologies. Collapsing after the atrocities of the Second World War, Modernity and the artistic and literary reactions referred to as modernism, have likewise been transformed. Myth continues to represent the collectivity of human existence, yet, in the short stories and novels of Michel Tournier, myth represents the collapse ...
At one time in Europe, there was a point to pain: physical suffering could be a path to redemption. This religious notion suggested that truth was lodged in the body and could be achieved through torture. In Tortured Subjects, Lisa Silverman tells the haunting story of how this idea became a fixed part of the French legal system during the early modern period. Looking closely at the theory and practice of judicial torture in France from 1600 to 1788, the year in which it was formally abolished, Silverman revisits dossiers compiled in criminal cases, including transcripts of interrogations conducted under torture, as well as the writings of physicians and surgeons concerned with the problem o...
Although food has been part of motion pictures since the silent era, for the most part it has been treated with about as much respect as movie extras: it's always been there on the screen but seldom noticed. For the most part filmmakers have settled on three basic ways to treat food: as a prop in which the food is usually obscured from sight or ignored by the actors; as a transition device to compress time and help advance the plot; as a symbol or metaphor, or in some other meaningful way, to make a dramatic point or to reveal an aspect of an actor's character, mood or thought process. This hugely expanded and revised edition details 400 food scenes, in addition to the 400 films reviewed for the first edition, and an introduction tracing the technical, artistic and cultural forces that contributed to the emergence of food films as a new genre--originated by such films as Tampopo, Babette's Feast and more recently by films like Mostly Martha, No Reservations and Ratatouille. A filmography is included as an appendix.
Director Fred Zinnemann was one of the most honored and revered directors of Hollywood's golden age. Peter Ustinov said, "Working with him was a permanent lesson in integrity." Zinnemann will always be remembered for such award-winning classics as High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons, and for his direction of such stars as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Rod Steiger, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Mitchum, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep and Sean Connery. Above all, he deserves to be appreciated for raising the intelligence of popular cinema, making individualist dramas of conscience that could appeal to mass audiences without condescending...
This volume of the Sports She Wrote series is a riveting journey through the exploits of intrepid women mountain climbers. Six articles and three complete books detail mountaineering escapades, including a humorous commentary on mountain tourism by Juliet Wilbor Tompkins written from the perspective of the mountain. Frederica Plunket's book “Here and There Among the Alps” (1875) challenges gender norms and defies cultural limitations imposed on women. “The High Alps in Winter” (1883) was written by Mrs. Fred Burnaby, who later became famous as Aubrey “Lizzie” Le Blonde, a renowned mountaineer and one of the first female filmmakers. Fanny Bullock Workman's “In the Ice World of Himalaya” (1900) documents her daring Himalayan conquests and advocacy for women's rights. The volume candidly explores the dynamics between explorers and local laborers, acknowledging the complexities of privilege and gender in sport of mountaineering. Sports She Wrote is a 31-volume time-capsule of primary documents written by more than 400 women in the 19th century.
First published in 2001.The standard work on its subject, this resource includes every traceable British entertainment film from the inception of the "silent cinema" to the present day. Now, this new edition includes a wholly original second volume devoted to non-fiction and documentary film--an area in which the British film industry has particularly excelled. All entries throughout this third edition have been revised, and coverage has been extended through 1994.Together, these two volumes provide a unique, authoritative source of information for historians, archivists, librarians, and film scholars.
"Beginning with a single entry For The year 1889, when he was twenty, and continuing intermittently but indefatigably through his life, theJournals of Andr Gideconstitute an enlightening, moving, and endlessly fascinating chronicle of creative energy and conviction. Astutely and thoroughly annotated by Justin O'Brien in consultation with Gide himself, this translation is the definitive edition of Gide's complete journals.The complete journals, representing sixty years of a varied life, testify to a disciplined intelligence in a constantly maturing thought. These pages contain aesthetic appreciations, philosophic reflections, sustained literary criticism, notes For The composition of his work...
Boris Karloff will forever be Frankenstein's Monster, but is that any reason for us to overlook his later great horror film Isle of the Dead (1945)? An Oscar was George Clooney's reward for Syriana (2005), but isn't the underrated war film Three Kings (1999) still his best movie? Woman of the Year (1942) introduced the team of Tracy and Hepburn, yet didn't their later Pat and Mike (1952) resoundingly surpass it? Jeff Bridges has long been one of our best actors, so why didn't anyone take notice of his sleeper Bad Company (1972)? The lasting impact of Psycho (1960) unfairly overshadows Anthony Perkins's great work in the darkly comic thriller Pretty Poison (1968), while Stanley Kubrick's late...
"The Careers of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as Referenced in Literature" is a study of the perception of these two Hollywood megastars and their work, as presented in the text and context of references and allusions found in world literature. This book also aims to establish the impact factor of the two actors and their major films, as well as to provide extensive data for further studies of the complex and bilateral relationships between film and literature. The pertinent quotations have been extracted from over 150 works—novels, short stories, plays, poems and some nonfiction biographies and memoirs (excluding those focused on film celebrities)—by more than 120 authors. The main bo...