Drawing on a broad range of theoretical disciplines - and with case studies of directors such as Chantal Akerman, Agnès Varda, Claire Denis and Todd Haynes, Amos Gitai, Martin Ritt, John Ford, Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine - this book goes beyond the representational approach to the analysis of domestic space in cinema, in order to look at it as a dispositif.

Comfort and domestic space are complex narratives that can help draw our attention to everything from urban planning, everyday objects, and new technologies to class conflict, racial and ethnic segregation, and the gendering of domestic labour. Comfort and Domestic Space in Modern Spain delves into the history of ideas surrounding the modern home. It explores how the collective experience of domestic space has been shaped by government ideologues, technocrats, and artists as well as working- and middle-class Spaniards since the late nineteenth century. The book focuses on the social and cultural meanings of domestic space in ways that invite us to cross boundaries between private and public, the particular and the general, the local and the global, and to pay attention to the role of the cultural imagination in making a house into a home. Considering a wide variety of voices and perspectives that have resulted in new ideas about how to inhabit domestic space, Comfort and Domestic Space in Modern Spain brings together an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars to illuminate the cultural history of everyday life.

What accounts for the massive global popularity of action films and adventure literature? How do men and women respond to iconic screen stars such as Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve McQueen, and Charlton Heston? Action genres have been Hollywood's most profitable global exports for most of its history, their male heroes the subject of much fascination and derision. Bestselling literary thrillers, from The Hunt for Red October to Into Thin Air , have also contributed markedly to popular understandings of male activity. Action Figures takes stock of action narratives' many appeals and recognizes how contemporary crises of gender identity manifest themselves in popular commercial texts.

Public Secrets, Public Spaces explores the possibility of symbolic public space in the context of Chinese cinema. Focusing especially on women, children, and the dispossessed, Stephanie H. Donald looks at the ways public space is constructed and occupied and how it interacts with Opublic secrets, O the unstated common-sense knowledges of everyday life, extraordinary to those who are not initiated into the routines of a particular cultural place and space. In traditional societies public secrets are organized through observable ritual; in modern societies they are embedded in the cultural discourse of the routine and the everyday. As we see in this perceptive book, film offers a rich medium for unearthing these secrets

Dialectics of Space and Place across Virtual and Corporeal Topographies explores the inter- and multi-disciplinary subjects of space and place in two parts. Part 1 Virtual topographies of Space and Place is concerned with themes related to immaterial places, and Part II Corporeal Topographies of Space and Place explores narratives of real and imagined experiences of places. This volume, underpinned by an array of philosophical positions provides a foundation for new and critical dialogues on space and place.

This book explores the range and dynamism of contemporary Asian cinemas, covering East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan), Southeast Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia), South Asia (Bollywood), and West Asia (Iran), in order to discover what is common about them and to engender a theory or concept of "Asian Cinema". It goes beyond existing work which provides a field survey of Asian cinema, probing more deeply into the field of Asian Cinema, arguing that Asian Cinema constitutes a separate pedagogical subject, and putting forward an alternative cinematic paradigm. The book covers "styles", including the works of classical Asian Cinema masters, and specific genres such as horror films, and Bollywood and Anime, two very popular modes of Asian Cinema; "spaces", including artistic use of space and perspective in Chinese cinema, geographic and personal space in Iranian cinema, the private "erotic space" of films from South Korea and Thailand, and the persistence of the family unit in the urban spaces of Asian big cities in many Asian films; and "concepts" such as Pan-Asianism, Orientalism, Nationalism and Third Cinema. The rise of Asian nations on the world stage has been coupled with a growing interest, both inside and outside Asia, of Asian culture, of which film is increasingly an indispensable component – this book provides a rich, insightful overview of what exactly constitutes Asian Cinema.

Summary: "Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination presents for the first time a comparative study of European film set design in the late 1920s and 1930s; based on a wealth of designers ʼ drawings, film stills and archival documents, the book offers a new insight into the development and significance of trans-national artistic collaboration during this period. European cinema from the late 1920s to the late 1930s is famous for its attention to detail in terms of set design and visual effect. Focusing on developments in Britain, France, and Germany, Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination: Set Design in 1930s European Cinema provides a comprehensive analysis of the practices, styles, and function of cinematic production design during this period, and its influence on subsequent filmmaking patterns."--Publisher description.

"Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema" is a fascinating introduction to spiritual aspects in the works of some of the greatest filmmakers in the world, like Bergman, Dreyer and Tarkovsky, Avant Garde director Pedro Costa and Hollywood's golden boy Guillermo del Toro. It covers directors from around the world and shows diverse manifestations of spirituality in film; everything from how camera movements can imply spirituality to specific religions, like Islam and Christianity. "Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema" is a welcome addition to a growing library on religion and film. —Thorkell Ottarson "The essayists in Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema offer provocative studies of the often uneasy relationship that exists between religion and film, faith and reason. They never shy away from their critical burden, challenging readers to delve deeply and think more forcefully about the ethics and values that shape our culture—and our lives. Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema dares us to reconsider what it means to be whole—and holy—across the great history of film. It is a spiritual and critical journey of the highest magnitude." —Dr. Kenneth Womack, Chair of the English Department, Penn State University at Altoona "Not many works of art would withstand the rigorous examination of the kind in this collection, but Kenneth Morefield and his contributors have chosen well. They've chosen filmmakers whose work not only withstands but seems to grow under the bright light of careful consideration. I'm not familiar with all of them, which makes the collection a useful map to the currents that run below their surfaces, but I also found new ways to appreciate Pedro Costa and the Dardenne brothers whose films I've admired, even loved, but never thought about in quite this way. Reading the essays together, I discovered that this group of filmmakers, while distinct in their beliefs, approaches, and aesthetics, are all striving to reawaken our senses, and by capturing something concrete they're looking for something invisible. That they've found so many ways to do this—from Del Toro's physically-rooted fantasy to Costa's material world—proves that cinema may not be dead just yet, even with the twentieth century in the rear view mirror." —Rob Davis, chief film critic of Paste Magazine; co-founder of Daily Plastic (www.dailyplastic.com).

Moving away from traditional studies of Gothic domesticity based on symbolism, Soon instead focuses on domestic space's material presence and the traces it leaves on the human subjects inhabiting it. Approaching novels and films such as Beloved and The Exorcist , this study intersects psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and various spatial theories.

Hollywood's reaction to it's media rivals throughout the history of cinema in America.