Strongly influenced by domestic hard-boiled novels of the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most American film genres, film noir, had its boom time in the 1940s. Generally believed to have mostly vanished from studios and theaters by the late 1950s, the genre briefly resurfaces every few years in the so-called “neo noirs” of various […]
You are browsing archives for
Category: B. R. Film
The Transformative Cinema of Alejandro Jodorowsky by George Melnyk (2023)
Few other artists connected with auteur cinema have left such a record of often disturbing, mythical, surreal, and sometimes more or less incomprehensible movies as Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean director extraordinaire, born in 1929. If the label “cult director” can be applied to just a few artists, he definitely is in that league. “Jodorowsky has invested […]
Perplexing Plots. Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder by David Bordwell (2023)
Generally, storytelling, narratives, modes of presentation and the story behind them, define most works of fiction and movie plots alike. As those techniques changed over the decades (as did audiences who step by step were introduced to this), new and exiting ways of shooting film and presenting characters entered popular forms of entertainment. The simple, […]
The Jordanaires: The Story of the World’s Greatest Backup Vocal Group by Gordon Stoker … (2022)
The list of famous singers with biographies is huge and gets longer almost every day. Even so, there are just a few books on those voices that built the solid, reliable and harmonic background for countless hits. It is hardly possible to imagine songs such as Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” “Don’t be Cruel,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” […]
Bloodstained Narratives: The Giallo Film in Italy and Abroad by Matthew Edwards and Fernando G. Pagn...
The gialli (“the yellow ones”), introduced in Italy in the mid-1960s, are a film genre that combined all sorts of sensations, such as crimes planned and committed, detectives and amateur sleuths looking for clues, great landscapes, exotic venues, usually connected to airports and train stations, beautiful women, Gothic horror and disturbing soundtracks. In the gialli, […]
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. The Ultimate History by J. B. Kaufman, D. Gerstein, D. Kothenschulte (ed
Much has been written about the economic power and cultural influence of The Walt Disney Company. Not only that today with their components Disney Entertainment, Pixar, ESPN, Disney Parks and many others, Disney is a major player in entertainment business. Furthermore, the company practically holds the rights to and […]
Critical Approaches to Horror Comic Books by John Darowski and Fernando G.P. Berns (eds.) (2022)
For those interested in superhero comics and the many connections to heritage, cultural standing and so forth associated with the category, there is no shortage of academic and popular titles. Fortunately, there are several new studies each year. With horror comic books, however, things are different. The horror genre, when approached from the perspective of […]
The Rebel’s Wardrobe. The Untold Story of Menswear’s Renegade Past by gestalten et als. (eds.) (2022
Lots of items from modern men’s wardrobes come loaded with history, were featured in cult movies worn by famous actors or have a past strongly connected to popular culture, even if many are not aware of that. Everyday apparel, such as the baseball cap, Dr. Marten’s boots, a pair of jeans, chinos or the leather […]
The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta by Dian Hanson (ed.) (2022)
If there is one virtuoso who rightfully deserves the title “Godfather of Fantasy Art” it is Frank Frazetta (1928-2010). The “Brooklyn-born hustler and brawler” son of Italian immigrants quickly established a reputation for himself at the age of 16, when he entered the comic book business in 1944. His early works appeared in EC Comics, […]