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Rockin' in Time: A Social History of Rock-and-Roll, Eighth Edition
by David P. SzatmaryThis book weaves the major icons of rock-and-roll into a larger social/historical fabric and places rock-and-roll in the context of the social issues that surrounded and shaped it. Topics include the influence on rock music of such trends as the civil rights movement, political and economic shifts, demographical change and the baby boom, the development of the music business, and technology advances.
Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture
by Edward L. MacanFew styles of popular music have generated as much controversy as progressive rock, a musical genre best remembered today for its gargantuan stage shows, its fascination with epic subject matter drawn from science fiction, mythology, and fantasy literature, and above all for its attempts to combine classical music's sense of space and monumental scope with rock's raw power and energy. Its dazzling virtuosity and spectacular live concerts made it hugely popular with fans during the 1970s, who saw bands such as King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull bring a new level of depth and sophistication to rock. On the other hand, critics branded the elaborate concerts of these bands as self- indulgent and materialistic. They viewed progressive rock's classical/rock fusion attempts as elitist, a betrayal of rock's populist origins. In Rocking the Classics, the first comprehensive study of progressive rock history, Edward Macan draws together cultural theory, musicology, and music criticism, illuminating how progressive rock served as a vital expression of the counterculture of the late 1960s and 1970s. Beginning with a description of the cultural conditions which gave birth to the progressive rock style, he examines how the hippies' fondness for hallucinogens, their contempt for Establishment-approved pop music, and their fascination with the music, art, and literature of high culture contributed to this exciting new genre. Covering a decade of music, Macan traces progressive rock's development from the mid- to late-sixties, when psychedelic bands such as the Moody Blues, Procol Harum, the Nice, and Pink Floyd laid the foundation of the progressive rock style, and proceeds to the emergence of the mature progressive rock style marked by the 1969 release of King Crimson's album In the Court of the Crimson King. This "golden age" reached its artistic and commercial zenith between 1970 and 1975 in the music of bands such asJethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf Generator, and Curved Air. In turn, Macan explores the conventions that govern progressive rock, including the visual dimensions of album cover art and concerts, lyrics and conceptual themes, and the importance of combining music, visual motif, and verbal expression to convey a coherent artistic vision. He examines the cultural history of progressive rock, considering its roots in a bohemian English subculture and its meteoric rise in popularity among a legion of fans in North America and continental Europe. Finally, he addresses issues of critical reception, arguing that the critics' largely negative reaction to progressive rock says far more about their own ambivalence to the legacy of the counterculture than it does about the music itself. An exciting tour through an era of extravagant, mind-bending, and culturally explosive music, Rocking the Classics sheds new light on the largely misunderstood genre of progressive rock.
Rockin’ in Time
by David SzatmaryBrief, authoritative, and up-to-date, David Szatmary's Rockin' in Time: A Social History of Rock-and-Roll, 9th Edition, weaves the major icons of rock-and-roll into a larger sociohistorical fabric. <p><p>Placing rock-and-roll in the context of the social issues that surrounded and shaped it, this book explores topics like the influence of rock music on the Civil Rights Movement, demographic change and the baby boom, the development of the music business, and technological advances. <p><p>The 9th Edition contains new photos and images, as well as new material on Delta blues, fusion jazz, and electronic dance music.
Rocky IV
by Sylvester StalloneTHE MOST EXPLOSIVE CHAPTER YET IN THE GREATEST HEAVYWEIGHT STORY OF ALL TIME! Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang-Rocky Balboa came a long way from the slums of South Philly before he said good-bye to Goldmill's Gym and settled down to a quiet family life with Adrian and their son, Rocky Junior. But now he receives a challenge no American can ignore-from Ivan Drago, a mammoth Cuban-trained fighter from the Soviet Union, nicknamed the "Siberian Express." Drago and his magnificently beautiful wife, Ludmilla, arrive in the USA ready to take all comers. So the Italian Stallion returns to the ring. Can Rocky win in Leningrad? Can the American Champion beat the Russian Champion in what is being touted as World War III?
