| BOOKS ABOUT
EUROPEAN CINEMA
Ian Aitken (2001).
European film theory and cinema; a critical introduction. Edinburgh:
University Press.
Book - English
275 pages, includes index and select bibliography.
ISBN 0-7486-1167-3 (hardback)
ISBN 0-7486-1168-1 (paperback)
Author information:
“Ian Aitken is a senior research fellow at De Montfort University.
He is author of Film and Reform: John Grierson and the British Documentary
Film Movement (Routledge, 1990, 1992), The Documentary Film Movement:
An Anthology (Edinburgh University Press, 1998) and The Cinema of Alberto
Cavalcanti: Realism, Surrealism and National Cinema (Flicks Books, 2000).”
(cover text)
Summary:
“[This book] explores the major film theories and cinema movements
within European cinema from the 1900 onwards. The content of the book
is organised around two major traditions which dominate European film
theory and cinema: the ´intuitionist modernist and realist´
tradition and the ´post-Saussurian´-tradition. European
film theory and cinema features case studies of important theorists
and film movements and chapters which provide comparative overviews
of periods of European modernist and realist cinema.” (cover text)
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Richard Dyer &
Ginette Vincendeau (1992, reprinted in 2002). Popular European cinema.
London and New York: Routledge.
Book - English
271 pages, including index and references.
ISBN 0-415-06802-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 0-415-06803-7 (paperback)
Author information:
“Richard Dyer is head of the Film Studies department at the University
of Warwick.
Ginette Vincendeau is a lecturer in Film Studies at the University of
Warwick.” (cover text)
Summary:
“Films that are very popular with audiences in, say, Finland and
Spain, are seldom successful elsewhere. This book examines this paradox
which is further complicated by the fact that Europe itself is not a
unified phenomenon, not least in the light of (...) developments in
formerly communist Eastern Europe and post-colonial Western Europe.
Through their individual studies, the contributors open up a new area
of study, using the medium of film to focus on and celebrate the diversities
of popular European culture.” (cover text)
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Wendy Everett (editor)
(1996). European Identity in Cinema. Exeter: Intellect books.
Book - English
112 pages, includes bibliography.
ISBN 1-871516-91-9
Author information:
Wendy Everett is lecturer in French and Film at the University of Bath.
Summary:
“An investigation of concepts of identity, whether personal, national
or European, by examining cinema in Europe today. This book combines
a survey of contemporary cinema with chapters on individual directors
and films, assessing the nature and concerns of European films (...).”(cover
text)
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Elizabeth Ezra (editor)
(2004). European cinema. Oxford: University Press.
Book - English
344 pages, includes index, glossary, list of references and suggestions
for further reading.
ISBN 0-19-925571-7
Author information:
“Elizabeth Ezra is a senior lecturer in the School of Modern Language
at the University of Stirling in Scotland. She is the author of Georges
Méliès: the birth of the auteur (2000) and The colonial
unconscious: race and culture in interwar France (2000); co-editor (with
Sue Harris) of France in Focus: film and national identity (2000); and
an editor of the journal Studies in French Cinema. (cover text)
Summary:
“[This book] is intended to provide overviews of key movements
in European film history, considering aesthetic developments and the
contributions of individuals within a wider industrial (and broadly
historical) context.” (cover text)
Chapters are structured around three topics: early cinema, post-war
cinema and new currents.
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Angus Finney (1996).
The state of European cinema; a new dose of reality. London: Cassell.
Book - English
262 pages, includes index and bibliography.
ISBN 0-304-33300-X (hardback)
ISBN 0-304-33303-6 (paperback)
Author information:
“Angus Finney is a writer and consultant specialised in film,
media and the arts. He is a former Deputy Editor of Screen International
and is currently Chairman of the Festival Film School, a training initiative
aimed at developing new talent in the European industry. He is also
the author of The Egos Have Landed: The Rise and Fall of Palace Pictures.”
