Film: General
Adams, Phillip (1998), 'The
flicks are losing their lead', Weekend Australian Jan 10-11. Adams argues
that film-going is losing its unique edge to television. But the remarkable
incease in film admissions in Australia and New Zealand tends to contradict
this.
Agresti, Alan & Larry
Winner (1997), 'Evaluationg agreement and disagreement among movie reviewers',
Chance 10:2. A curious piece of research, examining how often movie
reviewers agree with each other.
Altman, Rick (1995), 'The
sound of sound: a brief history of the reproduction of sound in movie
theaters', Cineaste 21:1-2. One of an interesting special section on
'Sound and Music in the Movies'.
Appleyard, Bryan (1997),
'Stanley Kubrick's split image', The Weekend Australian Aug 16-17. One
of the most peculiar figures in contemporary film-making.
Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca (1997),
'Tales from the script', Entertainment Weekly Aug 8. Three American
scriptwriters talk about their profession.
Atkinson, Michael (1999),
'We have the stars', The Guardian Nov 8. The domination of Hollywood
in the Twentieth Century. From a special supplement "The American Century".
Brabazon, Tara (1999), 'Star
Wars and writing a popular memory: we'll always have Tatooine', Youth
Studies Australia December. Fandom and popular film. Another version
of this paper appears in the the Australian Journal of Communication
26 (2).
Barber, Lynden (1998), 'Death
of the serial killer', The Australian August 13. A prediction that the
serial murder movie is in decline.
Barber, Lynden (1998), 'Great
expectations", The Weekend Australian Jan 3-4. The difficult task of
adapting literature for the film screen and satisfying a range of expectations.
Barber, Lynden (1999), `When
celluloid sizzles', The Australian Aug 5. Claims that the Cruise/Kidman
coupling in Eyes Wide Shut has none of the conviction of earlier screen
couples, such as Taylor/Burton.
Barber, Lynden (1997), 'A
great movie, wasn't it?', The Weekend Australian June 7-8. Describes
the revival of classic films(eg The Big Sleep, Casablanca) in new prints
.
Barber, Lynden (1998), 'Original
sins', Weekend Australian Oct 22. The 'flourishing culture of plagiarism'
in current Hollywood films.
Bazzini, Doris G. et al
(1997), 'The ageing woman in popular film: underrepresented, unattractive,
unfriendly, and unintelligent', Sex Roles 36:7/8. Examines 100 top-grossing
films of the 1940s-1980s, to conclude that such films promote a double
standard in relation to gender and age.
Benton, Michael, M. Dolan
& R. Zisch (1997), 'Teen films: an annotated bibliography', Journal
of Popular Film & Television 25:2, Summer. A useful resource.
Biskind, Peter (1999), `On
movies, money & politics: Beatty, Baldwin, Glover, Robbins, Stone and
Lear', The Nation April 5/12. Biskind introduces a special issue of
The Nation devoted to investigations of the connections between film,
money and power in the US. Contributions include: John Clark `Primary
color: Green-Why the studios won't make political movies'; Carl Bromley
`Celluloid family values: are studio films liberal or conservative?'
and Susan J. Douglas `The devil made me do it: is Natural Born Killers
the Ford Pinto of movies?'.
Broadbent, S & J. Grahame
(1996), 'Shooting the canon: big films of big books', The English &
Media Magazine 35, Autumn. Highly instructive interviews with producer
Duncan Kenworthy and screenwriter Simon Moore, who were responsible
for the innovative television adaptation ofGulliver's Travels.
Cerexhe, Peter (1995), 'Home
sweet box office', The Independent Monthly Nov. Likely costs involved
in new ways of watching films at home.
Conn, Andrew Lewis (1997),
'Star Wars: always' [and] Robert Horton 'Star Wars: enough a'ready'
, Film Comment May-June. Two conflicting views on the return of Star
Wars.
Corliss, Richard (1996),
'The invasion has begun', Time July 8. The return of sci-fi film and
television.
Cremen, Christine (1998),
'Out of the box', Weekend Australian Nov 7-8. Recycling old television
programmes into feature films.
