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Wes Anderson (Contemporary Film Directors)
by Donna KornhaberThe Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom have made Wes Anderson a filmmaking force. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums have become quotable cult classics. Yet every new Anderson release brings out droves of critics eager to charge him with stylistic excess and self-indulgent eclecticism. Donna Kornhaber approaches Anderson's style as the necessary product of the narrative and thematic concerns that define his body of work. Using Anderson's focus on collecting, Kornhaber situates the director as the curator of his filmic worlds, a prime mover who artfully and conscientiously arranges diverse components into cohesive collections and taxonomies. Anderson peoples each mise-en-scéne in his ongoing "Wesworld" with characters orphaned, lost, and out of place amidst a riot of handmade clutter and relics. Within, they seek a wholeness and collective identity they manifestly lack, with their pain expressed via an ordered emotional palette that, despite being muted, cries out for attention. As Kornhaber shows, Anderson's films offer nothing less than a fascinating study in the sensation of belonging--told by characters who possess it the least. Covering Anderson's entire oeuvre and including an interview with the director, Wes Anderson is an entertaining look at one of our most beloved and polarizing filmmakers.
Wes Anderson: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work (Iconic Filmmakers)
by Ian NathanThe definitive unofficial reference for fans of the beloved film director: “Like strolling through the distinctly colored halls of Anderson’s imagination.” —Highbrow MagazineLoaded with rich imagery and detailed analysis of his incredible films—among them The Grand Budapest Hotel, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, and The French Dispatch—this is an intelligent and thoughtful examination of the work of one of contemporary film’s greatest visionaries, charting the themes, visuals, and narratives that have come to define Wes Anderson’s work and contributed to his films an idiosyncratic character that’s adored by his loyal fans.From his regular cast members such as Bill Murray and Owen Wilson to his instantly recognizable aesthetic, recurring motifs, and scriptwriting processes, this unauthorized in-depth collection reveals how Wes Anderson became one of modern cinema’s most esteemed and influential directors.
Wes Craven: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series)
by Shannon Blake SkeltonWith a career spanning four decades, Wes Craven (1939–2015) bridged independent exploitation cinema and Hollywood big-budget horror. A pioneer of the modern horror cinema, Craven directed such landmark films as The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream—considered not only classics of the genre, but examples of masterful filmmaking. Producing an impressive oeuvre that mixed intellectual concerns and political ideas, Craven utilized high-tension suspense, devastating visual brutality, and dark humor to evoke a unique brand of fear. Moreover, his films draw attention to the horror of American society—namely racism, classism, and the traumas often associated with family. This collection of twenty-nine interviews—spanning from 1980 until his final interview in 2015—traces Craven’s life and career, from his upbringing in a strict religious family and his life as an academic to his years toiling in exploitation cinema. The volume also chronicles Craven’s ascendancy as an independent director, his work within the studio system, and his eventual triumph in mainstream cinema. Within the interviews gathered here, including three previously unpublished pieces, Craven reflects on failed projects and the challenges of working with studios while offering thoughtful meditations on the dynamics and appeal of horror. Wes Craven: Interviews cements Craven’s legacy as a master of horror who left an indelible mark on the genre by forever altering expectations of—and approaches to—the cinema of fear.
West African Drumming and Dance in North American Universities: An Ethnomusicological Perspective
by George Worlasi DorMore than twenty universities and twenty other colleges in North America (USA and Canada) offer performance courses on West African ethnic dance drumming. Since its inception in 1964 at both UCLA and Columbia, West African drumming and dance has gradually developed into a vibrant campus subculture in North America. The dances most practiced in the American academy come from the ethnic groups Ewe, Akan, Ga, Dagbamba, Mande, and Wolof, thereby privileging dances mostly from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. This strong presence and practice of a world music ensemble in the diaspora has captured and engaged the interest of scholars, musicians, dancers, and audiences. In the first-ever ethnographic study of West African drumming and dance in North American universities, the author documents and acknowledges ethnomusicologists, ensemble directors, students, administrators, and academic institutions for their key roles in the histories of their respective ensembles. Dor collates and shares perspectives including debates on pedagogical approaches that may be instructive as models for both current and future ensemble directors and reveals the multiple impacts that participation in an ensemble or class offers students. He also examines the interplay among historically situated structures and systems, discourse, and practice, and explores the multiple meanings that individuals and various groups of people construct from this campus activity. The study will be of value to students, directors, and scholars as an ethnographic study and as a text for teaching relevant courses in African music, African studies, ethnomusicology/world music, African diaspora studies, and other related disciplines.