(cover text)
Summary:
The state of European Cinema: A new dose of reality is based on two
years of research and interviews with professionals working in the film
business. The book includes chapters on development strategies, the
role of new technology, training of industry professionals and an overview
of support mechanisms across Europe. The book is completed by ten case
studies of successful European films like Breaking the waves, Trainspotting
and In the name of the rose.
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Jill Forbes &
Sarah Street (2000). European Cinema; an introduction. Palgrave.
Book - English
216 pages, includes index, list of references and suggestions for further
reading.
ISBN 0-333-75209-0 (hardback)
ISBN 0-333-75210-0 (paperback)
Author information:
“Jill Forbes is professor of French at Queen Mary and Westfield
College, University of London. Her publications include The cinema in
France: after the new wave; Les Enfants du Paradis, and numerous essays
on French and European cinema.”
“Sarah Street is Senior lecturer in film and television studies
at the university of Bristol. Her publications include British national
Cinema and British Cinema in Documents.” (cover text)
Summary:
“Part I is an introductory survey which attempts to place European
cinema in its economic and political context and to raise questions
relating to its ideology, aesthetics and style.”
“The central questions which this book raises, but naturally does
not answer: What, if any, are the common features of European cinema?”
“Part II consist of a series of case studies, free-standing analyses
of individual films (..) together with a filmography and suggestions
for further reading.” (cover text)
The book includes case studies of La règle du jeu, Carmen and
Trainspotting amongst others.
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Catherine Fowler
(editor) (2002). The European cinema reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Book - English
268 pages, including index and bibliography.
ISBN 0-415-24091-3 (hardback)
ISBN 0-415-24092-1 (paperback)
Author information:
“Catherine Fowler is reader and course leader of the MA in Independent
Film and Film-making at Southampton Institute of Higher education. She
has published in Screen and The historical journal of radio, film and
television.” (cover text)
Summary:
“This book is a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice
of national cinemas in Europe. (...) Contributors explore attempts to
define European film culture and examine key issues of authorship and
the art house film, national cinemas, the relationship between European
film and Hollywood, and the financial structure of cinema in Europe.”
(cover text)
Sections include: European film culture, moments from European film
history, European films and theory and the boundaries of European film
criticism.
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Diana Holmes &
Alison Smith (editors) (2000). 100 years of European cinema; entertainment
or ideology? Manchester: University Press.
Book - English
212 pages, includes index and references.
ISBN 0-7190-5871-6 (hardback)
ISBN 0-7190-5872-4 (paperback)
Author information:
Diana Holmes is professor of French at the University of Leeds.
Alison Smith is lecturer in continental European cinema at the University
of Liverpool.
Summary:
“This book explores the complex relationship between entertainment,
ideology and audiences in European cinema, through studies that range
from the Stalinist musicals of the 1930s, to cinematic representations
of masculinity under Franco, to recent French films and their Hollywood
remakes.” (cover text)
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Pierre Sorlin (1991).
European cinemas, European societies: 1939-1990. London: Routledge.
Book - English
236 pages, includes bibliography and index.
ISBN 84-493-0225-0
Author information:
Pierre Sorlin is professor of sociology of audiovisual media at the
Sorbonne university of Paris. He is author of articles and books both
in French and in English. Two of his publications are The film in History
and Esthetiques de l´audiovisual.
Summary:
Pierre Sorlin examines how European nations have expressed their individual
cultures using cinema. Some topics: cinema and the war, the golden age
of the film industry, Europe and Hollywood.
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BOOKS ABOUT EUROPEAN CINEMA IN RELATION TO HOLLYWOOD
Christiane Altenburg
& Ingo Fliess (editors) (2000). Jenseits von Hollywood; Drehbuchautoren
über ihre Kunst und ihr Handwerk. Frankfurt/Main: Verlag der Autoren.
Book - German
224 pages
ISBN 3-88661-225-2
Collection of essays by and interviews with German screenwriters. The
book provides insight in their work and thinking, contrasted with screenwriting
in Hollywood.
