The technical crafts of sound in classical Hollywood cinema have, until recently, remained largely ‘unsung’ by histories of the studio era. Yet film sound – voice, music and sound effects – is a cruci
Auteur study is a key element of film studies and has become increasingly important in media studies, thanks to the popularity of cult auteurs such as Quentin Tarantino and David Fincher. However, thi
Examines the most successful literary adaption of a clutch of 1990s films based on Henry James' The Wings of the Dove (Ian Softley, 1997). The author is interested in the nature of cinema adaptations
Released in 1990, The Silence of the Lambs is one of the defining films of recent American cinema. Adapted from the Thomas Harris novel and directed by Jonathan Demme, its central characters, Clarice
In 1996, Trainspotting was the biggest thing in British culture. Brilliantly and aggressively marketed, it crossed into the mainstream despite being a black comedy set against the backdrop of heroin
A Dogme film, "The Idiots" is quintessential Lars von Trier and perhaps his most powerful work. John Rockwell shows how it relates to the other two films in the "Good Woman" trilogy, as well as von Tr
Stanley Kubrick's version of Vladimir Nabokov's novel was one of the most controversial films of the 1960s. This analysis is written by Richard Corliss, editor of "Film Comment". Each volume in the "B
Michael Berry’s study of Jia Zhang-ke’s masterful trio of films, The Hometown Trilogy, offers a fascinating insight into the cinematic world of one of contemporary China’s most influential directors.
In Seven Samurai (1954), a whole society is on the verge of irrevocable change. Akira Kurosawa's celebrated film, regarded by many to be the major achievement of Japanese cinema, is an epic that evok
Inspired by an alleged real case of demonic possession in 1949. The Exorcist became an international phenomenon. A blockbusting adaptation of a best-selling novel, it was praised as 'deeply spiritual'
This text introduces the Western audience to the richness of New Taiwanese Cinema. It revisits a painful episode in Taiwanese history, creating an elliptical and impressionistic picture of Chiang Kai-
Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) marked a transition in American film-making, and its success - as a work of art as a creative `property" exploited by its studio, Paramount Pictures; and a
The release of Star Wars in 1977 marked the start of what would become a colossal global franchise. Star Wars remains the second highest-grossing film in the United States, and George Lucas's six-par
Amores Perros (2000), directed by first-time film-maker Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rittu, with its intersecting storylines and treatment of urban violence and decay, kick-started a renaissance for Mexico'
Ridley Scott's dystopian classic Blade Runner, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, combines noir with science fiction to create a groundbreaking cyberpunk vi
A quintessential work of 1960s European art cinema, L'Annee derniere a; Marienbad (Last Year in Marienbad, 1961) was a collaboration between director Alain Resnais and 'New Novel" enfant terrible Alai
