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  3. Cambridge Film Handbooks

Each Cambridge Film Handbook is intended to focus on a single film from a variety of theoretical, critical and contextual perspectives. This approach gives students and general readers valuable background and insight into the cinematic, artistic, cultural and socio-political importance of individual films by including essays by leading film scholars and critics. Filmographies and selected bibliographies are added to help the reader go further in his or her own exploration of the film under consideration.

  • Edited by: Horton Andrew, University of Oklahoma

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11 results in Cambridge Film Handbooks

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window
  • Edited by John Belton
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    13 September 1999
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is one of the icons of American filmmaking. A perfect example of Hollywood cinema at its best, it is an engaging piece of entertainment as well as a fascinating meditation on the nature of the film itself. A suspense thriller about a chair-bound observer who suspects his neighbour of murdering his wife, the narrative becomes the vehicle for Hitchcock's exploration of the basic ingredients of cinema, from voyeurism and dreamlike fantasy to the process of narration itself. This volume provides a fresh analysis of Rear Window, which is examined from a variety of perspectives in a series of essays published here for the first time. Providing an account of the actual production of the film, as well as feminist and cultural readings of it, it also demonstrates the influence of Rear Window on a wide range of filmmakers, including Antonioni, De Palma, and Coppola.

Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Trilogy
  • Edited by Nick Browne
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    13 November 1999
  • The Godfather trilogy is among the most significant works of Hollywood cinema of the last quarter century. They provide a richly complex look at a whole segment of American life and culture spanning almost the whole century. In six essays, written especially for this volume, The Godfather trilogy is re-examined from a variety of perspectives. Providing analyses on the form and significance of Coppola's achievement, they demonstrate how the filmmaker revised the conventions of the American crime film in the Viet Nam era, his treatment of the capitalism of the criminal underworld and its inherent violence, the power struggles within Hollywood over the film, and the contribution of opera to the epic force and cinematic style of Coppola's vision of an American criminal dynasty. The Godfather articulates the themes, styles, mythologies, performances, and underlying cultural values that have made the film a modern classic.

Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City
  • Edited by Sidney Gottlieb
  • Published online:
    09 February 2010
    Print publication:
    14 June 2004
  • Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City instantly, markedly, and permanently changed the landscape of film history. Made at the end of World War II, it has been credited with initiating a revolution in and reinvention of modern cinema, bold claims that are substantiated when its impact on how films are conceptualized, made, structured, theorized, circulated, and viewed is examined. This 2004 volume offers a fresh look at the production history of Rome Open City; some of its key images, and particularly its representation of the city and various types of women; its cinematic influences and affinities; the complexity of its political dimensions, including the film's vision of political struggle and the political uses to which the film was put; and the legacy of the film in public consciousness. It serves as a well illustrated, up to date, and accessible introduction to one of the major achievements of filmmaking.

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange
  • Edited by Stuart Y. McDougal
  • Published online:
    29 January 2010
    Print publication:
    07 July 2003
  • Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' brings together critically informed essays about one of the most powerful, important and controversial films ever made. Following an introduction that provides an overview of the film and its production history, a suite of essays examine the literary origins of the work, the nature of cinematic violence, questions of gender and the film's treatment of sexuality, and the difficulties of adapting an invented language ('nadsat') for the screen. This volume also includes two contemporary and conflicting reviews by Roger Hughes and Pauline Kael, a detailed glossary of 'nadsat' and stills from the film.

Ingmar Bergman's Persona
  • Edited by Lloyd Michaels
  • Published online:
    29 January 2010
    Print publication:
    13 September 1999
  • Long held to be among the world's greatest filmmakers, Ingmar Bergman shaped international art cinema from the 1950s to the 1980s. Among his many works, Persona is often considered to be his masterpiece and is often described as one of the central works of Modernism. Bergman himself claimed that this film 'touched wordless secrets only the cinema can discover'. The essays collected in this volume, and published for the first time, use a variety of methodologies to explore topics such as acting technique, genre, and dramaturgy. It also includes translations of Bergman's early writings that have never before been available in English, as well as an updated filmography and bibliography that cover the filmmaker's most recent work.

