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Directors' Cuts Series

This series delves into the darker aspects of the human psyche, exploring the obsessions, hidden desires, and unspoken truths lurking beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary lives. Each narrative unfolds like a meticulously crafted film, filled with unexpected twists and psychological suspense. Readers will be captivated by the gripping storytelling that probes the nature of good and evil. It's a collection designed for those who appreciate thought-provoking psychological thrillers and unsettling dramas.

The Cinema of John Sayles
The Cinema of John Carpenter
The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow
The Cinema of Werner Herzog
Cinema of Krzysztof Kieślowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance
The Cinema of Wim Wenders

Recommended Reading Order

  • The Cinema of Wim Wenders

    • 192 pages
    • 7 hours of reading
    3.8(8)Add rating

    "The Cinema of Wim Wenders" is a new study of the films of this most prominent of German directors whose films include "Kings of the Road"; "Paris, Texas"; and "Wings of Desire," The book analyzes a preoccupation central to all of Wenders' work and writings: why modern cinema, a recording art solely composed of sounds and images, has so naturally developed into a primarily narrative medium, a domain traditionally associated with words and sentences. This book identifies and critically elucidates Wenders' chief artistic motivation: that the act of seeing can constitute a creative act in its own right.

    The Cinema of Wim Wenders

  • Cinema of Krzysztof Kieślowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance

    3.7(35)Add rating

    Since his death in 1996, Krzysztof Kieslowski has remained the best-known contemporary Polish filmmaker and one of the most popular and respected European directors, internationally renowned for his ambitious Decalogue and Three Colors trilogy.In this new addition to the Directors'Cuts series, Marek Haltof provides a comprehensive study of Kieslowski's cinema, discussing industrial practices in Poland and stressing that the director did not fit the traditional image of a "great" East-Central European auteur. He draws a fascinating portrait of the stridently independent director's work, noting that Kieslowski was not afraid to express unpopular views in film or in life. Haltof also shows how the director's work remains unique in the context of Polish documentary and narrative cinema.

    Cinema of Krzysztof Kieślowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance

  • The Cinema of Werner Herzog

    • 224 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    4.0(57)Add rating

    Werner Herzog is renowned for pushing the boundaries of conventional cinema, especially those between the fictional and the factual, the fantastic and the real. The Cinema of Werner Aesthetic Ecstasy and Truth is the first study in twenty years devoted entirely to an analysis of Herzog's work. It explores the director's continuing search for what he has described as 'ecstatic truth,' drawing on over thirty-five films, from the epics Wrath of God (1972) and Fitzcarraldo (1982) to innovative documentaries like Fata Morgana (1971), Lessons of Darkness (1992), and Grizzly Man (2005). Special attention is paid to Herzog's signature style of cinematic composition, his "romantic" influences, and his fascination with madmen, colonialism, and war.

    The Cinema of Werner Herzog

  • The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow

    • 192 pages
    • 7 hours of reading
    4.0(1)Add rating

    "Kathryn Bigelow is one of Hollywood's most significant female film-makers, well known in popular terms for films such as 'Near dark', 'Blue steel' and 'Point break', yet remaining relatively unexplored in academia... Placing particular emphasis on 'Strange days', her most ambitious and controversial picture to date, this collection explores Bigelow's role within New Hollywood as a film-maker that blurs genre conventions, reinscribes gender identities and produces a breathless cinema of attractions." -- Back cover.

    The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow

  • The Cinema of John Carpenter

    • 224 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.7(25)Add rating

    This is a pretty decent collection of fairly academic essays on Carpenter, with surprisingly more on his recent films than I'd have expected. Nothing ground-breaking, but insightful and informative.

    The Cinema of John Carpenter

  • The Cinema of John Sayles

    • 224 pages
    • 8 hours of reading

    John Sayles is an inspiration to independent filmmakers in America and beyond, both for his engaged political filmmaking and as living proof that directors can survive and thrive without the need for mainstream financing. His 1980s films were the counter-punch to the special effects and blockbuster aesthetics of the Star Wars and Spielberg era, and this volume closely follows his career with analysis of all of his directed works. Through discussion of films such as "Return of the Secaucus 7" (1980), "The Brother from Another Planet" (1984), "Matewan" (1987) and "Sunshine State" (2003), this study uncovers themes of racial and sexual otherness, capitalist excess and the erosion of community in his work. With new distribution channels now enabling independent cinema to reach a wider audience than ever before, this timely volume will be of interest to left-wing thinkers, guerrilla filmmakers and all aficionados of independent film.

    The Cinema of John Sayles

  • The Cinema of Roman Polanski

    3.0(2)Add rating

    Roman Polanski is a great maverick figure of world cinema who has lived a controversial and tragic life. Yet his notoriety has eclipsed the true importance of his long career, starting with his short films in the 1950s and continuing through to the recent Oliver Twist (2005). This collection highlights the bold and dazzling diversity of his work as well as recurrent themes and obsessions. Films discussed include Knife in the Water (1962), Repulsion (1965), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974), Death and the Maiden (1994), and The Pianist (2002).

