Billy Wilder, Movie-Maker: Critical Essays on the Films

by Karen McNally (Editor)

Overview

Billy Wilder's work remains a masterful combination of incisive social commentary, skilled writing and directing, and unashamed entertainment value. One of Hollywood's foremost emigre filmmakers, Wilder holds a key position in film history via films that represent a complex reflection of his European roots and American cultural influences. This wide-ranging collection of essays by an international group of scholars examines the significance of Wilder's filmmaking from a variety of original perspectives. Engaging with issues of genre, industry, representation and national culture, the volume provides fresh insights into Wilder's films and opens up his work to further exploration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786442119
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	12/30/2010
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Karen McNally is senior lecturer of Film Studies at London Metropolitan University. She has also written on Frank Sinatra and American Male identity, and has contributed to numerous journals and edited collections.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vi

Introduction Karen McNally 1

Part 1 Matters of Genre

1 What Exposure Is the World? The Desert Noir of Ace in the Hole Lance Duerfahrd 11

2 An Unconventional War Film: Death, Disguise and Deception in Five Graves to Cairo Dale M. Pollock 26

3 Syncope, Syncopation: Musical Hommages to Europe Katherine Arens 41

4 Realistic Horror: Film Noir and the 1940s Horror Cycle Mark Jancovich 56

Part 2 Representation, Image and Identity

5 Shame and the Single Girl: Reviving Fran and Falling for Baxter in The Apartment Alison R. Hoffman 71

6 "Have They Forgotten What a Star Looks Like?" Image and Theme with Dino, Cagney and Fedora Karen McNally 87

7 Phenomenological Masking: Complications of Identity in Double Indemnity Phillip Sipiora 102

Part 3 Production and Reception

8 "A Small, Effective Organization": The Mirisch Company, the Package-Unit System, and the Production of Some Like It Hot Paul Kerr 117

9 "Esthetically As Well as Morally Repulsive": Kiss Me, Stupid, "Bilious Billy," and the Battle of Middlebrow Taste Ken Feil 132

10 Censorship, Negotiation and Transgressive Cinema: Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot and Other Controversial Movies in the United States and Europe Daniel Biltereyst 145

Part 4 Europe, America and Beyond

11 "I Don't Have a Home!" Paris Interregnum in Mauvaise graine Leila Wimmer 161

12 Palimpsest: The Double Vision of Exile Nancy Steffen-Fluhr 178

13 Sabrina, Hollywood and Postwar Internationalism Dina Smith 193

14 Evolving Modernities: Formation of the Urban Imagination in Hindi Cinema Sunny Singh 209

Bibliography 225

About the Contributors 237

Index 239

Editorial Reviews

in-depth”—SciTech book News; “some of the freshest and most insightfully written examinations on Billy Wilder to date...fascinating collection...an exceptionally valuable undertaking...engaging and thought provoking”—Professor Robert Dassanowsky, Senses of Cinema.

From the Publisher

"some of the freshest and most insightfully written examinations on Billy Wilder to date...fascinating collection...an exceptionally valuable undertaking...engaging and thought provoking"

Senses of Cinema - Professor Robert Dassanowsky

in-depth

SciTech book News