The Science Fiction Film in Contemporary Hollywood focuses on the American science fiction (SF) film during the period 2001-2020, in order to provide a theoretical mapping of the genre in the context of Conglomerate Hollywood. Using a social semiotics approach in a systematic corpus of films, the book argues that the SF film can be delineated by two semiotic squares -the first one centering on the genre's more-than-human ontologies (SF bodies), and the second one focusing on its imaginative worlds (SF worlds). Based on this theoretical framework, the book examines the genre in six cycles, which are placed in their historical context, and are analyzed in relation to cultural discourses, such as technological embodiment, race, animal-human relations, environmentalism, global capitalism, and the techno-scientific Empire. By considering these cycles -which include superhero films, creature films, space operas, among others-as expressions of the genre's basic oppositions, the book facilitates the comparison and juxtaposition of films that have rarely been discussed in tandem, offering a new perspective on the multiple articulations of the SF film in the new millennium.

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is now widely recognised as a masterwork of science fiction cinema, and one of the most influential of any films released in the last twenty-five years. In Studying Blade Runner, Sean Redmond uses the key concepts of media and film studies--film language, representation, institutions, and audiences--to explore the significance of the film: its breakthrough use of special effects as a narrative tool; the film's revolutionary representation of the future city; its treatment of racial and sexual politics; its unique status as a text whose meaning was fundamentally altered in its rereleased "Director's Cut" form--and what this means in an institutional context.

"Delineates the contemporary American science fiction film using a social semiotics approach"--

It comprises seven main sections: Hollywood Cinema and Beyond; The Star System; Technologies; World Cinemas; Genre; Authorship and Cinema; and Developments in Theory,

This is a comprehensive introduction to post-classical American film. Covering American cinema since 1960, the text looks at both Hollywood and non-mainstream cinema.

In many years of collaboration a research group with scholars from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United States has looked into the most recent developments of Hollywood and its movie productions of the 1990s and the first years of the new century. Technical and important a part as those of transnationalization and new digital technologies. Interdependences between computer games and movies are scrutinized and then, of course, focal points of thematic developments. They reach from remakes and blockbusters to Ste-ven Soderbergh and the works of other independent filmmakers, from science fiction via old and new myths to questions of gender research. Hollywoods treatment of the most important political event and trauma of the new century, the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001 on the twin towers of New Yorks World Trade Center in war, action, science fiction and disaster movies is dealt with and also the new wave of documentary films (Michael Moore and others). The Pentagons influence on the film industry has also to be seen in this context. A major focus of this book is dedicated to the interdisciplinary cooperation between film research, art history and architecture. The present study closes with articles about Hollywood and Las Vegas, American cinema architecture and the role of architecture in recent Hollywood movies. Christian W. Thomsen is professor of English literature and media studies at the University of Siegen. Since 1982 he also teaches architectural history, theory and criticism. He was cofounder of Germanys largest media research institute and coeditor (together with Helmut Kreuzer) of a five-volume history of German television. He is author of 26 books and editor of another 55 books. He published more than 300 articles on literature, theatre, film, architecture, design and the development of modern media in leading journals of Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Switzerland, the USA, Ca-nada and Japan. He taught as visiting professor in Copenhagen, London, Jerusalem, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Houston and organized many international symposia and art exhibitions. From a director of stage and radio plays he grew into filmmaking and produced and directed 25 documentaries so far. Angela Krewani read English and American literature and his- tory at the universities of Cologne and Siegen and did graduate research studies at Yale University. She took her PhD with Modernism and Femininity. American Writers in Paris and her habilitation with New British Cinema under Christian W. Thomsen. She is professor of media studies at the University of Marburg. distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Since the early 1990s there has been a trend towards narrative complexity within popular cinema, as evidenced by the successes of such films as Pulp Fiction, Memento and Run Lola Run. Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema looks at the way a number of these films play with time and narrative. Allan Cameron shows how this formal play reflects a persistent fascination with questions of chance and destiny, memory and history, and the representation of simultaneous events.

A jargon-free and accessible introduction to film analysis, looking at popular Hollywood films in various genres.