Cinematic Overtures

Download or read book Cinematic Overtures written by Annette Insdorf and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A great movie’s first few minutes provide the key to the rest of the film. Like the opening paragraphs of a novel, they draw the viewer in, setting up the thematic concerns and stylistic approach that will be developed over the course of the narrative. A strong opening sequence leads the viewer to trust the filmmakers. Other times, opening shots are intentionally misleading as they invite alert, active participation with the film. In Cinematic Overtures, Annette Insdorf discusses the opening sequence so that viewers turn first impressions into deeper understanding of cinematic technique. From Joe Gillis’s voice-over in Sunset Boulevard as he lies dead in a swimming pool to the hallucinatory opening of Apocalypse Now, from the stream-of-consciousness montage as found in Hiroshima, mon amour to the slowly unfolding beginning of Schindler’s List, Cinematic Overtures analyzes opening shots from a range of Hollywood as well as international films. Insdorf pays close attention to how the viewer makes sense of these scenes and the cinematic world they are about to enter. Including dozens of frame enlargements that illustrate the strategies of opening scenes, Insdorf also examines how films explore and sometimes critique the power of the camera’s gaze. Along with analyses of opening scenes, the book offers a series of revelatory and surprising readings of individual films by some of the leading directors of the past seventy-five years. Erudite but accessible, Cinematic Overtures will lead film scholars and ardent movie fans alike to greater attentiveness to those fleeting opening moments.

Download or read book Music in Action Film written by James Buhler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-16 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Music in Action Film is the first volume to address the central role of music and sound in action film—arguably the most dominant form of commercial cinema today. Bringing together 15 essays by established and emerging scholars, the book encompasses both Hollywood blockbusters and international films, from classic works such as The Seven Samurai to contemporary superhero franchises. The contributors consider action both as genre and as a mode of cinematic expression, in chapters on evolving musical conventions; politics, representation, and identity; musical affect and agency; the functional role of music and sound design in action film; and production technologies. Breaking new critical ground yet highly accessible, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of music and film studies.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening written by Carlo Cenciarelli and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-29 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening explores the place of cinema in the history of listening. It looks at the ways in which listening to film is situated in textual, spatial, and social practices, and also studies how cinematic modes of listening have extended into other media and everyday experiences. Chapters are structured around six themes. Part I ("Genealogies and Beginnings") considers film sound in light of pre-existing practices such as opera and shadow theatre, and also explores changes in listening taking place at critical junctures in the early history of cinema. Part II ("Locations and Relocations") focuses on specific venues and presentational practices from roadshow movies to contemporary live-score screenings. Part III ("Representations and Re-Presentations") zooms into the formal properties of specific films, analyzing representations of listening on screen as well as the role of sound as a representational surplus. Part IV ("The Listening Body") focuses on the power of cinematic sound to engage the full body sensorium. Part V ("Listening Again") discusses a range of ways in which film sound is encountered and reinterpreted outside the cinema, whether through ancillary materials such as songs and soundtrack albums, or in experimental conditions and pedagogical contexts. Part VI ("Across Media") compares cinema with the listening protocols of TV series and music video, promenade theatre and personal stereos, video games and Virtual Reality.

Download or read book Ambiguity and Film Criticism written by Hoi Lun Law and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book defends an account of ambiguity which illuminates the aesthetic possibilities of film and the nature of film criticism. Ambiguity typically describes the condition of multiple meanings. But we can find multiple meanings in what appears unambiguous to us. So, what makes ambiguity ambiguous? This study argues that a sense of uncertainty is vital to the concept. Ambiguity is what presses us to inquire into our puzzlement over a movie, to persistently ask “why is it as it is?” Notably, this account of the concept is also an account of its criticism. It recognises that a satisfying assessment of what is ambiguous involves both our reason and doubt; that is, reason and doubt can work together in our practice of reading. This book, then, considers ambiguity as a form of reasonable doubt, one that invites us to reflect on our critical efforts, rethinking the operation of film criticism.

Download or read book The History of British Literature on Film, 1895-2015 written by Greg M. Col�n Semenza and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-05-21 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A comprehensive history of British literature on film, analyzing the changing cinematic art and politics of adaptation between the years 1896 and 2010"--

Download or read book Shadow Craft written by Gayathri Prabhu and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The years between Indian independence (1947) and the dominance of colour cinema (early 1960s) saw the emergence and fruition of a distinct, confident, and nuanced black and white aesthetic in Hindi mainstream cinema. Shadow Craft is an ardent and immersive study of cinematic craftings that emblematise the oeuvres of Kamal Amrohi, Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, and Abrar Alvi. Films such as Aag (1948), Mahal (1949), Seema (1955), Pyaasa (1957), Sujata (1959), Kagaz Ke Phool (1959), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Bandini (1963) remain formative to the visual psyche of generations of South Asian viewers. This enduring visual language demonstrates a minutely attuned and sympathetic camera, evocative pools of shadow, affect-rich atmospheric composition, and the visual autonomy of performance. With seventy five rare and curated images from the archives, Shadow Craft offers for the first time a consolidated and intimate journey through this pioneering black and white cinema aesthetic at its most expressive and climactic moment.

Download or read book The Bloomsbury Handbook to Sofia Coppola written by Suzanne Ferriss and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-01-12 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Sofia Coppola offers the first comprehensive overview of the director's impressive oeuvre. It includes individual chapters on her films, including The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006), Somewhere (2010), The Bling Ring (2013), The Beguiled (2017), and On the Rocks (2020). While focused on her films, contributors also consider Coppola's shorter works for television, commercials and music videos, as well as explorations of the distinct elements of her signature style: cinematography, production/costume design, music, and editing. Additional chapters provide insights into the influences on her work, its popular and scholarly reception, and interpretations of key themes and issues. The international team of contributors includes leading scholars of film, music, fashion, celebrity and gender studies, visual and material culture, reception studies, as well as industry professionals. Their interdisciplinary insights capture the complexities of Coppola's work and its cultural significance.