Tag: Film

November 6, 2013

Wang Renmei: The Wildcat of Shanghai

Wang Renmei, the subject of our featured book this week, Wang Renmei: The Wildcat of Shanghai, was on the fast track to become one of China’s leading film stars of the 1930s. Her career and life, however, fell prey to...

November 1, 2013

Philip Kitcher on beauty and love in Death in Venice

This week our featured book is Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach by Philip Kitcher. Today, we have an excerpt from “Beauty,” the second chapter of Deaths in Venice, in which Kitcher discusses the philosophical concepts of...

October 31, 2013

Philip Kitcher on Luchino Visconti's Morte a Venizia

This week our featured book is Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach by Philip Kitcher. Today, we have a couple brief excerpts from Deaths in Venice, in which Kitcher discusses Luchino Visconti’s film version of Mann’s novella,...

October 30, 2013

Philip Kitcher on Benjamin Britten's Opera

This week our featured book is Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach by Philip Kitcher. Today, we have a brief excerpt from Deaths in Venice, in which Kitcher discusses the opera, Death in Venice, by Benjamin Britten,...

October 29, 2013

Philip Kitcher on Thomas Mann and Gustav von Aschenbach

This week our featured book is Deaths in Venice: The Cases of Gustav von Aschenbach by Philip Kitcher. Today we have an excerpt from “Discipline,” the first chapter of Deaths in Venice, in which Philip Kitcher looks at the works...

May 22, 2013

Shivers Down Your Spine — Interview with Alison Griffiths

We are reposting an interview with Alison Griffiths, author of Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinemas, Museums, and the Immersive View (now available in paper!). Griffiths is associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Baruch College, City University of...

March 14, 2013

Interviews with Satyajit Ray

Continuing our feature on Satyajit Ray on Cinema, we present a fascinating 4-part interview with Ray from 1983. In the interview, Ray discusses his his childhood, the influence of the Bengal renaissance, his interest in design and typography, his approach...

February 21, 2013

Divine Decadence: Nightclubs in Bollywood Film — Kush Varia

The following essay on the role of the nightclub in Bollywood film is by Kush Varia, author of Bollywood: Gods, Glamour, and Gossip, our featured book of the week. For more on the book, you can also read an interview...

November 30, 2012

Ross Melnick and Toby Talbot to Discuss the Jewish Experience in Film

On Sunday, December 2, (1 p.m.– 5 p.m), Columbia University Press is co-sponsoring the event “Exhibitors, Distributors and Showmen” at the American Jewish Historical Society as part of their Culture Brokers series. The program will include two Columbia University Press...

October 24, 2012

Bettie Page, Peep Shows, and Their Impact on 1950s America

One of the most famous icons of erotic cinema is, of course, Bettie Page. In the chapter “Pages of Sin: Bettie Page — From ‘Cheesecake’ Tease to Bondage Queen,” from Peep Shows: Cult Film and the Cine-Erotic, Bill Osgerby examines...

October 22, 2012

Book Giveaway: Peep Shows!

October 17, 2012

MomCom as RomCom

“Today, Hollywood need not bother with marriage. Rather, sex, baby, love—often in that order—are the contemporary triple threat.”—Kelly Oliver In her book Knock Me Up, Knock Me Down: Images of Pregnancy in Hollywood Films, Kelly Oliver discusses the genre of...