Ozu's Tokyo Story
  • Edited by David Desser
  • Published online:
    16 January 2010
    Print publication:
    13 April 1997
  • Ozu's Tokyo Story is generally regarded as one of the finest films ever made. Universal in its appeal, it is also considered to be 'particularly Japanese'. Exploring its universality and cultural specificity, this collection of specially commissioned essays demonstrates the multiple planes on which the film may be appreciated. The introduction outlines Ozu's career as both a contract director of a major studio and as a singular figure in Japanese film history, and also analyses the director's cinematic style, particularly his narrative strategies and spatial compositions. Other essays situate Ozu's cinema in its relationship to Hollywood film-making: his relationship to aspects of Japanese tradition, situating the film within artistic modes, religious systems and beliefs, and socio-cultural and familial formations. Also included is an analysis of how Ozu has been misunderstood in Western criticism.

Jane Campion's The Piano
  • Jane Campion
  • Edited by Harriet Margolis
  • Published online:
    16 January 2010
    Print publication:
    28 October 1999
  • Jane Campion's The Piano is one of the most unusual love stories in the history of cinema. The film swept the world upon its release, winning awards for its performances, script, and direction, including prestigious Cannes and Academy Award prizes. Rejecting virtually every stereotype of the romance genre, it poses a wholly new set of questions about relationships between men and women, and marriage in particular, as well as issues related to colonialism and property ownership. This volume examines The Piano from a variety of critical perspectives. In six essays, specially commissioned for this project, an international team of scholars examine topics such as the controversial representation of the Maori, the use of music in the film, the portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship, and the significance of the film in terms of international cinema, the culture of New Zealand, and the work of Jane Campion.

John Ford's Stagecoach
  • Edited by Barry Keith Grant
  • Published online:
    08 January 2010
    Print publication:
    05 December 2002
  • Stagecoach is one of the classics of Hollywood cinema. Made in 1939, it revitalized the Western genre, served as a milestone in John Ford's career, and made John Wayne a star. This volume offers a rich overview of the film in essays by six leading film critics. Approaching Stagecoach from a variety of critical perspectives, they place the film within the contexts of authorship, genre, American history and culture. Also examined are the film's commentary on race, class, gender and democracy, while remaining attentive to the film's artistry.

Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch
  • Edited by Stephen Prince
  • Published online:
    29 December 2009
    Print publication:
    28 December 1998
  • Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch is one of the most influential films in American cinema. The intensity of its violence was unprecedented, while the director's use of multiple cameras, montage editing, and slow motion quickly became the normative style for rendering screen violence. Demonstrating to filmmakers the power of irony as a narrative voice and its effectiveness as a tool for exploring and portraying brutality, The Wild Bunch fundamentally changed the Western, moving it into a more brutal and psychopathic territory than it had ever occupied. This volume includes newly commissioned essays by several leading scholars of Peckinpah's work. Examining the film's production history from script to screen, its rich and ambivalent vision of American society, and its relationship to the Western genre, among other topics, it provides a definitive reinterpretation of an enduring film classic.

The Coen Brothers' Fargo
  • Edited by William G. Luhr
  • Published online:
    07 December 2009
    Print publication:
    13 October 2003
  • Fargo is the most commercially and critically successful film of Ethan and Joel Coen. Immediately recognized as an important work, it was nominated for five Academy Awards and received two, an exceptional achievement for a low budget, independently produced film without major stars. Fargo is also a film that explores middle-American themes and settings from an original and unsettling perspective, challenging traditional genre structures. This volume explores Fargo from a variety of methodological perspectives. Providing a detailed account of the film's production, reception and place within the career of the Coen brothers, it explores issues and themes that are important to current film discourse, including genre, gender and sexuality, race, history, culture and myth.

Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull
  • Edited by Kevin J. Hayes
  • Published online:
    24 November 2009
    Print publication:
    24 January 2005
  • Raging Bull (1980) represents American film making at its best. Since its initial release, the film has been called the greatest film of the 1980s, the greatest boxing film ever made, the greatest sports film ever made, and, indeed, one of the greatest films of all time. Raging Bull: A Cambridge Film Handbook presents the fullest critical appreciation of Scorsese's film available. The introduction tells the story of how the film came about, examining its inspirations and positioning Raging Bull within the history of cinema. Subsequent chapters, each written by contributors from different disciplines - film studies, literary history, theater history - discuss the film from a variety of perspectives. Though primarily directed toward undergraduate and graduate film courses, this collection should enhance appreciation of Raging Bull for all readers. Contributors to this volume have been issued a challenge: to write chapters that contain fundamental information for students, to include new information and ideas for seasoned film scholars, and to write in a jargon-free style that all readers can appreciate.