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Film
Are you ready to be strong? Inspired by the badass ladies of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this is the ultimate guide for living your most killer life. Buffy turned tired, sexist tropes on their head when it debuted in the '90s and introduced a truly empowered heroine (and a kickass roster of female supporting roles). So who better than Buffy and her fellow babes -- Willow, Cordelia, Faith, Anya, Tara, and others -- to teach us how to slay our own personal demons? The ladies have much to offer in terms of savvy insights, observations, and life lessons. Slay Like a Girl examines the groundbreaking female paradigms presented in Buffy and offers digestible, entertaining lessons for slaying at work, in love, and beyond. Also featuring photos from the show, memorable quotes, and fresh input from modern ladies who slay, Slay Like a Girl is an indispensable handbook for fans, feminists, and all other fierce folk.
Demons of the Hellmouth is a fully licensed guide to the vampires and other demons that flocked to the Sunnydale Hellmouth in Joss Whedon's cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This in-universe illustrated guide is written by Rupert Giles, and also contains handwritten notes from Buffy and Willow. This unique book promises a diabolical romp through the highlights of the beloved show.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
An NPR Best Book of the Year
In this spectacular, newsmaking exposé that has the entertainment industry abuzz and on its heels, Vanity Fair's Maureen Ryan blows the lid off patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms under way, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited.
It is never just One Bad Man.
Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make change that sticks, it's important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, allowed to persist, and, with the right tools, how they can be excised.
In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood's corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Lost, Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm and more.
Interviews with actors and famous creatives like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones abound. Ryan dismantles, one by one, the myths that the entertainment industry promotes about itself, which have allowed abusers to thrive and the industry to avoid accountability--myths about Hollywood as a meritocracy, what it takes to be creative, the value of human dignity, and more.
Weaving together insights from industry insiders, historical context, and pop-culture analysis, Burn It Down paints a groundbreaking and urgently necessary portrait of what's gone wrong in the entertainment world--and how we can fix it.
From Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Drew Goddard, writer of the monster movie phenomenon Cloverfield, comes the horror film to end all horror films! The details of the plot are a closely guarded secret, though Joss himself has described it as "a straight-up, balls-out, really terrifying horror movie," adding,"it is not just a slasher in the woods. It's a little more complicated than that..." All will be revealed in the Official Visual Companion, featuring in-depth interviews, the full screenplay by Whedon and Goddard, stunning production art, and hundreds of color photos!
"More fun to read than the movie was to watch... a scene-stealing book."
-- The Washington Post
"More fun to read than the movie was to watch... a scene-stealing book."
-- The Washington Post
Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, and NPR In this genre-defying "new kind of history" (The New Yorker), the chief film critic of Slate places comedy legend and acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton's unique creative genius in the context of his time. Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman. Even through his dark middle years as a severely depressed alcoholic finding work on the margins of show business, Keaton's life had a way of reflecting the changes going on in the world around him. He found success in three different mediums at their creative peak: first vaudeville, then silent film, and finally the experimental early years of television. Over the course of his action-packed seventy years on earth, his life trajectory intersected with those of such influential figures as the escape artist Harry Houdini, the pioneering Black stage comedian Bert Williams, the television legend Lucille Ball, and literary innovators like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Samuel Beckett. In Camera Man, film critic Dana Stevens pulls the lens out from Keaton's life and work to look at concurrent developments in entertainment, journalism, law, technology, the political and social status of women, and the popular understanding of addiction. With erudition and sparkling humor, Stevens hopscotches among disciplines to bring us up to the present day, when Keaton's breathtaking (and sometimes life-threatening) stunts remain more popular than ever as they circulate on the internet in the form of viral gifs. Far more than a biography or a work of film history, Camera Man is a wide-ranging meditation on modernity that paints a complex portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist.
Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, and NPR In this genre-defying work of cultural history, the chief film critic of Slate places comedy legend and acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton's unique creative genius in the context of his time. Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman. Even through his dark middle years as a severely depressed alcoholic finding work on the margins of show business, Keaton's life had a way of reflecting the changes going on in the world around him. He found success in three different mediums at their creative peak: first vaudeville, then silent film, and finally the experimental early years of television. Over the course of his action-packed seventy years on earth, his life trajectory intersected with those of such influential figures as the escape artist Harry Houdini, the pioneering Black stage comedian Bert Williams, the television legend Lucille Ball, and literary innovators like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Samuel Beckett. In Camera Man, film critic Dana Stevens pulls the lens out from Keaton's life and work to look at concurrent developments in entertainment, journalism, law, technology, the political and social status of women, and the popular understanding of addiction. With erudition and sparkling humor, Stevens hopscotches among disciplines to bring us up to the present day, when Keaton's breathtaking (and sometimes life-threatening) stunts remain more popular than ever as they circulate on the internet in the form of viral gifs. Far more than a biography or a work of film history, Camera Man is a wide-ranging meditation on modernity that paints a complex portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist.
From Simon & Schuster, Casablanca: Behind the Scenes is Harlan Lebo's behind-the-scenes look at the making of the classic movie that continues to enchant viewers 50 years after its release. Published to coincide with MGM's rerelease of the video, this stunning photographic retrospective captures all the glamour and excitement of a true film classic.
Since his death in 1989, John Cassavettes has become increasingly renowned as a cinematic hero--a renegade loner who fought the Hollywood system, steering his own creative course in a career spanning thirty years. Having already established himself as an actor, he struck out as a filmmaker in 1959 with Shadows, and proceeded to build a formidable body of work, including such classics as Faces, Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Gloria. In Cassavettes on Cassavettes, Ray Carney presents the great director in his own words--frank, uncompromising, humane, and passionate about life and art.
Catching Fire, the New York Times bestseller by Suzanne Collins, is now a major motion picture -- and this is your guide to all of the movie's excitement, both in front of the camera and behind it.Go behind the scenes of the making of Catching Fire with exclusive materials, including back-stage photos and interviews. From the screenwriting process to the casting decisions, from the fantastic new sets and gorgeous costumes to the actors' performances and the director's vision, this is the definitive companion to the second Hunger Games film.
The original 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre seized the imaginations of audiences and critics alike. A controversial cult sensation recognized by Total Film as the greatest horror movie ever made, it's been shown at Cannes, briefly banned in England, and included in the permanent collection of New York's MoMA. This fascinating literary memoir of the making of the film comes from the utterly unique perspective of Gunnar Hansen, the actor who played the chain saw-wielding Leatherface. A critically acclaimed poet and author, Hansen tells the real story of the film, debunking myths, giving behind-the-scenes details, and offering insights on the film's reception and our enduring fascination with the horror genre today.
When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre first hit movie screens in 1974 it was both reviled and championed. To critics, it was either "a degrading, senseless misuse of film and time" or "an intelligent, absorbing and deeply disturbing horror film." However it was an immediate hit with audiences. Banned and celebrated, showcased at the Cannes film festival and included in the New York MoMA's collection, it has now come to be recognized widely as one of the greatest horror movies of all time. A six-foot-four poet fresh out of grad school with limited acting experience, Gunnar Hansen played the masked, chain-saw-wielding Leatherface. His terrifying portrayal and the inventive work of the cast and crew would give the film the authentic power of nightmare, even while the gritty, grueling, and often dangerous independent production would test everyone involved, and lay the foundations for myths surrounding the film that endure even today. Critically-acclaimed author Hansen here tells the real story of the making of the film, its release, and reception, offering unknown behind-the-scenes details, a harrowingly entertaining account of the adventures of low-budget filmmaking, illuminating insights on the film's enduring and influential place in the horror genre and our culture, and a thoughtful meditation on why we love to be scared in the first place.
In 1953, Paramount was making a film with a new actress named Audrey Hepburn. Life magazine assigned one of its top young photographers, Mark Shaw, to shoot a feature, and he spent weeks with the star on and around the set. Shaw's extraordinary level of access resulted in an amazing array of photos and over 60 rolls of film that captured the budding ingénue's charm and grace on set and in everyday life. The images chronicled Hepburn waking up at home, having her hair washed at the beauty parlor, reading, relaxing, studying the script, chatting with her costars and director Billy Wilder, and acting in one of her most famous roles. Through the handful of photographs published in Life for the Sabrina article have become iconic images of Hepburn, the majority of the negatives were misplaced and never published. Rediscovered 50 years later, these photographs offer a stunning visual biography of Hepburn's youth and rising star.
An intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express, and Scarface. Before the international success of Platoon in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with in-the-moment details of the high and low moments: We see meetings with Al Pacino over Stone's scripts for Scarface, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July; the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, The Hand (starring Michael Caine); his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for Scarface; his stormy relationship with The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino; the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive Salvador; and tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award-winning film, Midnight Express. Chasing the Light is a true insider's look at Hollywood's years of upheaval in the 1970s and '80s.
In Chicks Digs Time Lords, a host of award-winning female novelists, academics and actresses come together to celebrate the phenomenon that is Doctor Who, discuss their inventive involvement with the show's fandom and examine why they adore the series. These essays will delight male and female readers alike by delving into the extraordinary aspects of being a female Doctor Who enthusiast. Essays include Carole Barrowman discussing what it was like to grow up with her brother John (including the fact that he's still afraid of shop-window dummies), columnist Jackie Jenkins providing a Bridget Jones' Diary-style memoir of working on Doctor Who Magazine, novelist Lloyd Rose analyzing Rose's changes between the ninth and tenth Doctors and much more. Other contributors include Elizabeth Bear (Jenny Casey), Lisa Bowerman (Bernice Summerfield), Mary Robinette Kowal (Shades of Milk and Honey), Jody Lynn Nye (Mythology series), Kate Orman (Seeing I), and Catherynne M. Valente (The Orphan's Tales). Also featured is a comic from the Torchwood Babiez creators, plus interviews with Doctor Who companions India Fisher (Charley) and Sophie Aldred (Ace).
The Complete Guide To All Things Walken He's been a dancer, a baker, a lion tamer, an award-winning actor, and a Hollywood legend. But Christopher Walken has never been the subject of a comprehensive biographical reference--until now. Here at last is a complete A-to-Z guide to this one-of-a-kind performer, featuring entries on everything from the Actors Studio (the legendary theatrical workshop where Walken spent eleven years as a janitor) to Zombie Movies (one of Walken's favorite film genres). Along the way, readers will discover: - Acting secrets and behind-the-scenes trivia from each of Walken's 100+ films--everything
from Annie Hall to Hairspray and beyond.
- Recipes and kitchen tips from "Chef Walken"--including a look at his short-lived TV show,
Cooking with Chris.
- Walken's music videos for Madonna, Duran Duran, and Fatboy Slim.
- The secrets of maintaining his extraordinary hair.
- Observations and reminiscences from Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton,
Woody Allen, Dennis Hopper, and countless others. Plus more bizarre B movies and Saturday Night Live appearances than you can shake a cowbell at! Complete with fascinating trivia and dozens of photographs, Christopher Walken A to Z offers the definitive look at a pop culture phenomenon.
from Annie Hall to Hairspray and beyond.
- Recipes and kitchen tips from "Chef Walken"--including a look at his short-lived TV show,
Cooking with Chris.
- Walken's music videos for Madonna, Duran Duran, and Fatboy Slim.
- The secrets of maintaining his extraordinary hair.
- Observations and reminiscences from Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton,
Woody Allen, Dennis Hopper, and countless others. Plus more bizarre B movies and Saturday Night Live appearances than you can shake a cowbell at! Complete with fascinating trivia and dozens of photographs, Christopher Walken A to Z offers the definitive look at a pop culture phenomenon.
A Chronology of Film presents a fresh perspective on the medium by taking a purely chronological approach to its history, tracing the complex links between technical innovations, social changes, and artistic interventions.
Organized around a central timeline that charts the development of film from the earliest moving images to present-day blockbusters, it features key films, together with commentaries and contextual information about the social, political, and cultural events of the period in which they were produced. Special feature spreads highlight important technical developments and key practitioners. Covering a wide selection of genres, styles, and directors, this Chronology is invaluable as a comprehensive guide to film in all its different forms.