bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pride Versus Prejudice
Authors: Cooper John
Published: February 2021

This book chronologically details the lives and professional experiences of Jewish professional figures, demonstrating the obstacles they faced and the status they achieved. The book begins by detailing the influx of Jews into medical schools after 1914 and the problems these Jewish medical students faced. Finding employment was problematic. Afraid of antisemitic claims that Jews were flooding the market, the leaders of Anglo-Jewry even tried in the 1930s to dissuade young Jews from becoming doctors and lawyers. In this context, the book also considers the position of refugee doctors before and during the Second World War. The establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 resulted in fundamental changes, particularly in the way in which consultants were selected, and this permitted Jewish doctors to enter specialties from which they had previously been excluded. The book summarizes the careers of many prominent Jewish doctors. The experience of Jews in the legal profession, both as solicitors and barristers, is examined in similar detail. The persistence of an anti-Jewish bias in the inter-war period limited opportunities for Jews and dissuaded them from entering the law. After the war, major changes in the economy and legal system allowed Jewish law firms to expand rapidly, challenging the dominance of the City law firms in the commercial world. Many of these firms consequently began to admit Jewish partners for the first time. From the late 1960s, Jews were also promoted in increasing numbers to position on the High Court Bench. As well as giving a detailed picture of these mainstream developments the book also looks at the careers of Jewish communist, socialist, and maverick lawyers.
Arthur Szyk
Authors: Ansell Joseph P.
Published: February 2021

Artist and illustrator Arthur Szyk was a Polish Jew whose work was overwhelmingly Jewish in theme and content. The mission he set himself was to use his artistic talents to serve humanity and the Jewish people. His work as a political artist went well beyond a narrow definition of the Jewish cause. He is best known among Jews for his illustrated Haggadah, but the majority of his work deals with contemporary political themes and social causes. In Poland, Szyk promoted the causes of freedom, toleration, and human dignity. He believed that as a Jewish artist he had a responsibility to speak for all minorities. He worked for years on behalf of the Polish government in an effort to strengthen the Jews' position. Szyk left Europe in 1940 and arrived in the United States later the same year. Determined to use his art for political purposes, he crusaded against the Nazis. Convinced that Hitler would not stop with the Jews but would suppress all freedom-loving people, he supported the war effort through his striking propaganda images of the German and Japanese armies, to great effect. After the war he turned his efforts to promoting the idea of a Jewish homeland in Israel. In every phase of his career, one finds Szyk looking to the past but hoping for the future; he believed that art could make a difference in the world, politically and socially. This biography makes a singular contribution to the history of Jewish art and of Polish–Jewish relations in the first half of the twentieth century.
Introduction
Authors: Cohen Jeremy
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the field of Jewish history that has developed in relation to the experiences of the Jews, including the matter and manner that historians study it. It explains the history of the Jews that originated in the political, social, and cultural agenda of enlightened, nineteenth-century Jewish intellectuals. It also mentions Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi who concluded in his ground-breaking study of Jewish history and Jewish memory, Zakhor, that modern Jewish historiography originated as an ideology to the crisis of Jewish emancipation and the struggle. The chapter covers the Jews, Jewish culture and, and the cultural and historical scholarship of the Jews as they entered an age called 'postmodern'. It talks about postmodernism, which has ushered the study of the Jewish past into a new world of discourse filled with challenges that shaped the conversations of Jewish historians in prior generations.
Midrash in Syriac
Authors: Brock Sebastian
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights the period of Middle Aramaic that gave birth to three literary dialects of Aramaic: Jewish Aramaic, Syriac, and Mandaic. It focuses on Syriac, the local dialect of Edessa, which provide the largest literature and prove to be the longest-lived in active use. During the course of the first period covering the fourth to the seventh centuries, there was a progressive Hellenization of Syriac literary culture in general that extends to virtually all areas of literary productivity. The chapter also illustrates the time when the Arab invasions cut Syriac Christianity off from the Greek world where philohellenism reached the height of its influence on Syriac authors. It analyzes how the Syriac exegetical tradition had become profoundly Hellenized.
Introduction
Authors: Jones Tanya
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides a close study of Pan's Labyrinth as a very challenging piece of film-making. It talks about Pan's Labyrinth's stunning visual beauty, haunting lullaby theme that evoke the tragedy of the protagonist Ofelia, and masterful combination of fantasy and horror conventions to produce a barbed, threatening, but beautiful, cinematic landscape. It also discusses how Pan's Labyrinth presents the ravaging impact of Spanish Fascism distilled into a corner of rural Spain. The chapter offers a clear and comprehensive framework for the study of any single film and initiates an investigation into the wonderful complexities of Pan's Labyrinth. It describes film director Guillermo del Toro who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1964.
Film Language
Authors: Jones Tanya
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about mise-en-scène as a French phrase that best translates in English as 'put into the scene', which includes setting, décor, costume, props, body language, and make-up. It explains how mise-en-scène conveys meaning and includes information concerning character emotion, psychological state, mood, atmosphere, historical time, genre, and point in the narrative. It also points out ways in which mise-en-scène dominates some films as they are constructed as cinematic tableau, such as a series of pictures or paintings. The chapter describes Guillermo Del Toro's vision of the world of Pan's Labyrinth, in which there are clear parallels between the real-world characters and sets and the imaginary ones. It explores how Pan's Labyrinth gives centre stage to the power of the imagination and the need to retain imagination in order to counter point the horrors of the real-world.
Studying Fight Club
Authors: Ramey Mark
Published: February 2021