Rocky and Other Plays about Sports
by Sylvester Stallone William Blinn Durrell Royce Crays Johnny Dawkins Adoley OduntonFive teleplays--screenplays adapted from sports movies by the original authors. Brian's Song; It's A Mile From Here To Glory; Heartbreak Winner; The Hero Who Couldn't Read; Rocky. Student edition includes discussion questions after each chapter.
Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs
by Mo Rocca Jonathan GreenbergFrom beloved CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca, author of New York Times bestseller Mobituaries, comes an inspiring collection of stories that celebrates the triumphs of people who made their biggest marks late in life. Eighty has been the new sixty for about twenty years now. In fact, there have always been late-in-life achievers, those who declined to go into decline just because they were eligible for social security. Journalist, humorist, and history buff Mo Rocca and coauthor Jonathan Greenberg introduce us to the people past and present who peaked when they could have been puttering—breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, attempting to set land-speed records—and in the case of one ninety-year tortoise, becoming a first-time father. (Take that, Al Pacino!) In the vein of Mobituaries, Roctogenarians is a collection of entertaining and unexpected profiles of these unretired titans—some long gone (a cancer-stricken Henri Matisse, who began work on his celebrated cut-outs when he could no longer paint), some very much still living (Mel Brooks, yukking it up at close to one hundred). The amazing cast of characters also includes Mary Church Terrell, who at eighty-six helped lead sit-ins at segregated Washington, DC, lunch counters in the 1950s, and Carol Channing, who married the love of her life at eighty-two. Then there&’s Peter Mark Roget, who began working on his thesaurus in his twenties and completed it at seventy-three (because sometimes finding the right word takes time.) With passion and wonder Rocca and Greenberg recount the stories of yesterday&’s and today&’s strongest finishers. Because with all due respect to the Golden Girls, some people will never be content sitting out on the lanai. (PS Actress Estelle Getty was sixty-two when she got her big break. And yes, she&’s in the book.)
Rod Serling at 100: One Writer's Acknowledgment
by Joseph DoughertyEmmy-winning writer and lifelong Rod Serling fan Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars) takes a deep dive into the writing of the Twilight Zone creator on the occasion of his 100th birthday.The year 2024 marks the centenary of Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. Emmy-winning writer Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars) picked this special anniversary to reflect on Serling and his contributions to television drama. An appreciation and exploration of the six-time Emmy-winning writer&’s catalogue, Rod Serling at 100: One Writer&’s Acknowledgment looks at some of Serling&’s best known work and also some of his least acknowledged, inviting a new perspective on a master storyteller. In the process, Dougherty takes a personal look at the time he spent in The Twilight Zone that led to his own award-winning writing career
Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination
by Nicholas ParisiLong before anyone had heard of alien cookbooks, gremlins on the wings of airplanes, or places where pig-faced people are considered beautiful, Rod Serling was the most prestigious writer in American television. As creator, host, and primary writer for The Twilight Zone, Serling became something more: an American icon. When Serling died in 1975, at the age of fifty, he was the most honored, most outspoken, most recognizable, and likely the most prolific writer in television history. Though best known for The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote over 250 scripts for film and television and won an unmatched six Emmy Awards for dramatic writing for four different series. His filmography includes the acclaimed political thriller Seven Days in May and cowriting the original Planet of the Apes. In great detail and including never-published insights drawn directly from Serling’s personal correspondence, unpublished writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts, Nicholas Parisi explores Serling’s entire, massive body of work. With a foreword by Serling’s daughter, Anne Serling, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is part biography, part videography, and part critical analysis. It is a painstakingly researched look at all of Serling’s work—in and out of The Twilight Zone.
