Download or read book Genre Busting Dark Comedies of the 1970s written by Wes D. Gehring and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-03-09 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This examination of dark comedies of the 1970s focuses on films which concealed black humor behind a misleading genre label. All That Jazz (1979) is a musical...about death--hardly Fred and Ginger territory. This masking goes beyond misnomer to a breaking of formula that director Robert Altman called "anti-genre." Altman's MASH (1970) ridiculed the military establishment in general--the Vietnam War in particular--under the guise of a standard military service comedy. The picaresque Western Little Big Man (1970) turned the bluecoats vs. Indians formula upside-down--the audience roots for the Indians instead of the cavalry. The book covers 12 essential films, including Harold and Maude (1971), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Being There (1979), with notes on A Clockwork Orange (1971). These films reveal a compounding complexity that reinforces the absurdity at the heart of dark comedy.
Download or read book Kinds of American Film Comedy written by Wes D. Gehring and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-01-30 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking film study begins with a survey of American print humorists from eras leading up to and overlapping the advent of film--including some who worked both on the page and on the screen, like Robert Benchley, Will Rogers, Groucho Marx and W. C. Fields. Six comic film genres are identified as outgrowths of a national tradition of Cracker Barrel philosophers, personality comedy, parody, screwball comedy, romantic comedy and dark comedy. Whether it is Mark Twain or a parody film involving Steve Martin, comedy is most often about blowing "raspberries" at the world, and a reminder you are not alone.
Download or read book The Drop Dead Funny 70s written by Dan Lalande and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-08-04 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work offers a critical examination of 130 commercially-released film comedies of the 1970s. It considers the socio-political circumstances of each year of the decade, then critiques each film released that year with a focus on its effect on the film industry and the art of big screen comedy, as well as the emergence of talents whose work influenced (or was influenced by) the zeitgeist of the decade. Covering popular titles like M*A*S*H, Blazing Saddles, American Graffiti, The Bad News Bears, Smokey and the Bandit and many more, it argues that the 1970s may rightly be considered the last golden age of film comedy.
Download or read book American Dark Comedy written by Wes D. Gehring and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1996-07-30 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Gehring presents a compelling theory of the black comedy film genre. Placing the movies he discusses in a historical and literary context, Gehring explores the genre's obession with death and the characters' failure to be shocked by it. Movies discussed include: Slaughterhouse Five, Catch-2, Clockwork Orange, Harold and Maude, Heathers, and Natural Born Killers.
Download or read book Oreo written by Fran Ross and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering, dazzling satire about a biracial black girl from Philadelphia searching for her Jewish father in New York City Oreo is raised by her maternal grandparents in Philadelphia. Her black mother tours with a theatrical troupe, and her Jewish deadbeat dad disappeared when she was an infant, leaving behind a mysterious note that triggers her quest to find him. What ensues is a playful, modernized parody of the classical odyssey of Theseus with a feminist twist, immersed in seventies pop culture, and mixing standard English, black vernacular, and Yiddish with wisecracking aplomb. Oreo, our young hero, navigates the labyrinth of sound studios and brothels and subway tunnels in Manhattan, seeking to claim her birthright while unwittingly experiencing and triggering a mythic journey of self-discovery like no other.
Download or read book Handbook of American Film Genres written by Wes D. Gehring and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1988-06-22 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Handbook of American Film Genres provides scholarly introductory overviews of various types of films, lists significant examples of each genre, and recommends sources to consult for additional information. Eighteen genres are covered divided into five different categories: action/adventure, comedy, the fantastic, songs and soaps, and nontraditional. Each category is then divided into more diverse sections such as comedy: screwball, parody, clown etc. ... Each chapter includes a historical/analytical overview, a bibliographic overview, and then concludes with a chronologically arranged, highly selective filmography, citing from 10 to 15 major examples of the genre with brief lists of credits. ... One of the strengths of this guide is its coverage of more genres than other standard studies. ... Handbook of American Film Genres covers foreign films as well, it makes a valuable contribution to film scholarship, and it will be a useful acquisition for libraries that support serious film study.
Download or read book Mass Media and Popular Culture written by Barry Duncan and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Great Films and how to Teach Them written by William V. Costanzo and published by National Council of Teachers of English (Ncte). This book was released on 2004 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Costanzo combines a love of film viewing with the practical side of expressing film study to students, including the art of transforming fiction into film, history and business of the industry, and film genres. He also includes study guides for fourteen films, including "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Romeo and Juliet," "Mississippi Masala," "Schindler's List," "The Shawshank Redemption," "Run Lola Run," "The Matrix," and "Bend It Like Beckham."
