Download or read book Cinema of the Psychic Realm written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cinema is ideally suited to the world of psychic phenomena. A technique as simple as a voice-over can simulate mental telepathy, while unusual lighting, set design, or creative digital manipulation can conjure clairvoyant visions, precognition, or even psychokinesis. This book analyzes the depiction of paranormal powers in film, examining how movies like Star Wars, Independence Day, The Green Mile, and dozens of others both reflect and influence the way modern society thinks about psychic abilities. The theme is explored in nearly 100 films from a variety of genres including drama, comedy, horror, science fiction, crime melodrama, and children's films, providing a concise review of the history and concepts of mainstream cinematic parapsychology.
Download or read book Ghosts Spirits and Psychics written by Matt Cardin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating work provides a complete overview of paranormal phenomena, including the beliefs, attitudes, and notable figures who have attempted to explain, defend, or debunk the mysteries behind the unknown. Recent interest in the paranormal as pop culture fodder belies its historical status as an important subject of cultural, philosophical, and scientific significance. This book traces the trajectory of paranormal studies from its early role as a serious academic and scientific topic studied by mainstream scientists and eminent scholars to its current popularity in books, film, and TV. This compelling reference work details the experiences, encounters, and ideas that make up this controversial field of study. The contributed entries examine the broad phenomena of the paranormal, addressing the history of scientific investigations along with its contemporary media depictions to illustrate the evolution of cultural attitudes about the paranormal. A selection of primary documents provides real-life accounts and contributions from noted experts that explore the full scope of themes from spiritualism to poltergeists to astrology. Accompanying images, timelines, quotations, and sidebars make the content come to life and encourage alternative explanations of these events.
Download or read book Shakespeare Cinema and Desire written by S. Ryle and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-11-13 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shakespeare, Cinema and Desire explores the desires and the futures of Shakespeare's language and cinematographic adaptations of Shakespeare. Tracing ways that film offers us a rich new understanding of Shakespeare, it highlights issues such as media technology, mourning, loss, the voice, narrative territories and flows, sexuality and gender.
Download or read book Alien Abduction in the Cinema written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-08-17 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The alien abduction phenomenon is one of the enduring enigmas of our time. While the reality of alien abductions is a hotly debated topic among UFO researchers, scientists, skeptics and true believers alike, the phenomenon indisputably exists as an artifact of popular culture. This book analyzes more than 75 films that draw their inspiration from allegedly fact-based accounts of alien contact, from 1951's The Man from Planet X to Contactee in 2021. These films are examined in terms of both their cinematic qualities and their exploration of thematic elements derived from abduction reports. Abduction motifs that appear in science fiction classics such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001 and Close Encounters are analyzed, as well as those in lesser-known films like The Stranger Within, Starship Invasions, Dark Skies and Proximity. Special attention is given to movies based on the famed experiences of abductees Betty and Barney Hill, Whitley Strieber and Travis Walton. The book also addresses skeptical theories about the origins of the phenomenon in science fiction and examines an uncanny prescience that appears to anticipate these inexplicable occurrences.
Download or read book Cinema Technologies of Visibility and the Reanimation of Desire written by V. Hausmann and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-04-11 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the dead/alive figure in such films as The Ring, American Beauty , and The Elephant Man , Vincent Hausmann charts the spectacular reduction of psychic life and assesses calls for shoring up psychic/social spaces that transfer bodily drives to language.
Download or read book Space Exploration on Film written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of several decades, scientific fact has overtaken science fiction as humankind's understanding of the universe has expanded. Mirroring this development, the cinematic depictions of space exploration over the last century have evolved from whimsical sci-fi fantasies to more fact-based portrayals. This book chronologically examines 75 films that depict voyages into outer space and offers the historical, cultural, and scientific context of each. These films range from Georges Melies' fantastical A Trip to the Moon to speculative science fiction works such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, and Contact, and fact-based accounts of actual space missions as depicted in The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, Salyut 7 and First Man. Each film is analyzed not only in terms of its direction, screenplay, and other cinematic aspects but also its scientific and historical accuracy. The works of acclaimed directors, including Fritz Lang, George Pal, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert Wise, Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, Ridley Scott, and Christopher Nolan, are accorded special attention for their memorable contributions to this vital and evolving subgenre of science fiction film.