Cremen, Christine (1999),
'Radical chick flicks', The Weekend Australian Oct 2-3. The return of
the female film-maker.
Cuthbertson, Ian (1999),
`Wizards of Oz', The Weekend Australian June 26-27. How SFX work is
reviving the Australian film industry.
Danan, Martine(1996), 'Marketing
the Hollywood Blockbuster in France', Journal of Popular Film &
Television. Strategies for maintaining a 'delicate balance between the
local and the global', with the French film-going public giving 'mixed
signals' about the former.
Demopoulos, Maria (2000),
'Blink Of An Eye: Filmmaking in the Age of Bullet Time'. Film Comment
May/June. How the look of film is being 'reinvented by MTV, Madison
Avenue, and an astounding Pandora's Box of new state of the art technologies'.
Danielsen, Shane (1999),
`Screen taboos', The Australian July 21. How `film-makers are pushing
the boundaries of acceptable cinema' in films like Happiness and Romance.
Dowell, Pat (1995), 'The
mythology of the Western: Hollywood perspectives on race and gender
in the Nineties', Cineaste 21:1-2. Reflections on the reappearance of
the Western genre.
Edwards, Denis (1997), 'Truly,
madly, cheaply', Quote Unquote March. A New Zealand scriptwriter provides
advice on writing for film. (Note: it is a shame that this magazine
has gone under)
Ehrenstein, David (1996),
'Film in the age of video', Film Quarterly. What is good and bad about
watching films in video format.
'The 50 Most Important Independent
Films', Filmmaker: The Magazine of Independent Film, 5:1, Fall 1996.
To celebrate five years of Filmmaker, the editors asked a range of critics
to nominate the best American 'indie' films, with most choices being
films of the 1980s and 1990s.
Forshey, Gerald E. (1997),
The English Patient: from novel to screenplay, Creative Screenwriting
Summer. The judgements and selections in turning book into film.
Gabler, Neal (1997), 'The
end of the middle', The New York Times Magazine Nov 16. Anopening article
in a fascinating special issue of this magazine, devoted to 'The Two
Hollywoods' and the relationship between mainstream film, and the independent
sector. Other articles cover actors, directors, screnwriters, prodcers
and funding--and an interview with Tarantino.
Gabler, Neal (1998), 'Molding
our lives in the image of movies', New York Times Oct 25. An extract
from Gabler's book Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality.
Interesting but rather over-stated!
Grant, Barry K. (1996),
'Rich and strange: the yuppie horror film', Journal of Film & Video
48:1-2, Spring/Summer. A new slant on film genre.
Gross, Larry (1995), 'Big
and loud', Sight and Sound August. A noted screenwriter writes on the
appeal of big budget action movies.
Grove, Lloyd (1997), '25
films added to registry', Washington Post Nov 19. The 25 films added
to the Library of Congress National Film Registry. They include The
Bridge on the River Kwai, Mean Streets and The Big Sleep.
Hampton, Howard (1997),
'Scorpio descending: in search of rock cinema', Film Comment Mar/Apr.
A critical perspective on the connections between popular music and
film.
Herd, Juliet (1996), 'Crash:
art or erotic trash?', The Weekend Australian Nov 30-Dec 1. The controversy
over Cronenberg's 1996 film.
Hesley, John W. (2000),
'Reel therapy', Psychology Today Jan/Feb. Using movies for marriage
and family therapy. Another story 'Movie madness" , reprinted in The
Australian (Jan 13 2000) from The Times, examines the same phenomenon
fr om a more sceptical viewpoint.
Hollingworth, David &
S. Ridley (1996), 'Cybermovie mania', internet.au June. Movies about
computer culture.
Jacobs, A.J. & C. Nashawaty
(1997), 'The price ain't right', Entertainment Weekly May 23. The rising
price of movie tickets and other entertainment in the USA.
Jones, Kent (1996), 'The
summer of our malcontent', Film Comment Sept/Oct. A defence of contemporary
mainstream cinema, along the lines of 'I hated every second of Independence
Day, but I can't fault the people who enjoyed it, or consider them 'dupes'
of 'the system''.