West End Women: Women and the London Stage 1918 - 1962 (Gender in Performance)
by Maggie GaleMaggie Gale's West End Women uncovers groundbreaking material about women playwrights and the staging of their performances between the years 1918 and 1962. It documents a dynamic era of social and theatrical history, analysing the transformations that occurred in the theatre and the lives of British women in relation to specific plays of the period. Focusing on the work of playwrights such as Dodie Smith, Clemence Dane, Gordon Daviot and Bridget Boland, Maggie Gale examines the cultural and political context within which they enjoyed commercial success and great notoriety.
West of Eden: An American Place
by Jean SteinJean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book Edie: American Girl, an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol "superstar" Edie Sedgwick, which was edited with George Plimpton. Now, in West of Eden, she turns to Los Angeles, the city of her childhood. Stein vividly captures a mythic cast of characters: their ambitions and triumphs as well as their desolation and grief. These stories illuminate the bold aspirations of five larger-than-life individuals and their families. West of Eden is a work of history both grand in scale and intimate in detail. At the center of each family is a dreamer who finds fortune and strife in Southern California: Edward Doheny, the Wisconsin-born oil tycoon whose corruption destroyed the reputation of a U.S. president and led to his own son's violent death; Jack Warner, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who together with his brothers founded one of the world's most iconic film studios; Jane Garland, the troubled daughter of an aspiring actress who could never escape her mother's schemes; Jennifer Jones, an actress from Oklahoma who won the Academy Award at twenty-five but struggled with despair amid her fame and glamour. Finally, Stein chronicles the ascent of her own father, Jules Stein, an eye doctor born in Indiana who transformed Hollywood with the creation of an unrivaled agency and studio. In each chapter, Stein paints a portrait of an outsider who pins his or her hopes on the nascent power and promise of Los Angeles. Each individual's unyielding intensity pushes loved ones, especially children, toward a perilous threshold. West of Eden depicts the city that has projected its own image of America onto the world, in all its idealism and paradox. As she did in Edie, Jean Stein weaves together the personal recollections of an array of individuals to create an astonishing tapestry of a place like no other.
West of Eden
by Jean SteinAn epic, mesmerizing oral history of Hollywood and Los Angeles from the author of the contemporary classic Edie. Jean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book Edie: American Girl, an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol "superstar" Edie Sedgwick, which was edited with George Plimpton. Now, in West of Eden, she turns to Los Angeles, the city of her childhood. Stein vividly captures a mythic cast of characters: their ambitions and triumphs as well as their desolation and grief. These stories illuminate the bold aspirations of five larger-than-life individuals and their families. West of Eden is a work of history both grand in scale and intimate in detail. At the center of each family is a dreamer who finds fortune and strife in Southern California: Edward Doheny, the Wisconsin-born oil tycoon whose corruption destroyed the reputation of a U.S. president and led to his own son's violent death; Jack Warner, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who together with his brothers founded one of the world's most iconic film studios; Jane Garland, the troubled daughter of an aspiring actress who could never escape her mother's schemes; Jennifer Jones, an actress from Oklahoma who won the Academy Award at twenty-five but struggled with despair amid her fame and glamour. Finally, Stein chronicles the ascent of her own father, Jules Stein, an eye doctor born in Indiana who transformed Hollywood with the creation of an unrivaled agency and studio. In each chapter, Stein paints a portrait of an outsider who pins his or her hopes on the nascent power and promise of Los Angeles. Each individual's unyielding intensity pushes loved ones, especially children, toward a perilous threshold. West of Eden depicts the city that has projected its own image of America onto the world, in all its idealism and paradox. As she did in Edie, Jean Stein weaves together the personal recollections of an array of individuals to create an astonishing tapestry of a place like no other.
