Once upon a time in China

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James Berger

In this study of the cultural pursuit of the end and what follows, Berger contends that every apocalyptic depiction leaves something behind, some mixture of paradise and wasteland. Combining literary, psychoanalytic, and historical methods, Berger mines these depictions for their weight and influence on current culture. He applies wide-ranging evidence--from science fiction to Holocaust literature, from Thomas Pynchon to talk shows, from American politics to the fiction of Toni Morrison--to reveal how representations of apocalyptic endings are indelibly marked by catastrophic histories.

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Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon

A guide to screenwriting by two authors who have actually done it, full of secret insider information about how to conquer the Hollywood studio system: how to write, pitch, structure, and get drunk with the best and most successful of them. If you are aiming to win an Oscar, this is not the book for you! But if you can type a little, and can read and speak English, then you too can start turning your words into money. The authors provide the kind of tips you won't find anywhere else, including: the art of pitching; getting your foot in the door; taking notes from movie stars; how to get fired and rehired ; how to get credit and royalties.--From ppublisher description.

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Michael T. Gilmore

In this innovative attempt to place the movies and theater in the larger context of American and English cultural differences, Michael Gilmore demonstrates that the most interesting way to understand the distinctions between the two cultures is by looking closely at each country's favorite art form. Differences in the Dark is a fresh, wide-ranging look at the meaning of America's fascination with movies and movie stars, and the way the soul of Britain is reflected in its tenacious love affair with the stage. Bringing together such diverse topics as theme parks, realism, and social class, as well as the role of Jewish immigrants in the making of Hollywood (and their virtual exclusion from Great Britain) and the connection between the movies and the African-American community, Differences in the Dark is one of the most original and engaging cross-cultural studies to appear in many years.

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Odile Goerg

Les séances ont commencé dans les rues, les cours, au fond des cafés. Puis surgirent les salles aux noms grandioses, tout droit venus d'Europe : Rex, Vox, Palace ou Palladium... Nous sommes en Afrique subsaharienne, sous domination française ou britannique, dans la période de l'entre-deux-guerre : Fantômas, Tarzan, Les Trois Mousquetaires, King Kong font désormais partie d'un paysage culturel partagé. Tandis que John Wayne ou Gary Cooper deviennent des modèles pour des générations d'adolescents en quête de repères. Le 7e art est bien perçu par les populations comme un moyen d'échapper, provisoirement, à un quotidien marqué par la colonisation. Et le lieu de projection comme un espace étrange où Noirs et Blancs se côtoient sans se mêler, où s'exerce une censure qui ne dit pas son nom, où l'on apprend, aussi, que les Européens ne sont pas invincibles, que leurs moeurs ne sont pas irréprochables et leur système politique pas exempt de critiques...