Download or read book Charlie Chaplin and A Woman of Paris written by Wes D. Gehring and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-01-15 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris (1923) was a groundbreaking film which was neither a simple recycling of Peggy Hopkins Joyce's story, nor quickly forgotten. Through heavily-documented "period research," this book lands several bombshells, including Paris is deeply rooted in Chaplin's previous films and his relationship with Edna Purviance, Paris was not rejected by heartland America, Chaplin did "romantic research" (especially with Pola Negri), and Paris' many ongoing influences have never been fully appreciated. These are just a few of the mistakes about Paris.
Download or read book The Westing Game written by Ellen Raskin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Newbery Medal Winner For over thirty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning The Westing Game has been an enduring favorite. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. They could become millionaires-it all depends on how they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, a game involving blizzards, burglaries, and bombings! Ellen Raskin has created a remarkable cast of characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense. Winner of the Newbery Medal Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award An ALA Notable Book A School Library Journal One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century "A supersharp mystery...confoundingly clever, and very funny." —Booklist, starred review "Great fun for those who enjoy illusion, word play, or sleight of hand." —The New York Times Book Review "A fascinating medley of word games, disguises, multiple aliases, and subterfuges—a demanding but rewarding book." —The Horn Book
Download or read book Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film written by Barry Keith Grant and published by Schirmer Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference source covers all aspects of the cinema, including film history, production, national cinemas, genre theory and criticism, and cultural contexts.
Download or read book We Had a Little Real Estate Problem written by Kliph Nesteroff and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From renowned comedy journalist and historian Kliph Nesteroff comes the underappreciated story of Native Americans and comedy"--
Download or read book A Confederacy of Dunces written by John Kennedy Toole and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”—The New York Times Book Review A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).
Download or read book The Oxford Companion to Australian Film written by Brian McFarlane and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1999 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Companion to Australian Film is an indispensable reference for anyone interested in Australian movies. This Companion is a comprehensive guide to the people and ideas that have made Australian cinema. It contains more than a thousand entries and was written by almost a hundred scholars and writers with expertise in different facets of Australian film. No other reference book on this subject contains so many features: * succinct yet detailed entries on key figures (actors, directors, producers, writers, designers, composers etc.) * incisive discussions of major films, with credits and plot summaries * longer essays on critical and historical themes * a series of extended interviews (specially prepared for this Companion) with some of the luminaries of Australian film, including Goeffrey Rush and Pamela Rabe * over 100 illustrations (portraits, stills, and posters) * thorough bibliography * full list of AFI awards * subject index providing easy access to relevant entries. This Companion celebrates Australia's love of the movies and provides a comprehensive and entertaining account of its unique contribution to the art.
Download or read book Hollywood Genres Formulas Filmmaking and The Studio System written by Thomas Schatz and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. This book was released on 1981-02 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central thesis of this book is that a genre approach provides the most effective means for understanding, analyzing and appreciating the Hollywood cinema. Taking into account not only the formal and aesthetic aspects of feature filmmaking, but various other cultural aspects as well, the genre approach treats movie production as a dynamic process of exchange between the film industry and its audience. This process, embodied by the Hollywood studio system, has been sustained primarily through genres, those popular narrative formulas like the Western, musical and gangster film, which have dominated the screen arts throughout this century.
Download or read book The New Yorker written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 882 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Comedy and Distinction written by Sam Friedman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was shortlisted for the 2015 BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize. Comedy is currently enjoying unprecedented growth within the British culture industries. Defying the recent economic downturn, it has exploded into a booming billion-pound industry both on TV and on the live circuit. Despite this, academia has either ignored comedy or focused solely on analysing comedians or comic texts. This scholarship tends to assume that through analysing an artist’s intentions or techniques, we can somehow understand what is and what isn’t funny. But this poses a fundamental question – funny to whom? How can we definitively discern how audiences react to comedy? Comedy and Distinction shifts the focus to provide the first ever empirical examination of British comedy taste. Drawing on a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews carried out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the book explores what types of comedy people like (and dislike), what their preferences reveal about their sense of humour, how comedy taste lubricates everyday interaction, and how issues of social class, gender, ethnicity and geographical location interact with patterns of comic taste. Friedman asks: Are some types of comedy valued higher than others in British society? Does more ‘legitimate’ comedy taste act as a tangible resource in social life – a form of cultural capital? What role does humour play in policing class boundaries in contemporary Britain? This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, social class, social theory, cultural studies and comedy studies.