    The Cinema of Roman Polanski

  • Krzysztof Kieślowski a jeho filmy

    • 230 pages
    • 9 hours of reading
    4.1(13)Add rating

    Studie polského filmového publicisty se pokouší o syntetický obraz tvorby jednoho z velkých polských filmových autorů 2. poloviny 20. století od jeho raných dokumentárních a studentských filmů až k jeho pozdějším hraným snímkům. Autor zasazuje Kieślowkého tvorbu nejen do historického kontextu Polska 60. - 70. let a zdejší výrobní praxe, ale i do kontextu evropského filmu té doby. Autor připsal pro české vydání předmluvu a doplnil text o novou kapitolu.

    Krzysztof Kieślowski a jeho filmy

  • The Cinema of Lars von Trier

    • 210 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.8(19)Add rating

    Lars von Trier is one of the most controversial figures of contemporary European cinema. This volume analyzes the themes and motifs of the director's work and the changes he has brought to modern film. Ever since he founded the back-to-basics Dogme philosophy of filmmaking in 1995, von Trier's name has been tied to taboo-breaking cinema. He consistently courts media controversy through films such as The Idiots (1998), with its unsimulated sex and nonconformist politics. This volume presents von Trier as one of the most daring cinematic exponents of postmodern politics and satire.

    The Cinema of Lars von Trier

  • The Cinema of George A. Romero

    • 224 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.8(23)Add rating

    The Cinema of George A. Knight of the Living Dead is the first in-depth study in English of the career of this foremost auteur working at the margins of the Hollywood mainstream in the horror genre. In placing Romero's oeuvre in the context of literary naturalism, the book explores the relevance of the director's films within American cultural traditions and thus explains the potency of such work beyond 'splatter movie' models. The author explores the roots of naturalism in the work of Emile Zola and traces this through to the EC Comics of the 1950s and on to the work of Stephen King. In so doing, the book illuminates the importance of seminal Romero texts such as Night of the Living Dead (1968), Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988), The Dark Half (1992). This study also includes full coverage of Romero's latest feature, Bruiser (2000), as well as his screenplays and teleplays.

    The Cinema of George A. Romero

  • The Cinema of Ken Loach

    • 192 pages
    • 7 hours of reading
    4.0(3)Add rating

    "The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People examines the linking of art and politics that distinguishes the work of this leading British film director. Loach's films manifest recurrent themes over a long period of working with various collaborators, yet his handling of those themes has changed throughout his career. This book examines those changes as a way of reaching an understanding of Loach's style and meaning. It evaluates how Loach incorporates his political beliefs and those of his writers into his work and augments this thematic interpretation with contextual information gleaned from original archive research and new interviews."--BOOK JACKET.

    The Cinema of Ken Loach

  • The Cinema of David Lynch

    • 208 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.8(79)Add rating

    David Lynch is an anomaly. A pioneer of the American 'indie' aesthetic, he also works in Hollywood and for network TV. He has created some of the most disturbing images in contemporary cinema, and produced startlingly innovative work in sound. If the consistency of his 'vision' suggests he might be approached as an auteur, defining that vision raises many questions. The essays in this collection push toward a fuller account of the cultural and technological contexts within which his works developed during the 1980s and 1990s, and of his intense engagement with the creative and working practices of the industry. They offer an up-to-date range of theoretically divergent readings that demonstrates not only the difficulty of locating stable interpretative positions for Lynch's work, but also the pleasure of finding new ways of thinking about it. Films discussed include Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive.

    The Cinema of David Lynch

  • The Cinema of Nanni Moretti

    • 208 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.4(6)Add rating

    "The Cinema of Nanni Moretti" provides an analysis and interpretation of the work of the most important Italian film-maker of the past thirty years and an outstanding figure in contemporary European cinema. Interdisciplinary and wide-ranging, the book uses Moretti's films as a lens to view and discuss contemporary phenomena such as the crisis of masculinity and authority, the crisis of the political Left and the transformation of the citizen's relationship to the State. Films discussed include "Aprile, Dear Diary" and "The Son's Room," winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2001.

    The Cinema of Nanni Moretti

  • The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer 2e

    • 224 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    4.2(25)Add rating

    This text explores the legacy of the legendary Czech surrealist filmmaker, a key influence on directors such as Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, and one of the greatest animators in cinema history.

    The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer 2e

  • The Cinema of Mike Leigh

    • 208 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    3.4(5)Add rating

    A keen observer of manners and mores, Mike Leigh has been hailed as a celebrator of "ordinary" people, yet it wasn't until relatively recently that audiences have been able to appreciate the full body of his work. In discussing all his films from Bleak Moments and High Hopes through Naked, the Oscar-nominated Secrets and Lies and Topsy Turvy, to All or Nothing, Garry Watson considers this claim, examining the films'influence and their effect.At the same time, he takes on the very concepts of "the real" and "the ordinary" in regard to Leigh's work, challenging much perceived thinking among critics and moviegoers alike. To what category does the director's work really belong? Is it British Realism? The avant garde? Through careful textual detail and wider social and literary comparison with the works of Charles Dickens and T. S. Eliot, he argues ultimately for the aritistic and cultural significance of Leigh's work as one of Britian's most respected filmmakers.

    The Cinema of Mike Leigh

  • The Cinema of Terrence Malick 2e

    • 224 pages
    • 8 hours of reading
    4.0(55)Add rating

    This updated book continues its explorations of identity, place and existence in his films, with three new essays by Adrian Martin, Mark Cousins and James Morrison on his latest film The New World (2005), as well as analysis of Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998).

    The Cinema of Terrence Malick 2e