Cinema and History: The Telling of Stories
As the fare currently on offer at this year's London Film Festival shows, getting history up on the big screen is very much in vogue at the moment. Between Frost/Nixon, The Baader-Meinhof Complex and W., recent events are almost constantly being reappropriated for the screen at the moment.
Mike Chopra-Gant, who teaches media, communication and cultural studies at London Met University, has written a concise, easy-to-read guide on history in cinema, which draws on literary theory and his own belief that the study of history in cinema - as well as the depictions themselves - owe much to literary methods. The book looks at the history of film studies as well as how history is re-imagined for the silver screen. There is also a bravura chapter on 9/11 footage and the slew of films it has inspired in less than a decade.
Given that he's written more than 30 novels and numerous short stories it's surprising that the works of Philip K. Dick haven't been adapted more in Hollywood. Yet, from 1982s Blade Runner to the just released A Scanner Darkly there have only been 5 films based on the work of the celebrated science fiction author. In Counterfeit Worlds Brian J Robb examines Dick's career and the Hollywood system that the author was both inspired and repulsed by.
As the film world anxiously awaits the release of David Lynch's latest film Inland Empire, Michel Chion's definitive book on the one of the most complex directors in American Cinema today is finally updated. But if you're looking for a book that explains all of Lynch's work then you're going to be disappointed: after all, it's sometimes questionable if Lynch himself knows what the hell is going on in his movies. Instead, through Chion's intricately researched prose, we are offered various pieces of the puzzle. It's up to us to try and work it out.
Whether you're old enough to remember seeing Jason And The Argonauts on the big screen or fondly hark back to bank holidays where you could comfortably settle down for a screening of Clash Of The Titans,
the films of legendary animator Ray Harryhausen have enchanted many a
movie goer. But as much as Harryhausen is loved by his audience, he is
also revered and respected throughout the film industry for his
pioneering animation techniques in the pre-digital era. Now in The Art Of Ray Harryhausen he reveals the people who influenced him and the secrets behind the ways in which he brought so many mythical creatures to life.
Close Up 01 is the first in a series of annual books from Wallflower Press, each containing three individual studies that are linked by their detailed explorations of the decisions that are made in both film and television, such as camera position, editing and sound. Whilst to some this would seem somewhat rather obvious, those who are steeped in film academia will known that many theories in film studies can be somewhat broad to say the least. But can this first volume in the first series manage to do justice to its noble intentions?
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