Download or read book The Haunted House on Film written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A popular phenomenon since antiquity, the image of the haunted house is one that has translated elegantly into the modern medium of film. The haunted house transcends genre, appearing in mysteries, gothic romances, comedies and horror films. This book is the first comprehensive historical and critical study of themes surrounding haunted houses in film. Covering more than 100 films, it spans from the Mystery House thrillers of the silent era to the high-tech, big budget productions of the 21st Century. Included are the works of such acclaimed directors as D.W. Griffith, Robert Wise, Mario Bava, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro. The book also covers the real-life "haunted house" phenomenon and movies based on paranormal case files, including those featured in films like the Conjuring series.
Download or read book The Vampire in Science Fiction Film and Literature written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vampires have been a popular subject for writers since their inception in 19th century Gothic literature and, later, became popular with filmmakers. Now the classical vampire is extinct, and in its place are new vampires who embrace the hi-tech worlds of science fiction. This book is the first to examine the history of vampires in science fiction. The first part considers the role of science and pseudo-science, from late Victorian to modern times, in the creation of the vampire, as well as the "sensation fiction" of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells. The second part focuses on the history of the science fiction vampire in the cinema, from the silent era to the present. More than sixty films are discussed, including films from such acclaimed directors as Roger Corman, David Cronenberg, Guillermo del Toro and Steven Spielberg, among others.
Download or read book Fascism and Millennial American Cinema written by Leighton Grist and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines a spate of American films released around the turn of the millennium that differently address the actuality or possibility of domestic fascism within the USA. The films discussed span a diversity of forms, genres and production practices, and encompass low- and medium-budget studio and independent releases (such as American History X, Stir of Echoes and The Believer), star and/or auteur vehicles (such as The Siege, Fight Club and American Beauty), and high-budget, high-concept science-fiction films and franchises (such as Starship Troopers, Minority Report, the Matrix and X-Men trilogies and the Star Wars prequels). Central to the book is the detailed analysis of the films, which is contextualized historically in relation to a period that saw the significant rise of the far Right. The book concordantly affords a wider insight into fascism and its various manifestations and how such have been, and continue to be, registered within American cinema.
Download or read book Evil Children in the Popular Imagination written by Karen J. Renner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on narratives with supernatural components, Karen J. Renner argues that the recent proliferation of stories about evil children demonstrates not a declining faith in the innocence of childhood but a desire to preserve its purity. From novels to music videos, photography to video games, the evil child haunts a range of texts and comes in a variety of forms, including changelings, ferals, and monstrous newborns. In this book, Renner illustrates how each subtype offers a different explanation for the problem of the “evil” child and adapts to changing historical circumstances and ideologies.
Download or read book Art History for Filmmakers written by Gillian McIver and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-23 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since cinema's earliest days, literary adaptation has provided the movies with stories; and so we use literary terms like metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche to describe visual things. But there is another way of looking at film, and that is through its relationship with the visual arts – mainly painting, the oldest of the art forms. Art History for Filmmakers is an inspiring guide to how images from art can be used by filmmakers to establish period detail, and to teach composition, color theory and lighting. The book looks at the key moments in the development of the Western painting, and how these became part of the Western visual culture from which cinema emerges, before exploring how paintings can be representative of different genres, such as horror, sex, violence, realism and fantasy, and how the images in these paintings connect with cinema. Insightful case studies explore the links between art and cinema through the work of seven high-profile filmmakers, including Peter Greenaway, Peter Webber, Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino and Stan Douglas. A range of practical exercises are included in the text, which can be carried out singly or in small teams. Featuring stunning full-color images, Art History for Filmmakers provides budding filmmakers with a practical guide to how images from art can help to develop their understanding of the visual language of film.
