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A light in the dark : a history of movie directors / by Thomson, David,1941-author.;
"Directors operate behind the scenes managing actors, establishing a cohesive creative vision, at times literally guiding our eyes with the eye of the camera. But we are often so dazzled by the visions onscreen that it is easy to forget the individual who is off-screen orchestrating the entire production--to say nothing of their having marshalled a script, a studio, and other people's money. David Thomson, in his usual brilliantly insightful way, shines a light on the visionary directors who have shaped modern cinema and, through their work, studies the very nature of film direction. With his customary candor about his own delights and disappointments, Thomson analyzes both landmark works and forgotten films from classic directors such as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir and Jean-Luc Godard, as well as contemporary powerhouses such as Jane Campion, Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino. He shrewdly interrogates their professional legacies and influence in the industry, while simultaneously assessing the critical impact of an artist's personal life on his or her work. He explores the male directors' dominance of the past, and describes how diversity can change the landscape. Judicious, vivid and witty, A Light in the Dark is yet another required Thomson text for every movie lover's shelf"--
Subjects: Motion pictures; Motion picture producers and directors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Dante [videorecording] : inferno to paradise / by Cox, Alan,1970-narrator.; Burns, Ric,television director,screenwriter.; Fazzini, Antonio,on-screen participant.; Fraser, Fattori,on-screen participant.; Tulaine, Dikran,on-screen participant.; PBS Distribution (Firm),distributor.; Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.),broadcaster.;
Alan Cox, Antonio Fazzini, Fattori Fraser, Dikran Tulaine.Dante: Inferno to Paradise explores the riveting life and times of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and his soaring masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, arguably the greatest single work ever created in the history of Western literature. Directed by Ric Burns, and written by Burns and Riccardo Bruscagli, the film chronicles the mesmerizing story, at once dreamlike and hyper-real, that unfolds within the poem itself, the story of how Dante managed to create it under such unpromising circumstances, and how it has been transmitted over time.E.Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.Subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH).DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Nonfiction television programs.; Biographical films.; Television mini-series.; Biographical television programs.; Documentary television programs.; Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321.; Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321.; Authors, Italian; Poets, Italian; Authors, Italian; Poets, Italian;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Ruth Rendell mysteries. [videorecording] / by Baker, George.; Butler, Josephine.; Callis, James.; Ravenscroft, Christopher.; Acorn Media (Firm); Blue Heaven (Firm); Granada International Media Limited.;
Volume 1. Simisola.Volume 2. Road rage.James Callis, Josephine Butler, George Baker, Christopher Ravenscroft, Barbara Ewing, David Daker, Jerome Flynn, Sadie Frost, Serena Evans, Simon Chandler.In these two Inspector Wexford specials, the kindly, compassionate detective investigates the disappearance of his doctor's daughter and an environmental protest that goes horribly wrong. As always, award-winning writer Ruth Rendell weaves incisive social observation into her compelling plots, showing why critics and fans regard her as the reigning queen of the British literary mystery.14A.DVD ; full screen presentation.
