Synopses & Reviews
In the 2000s, new technologies transformed the experiences of movie-going and movie-making, giving us the first generation of stars to be just as famous on the computer screen as on the silver screen.
Shining in Shadows examines a wide range of Hollywood icons from a turbulent decade for the film industry and for America itself. Perhaps reflecting our own cultural fragmentation and uncertainty, Hollywoodandrsquo;s star personas sent mixed messages about Americansandrsquo; identities and ideals. Disheveled men-children like Will Ferrell and Jack Black shared the multiplex with debonair old-Hollywood standbys like George Clooney and Morgan Freeman. Iconic roles for women ranged from Renee Zellwegerandrsquo;s dithering romantics to Tina Feyandrsquo;s neurotic professionals to Hilary Swankandrsquo;s vulnerable boyish characters. And in this age of reality TV and TMZ, stars like Jennifer Aniston and andldquo;Brangelinaandrdquo; became more famous for their real-life romantic dramasandmdash;at the same time that former tabloid fixtures like Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr. reinvented themselves as dependable leading men. With a multigenerational, international cast of stars, this collection presents a fascinating composite portrait of Hollywood stardom today.
Review
andquot;The central characteristic of 'glamour' in the starry heavens of 1930s Hollywood received illuminating backlighting in McLean's collection. A construct emcompassing elegance, lurury, romance, and sex appeal, glamour shines, even scintillates, through the galazy of celebrities covered in this sparkling volume in the 'Star Decades' series. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;With obvious affection for their subjects, the authors of the fascinating essays in
Cinematic Canines provide a trove of information on famous dogs in the movies and how they have been handled and mishandled by the humans behind the camera.andquot;
Review
andquot;A book for Fidoandrsquo;s film fans and scholars of animals in motion pictures alike, Cinematic Canines gathers case studies that together make a lively case for considering nonhuman life as essential to media history.andquot;
Synopsis
Shirley Temple, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, William Powell and Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, and Gary Cooper-
Glamour in a Golden Age presents original essays from eminent film scholars that analyze movie stars of the 1930s against the background of contemporary American cultural history.
Stardom is approached as an effect of, and influence on, the particular historical and industrial contexts that enabled these actors and actresses to be discovered, featured in films, publicized, and to become recognized and admired-sometimes even notorious-parts of the cultural landscape. Using archival and popular material, including fan and mass market magazines, other promotional and publicity material, and of course films themselves, contributors also discuss other artists who were incredibly popular at the time, among them Ann Harding, Ruth Chatterton, Nancy Carroll, Kay Francis, and Constance Bennett.
Synopsis
Glamour in a Golden Age, incorporating archival and popular material, including fan and mass market magazines, other promotional and publicity material, and films themselves, presents original essays from eminent film scholars that analyze movie stars of the 1930s. Against the background of contemporary American cultural history, stardom is approached as an effect of, and influence on, the particular historical and industrial contexts that enabled these actors and actresses to be discovered, featured in films, publicized, and become recognized and admired--sometimes even notorious--parts of the cultural landscape.
Synopsis
Shining in Shadows examines a wide range of Hollywood icons from a turbulent decade for the film industry and for America itself. Perhaps reflecting our own cultural fragmentation and uncertainty, Hollywoodandrsquo;s star personas sent mixed messages about Americansandrsquo; identities and ideals. With a multigenerational, international cast of stars, this collection presents a fascinating composite portrait of Hollywood stardom today.
Synopsis
Dogs have been part of motion pictures since the movies began. They have been featured onscreen in various capacities, from any number of andldquo;manandrsquo;s best friendsandrdquo; (Rin Tin Tin, Asta, Toto, Lassie, Benji, Uggie, and many, many more) to the psychotic Cujo. The contributors to
Cinematic Canines take a close look at Hollywood films and beyond in order to show that the popularity of dogs on the screen cannot be separated from their increasing presence in our lives over the past century.
Synopsis
The Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series is now available as a ten-volume set: Movie Stars from the 1910s to the 2000s. Each volume presents original essays that analyze the movie star against the background of American cultural history. As icon, as mediated personality, and as object of audience fascination and desire, the Hollywood star remains the model for celebrity in modern culture, representing a combination of achievement, talent, ability, luck, authenticity, superficiality, and even ordinariness.
About the Author
ADRIENNE L. McLEAN is a professor of film studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is the author of Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body, and Narrative Cinema and Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom, and the coeditor of Headline Hollywood: A Century of Film Scandal (all Rutgers University Press).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Wonder Boys: Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, and Robert Downey Jr.
2. Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman: Million-Dollar Seniors
3. Jennifer Aniston and Tina Fey: Girls with Glasses
4. Puerile Pillars of the Frat Pack: Jack Black,Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, and Ben Stiller
5. Javier Bardem and Benicio Del Toro: Beyond Machismo
6. Philip Seymour Hoffman: Jesus of Uncool
7. A Postfeminist Primer: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hilary Swank, and Renandeacute;e Zellweger
8. Heath Ledger: Iandrsquo;m Not There
9. Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn: Acting Authentic
10. Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett:The Performance Is the Star
11. Brangelina: Celebrity, Credibility, and the Composite andUuml;berstar
12. George Clooney: The Issues Guy
In the Wings
Works Cited
Contributors
Index