Download or read book Hong Kong Cinema written by Stephen Teo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length English-language study of one of the world's most exciting and innovative cinemas. Covering a period from 1909 to 'the end of Hong Kong cinema' in the present day, this book features information about the films, the studios, the personalities and the contexts that have shaped a cinema famous for its energy and style. It includes studies of the films of King Hu, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, as well as those of John Woo and the directors of the various 'New Waves'. Stephen Teo explores this cinema from both Western and Chinese perspectives and encompasses genres ranging from melodrama to martial arts, 'kung fu', fantasy and horror movies, as well as the international art-house successes.
Download or read book Motherhood in Mexican Cinema 1941 1991 written by Isabel Arredondo and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-12-26 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How were femininity and motherhood understood in Mexican cinema from the 1940s to the early 1990s? Film analysis, interviews with filmmakers, academic articles and film reviews from newspapers are used to answer the question and trace the changes in such depictions. Images of mothers in films by so-called third-wave filmmakers (Busi Cortes, Maria Novaro, Dana Rotberg and Marisa Sistach) are contrasted with those in Mexican classical films (1935-1950) and films from the 1970s and 1980s. There are some surprising conclusions. The most important restrictions in the depiction of mothers in classical cinema came not from the strict sexual norms of the 1940s but in reactions to women shown as having autonomous identities. Also, in contrast to classical films, third-wave films show a woman's problems within a social dimension, making motherhood political--in relation not to militancy within the left but to women's issues. Third-wave films approach the problems of Latin American society as those of individuals differentiated by gender, sexuality and ethnicity; in such films mothers are citizens directly affected by laws, economic policies and cultural beliefs.
Download or read book The Exorcist Effect written by Joseph P. Laycock and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Exorcist Effect examines the relationship between horror films and religious culture, focusing on the period from 1968 to the present. Films like Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976) claimed to be based on actual events, religious traditions, and Biblical texts. These films inspired subsequent beliefs and experiences, which became the basis for yet more horror films. This book draws on archival research to shed new light on such figures as Ed and Lorraine Warren and Malachi Martin, who inserted themselves into this cycle. It also incorporates interviews with horror authors, film writers, and paranormal investigators.
Download or read book Hindi Cinema written by Nandini Bhattacharya and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-07 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hindi Cinema is full of instances of repetition of themes, narratives, plots and characters. By looking at 60 years of Hindi cinema, this book focuses on the phenomenon as a crucial thematic and formal code that is problematic when representing the national and cinematic subject. It reflects on the cinema as motivated by an ongoing crisis of self-formation in modern India. The book looks at how cinema presents liminal and counter-modern identities emerging within repeated modern attempts to re-enact traumatic national events so as to redeem the past and restore a normative structure to happenings. Establishing structure and event as paradigmatic poles of a historical and anthropological spectrum for the individual in society, the book goes on to discuss cinematic portrayals of violence, gender embodiment, religion, economic transformations and new globalised Indianness as events and sites of liminality disrupting structural aspirations. After revealing the impossibility of accurate representation of incommensurable and liminal subjects within the historiography of the nation-state, the book highlights how Hindi cinema as an ongoing engagement with the nation-state as a site of eventfulness draws attention to the problematic nature of the thematic of nation. It is a useful study for academics of Film Studies and South Asian Culture.
Download or read book The Ghost of One s Self written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For millennia people have held folk beliefs about the existence of the doppelganger--"double walker" in German--a look-alike second self that is often the antithesis of one's identity and is usually considered an omen of misfortune or death. The theme of the double has inspired works by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Poe, de Maupassant, Dostoevsky and others, and has been the basis for many classic mystery, horror and science fiction movies. This critical survey examines the double in more than 100 films by such acclaimed directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Mario Bava, Roger Corman, David Cronenberg, George Romero, Fritz Lang, James Cameron, Robert Siodmak, Don Siegel, John Frankenheimer, Terry Gilliam, Brian De Palma and Roman Polanski.
Download or read book Napoleon written by Nelly Kaplan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abel Gance's film, restored through the efforts of Kevin Brownlow, is discussed here by Nelly Kaplan, who was Gance's assistant and then, later, with such productions as 'The Pirate's Fiancee', a film director in her own right. Each volume in the 'BFI Film Classics' series contains a personal commentary on the film, a brief production history and a detailed filmography.