Subjects: Rendell, Ruth, 1930-; Criminal investigation; Detective and mystery television programs.;
© c2009., Acorn Media,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Spillane : king of pulp fiction : a biography / by Collins, Max Allan,author.; Traylor, James L.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The first-ever biography of the most popular and most influential pulp writer of all time, written by the collaborator who knew him best. Beginning in 1947 with I, the Jury, Mickey Spillane's crime writing career charted one of the most meteoric rises in modern letters. The author quickly amassed a readership in the tens of millions, which made him the bestselling novelist in the history of American publishing. His Mike Hammer private eye novels were tough, violent, and sexually suggestive, which made them a lightning rod for controversy in post-war America. Scorned by critics and by the literary establishment, Spillane's work was nevertheless beloved by readers, and his character soon spurred film and television adaptations that were as popular and as influential as the books on which they were based. His enormous success changed the course of popular fiction in the decades that followed and inspired scores of imitations. There is, however, more to the life of Frank Morrison Spillane than his books. Born in Brooklyn, raised in New Jersey, the young son of a bartender worked as a circus performer and fighter pilot before his writing career took off, and, through writing, he went on to a career as an actor, a crimestopper, and a Miller Light spokesperson in commercials so popular they ran for a quarter of a century. These stories and more are included in Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction, the definitive biography of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, written by the author's friend and collaborator, Max Allan Collins, and pulp fiction scholar James L. Traylor"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Spillane, Mickey, 1918-2006.; Novelists, American;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The golden hour : a story of family and power in Hollywood / by Specktor, Matthew,author.;
An exploration of the struggles between art and business in modern Hollywood. Matthew Specktor grew up in the film industry: the son of CAA superagent Fred Specktor, his childhood was one where Beau Bridges came over for dinner, Martin Sheen's daughter was his close friend, and Marlon Brando left long messages on the family answering machine. He would eventually work in Hollywood himself, first as a studio executive and later as a screenwriter. Now, Specktor blends memoir, cultural criticism, and narrative history to tell the story of the modern motion picture industry-illuminating the conflict between art and business over the last seventy-five years in Hollywood. Interweaving his own story with that of his father, mother (a talented screenwriter whose career was cut short), and figures ranging from Jack Nicholson to CAA's Michael Ovitz, Specktor reveals how Hollywood became a laboratory for the eternal struggle between art, labor, and capital. Beginning with the rise of Music Corporation of America in the 1950s, The Golden Hour lays out a series of clashes between fathers and sons, talent agents and studio heads, artists, activists, unions, and corporations. With vivid prose and immersive scenes, Specktor shows how Hollywood grew from the epicenter of American cultural life to a full-fledged multinational concern--and what this shift has meant for the nation's place in the world. At once a book about the movie business and an intimate family drama, The Golden Hour is a sweeping portrait of the American Century.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Specktor, Matthew; Executives; Motion picture industry; Screenwriters;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The four horsemen : the conversation that sparked an atheist revolution / by Hitchens, Christopher,author.; Dawkins, Richard,1941-author.; Harris, Sam,1967-author.; Dennett, D. C.(Daniel Clement),author.; Fry, Stephen,1957-writer of foreword.;
"At the dawn of the new atheist movement, the thinkers who became known as "the four horsemen," the heralds of religion's unravelling--Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett--sat down over cocktails for a filmed discussion. The video of the enthralling, path breaking evening that followed was released on YouTube and soon went viral. This is intellectual inquiry at its best: sincere and probing, funny and unpredictable, reminding us just how varied and colorful the threads of modern atheism are. Now, this landmark event is being published for the first time. The living participants, Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett, have all contributed new material to mark the evolution of their own thinking and highlight particularly resonant aspects of this epic exchange. Each of these men contends with the most fundamental questions of human existence as they challenge each other to articulate their own stance on god and religion, cultural criticism, spirituality without religion, debate with people of faith, and living an ethical life"--
Subjects: Hitchens, Christopher.; Dawkins, Richard, 1941-; Harris, Sam, 1967-; Dennett, D. C. (Daniel Clement); Atheism.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Wild minds : the artists and rivalries that inspired the golden age of animation / by Mitenbuler, Reid,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In 1911, the famed cartoonist Winsor McCay debuted an animated version of his popular newspaper strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland. Loosely inspired by Sigmund Freud's research on dreams, the film was one of the very first of its kind. McCay is largely forgotten today, but his work helped unleash the creative energy of animators like Otto Messmer, Max Fleischer, Walt Disney, and Chuck Jones. Their origin stories, rivalries, and sheer genius, as Reid Mitenbuler skillfully relates, were as colorful and subversive as their creations-from Felix the Cat to Bugs Bunny to feature films such as Fantasia-which became an integral part of American culture over the next five decades. Before television, animated cartoons were often "little hand grenades of social and political satire" aimed squarely at adults. Early Betty Boop cartoons included nudity. Popeye stories slyly criticized the injustices of unchecked capitalism. Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner were used to explore hidden depths of the American psyche. "During its first half-century," Mitenbuler writes, "animation was an important part of the culture wars about free speech, censorship, the appropriate boundaries of humor, and the influence of art and media on society." During WWII it also played a significant role in propaganda. The golden age of animation ended with the advent of television when cartoons were sanitized to appeal to a growing demographic of children and help advertisers sell sugary breakfast cereals. Alongside these stories, Mitenbuler incorporates the surprising contributions of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), voice artist Mel Blanc, composer Leopold Stokowski, and many others whose talents influenced the world of animation. Illustrated throughout in both black-and-white and color, with rare drawings and photographs, Wild Minds is an ode to our lively past and to the creative energy that would inspire The Simpsons, South Park, and BoJack Horseman today"--
Subjects: Animated films; Animated television programs; Animated films; Animated television programs;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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True raiders : the untold story of the 1909 expedition to find the legendary Ark of the Covenant / by Ricca, Brad,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."True Raiders is The Lost City of Z meets The Da Vinci Code, from critically acclaimed author Brad Ricca. This book tells the untold true story of Monty Parker, a British rogue nobleman who, after being dared to do so by Ava Astor, the so-called "most beautiful woman in the world," headed a secret 1909 expedition to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant. This amazing tale not only inspired the blockbuster film Raiders of the Lost Ark but stands on its own as an incredible story of adventure and mystery, though it has been almost completely forgotten today. In 1908, Monty is approached by a strange Finnish scholar named Valter Juvelius who claims to have discovered a secret code in the Bible that reveals the location of the Ark. Monty assembles a ragtag group of blueblood adventurers, a renowned psychic, and a Franciscan father, to engage in a secret excavation just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Using recently uncovered records from the original expedition and several newly translated sources, True Raider is the first retelling of this group's adventures- in the space between fact and faith, science and romance"--
Subjects: Morley, Montagu Parker, Earl of, 1878-1962.; Parker Expedition (1909-1911); Ark of the Covenant.; Excavations (Archaeology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hotel Florida : truth, love, and death in the Spanish Civil War / by Vaill, Amanda.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A spellbinding story of love amid the devastation of the Spanish Civil War Madrid, 1936. In a city blasted by a civil war that many fear will cross borders and engulf Europe--a conflict one writer will call "the decisive thing of the century"--six people meet and find their lives changed forever. Ernest Hemingway, his career stalled, his marriage sour, hopes that this war will give him fresh material and new romance; Martha Gellhorn, an ambitious novice journalist hungry for love and experience, thinks she will find both with Hemingway in Spain. Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, idealistic young photographers based in Paris, want to capture history in the making and are inventing modern photojournalism in the process. And Arturo Barea, chief of Madrid's loyalist foreign press office, and Ilsa Kulcsar, his Austrian deputy, are struggling to balance truth-telling with loyalty to their sometimes compromised cause--a struggle that places both of them in peril. Hotel Florida traces the tangled wartime destinies of these three couples against the backdrop of a critical moment in history. As Hemingway put it, "You could learn as much at the Hotel Florida in those years as you could anywhere in the world." From the raw material of unpublished letters and diaries, official documents, and recovered reels of film, Amanda Vaill has created a narrative of love and reinvention that is, finally, a story about truth: finding it out, telling it, and living it--whatever the cost"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Barea, Arturo, 1897-1957.; Capa, Robert, 1913-1954.; Gellhorn, Martha, 1908-1998.; Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961.; Kulcsar, Ilsa, 1902-1973.; Taro, Gerta, 1911-1937.; Hotel Florida (Madrid, Spain); Couples;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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U2 : the definitive biography / by Jobling, John,1980-;
Includes bibliographical references and index."John Jobling takes readers beyond the myth in this unauthorized biography to present the first comprehensive account of the illustrious Irish rockers in 25 years. Drawing on extensive interviews with insiders including record label scouts, studio presidents, politicians, music critics, and childhood friends, Jobling investigates the U2's most personal relationships and controversial business practices, delivering a vivid portrait that traces the rock phenomenon from its conception to post-punk champions to political crusaders. Filled with captivating revelations, reader will learn: How Bono, the Edge, and Larry Mullen, Jr. worshipped with a Charismatic Christian church that practiced speaking in tongues during the band's early days. Insider stories of the genesis and recording of classic albums such as The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Creative tensions within the band and power struggles among management. How the disappointments of the Rattle and Hum film and PopMart Tour spurred the band to greater creative heights. Both the successes and controversies of Bono's wide-sweeping philanthropic and political ventures. The disconnect between the band's personal lives and public personas. Sure to inspire debate with every music lover, this book humanizes the band and paints an honest picture of a band's rise to the top, plunging into the heart and underlying soul of this iconic rock and roll band"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: U2 (Musical group); Rock music.; Rock musicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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