Lapedis, Hilary (1999),
'Popping the question: the function and effect of popular music in cinema',
Popular Music 18/3. Examines how popular music, and the music video,
has effected narrative in mainstream cinema.
Kilday, Gregg (1996), 'Box
office report', Entertainment Weekly Sept 6. The winners and loser in
the Summer 1996 American film season.
Kilday, Gregg & A. Thompson
(1996), 'To infinity and below', Entertainment Weekly Feb 2. Interesting
facts, successes and failures of the 1995 box office for American films.
Kitson, Michael (1995),
'The rise of the boutique or the New Nickleodeon', Cinema Papers Dec.
Shifts in film exhibition in Australia.
Klady, Leonard (1997), 'Same
old song and dance', Film Comment Mar/Apr. The American box office in
1996.
Klinger, Barbara (1998),
'The new media aristocrats: home theater and the domestic film experience',
The Velvet Light Trap 42, Fall. Argues that, in these days of technological
change, assumptions about what constitutes 'true' cinema and its experience
should be reconsidered.
Kunio, Nishimura (1997),
The rediscovered world of Japanese cinema', Look Japan October. As in
other countries, local films (the animated feature The Princess Nononoke)
are out-grossing The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Madigan, Nick (1999), `Canucks
pluck biz bucks', Variety June 25. How American film producers are increasingly
going off-shore for locations and production facilities.
Martin, Adrian (1995), 'The
gloves come off', Cinema Papers Dec. An Australian critic champions
the film criticism of American critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
McMahon, Liz (1996), 'Cinema
and video audience research', Admap Oct. How movie audiences are measured
in the UK.
McQuire, Scott (2000), 'Impact
aesthetics: back to the future in digital cinema? Millennial fantasies',
Convergence 6:2. Argues that the future of cinema should be framed within
notions of technological determinism but in 'an understanding based
on the politics of spectacle and distracted spectatorship'.
Menand, Louis (1996), 'Hollywood's
trap', The New York Review of Books, Sept 19. Possibly a good example
of what Jones is arguing against, in its claims that films such as The
Nutty Professor and The Rock 'want..to say nothing'.
Mills, Jane (1999), 'Hooray
for Hollywood', The Eye Oct 21-Nov 3. An Australian critic 'loves the
films that critics love to hate'.
'Moments out of time', Film
Comment Jan/Feb 1997. The high moment of film in 1996.
Murphy, Kathleen (1996),
Frames clicks on multimedia', Film Comment March/April. Reviews film
resources available on CD-Rom.
Naremore, James (1995),
'American Flm Noir: the history of an idea', Film Quarterly 49:2, Winter.
Discusses the origins, and persistence, of film noir as a film style.
Norman, Jean (1997), 'The
difference between boys and girls', Sunday Star-Times May 25. A diatribe
about film for women.
Obst, Lynda (1996), 'How
to make amovie', Entertainment Weekly Sept 6. Extracts from a veteran
film producer's new book Hello, He Lied--and Other Truths from the Hollywood
Trenches.
Olson, Scott R. (1996),
'College course file: studiesin genre--horror', Journal of Film &
Video 48:1-2, Spring/Summer. Interesting ideas for teaching horror film.
O'Neill, John (1995), 'So
you want to write for the movies...' , The Independent Monthly Nov.
The trials of screenwriting in Australia.
O'Neill, Helen (1996), 'Guerillas
of film', The Australian Sept 4 Roger Corman and Australian film-makers
discuss the future of low budget film-making.
Prince, Stephen (1996),
'True Lires: perceptual realism, digital images, and film theory', Film
Quarterly. How film theory needs to catch up with contemporary film
techniques.
Roscoe, Jane (2000), 'The
Blair Witch Project: Mock-documentary goes mainstream', Jump Cut 43.
Jane (ex-Waikato, now at Griffith) examines the merging and blurring
of genres.
Rubey, Dan (1978/1997),
'Not so long ago, not so far away', Jump Cut 41. A reprint of a pioneering
essay, to acknowledge the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy.
