The Challenge Of The Silver Screen

In 1897 only two years after the invention of film the first feature film about Jesus appeared. This and other films about Jesus became examples for and an inspiration for films on other important religious figures like Rama, Buddha and Muhammad. Although religious leaders did not always approve of these films, they did find a ready audience among believers. This book explores these films and looks at how these films dealt with the fundamental question of portraying an individual thought to have either divine status or a very special and unique status among human beings. This book will thus benefit not only students of religious film but also those studying the portrayal of central religious figures in the contemporary world.

This book analyses the most important depictions in film of Jesus, Rama, Buddha and Muhammad and the religious and cultural background to portraying individuals who disclose the divine. It also addresses the reactions of religious leaders to these films.

"An entertaining, action-packed addition to the TCM program that celebrates an essential, but often overlooked or disregarded part of the film industry: stunts. Offering readers a unique perspective as well as history of the impact and evolution of stunt work, and behind-the-scenes stories from the stunt professionals who risked life and limb to make the magic happen"--

Savior on the Silver Screen examines nine movies about the life of Jesus - ranging from the traditional to the provocativeand explores how the image of Jesus in each reflects the time and culture in which the film was produced. The selections encompass silent, foreign, epic, and musical films. Both entertaining and insightful, Savior on the Silver Screen is structured for easy use in classroom, small group, and individual settings and includes rental information and practical tips for using the book. For each film there is an introduction, pre-viewing and post-viewing questions, and a discussion of its major features. -- Provided by publisher.

The Couch and the Silver Screen is a collection of original contributions which explore European cinema from psychoanalytic perspectives. Both classic and contemporary films are presented and analysed by a variety of authors, including leading cinema historians and theorists, psychoanalysts with a specific expertise in the interpretation of films, as well as the filmmakers themselves. This composite approach offers a fascinating insight into the world of cinema. The Couch and the Silver Screen is illustrated with stills throughout and Andrea Sabbadini's introduction provides a theoretical and historical context for the current state of psychoanalytic studies of films. The book is organised into four clear sections - Set and Stage, Working Through Trauma, Horror Perspectives and Documenting Internal Worlds - which form the basis for engaging chapters including: easily readable and jargon-free film reviews. essays on specific subjects such as perspectives on the horror film genre and adolescent development. transcripts of live debates among film directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, actors, critics and psychoanalysts discussing films. The cultural richness of the material presented, combined with the originality of multidisciplinary dialogues on European cinema, makes this book appealing not only to film buffs, but also to professionals, academics and students interested in the application of psychoanalytic ideas to the arts.

Step into the past in this spine-tingling historical adventure from award-winning author Christopher Edge. Penelope Tredwell is the feisty thirteen-year-old orphan heiress of the bestselling magazine, The Penny Dreadful . Her masterly tales of the macabre are gripping Victorian Britain, even if no one knows she's the author. One day a mysterious filmmaker approaches The Penny Dreadful with a proposal to turn their sinister stories into motion pictures. Filming begins but is plagued by a series of strange and frightening events. As Penelope is drawn into the mysteries surrounding the filming she soon finds herself trapped in a nightmare penned by her own hand... Can Penny uncover the filmmaker's dark secret before it's too late? Spine-tingling historical adventure series with a supernatural twist! From the acclaimed author of The Many Worlds of Albie Bright and The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day . Related discussion notes and activity ideas available on the Nosy Crow website.

How do contemporary films depict Buddhists and Buddhism? What aspects of the Buddhist tradition are these films keeping from our view? By repeatedly romanticizing the meditating monk, what kinds of Buddhisms and Buddhists are missing in these films and why? Silver Screen Buddha is the first book to explore the intersecting representations of Buddhism, race, and gender in contemporary films. Sharon A. Suh examines the cinematic encounter with Buddhism that has flourished in Asia and in the West in the past century – from images of Shangri-La in Frank Capra's 1937 Lost Horizon to Kim Ki-Duk's 2003 international box office success Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring. The book helps readers see that representations of Buddhism in Asia and in the West are fraught with political, gendered, and racist undertones. Silver Screen Buddha draws significant attention to ordinary lay Buddhism, a form of the tradition given little play in popular film. By uncovering the differences between a fictionalized, commodified, and exoticized Buddhism, Silver Screen Buddha brings to light expressions of the tradition that highlight laity and women, on the one hand, and Asian and Asian Americans, on the other. Suh engages in a re-visioning of Buddhism that expands the popular understanding of the tradition, moving from the dominance of meditating monks to the everyday world of raced, gendered, and embodied lay Buddhists.