Rod Stewart: autobiografía
by Rod StewartRod Stewart nació en el norte de Londres en el seno de una familia de clase trabajadora, hijo de un fontanero escocés. A pesar de librarse por los pelos de carreras muy variadas, desde cavar tumbas hasta jugar en el fútbol profesional, lo que verdaderamente conquistó su corazón fue la música, y nunca se arrepintió.Rod empezó su carrera a principios de los años sesenta, tocando en los clubes de rhythm & blues de Londres, hasta que su particular voz ronca atrajo la atención del legendario vocalista Long John Baldry, que lo descubrió una noche durante una actuación en el andén del metro. Posteriormente, formó parte de grupos tan pioneros como los Hoochie Coochie Men, Steampacket y el Jeff Beck Group, que le allanaron el terreno para luego pasar cinco turbulentos años con los Faces, la banda de rock cuyos excesos con el alcohol, sus destrozos en las habitaciones de los hoteles y groupies los convirtieron en leyenda. Fue en ese periodo cuando sin embargo encontró un momento de paz para escribir «Maggie May», entre otras canciones, y emprender su carrera en solitario, que le ha llevado a vender unos doscientos millones de copias, a ser incluido dos veces en el Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll y a tocar en el concierto más multitudinario de la historia. Como él dice, no está mal para un tío con la voz tan áspera.Por otra parte, nos describe su vida «no tan privada »: matrimonios, divorcios y aventuras amorosas con algunas de las mujeres más guapas del mundo ?chicas Bond, actrices y supermodelos, además de su escaramuza con un cáncer que amenazó con acabar con todo aquello.La vida de Rod es increíble y, en este libro, de forma emocionante y por primera vez, nos cuenta toda la historia, sin esconder los trapos sucios. Una juerga rocanrolera repleta de aventuras que en ocasiones resulta profundamente conmovedora; el extraordinario viaje de un tipo con una voz única, y una cabellera fenomenal.
Rodney Graham: Phonokinetoscope (One Work)
by Shepherd SteinerAn examination of the complex and subtle world on display in Rodney Graham's film of an LSD-inflected bicycle ride. Rodney Graham's Phonokinetoscope (2001) is a five-minute 16mm film loop in which the artist is seen riding his Fischer Original bicycle through Berlin's Tiergarten while taking LSD, to the soundtrack of a fifteen-minute song (written and performed by Graham) recorded on a vinyl LP. The turntable drives the projection of the film; the film starts when the needle is placed on the record and stops when the needle is taken off. Graham's ride evokes the Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman's famous 1943 bicycle ride home after an experimental dose of LSD as well as Paul Newman's backward-facing ride in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; the accompanying music presents a thicket of riffs and borrowings. As the images and visual details repeat in the film's endless loop, the artist's Phonokinetoscope refers to a surprising number of works of art and literature, displaying a world rich with subtle meaning. In this illustrated study of Phonokinetoscope, Shep Steiner describes the work as marking Graham's transition into a new medium. Steiner positions Graham's practice in relation to postminimalist practice and that of other artists including Dan Graham, but especially, Ian Wallace and Jeff Wall; considers Graham's rhetoric of playfulness; and finally, beyond the web of references, argues for a notion of allegory and memory theater keyed to the durational work yet satisfying the aesthetic standards of static art. Phonokinetoscope, Steiner argues, looks back to Graham's earlier works focusing on the notion of protocinema and forward to his later musical preoccupations.
Rodney Graham: The Phonokinetoscope
by Shep SteinerRodney Graham's "Phonokinetoscope" (2001) is a five-minute 16mm film loop in which the artist is seen riding his Fischer Original bicycle through Berlin's Tiergarten while taking LSD, to the soundtrack of a fifteen-minute song (written and performed by Graham) recorded on a vinyl LP. The turntable drives the projection of the film; the film starts when the needle is placed on the record and stops when the needle is taken off. Graham's ride evokes the Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman's famous 1943 bicycle ride home after an experimental dose of LSD as well as Paul Newman's backward-facing ride in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"; the accompanying music presents a thicket of riffs and borrowings. As the images and visual details repeat in the film's endless loop, the artist's "Phonokinetoscope" refers to a surprising number of works of art and literature, displaying a world rich with subtle meaning. In this illustrated study of "Phonokinetoscope," Shep Steiner describes the work as marking Graham's transition into a new medium. Steiner positions Graham's practice in relation to postminimalist practice and that of other artists including Dan Graham, but especially, Ian Wallace and Jeff Wall; considers Graham's rhetoric of playfulness; and finally, beyond the web of references, argues for a notion of allegory and memory theater keyed to the durational work yet satisfying the aesthetic standards of static art. "Phonokinetoscope," Steiner argues, looks back to Graham's earlier works focusing on the notion of protocinema and forward to his later musical preoccupations.