West of Everything: The Inner Life of Westerns
by Jane P. TompkinsA leading figure in the debate over the literary canon, Jane Tompkins was one of the first to point to the ongoing relevance of popular women's fiction in the 19th century, long overlooked or scorned by literary critics. Now, in West of Everything, Tompkins shows how popular novels and films of the American west have shaped the emotional lives of people in our time. Into this world full of violence and manly courage, the world of John Wayne and Louis L'Amour, Tompkins takes her readers, letting them feel what the hero feels, endure what he endures. Writing with sympathy, insight, and respect, she probes the main elements of the Western--its preoccupation with death, its barren landscapes, galloping horses, hard-bitten men and marginalized women--revealing the view of reality and code of behavior these features contain. She considers the Western hero's attraction to pain, his fear of women and language, his desire to dominate the environment--and to merge with it. In fact, Tompkins argues, for better or worse Westerns have taught us all--men especially--how to behave. It was as a reaction against popular women's novels and women's invasion of the public sphere that Westerns originated, Tompkins maintains. With Westerns, men were reclaiming cultural territory, countering the inwardness, spirituality, and domesticity of the sentimental writers, with a rough and tumble, secular, man-centered world. Tompkins brings these insights to bear in considering film classics such as Red River and Lonely Are the Brave, and novels such as Louis L'Amour's Last of the Breed and Owen Wister's The Virginian. In one of the most moving chapters (chosen for BestAmerican Essays of 1991), Ttompkins shows how the life of Buffalo Bill Cody, killer of Native Americans and charismatic star of the Wild West show, evokes the contradictory feelings which the Western typically elicits--horror and fascination with violence, but also love and respect for the romantic ideal of the cowboy. Whether interpreting a photograph of John Wayne of meditating on the slaughter of cattle, Jane Tompkins writes with humor, compassion, and a provocative intellect. Her book will appeak to many Americans who read or watch Westerns, and to all those interested in a serious approach to popular culture.
West Pac
by Scott SchmidtWhen a carrier goes to sea, those who work on the dangerous flight deck are at an average age of twenty years old. To add to the danger, those who work with aircraft ordnance, the bombs and missiles of these planes, are at even more risk of injury on the pitching deck. This is a true story of one young man, an aviation ordnanceman, who went to sea on his second cruise in 1978 at age twenty. What he discovered in the hot Pacific and Indian Oceans would change his life forever and set him on a path to discovery. Follow the author on his personal and poignant journey as he explores the universal truths of those who must succeed under arduous conditions.
West Side Story: The Jets, the Sharks, and the Making of a Classic (Turner Classic Movies)
by Richard BarriosA captivating, richly illustrated full account of the making of the ground-breaking movie classic West Side Story (1961).A major hit on Broadway, on film West Side Story became immortal-a movie different from anything that had come before, but this cinematic victory came at a price. In this engrossing volume, film historian Richard Barrios recounts how the drama and rivalries seen onscreen played out to equal intensity behind-the-scenes, while still achieving extraordinary artistic feats.The making and impact of West Side Story has so far been recounted only in vestiges. In the pages of this book, the backstage tale comes to life along with insight on what has made the film a favorite across six decades: its brilliant use of dance as staged by erstwhile co-director Jerome Robbins; a meaningful story, as set to Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's soundtrack; the performances of a youthful ensemble cast featuring Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and more; a film with Shakespearean roots (Romeo and Juliet) that is simultaneously timeless and current. West Side Story was a triumph that appeared to be very much of its time; over the years it has shown itself to be eternal.
