Cinema Today [Paperback]

Edward Buscombe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005

A third of the entire history of cinema is represented by films produced from 1970 onwards. Cinema Today explores this history, what may be referred to as the Third Age of world cinema, and the films, people and technologies which have shaped its development. The work of film-makers who have made a significant contribution to the film industry during this period is also highlighted and discussed. Cinema Today begins by examining the moment at which the modern blockbuster was born. In the early 1970s a string of spectacularly successful films such as MASH (1970), The Godfather (1972) and Jaws (1975) transformed the economic climate of Hollywood and the power relationship within it. The first half of the book looks at New Hollywood and explores its recent and continued development through film genres including Crime, Science Fiction, Horror and Comedy. The book identifies how social and economic change influenced the development of films, assesses the impact of emerging new waves of cinema on Hollywood and Hollywood's reaction to these changes. Influential directors such as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, George Lucas, Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg are all featured in these chapters along with their films. We then move onto the world stage where Edward Buscombe explores the unique style of film output from Australasia, Africa, India, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America. Specific film genres and trends of these regions are highlighted and discussed in relation to the social and economic climate of the time. Many of these film industries, such as French, Indian and Japanese, are significant centres of world production. In these chapters, Buscombe examines the Bollywood cinema of India, art house cinema of France, the British comedy, Japanese crime films and Mexican horror films. The films of Bernardo Bertolucci, Pedro Almodovar, Akira Kurosawa, Roman Polanski, Luc Besson, Mike Leigh, Ousmane Sembene and Chen Kaige are just an example of the range of work discussed. With a comprehensive directors' filmography, a bibliography, chronology and index at the back of the book, Cinema Today is an invaluable reference tool

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Film scholar Buscombe (The Searchers) analyzes world cinema since 1970 with welcome intelligence and thorough knowledge in a lavishly produced book that should satisfy oglers and thinkers alike. Not surprisingly, he begins his take on modern cinema in 1970, after studio-made extravaganzas like Hello, Dolly! had disappointed an increasingly young audience while the low-budget, youth-oriented road movie Easy Rider became a hit and changed Hollywood's thinking about what makes a successful film. Owing to the commanding influence of American movies across the world, Buscombe devotes half of the book to American films. Genre chapters are solid, with some surprises, like his dark view that horror films are being consumed by their self-reflexiveness. Most enlightening are Buscombe's surveys of international cinema, as he examines various countries' film industries in terms of their financial health, interaction with their governments and their role as cultural representatives. A visual delight, the book presents stills ranging from the iconic (e.g., Pierce Brosnan as Bond cruising on a motorcycle with a gorgeous Michelle Yeoh clutching onto him in Tomorrow Never Dies) to the lesser-known (including a moving shot of Dirk Bogarde examining the wound on the arm of Charlotte Rampling in 1974's The Night Porter). Any book that ignites fresh thoughts about old movies and also presents photos of gory monsters and half-naked women does justice to the universal art form of sight and sound.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Edward Buscombe is a leading authority on cinema having lectured and written on film for over thirty years. Formerly Head of Publishing at the British Film Institute, Buscombe has taught film studies in several American universities, including New York, Iowa and Texas, and was recently Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Media Arts at Southampton Institute. A regular reviewer for Sight and Sound magazine, he has also written articles and reviews for film journals such as Screen, Jump Cut and Cinema Journal. An expert on the Western movie, Edward Buscombe has written extensively on this subject, including books on John Ford's Stagecoach (BFI, 1992) and The Searchers (BFI, 2000). He also contributed to The Movie Book (Phaidon, 1999) and edited The BFI Companion to the Western (Andre Deutsch, 1988). Author's Residence: London --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714845167
• ISBN-13: 978-0714845166
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,330,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explores the cinematic history, films, people, & technology, May 9, 2005

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This review is from: Cinema Today (Paperback)

In Cinema Today, author and movie historian Edward Buscombe explores the cinematic history, films, people, and technologies of movie making from 1970 to the present day. Beginning with the rise of the blockbuster in the early 1970s, Buscombe shows how a string of spectacularly successful films such as MASH (1970); The Godfather (1972); and Jaws (1975) transformed the economic climate of Hollywood and the evolution of how movies were made, distributed, and marketed. The first half of Cinema Today covers the "New Hollywood" and the rise of genre films including Crime, Science Fiction, Horror, and Comedy, as well as the rise of such influential directors as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, George Lucas, Spike Lee, and Steven Spielberg. The second half of Cinema Today focuses on the unique style of film output from other parts of the world including Australasia, Africa, Indian, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Specially attention is devoted to the "Bollywood" cinema of India, art house cinema of France, the British comedy, Japanese crime films, and Mexican horror films, as well as the specific contributions of such directors as Bernardo Bertolucci, Pedro Almodovar, Akira Kurosawa, Roman Polanski, and others. Enhanced with more than 700 iconic and behind-the-scenes images, as well as a comprehensive directors' filmography, a bibliography, a chronology, and an index, Cinema Today is a seminal and strongly recommended addition to professional, academic, and community library Film History reference collections and Cinematic History Studies supplemental reading lists.