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Gustav Ernst (Editor)
(1992). Drehbuch Schreibtisch; Film schreiben in Europa und den USA.
Book - German
166 pages
ISBN 3-85458-997-2
Comparison between screenwriting in Europe and in the USA. Relation
between director and script, problems European scriptwriters have to
deal with, influence of international companies on cultural industry.
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Mette Hjort &
Scott Mackenzie (editors) (2000). Cinema & nation. London and New
York: Routledge.
Book - English
332 pages, including bibliographies and index.
ISBN 0-415-20862-9 (hardback)
ISBN 0-415-20863-7 (paperback)
Author information:
“Mette Hjort is associate professor in the department of languages
and intercultural studies, Aalborg University.
Scott Mackenzie is lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the School
of English and American Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich.”
(cover text)
Summary:
This book deals with the interplay of the cinema industry, the public
and ideas of national identity. Cinema and nation starts with a sociological
look at national cinema and the interplay between national identity
and visual representation. These chapters are followed by an exploration
of the way governments have used film to create a national culture.
Theoretical chapters are followed by examples from national cinemas
from a wide variety of countries (European, American as well as Asian).
The last part of the book is dedicated to the reception of these movies,
both in the own countries as abroad. This part contains a chapter about
cultural globalisation, which looks at the relation between Hollywood
and Europe.
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Geoffrey Nowell-Smith
& Steven Ricci (editors) (1998). Hollywood & Europe; Economics,
culture and national identity 1945-1995. London: British Film Institute.
Book - English
164 pages, including index.
ISBN 0-85170-596-0 (hardback)
ISBN 0-85170-597-9 (paperback)
Author information:
“Geoffrey Nowell-Smith is project director of the joint European
filmography, editor of the Oxford History of World Cinema, and author
of L´avventura in the BFI film Classics series.”
“Steven Ricci is head of research and study at the UCLA film and
television archive.” (cover text)
Summary:
“Ever since the end of the First World War anguished voices have
been raised in Europe about the need to counter Hollywood´s domination
of the movie marketplace. The concern has been for the balance of payments,
for the protection of the indigenous industry, and for the preservation
of national identity threatened by the invasion of alien cultural forms.”
“How justified are these concerns? Is Hollywood cinema really
a threat to European culture? Hollywood and Europe presents the responses
of an international and distinguished group of scholars and academics
to these questions. It reveals a long and complex history of competition
and co-operation between Europe and America with crucial implications
for the future of cinema on both sides of the Atlantic.” (cover
text)
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David Puttnam (1997).
The undeclared war; the struggle for control of the world´s film
industry. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
Book - English
416 pages, includes index and selected bibliography.
ISBN 0-00-638744-6
Author information:
“David Puttnam is the Oscar-winning producer of Chariots of Fire,
Midnight Express, Local Hero, The Killing Fields and The Mission. He
was chairman of Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988 and head of Enigma
Productions.” (cover text)
Summary:
David Puttnam, the only European ever to run a major Hollywood studio
(Columbia Pictures), describes how Hollywood has established itself
as a global cultural and economic force. This book describes the history
of film from the emergence of cinema in 1896 until the GATT negotiations
in 1993.
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Ruth Vasey (1997). The
world according to Hollywood 1918-1939. Exeter: University of Exeter
Press.
Book - English
299 pages, includes index and bibliography.
ISBN 0-85989-554-8
Author information:
“Ruth Vasey is lecturer in the school of theatre and film studies
at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She is a contributor
to The Oxford History of World Cinema and Movie Censorship and American
Culture.” (cover text)
Summary:
Ruth Vasey describes the development the American movie industry went
through between the World Wars. During this period the studios and distributors
applied self-regulation, which made it possible to expand almost without
censorship or resistance. Hollywood aimed at a world-wide audience,
which influenced the content of the movies and created an homogeneous,
“culturally and politically acceptable product.”
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