Schickel, Richard (1998),
'Mind slips: remembering and disremembering movies', Film Comment 34:5,
Sept/Oct. The renowned film critic muses on the AFI's '100 greatest
American movies' list.
Schiff, Laura (1998), 'The
changing face of the horror film--ten rules for today's market', Creative
Screenwriting Sept/Oct. The 'ten cardinal rules for writing saleable
horror films in today's changing markeplace'.
Sconce, Jeffrey ''Trashing'
the academy: taste, excess, and an emerging politics of cinematic style',
Screen 36:4, Winter. Argues for the aesthetics of 'trash' in cinema,
extending Bourdieu's concept of 'taste' as distaste for the preferences
of others.
Shakespeare in the Cinema:
A Film Directors' Symposium, Cineaste XXIV, 1, 1998. Peter Brook, Sir
Peter Hall, Richard Loncraine, Baz Luhrmann, Oliver Parker, Roman Polanski
and Franco Zeffirelli argue over film interpretations of the bard.'
Sharky, Timothy (1997),
'The teen film and its methods of study', Journal of Popular Film &
Television 25:1, Spring. A spirited defence of teen movies.,p. 'Siskel
& Ebert On Line', Yahoo! Internet Life, Sept 1996. The two wise-guys
of US film reviewing discuss the best film sites on the Internet.
Snider, Burr (1995), 'The
Toy Story story', Wired Dec. The technology behind one of the best films
of 1995.
Spielmann, Yvonne (1999),
`Expanding film into digital media', Screen 40:2, Summer. Possible new
futures for film, and film theory.
'Star Wars', The Economist
March 22 1997. The business problems of contemporary Hollywood. Includes
useful tables eg the average costs of film-making in Hollywood, 1982-1996.
Svetkey, Benjamin (1996),
'Who killed the Hollywood screenplay?', Entertainment Weekly Oct 4.
Bewails the state of contemporary screenwriting.
Tashiro, Charles (1997),
'The contradictions of video collecting', Film Quarterly 50:2, Winter.
A reflective piece on the strange pursuit of collecting films on video.
Thompson, Anne (1996), 'Is
bigger better?', Film Comment March/April. Another examination of the
1995 American film box office.
Thompson, Anne (1995), 'Toy
wonder', Entertainment Weekly December 8. The making of the 1995 hit
movie Toy Story.
Thompson, Gary (1998), 'Lost
the plot', The Weekend Australian Aug 15-16. Argues that 'audiences
jaded by computer-generated images want stories, not just spectacles'.
Tonkin, Boyd (1996), '100
films that changed the world', New Statesman & Society Feb 16. The
100 films (arranged chronologically) which had some significant impact
- for good or ill - on the shape of twentieth century society.
'The Top 10 Film Lines',
Weekend Australian Oct 17-18 1998. The Guiness Book of Film's version
of most memorable film dialogue.
Tu, Janet I-Chin (1996),
'Film casts a net', Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 21. A feature
article on film sites on the Internet.
Tudor, Andrew (1997), 'Why
horror? The peculiar pleasures of a popular genre', Cultural Studies
11(3). Examines why we enjoy, and want to enjoy, horror movies.
Summerfield, Gideon (1996),
'How Babe changed movie making', Internet January. The 'vital role'
the Internet played in the making of the 1996 hit movie Babe.
Wasser, Frederick (1995),
'Is Hollywood America? The trans-nationalization of the American film
industry', Critical Studies in Mass Communication 12. An interesting
article which argues that, from the 1970s, Hollywood shifted its emphasis
from the American film-goer to international markets.
Widdicombe, Rupert (1997),
'Suddenly, everybody's a Spielberg--sort of', The Weekend Australian
Aug 9-10. How new technology make make all of us film-makers.
Williams, Sue (1996), 'Cinema
smorgasbord', The Weekend Australian Aug 3/Sept 1. Food as a 'central
player' in contemporary film.
Williams, Linda Ruth (1996),
'Nothing to find', Sight and Sound January. A critique of Verhoeven's
Showgirls, the dud of 1995.
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