The West, The War, and The Wilderness
by Kevin BrownlowHere, from one of today's leading authorities on film history, is the story, told brilliantly and for the first time, of the pioneering movie makers who as early as 1905 traveled beyond the studio stages to make feature films on location--and in so doing recorded the real history and real life of their time. The War, the West, and the Wilderness is the result of more than a decade of passionate research by Kevin Brownlow, whose last book, The Parade's Gone By... (hailed by Charles Champlin as "the definitive work on the silent era") is regarded as a classic history of early motion pictures. His new book is alive with the voices of the film-makers themselves, in their logbooks, in their letters and diaries, in their firsthand accounts of their adventurous journeys and cinematic innovations, and--even more immediate--in Brownlow's interviews with cameramen, director's, lighting technicians, and actors who relive those days, taking us with them to the Great War, to the West, ad into the Wilderness. It is the triumph of this book to reconstruct the dramatic moments when these men and women contrived, against ordinary odds, to bring to movie audiences for the first time, the look, the feel--the actuality--of large events and distant places, from the great battles of World War I to the South Seas with Jack London aboard the Shark, and the gold rush in Tonopah, Nevada.
West Virginia's Traditional Country Music
by Buddy Griffin Jacob L. Bapst Ivan M. TribeWest Virginia has been known for a century as a rich repository of traditional country music and musicians. Beginning in the mid-1920s, phonograph recordings and radios brought this music to a wider audience. With the passing of time and the influence of commercialization, this music developed into what became first known as "hillbilly" and then into the more refined "country" because of its long appeal to those of rural background. Although modernization has caused the traditional element to recede considerably, much still remains. Many folk still cling to the older sounds exemplified by the "raw" traditionalists and the neo-traditional bluegrass style that emerged in the 1940s. From the earliest recording artists, such as the Tweedy Brothers and David Miller, who was blind, to contemporary stars like Kathy Mattea and Brad Paisley, West Virginians and others have held their musicians in high esteem.
The West Wing (TV Milestones)
by Janet MccabeWith its fast and furious dialogue, crackling wit, and political savvy, The West Wing became appointment TV for millions during its seven-season run between 1999 and 2006. The behind-the-scenes ensemble drama about Washington politics premiered on the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, was the first series to respond to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and concluded in the closing years of the Bush administration. Its subject matter was ambitious and germane, its cast star-studded, its production team acclaimed. In this volume, Janet McCabe explores The West Wing as both a space for political and social discourse and a force that reshaped contemporary television. McCabe begins by examining the series' broadcasting history, including its scheduling in the United States and around the world, and how the show defines channels and television markets. McCabe goes on to explore the role of the show's creator Aaron Sorkin as a TV auteur and investigates the program's aesthetic principles, including the distinctive look, feel, and sounds of the series. McCabe concludes by considering the political discourse of The West Wing, as the show spoke back to a U.S. culture divided by politics, race, and gender as well as the trauma of 9/11 and anxieties over terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCabe's analysis of The West Wing provides an intriguing look at the institutional, formal, and cultural politics of television. Fans of the series as well as students and teachers of television history will enjoy this detailed volume.
The Western: From Silents to Cinerama
by George N Fenin William K. EversonGround-breaking and essential history of the genre, highlighted by superb research, penetrating insights, and sharp, entertaining prose. Smartly designed, with scads of rare b&w photos laid out in a dynamic and witty design.-Print ed.“For many years the Western film has been strangely and unfairly neglected. Although many articles and essays have appeared in general and specialized periodicals all over the world, substantially organic books dealing exclusively with the Western are very rare indeed. And of all this material, the majority has been disguised publicity, or at best essays which refused to take the Western seriously, the work of writers who knew little or nothing of Westerns, writers who glibly referred to the cliché of the hero always kissing his horse instead of the girl, leaving it at that….We felt, therefore, that there was not only room, but a need, for a detailed history of the Western, a book which would represent not only a useful study of the industrial and aesthetic growth of a popular movie genre, but a critical analysis of it, as well. For the most part, we have adopted a strictly chronological approach, but, in the parlance of the film, it has sometimes been necessary to use “flash-forwards and cutbacks” and even a form of montage, in order to follow a thesis through to its logical conclusion.”-Introduction.