Roger Ebert's Four-Star Reviews 1967–2007
by Roger EbertSpanning the length of Roger Ebert's career as the leading American movie critic, this book contains all of his four-star reviews written during that time. A great guide for movie watching.
Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007: Every Single New Ebert Review
by Roger EbertThe most-trusted film critic in America." --USA Today Roger Ebert actually likes movies. It's a refreshing trait in a critic, and not as prevalent as you'd expect." --Mick LaSalle, San Francisco ChronicleAmerica's favorite movie critic assesses the year's films from Brokeback Mountain to Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007 is perfect for film aficionados the world over.Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007 includes every review by Ebert written in the 30 months from January 2004 through June 2006-about 650 in all. Also included in the Yearbook, which is about 65 percent new every year, are:* Interviews with newsmakers such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Terrence Howard, Stephen Spielberg, Ang Lee, and Heath Ledger, Nicolas Cage, and more.* All the new questions and answers from his Questions for the Movie Answer Man columns.* Daily film festival coverage from Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, and Telluride.*Essays on film issues and tributes to actors and directors who died during the year.
Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2013: Every Single New Ebert Review
by Roger EbertRoger Ebert&’s &“criticism shows a nearly unequaled grasp of film history and technique, and formidable intellectual range. . . .&” —New York TimesPulitzer Prize–winning film critic Roger Ebert presents more than 600 full-length critical movie reviews, along with interviews, tributes, and journal entries inside Roger Ebert&’s Movie Yearbook 2013.It includes every movie review Ebert has written from January 2010 to July 2012.Also included in the Yearbook:In-depth interviews with newsmakers and celebritiesTributes to those in the film industry who have passed away recentlyEssays on the Oscars, reports from the Toronto Film Festival, and entries into Ebert's Little Movie Glossary
Roger Sandall's Films and Contemporary Anthropology: Explorations in the Aesthetic, the Existential, and the Possible
by Lorraine MortimerA look at a prize-winning documentarian whose work with aboriginal Australians and others united the fields of film and anthropology in the 1960s and ‘70s.In Roger Sandall’s Films and Contemporary Anthropology, Lorraine Mortimer argues that while social anthropology and documentary film share historic roots and goals, particularly on the continent of Australia, their trajectories have tended to remain separate. This book reunites film and anthropology through the works of Roger Sandall, a New Zealand–born filmmaker and Columbia University graduate, who was part of the vibrant avant-garde and social documentary film culture in New York in the 1960s.Mentored by Margaret Mead in anthropology and Cecile Starr in fine arts, Sandall was eventually hired as the one-man film unit at the newly formed Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1965. In the 1970s, he became a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Sydney. Sandall won First Prize for Documentary at the Venice Film Festival in 1968, yet his films are scarcely known, even in Australia now. Mortimer demonstrates how Sandall’s films continue to be relevant to contemporary discussions in the fields of anthropology and documentary studies. She ties exploration of the making and restriction of Sandall’s aboriginal films and his nonrestricted films made in Mexico, Australia, and India to the radical history of anthropology and the resurgence today of an expanded, existential-phenomenological anthropology that encompasses the vital connections between humans, animals, things, and our environment.
Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road
by Willie Nelson“Nelson’s unmistakable voice shines through . . . funny, inspirational and bawdy, with a well-honed sense of humor.” —Kirkus ReviewsIn Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, Willie Nelson muses about his greatest influences and the things that are most important to him, and celebrates the family, friends, and colleagues who have blessed his remarkable journey. Willie riffs on everything, from music to poker, Texas to Nashville, and more. He shares the outlaw wisdom he has acquired over the course of eight decades, along with favorite jokes and insights from family, bandmates, and close friends. Rare family photographs, beautiful artwork created by his son, Micah Nelson, and lyrics to classic songs punctuate these charming and poignant memories.A road journal written in Willie Nelson’s inimitable, homespun voice and a fitting tribute to America’s greatest traveling bard, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die—introduced by another favorite son of Texas, Kinky Friedman—is a deeply personal look into the heart and soul of a unique man and one of the greatest artists of our time, a songwriter and performer whose legacy will endure for generations to come.“An irreverent, entertaining read. Humble, optimistic, and quick to give credit to those around him for contributing to his success, Nelson is a charming narrator.” —Publishers Weekly“Nelson takes us for a rollicking ride along the highways and byways of his long life and career in this rambunctious, hilarious, reflective, and loving memoir.” —American Songwriter
Rollerball (Constellations)
by Andrew NetteRollerball, the Canadian-born director and producer Norman Jewison’s 1975 vision of a future dominated by anonymous corporations and their executive elite, in which all individual effort and aggressive emotions are subsumed into a horrifically violent global sport, remains critically overlooked. What little has been written deals mainly with its place within the renaissance of Anglo-American science fiction cinema in the 1970s, or focuses on the elaborately shot, still visceral to watch, game sequences, so realistic they briefly gave rise to speculation Rollerball may become an actual sport.Drawing on numerous sources, including little examined documents in the archive of the film’s screenwriter William Harrison, Andrew Nette examines the many dimensions of Rollerball’s making and reception: the way it simultaneously exhibits the aesthetics and narrative tropes of mainstream action and art-house cinema; the elaborate and painstaking process of world creation undertaken by Jewison and Harrison; and the cultural forces and debates that influenced them, including the increasing corporate power and growing violence in Western society in late 1960s and early 1970s. Nette shows how a film that was derided by many critics for its violence works as a sophisticated and disturbing portrayal of a dystopian future that anticipates numerous contemporary concerns, including "fake news" and declining literary and historical memory. The book includes an interview with Jewison on Rollerball’s influences, making, and reception.
Rollin' with Dre: An Insider's Tale of the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of West Coast Hip Hop
by Bruce Williams Donnell Alexander"I'm about to blow the top off of everything I saw," writes Bruce Williams, the long-time best friend and right-hand man to Dr. Dre, and a prime mover at Aftermath, one of the most successful start-up labels in music history. In Rollin' with Dre: The Unauthorized Account, Williams, owner of a sports bar in downtown Los Angeles, gives us an unprecedented inside look at-and the up-and-down story of-two decades of hip-hop culture and "The Life. " As Dre's confidant and the problem-solver to a stable of artists and others who came to know him as "Uncle Bruce," Williams was either there when the action went down or close enough to feel the hollowpoints whiz by: Dre perfecting the gangsta era's signature sound displayed on his highly influential album The Chronic and its Snoop Dogg-helmed follow-up, Doggystyle; getting out from under Death Row Records, the label Dre co-founded with impresario Suge Knight; launching the careers of Eminem, 50 Cent, and The Game. Williams lays it out in black and white, from dish on Tupac Shakur's chaotic rise and fall to the deadly feud between Tha Row (formerly Death Row Records) and East Coast MCs and bigshots, from Suge's legal battles to Dre's reconciliation with Eazy-E before E's untimely demise from AIDS, from the hard-won "overnight" successes of Snoop and Eminem to what it was like rollin' with giants and legends-in-the-making-and living the life (and bearing the burdens) as a bona-fide master of the game. Williams takes us on a wild ride, showing us the never-before-seen side of the infamous West Coast scene. With one foot firmly planted in the Hollywood establishment and the other in the sex-and-violence-drenched netherworld of the hip-hop music industry, Rollin' with Dre: The Unauthorized Account, is the impossible-to-put-down story of music icons and the culture that created the soundtrack of a restless generation. From the Hardcover edition.
