Category Archive for: ‘Issue 32 – Reviews’

James L. Neibaur, The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for M-G-M, Educational Pictures, and Columbia Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, 2010 ISBN-13: 978-0810876828 US$45.00 (pb) 225pp Neibaur’s The Fall of Buster Keaton concentrates on films which have been dismissed or glossed over in other works on Keaton, namely the films he made for MGM, Educational Pictures and Columbia Pictures. This …

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia: Film Culture in Transition University of Chicago, 2010 ISBN: 9 7802 267266 56 US$25.00 (pb) 408pp (Review copy supplied by University of Chicago Press) It is often said of Histoire(s) du cinéma that its main “character” is Adolph Hitler, due to the frequency with which the man is invoked throughout Godard’s opus. In the …

Mark Lynn Anderson,  Twilight of the Idols  University of California Press, 2011 ISBN: 9780520267084 US24.95 (pb) 238pp (Review copy supplied by University of California Press) The recent trend in cinema studies to “look past the screen” has occasioned all kinds of interesting work on distribution, exhibition, regulation, reception, and star studies taken in their own right, not just as supplements …

Rebecca Coyle,  Drawn To Sound: Animation Film Music and Sonicity London: Equinox Publishing LTD, 2010 ISBN: 9 7818 455335 26 UK£16.99 (pb) 258pp (Review copy supplied by Equinox Publishing) No longer can animation be branded as simply Disney’s Mickey Mouse or Warner Bros Bugs Bunny – new players, new technologies and new methods have emerged. From 3D modeling to live …

Vincent Kaufmann, Guy Debord: Revolution in the Service of Poetry  University of Minnesota Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-8166-4456-8 US$25.00 (pb) 368 pp (Review copy supplied by University of Minnesota Press) “The Society of the Spectacle is beyond criticism. It is a book in which everything that needs to be said has been said. It is the book, or the book. Debord’s …

François Albera and Maria Tortajada (eds.), Cinema Beyond Film: Media Epistemology in the Modern Era (Trans. Lance Hewson) Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2010 ISBN: 978-90-8964-083-3 US$35.00 (pb) 271pp (Review copy supplied by University of Amsterdam Press) François Albera and Maria Tortajada’s collection Cinema Beyond Film: Media Epistemology in the Modern Era is comprised of eleven essays that examine a …

Mark Kerins, Beyond Dolby (Stereo): Cinema in the Digital Sound Age Indiana University Press, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-253-22252-7 US$24.95 (pb) 392pp (Review copy supplied by Indiana University Press) Kerins says at the outset that a few years ago it was customary to begin any book on film sound by stating that it was an area that had been largely ignored, but …

Thomas Waugh, The Right to Play Oneself: Looking Back on Documentary Film Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780816645879 AUD$49.95 (pb) 352pp (Review copy supplied by University of Minnesota Press) Thomas Waugh is a senior scholar in documentary studies who has focused during his entire career on left-wing, dissident, and activist film, which he groups under the term “committed” …

Aaron Baker, Steven Soderbergh Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011 ISBN: 9 7802 520779 68 US$19.95 (pb) 148pp (Review copy supplied by University of Illinois Press) Since the inception of auteurism, studies of directors have proliferated largely in short-form writing, from the capsule entries in Sarris’ The American Cinema to the slim volumes on directors included in the Secker and …

Joe Kember, Marketing Modernity: Victorian Popular Shows and Early Cinema Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-85989-801-0 £47.50 (hb) 288pp (Review copy supplied by University of Exeter Press) New media forms don’t emerge in a vacuum. They evolve over time through technological advancements and cultural demands. Cinema is no exception. While some early films may have awed audiences, as …

Paula Amad, Counter-Archive. Film, the Everyday, and Albert Kahn’s Archives de la Planète New York: Columbia University Press, 2010 ISBN: 978-0-231-13501-6 US$34.95 (pb) 408 pp (Review copy supplied by Footprint Books) Until research in this century revealed its existence, Albert Kahn’s “Archives de la Planète” had not even warranted a footnote in film history, its film collections of unedited, documentary …

James Bennett and Niki Strange (eds), Television as Digital Media Duke University Press, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8223-4910-5 US $26.95 (pb) 400pp (Review copy supplied by Duke University Press) In 2006 Luxembourg became the first country to make the switch from analogue to digital-only television. Since then, more than 30 countries have followed suit. But while some nations like the United States …

Peter Marks, Terry Gilliam (British Film Makers) Manchester University Press, Manchester UK, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-7190-7032-7 US$84.95 (hb) 274 pp. (Review copy supplied by Manchester University Press) Published as part of the Manchester University Press series dedicated to British filmmakers, Peter Marks’ Terry Gilliam opens into a critical debate over national cinema and identity. For the Minnesota-born Gilliam, his classification as …

Belinda Smaill, The Documentary: Politics, Emotion, Culture London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. ISBN: 9780230237513 US$80.00 (hb) 221pp (Review copy supplied by Palgrave Macmillan) One of the strengths of Belinda Smaill’s book is the range of documentaries it discusses: pornography documentaries; a focus on the work of Kim Longinotto; Asian Australian documentaries; and the 2008 season of the Australian Idol television program. …

Julie Hubbert (ed.), Celluloid Symphonies: Texts and Contexts in Film Music History Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011 ISBN: 9 780 5202410 22 US$34.95 (pb) 528pp (Review copy supplied by University of California Press) This volume is a welcome addition to the literature on film and music. It runs to just under 500 pages, with 53 contributions (historical documents) assembled …

Jonathan Auerbach, Dark Borders: Film Noir and American Citizenship Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8223-5006-4 USA $23.98 (pb) 280pp (Review copy supplied by Duke University Press) Since American film noir has focused on scholarly discussion for nearly six decades now, the appearance of any new study offering original insights and new perspectives would appear to offer a …

Jane Park, Yellow Future: Oriental Style in Hollywood Cinema Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010 ISBN: 978-0-8166-4980-8 US $25.00 (pb) 272pp (Review copy supplied by University of Minnesota Press) As a study about race, ethnicity and films, Jane Park’s Yellow Future: Oriental Style in Hollywood Cinema has much to both admire and be interested in. The study is methodologically distinctive …

David Martin-Jones, Scotland: Global Cinema: Genres, Modes and Identities Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. ISBN 978 0 7486 33920 UK £60.00 (hb) 254pp (Review copy supplied by Edinburgh University Press) This book aptly begins by telling us that it is not about Sean Connery and a skim through the contents makes it clear that neither is it about Braveheart (USA …