Traditions in World Cinema
Category: Books,Humor & Entertainment,Movies
Traditions in World Cinema Details
Review Traditions in World Cinema takes sophisticated and wide-ranging approach… This collection contains plenty of useful and informative material [and] several chapters throw light on neglected corners of cinematic history. (Times Literary Supplement) Read more About the Author Linda Badley is Professor of English and Film Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. She is the author of Film, Horror, and the Body Fantastic (1995), Writing Horror and the Body (1996), and Lars von Trier (2010), and the co-editor of Traditions in World Cinema (2006). R. Barton Palmer is the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University, where he directs the film studies program. He is the author, editor, or general editor of many books including Hollywood’s Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir (1994), After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation, and Intertextuality (2006), and A Little Solitaire: John Frankenheimer and American Film (2011). Steven Jay Schneider is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Media Culture at the City University of New York. Read more
Reviews
This book basically says that you should step outside your particular national and cultural environment, and get a good glimpse of movie making in a global sense. Of course, for most of us, movies means those made or financed by Hollywood. Inarguably, Hollywood by itself is a global viewpoint. Possibly the predominant one.But Badley and other authors in this book enliven us with understandings of movie making trends elsewhere. One chapter discusses the ferment in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. While another chapter relates the struggles of African cinema, both during and after colonialism. And Mottahedeh describes the travails of Iranian cinema after the fall of the Shah. Where directors and actors often vie against Islamic censors. Further east, Teo gives an all-too-brief synopsis of Chinese cinema after World War 2. It would be nice to have a more thorough commentary on the Hong Kong industry, for example.Of course, no book on global films would be complete without a section on the vibrant Bollywood scene.The only criticism of this book is that the lack of space permits only brief coverages of many complex national cinemas. Though this might be unfair. Badley was not trying to put together a huge tome. But to give you a sampling across the world.