Rolling: Blackness and Mediated Comedy (Comedy & Culture)
by Scott Poulson-Bryant Timothy Havens Ken Feil Jacqueline Johnson Gerald R. Butters Jr. Alfred L. Martin Jr. Lisa Guerrero Mel Stanfill Anshare Antoine Ellen Cleghorne Kelly Cole Phillip Lamarr Cunningham Felicia D. Henderson Joshua TrueloveSince slavery, African and African American humor has baffled, intrigued, angered, and entertained the masses.Rolling centers Blackness in comedy, especially on television, and observing that it is often relegated to biopics, slave narratives, and the comedic. But like W. E. B. DuBois's ideas about double consciousness and Racquel Gates's extension of his theories, we know that Blackness resonates for Black viewers in ways often entirely different than for white viewers. Contributors to this volume cover a range of cases representing African American humor across film, television, digital media, and stand-up as Black comic personas try to work within, outside, and around culture, tilling for content. Essays engage with the complex industrial interplay of Blackness, white audiences, and comedy; satire and humor on media platforms; and the production of Blackness within comedy through personal stories and interviews of Black production crew and writers for television comedy.Rolling illuminates the inner workings of Blackness and comedy in media discourse.
Rom Com
by Daniel Zomparelli Dina Del BucchiaAt precisely the cultural moment you were hoping for, a dream team of smart, sexy, brunette, West Coast poets of Italian descent has passionately co-authored an intelligent collection of poetry that both celebrates and capsizes the romantic comedy.From the origin of the genre (It Happened One Night) to its contemporary expressions (Love Actually), the poems in Rom Com trace the attempt to deconstruct as well as engage in dialogue with romantic comedy films and the pop culture, celebrities, and tropes that have come to be associated with them. These irreverent, playful, weird, and comedic poems come in a variety of forms, fully engaging in pop culture, without a judgmental tone. They see your frumpy expectations and raise you issues of sexuality, consent, sexism, homophobia, race, and class. They explore the highs and lows of romantic relationships and the expectations and realities of love, tackling real emotional worlds through the lens of film.Two cool people wrote it. Dina Del Bucchia, the fashionable and voluptuous, is a woman on the go, brazenly hosting literary events and tweeting about otters and award shows. Daniel Zomparelli, the handsome and dashing, is a young, gay man-about-Vancouver who somehow also quietly edits (in chief) a semi-annual poetry journal. (Ship them all you want, fools.)How to tell if you are compatible with this book: Are you equally versed in literature and pop culture? Are you a film-savvy fan of contemporary poetry? Are you an academic with interest in literature and cultural studies? Are you in general a cool, sad person? This book might just be the sassy best friend you've wanted.
Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin (Excelsior Editions)
by David EvanierA performer who rivaled Sinatra, Bobby Darin rose from dire poverty to become one of the biggest stars of his generation. Dogged by chronic illness, he knew that time was not on his side, and so, in a career full of dizzying twists and turns, he did it all, moving from teen idol to Vegas song-and-dance man, from hipster to folkie and back. In Roman Candle, David Evanier offers a multilayered portrait of this brash, gifted artist, including the dark side of his celebrated marriage to America's sweetheart, Sandra Dee, and the incredible family secret that tore him apart at the end."Compelling and revealing ... Roman Candle gives us the many lives of one of the great entertainers of all time, whose flame was extinguished way too soon." — Kevin Spacey"Informed by scores of interviews with Darin's friends and associates and written in no-nonsense, just-the-facts prose, Evanier's book paints a picture of a ruthlessly ambitious musician.... Sinatra may have had the bragging rights to 'My Way,' but Darin lived out the lyrics." — Publishers Weekly"This biography percolates with cool.... [Evanier has] written a book so charged with intimacy, so heartbreakingly ebullient with life, that you feel that any moment the pages are about to snap their fingers and break into song." — Caroline Leavitt, The Boston Globe"Darin has been the subject of several books; most notable is this new examination of the singer's life and work by David Evanier.... Evanier's portrait, true to its title, is one of a bright talent that soared quickly and erupted in a flash of glory." — David Hajdu, The Atlantic Monthly"Music fans are liable to be surprised by the Bobby Darin mania sparked by Kevin Spacey's sunny new film biography. For the slightly darker look at Darin, hole up for the holidays with Roman Candle, the latest book about Darin's rollercoaster life." — Janet Maslin, "Top Ten list of Books for Gifts" (2004), The New York Times