The Western (Inside Film)
by David LustedThe Western introduces the novice to the pleasures and the meanings of the Western film, shares the excitement of the genre with the fan, addresses the suspicions of the cynic and develops the knowledge of the student. The Western is about the changing times of the Western, and about how it has been understood in film criticism. Until the 1980s, more Westerns were made than any other type of film. For fifty of those years, the genre was central to Hollywood's popularity and profitability. The Western explores the reasons for its success and its latter-day decline among film-makers and audiences alike. Part I charts the history of the Western film and its role in film studies. Part II traces the origins of the Western in nineteenth-century America, and in its literary, theatrical and visual imagining. This sets the scene to explore the many evolving forms in successive chapters on early silent Westerns, the series Western, the epic, the romance, the dystopian, the elegiac and, finally, the revisionist Western. The Western concludes with an extensive bibliography, filmography and select further reading. Over 200 Westerns are discussed, among them close accounts of classics such as Duel in the Sun, The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven, formative titles like John Ford's epic The Iron Horse, and early cowboy star William S. Hart's The Silent One together with less familiar titles that deserve wider recognition, including Comanche Station, Pursued and Ulzana's Raid.
The Western and Political Thought: A Fistful of Politics
by Damien K. PicarielloThe Western and Political Thought: A Fistful of Politics offers a variety of engaging and entertaining answers to the question: What do Westerns have to do with politics? This collection features contributions from scholars in a variety of fields—political science, English, communication studies, and others—that explore the connections between Westerns (prose fiction, films, television series, and more) and politics.
Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain (Routledge Library Editions: Broadcasting #38)
by K.R.M. ShortWestern Broadcasting Over the Iron Curtain (1986) examines the development of broadcasting policy by Western democracies, levels of government control of policy, efforts by communist regimes to minimize the effects of western broadcasting, and Soviet and Eastern European audience opinions on such diverse subjects as the success or failure of socialism and the Korean airline disaster.
The Western Genre: From Lordsburg to Big Whiskey (Short Cuts)
by John SaundersThe Western Genre: From Lordsburg to Big Whiskey offers close readings of the definitive American film movement as represented by such leading exponents as John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Sam Peckinpah. In his consideration of such iconic motifs as the Outlaw Hero and the Lone Rider, John Saunders traces the development of perennial aspects of the genre, its continuity and, importantly, its change. Representations of morality and masculinity are also foregrounded in consideration of the genre's major stars John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and such films as Shane, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch, and Unforgiven.
The Western in the Global South (Routledge Advances in Film Studies)
by MaryEllen Higgins Rita Keresztesi Dayna OscherwitzThe Western in the Global South investigates the Western film genre's impact, migrations, and reconfigurations in the Global South. Contributors explore how cosmopolitan directors have engaged with, appropriated, and subverted the tropes and conventions of Hollywood and Italian Westerns, and how Global South Westerns and Post-Westerns in particular address the inequities brought about by postcolonial patriarchy, globalization and neoliberalism. The book offers a wide range of historical engagements with the genre, from African, Caribbean, South and Southeast Asian, Central and South American, and transnational directors. The contributors employ interdisciplinary cultural studies approaches to cinema, integrating aesthetic considerations with historical, political, and gender studies readings of the international appropriations and U.S. re-appropriations of the Western genre.
Western New York Amusement Parks (Images of America)
by Rose Ann HirschFor more than 100 years, western New Yorkers have enjoyed the region's exciting amusement parks. During the days of trolleys and steamships, area businessmen created Celoron Park, Crystal Beach Park, and other fine local summer resorts. Decades later, lifelong memories were formed for neighborhood baby boomers who visited Glen Park and Fantasy Island, as well as one of New York State's finest theme parks, Darien Lake. Western New York has always been a proving ground for some of the nation's most famous roller coasters. The terrifying Cyclone, the fast and furious Silver Comet, and the extreme Ride of Steel have attracted the very bravest of visitors. In the new millennium, the summer tradition of visiting local amusement parks continues with a blend of family-orientated parks and theme parks that appeal to all ages.
Western Pennsylvania's Lost Amusement Parks (Images of America)
by Rachel E. SmithAt one time, Western Pennsylvania was home to dozens of small amusement parks, many of them trolley parks. These parks, originally designed to bolster streetcar business, were a way for workers to seek respite from the crowded, dirty cities. While some of these parks never developed into much more than a dance hall and a merry-go-round, others became full-scale amusement parks with rides, entertainment, and other amusements. After years of battling floods, changing economies, the decline of streetcars, and competition from other amusement parks, many of these amusement parks ended up closing their gates for good, the thrills they once provided now relegated to memories. With many of these parks all but lost to time, it is time to take a look back and remember some of the most prominent lost amusement parks of Western Pennsylvania.