Roman Holiday: The Secret Life of Hollywood in Rome
by Caroline YoungRome in the 1950s: following the darkness of fascism and Nazi occupation during the Second World War, the city is reinvigorated. The street cafés and nightclubs are filled with movie stars and film directors as Hollywood productions flock to the city to film at Cinecittà Studios. Fiats and Vespas throng the streets, and the newly christened paparazzi mingle with tourists enjoying la dolce vita. It is a time of beauty, glamour – and more than a little scandal. Caroline Young explores the city in its golden age, as the emergence of celebrity journalism gave rise to a new kind of megastar. They are the ultimate film icons: Ava Gardner, Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman and Elizabeth Taylor. Set against the backdrop of the stunning Italian capital, the story follows their lives and loves on and off the camera, and the great, now legendary, films that marked their journeys. From the dark days of the Second World War through to the hedonistic hippies in the late 1960s, this evocative narrative captures the essence of Rome – its beauty, its tragedy and its creativity – through the lives of those who helped to recreate it.
Roman Polanski (Contemporary Film Directors)
by James MorrisonA new take on an eclectic and controversial director James Morrison's critical study offers a comprehensive and critically engaged treatment on Roman Polanski's immense body of work. Tracing the filmmaker's remarkably diverse career from its beginnings to 2007, the book provides commentary on all of Polanski's major films in their historical, cultural, social, and artistic contexts. Morrison locates Polanski's work within the genres of comedy and melodrama, arguing that he is not merely obsessed with the theme of repression, but that his true interest is in the concrete—what is out in the open—and why we so rarely see it. The range of Polanski's filmmaking challenges traditional divisions between high and low culture. For example, The Ninth Gate is a brash pastiche of the horror genre, while The Pianist is an Academy Award-winner about the Holocaust. Dubbing Polanski a relentless critic of modernity, Morrison concludes that his career is representative of the fissures, victories, and rehabilitations of the last fifty years of international cinema. A volume in the series Contemporary Film Directors, edited by James Naremore
Romance
by David MametExhilarating courtroom farce from America's finest playwright. Romance is an uproarious courtroom farce which lampoons the American judicial system and exposes the hypocrisy surrounding personal prejudices and political correctness. Wildly humorous and often gob-smackingly outrageous, the play is set in a modern-day courtroom in New York during a week when there are Middle East peace talks being brokered in town. The court case at hand is unrelated, but the defendant and counsel come up with a plan to solve the conflict in the region. A pill-popping judge, a defendant and lawyer (on the same side) who hate each other, and a prosecutor with a troubled personal life are part of the picture. A new comedy from 'the finest American playwright of his generation' Sunday Times. 'A deliriously funny David Mamet farce' Associated Press. 'An exhilarating spectacle. Mamet is a connoisseur of fiasco, knows all about legal punctilio, and he has great fun bringing mayhem to the ritual' New Yorker. Published to tie-in with the play's European premiere at the Almeida Theatre, opening 6th September 2005.
Romance and Power in the Hollywood Eastern
by Nalini NatarajanThis book develops the existence of the "Eastern" as an analytically significant genre of film. Positioned in counterpoint to the Western, the famed cowboy genre of the American frontier, the “Eastern” encompasses films that depict the eastern and southern frontiers of Euro-American expansion. Examining six films in particular—Gunga Din (1939), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Heat and Dust (1983), A Passage to India (1984), Indochine (1992), and The English Patient (1996)—the author explores the duality of the "Eastern" as both aggressive and seductive, depicting conquest and romance at the same time. In juxtaposing these two elements, the book seeks to reveal the double process by which the “Eastern” both diminishes the "East" and Global South and reinforces ignorance about these regions’ histories and complexity, thereby setting the stage for ever-escalating political aggression.