Westerns: The Essential 'Journal of Popular Film and Television' Collection
by Gary R. Edgerton Michael T. MarsdenFor nearly two centuries, Americans have embraced the Western like no other artistic genre. Creators and consumers alike have utilized this story form in literature, painting, film, radio and television to explore questions of national identity and purpose. Westerns: The Essential Collection comprises the Journal of Popular Film and Television’s rich and longstanding legacy of scholarship on Westerns with a new special issue devoted exclusively to the genre. This collection examines and analyzes the evolution and significance of the screen Western from its earliest beginnings to its current global reach and relevance in the 21st century. Westerns: The Essential Collection addresses the rise, fall and durability of the genre, and examines its preoccupation with multicultural matters in its organizational structure. Containing eighteen essays published between 1972 and 2011, this seminal work is divided into six sections covering Silent Westerns, Classic Westerns, Race and Westerns, Gender and Westerns, Revisionist Westerns and Westerns in Global Context. A wide range of international contributors offer original critical perspectives on the intricate relationship between American culture and Western films and television series. Westerns: The Essential Collection places the genre squarely within the broader aesthetic, socio-historical, cultural and political dimensions of life in the United States as well as internationally, where the Western has been reinvigorated and reinvented many times. This groundbreaking anthology illustrates how Western films and television series have been used to define the present and discover the future by looking backwards at America’s imagined past.
Westerns: The Institutes Of Architecture Of Western Australia (Routledge Film Guidebooks #1)
by John WhiteIt is a common assertion that the history of America is written in its Westerns, but how true is this? In this guidebook John White discusses the evolution of the Western through history and looks at theoretical and critical approaches to Westerns such as genre analysis, semiotics, representation, ideology, discourse analysis, narrative, realism, auteur and star theory, psychoanalytical theory, postmodernism and audience response. The book includes case studies of 8 key westerns: Stagecoach My Darling Clementine Shane The Good, The Bad and the Ugly McCabe and Mrs Miller Unforgiven Brokeback Mountain The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Including a chronology of significant events for the Western genre, a glossary and further reading, this introduction to an important genre in film studies is a great guide for students.
Wet Hot American Summer: The Annotated Screenplay
by Michael Showalter David WainThe screenwriters behind the cult classic comedy present the definitive behind-the-scenes companion volume.With its unbelievable ensemble cast, Wet Hot American Summer hilariously skewered 1980s teen comedies while becoming a beloved classic in its own right. Now screenwriters David Wain and Michael Showalter have created a behind-the-scenes annotated version of the original screenplay that launched a thousand Halloween costumes. They provide commentary on how and why they made the artistic decisions they did while writing and filming the movie, as well as the Netflix series that came after. The book also features reproduced ephemera from filming—photos, original (and scathing) reviews, AIM chat conversations, marked up script pages, and so much more. Written and curated by Wain and Showalter, this is the must-have guide to all things Wet Hot.
Whalesong: The True Story of the Musician Who Talked to Orcas
by Zachariah OHoraA captivating informational picture book about Paul Horn, a musician who communicated with orcas through the power of music. For fans of Shark Lady and Margaret and the Moon.Unbelievable but true, this is the story of two whales, two Pauls and two boys.The whales are Haida and Chimo, captive orcas who lived in an aquarium called Sealand of the Pacific in the 1970s.The Pauls are Paul Horn, a professional flute musician, and Dr. Paul Spong, a scientist studying the orcas in order to learn more about these mystifying creatures.And the boys are Marlen and Robin, Paul Horn's sons, who are fascinated with the orcas despite their father's fear of the giant whales.What follows is the spellbinding story of how the Pauls, through the power of music, learn to communicate with the orcas — and set into motion an entire anti-captivity movement dedicated to protecting these intelligent and majestic animals.