Fight Club is, on one level, pop-culture phenomena and on another, a deeply philosophical and satirical exploration of modern life. David Fincher's 1999 film (and Chuck Palahniuk's source novel) has had a huge impact on audiences worldwide leading to spoofs, homage, merchandising and numerous Internet fan sites. On initial release the film was met with wide hostility from critics who either failed to appreciate its satirical intent or believed the film failed to deliver on its satirical promise. Early in its DVD afterlife, however, a wider audience began to appreciate the film's significance and radical message. Although attracted by the film's playfulness and star wattage, however, many students struggle with its theoretical notions such as capitalism, materialism, anarchy and so on. This is one film, which therefore merits a thoughtful and provocative analysis but also an accessible one, and this book provides just that.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Authors: Rose James
Published: February 2021

No-one who has ever seen the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is ever likely to forget the experience. An intense fever dream (or nightmare), it is remarkable for its sense of sustained threat and depiction of an insane but nonetheless (dys)functional family on the furthest reaches of society who have regressed to cannibalism in the face of economic hardship. As well as providing a summary of the making of the film, this book discusses the extraordinary censorship history of the film in the UK (essentially banned for two decades) and provides a detailed textual analysis of the film with particular reference to the concept of ‘the Uncanny’. The book also situates the film in the context of horror film criticism (the ‘Final Girl’ character) and discusses its influence and subsequent sequels and remakes.
The Charnel House
Authors: Rose James
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the motifs of the haunted castle, the monster, and persecution and paranoia, which are intrinsic to interpreting The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Such is the intensity of the occurrences of these motifs throughout the text that it is possible to cite Chain Saw within the Gothic genre. The figure of the monster is perhaps both the Gothic's and horror's central image. As either a physical or supernatural being, they are the source of the tension, threat, and violence of the narrative. Their actions — be they murderous or simply the relentless pursuit of the protagonist — drive the narrative forward towards its deathly end, a culmination in which, for the most part, the monster is vanquished in graphic and, at times, euphoric terms. The chapter then considers Chain Saw's monster: Leatherface.
The Family
Authors: Rose James
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the dynamics of Leatherface's family in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). From the point at which Cook first sees Hitchhiker in the headlights, a family structure is implied and, to a certain extent, played out during the climatic scenes of Sally Hardesty's torture: Cook has taken on the role of the father who goes out to work to earn money for his family, Hitchhiker is the wayward teenager who refuses to do as he is told, while Leatherface is the mother who is stuck in the kitchen and subject to some domestic abuse from her ‘husband’ Cook. Such a dynamic suggests a patriarchal power structure within this family of cannibals. While this power structure is evident during Cook's arrival at the family home, it slowly starts to shift when the family begins their torture of Sally. For the most part, Cook seems simultaneously to be horrified by the acts being committed at the same time as appearing to enjoy them.
The Silence of the Lambs
Authors: Forshaw Barry
Published: February 2021

The 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, based on Thomas Harris's bestseller, was a game-changer in the fields of both horror and crime cinema. FBI trainee Clarice Starling was a new kind of heroine, vulnerable, intuitive, and in a deeply unhealthy relationship with her monstrous helper/opponent, the serial killer Hannibal Lecter. Jonathan Demme's film skillfully appropriated the tropes of police procedural, gothic melodrama and contemporary horror to produce something entirely new. The resulting film was both critically acclaimed and massively popular, and went on to have an enormous influence on 1990s genre cinema. This book closely examines the factors that contributed to the film's impact, including the revelatory performances of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in the lead roles.
The Ascent of Hannibal Lecter
Authors: Forshaw Barry
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the character of Hannibal Lecter. Thomas Harris makes it quickly apparent that Lecter is unlike most other fictional monsters we have encountered: he is well-read, charismatic, and immensely polite. In fact, politeness is one of the key components of his baleful personality: those he considers ‘impolite’ he kills. His prey are frequently other killers, monsters who, unlike himself, are mere murderers, without his ‘redeeming’ features such as a high IQ, impressive culinary skills, and an expert knowledge of Italian Renaissance art. Indeed, one of Harris's signal achievements is the establishment of the character's unacknowledged mauvais foi — the monumental, smug self-deception he practices to maintain a lofty distance between himself and those he considers to be ordinary killers, or worse, ordinary killers who lack manners. The chapter then looks at Lecter's screen debut in the film Manhunter (1986). It also considers the influence of the Italian genre of the stylish murder thriller, the giallo, on the films made of Harris's work.
Carrie: An Analysis
Authors: Mitchell Neil
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents a detailed analysis of Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976). The director's stylistic approach to adapting Stephen King's source material is the primary reason that the finished movie has engendered such a variety of critical reactions as well as its narrative resonating so deeply with viewing audiences. Carrie is a tightly controlled, rhythmical exercise in audience manipulation that constantly confounds audience identification and expectation. Though certain set piece sequences — the shower room sequence, the ‘Last Supper’, the prom massacre, Sue's nightmare — offer the clearest avenue for assessing De Palma's vision of the material and the subsequent critical readings of them, the film works as a complete narrative because of its integration of gentler, comedic, and romantic sequences. Duality — of scenes, techniques, characters, motifs and symbolic imagery — is a strong influence throughout, tying together opposing forces, reflecting alternate viewpoints, and periodically reminding the audience that none of the principal figures are clearly defined ‘character types’. Similarly, the dominant text and underlying subtexts addressed in the complete movie and in its individual sequences reveals how Carrie can alternately be viewed as pop culture, mythologised horror, and politicised cultural critique. By looking at its key themes/motifs and their deployment in specific scenes/sequences, including how themes/motifs bleed into each other and how scenes/sequences play off each other, a complete appreciation of De Palma's enduringly resonant movie can be gleaned.
Life After Death: Carrie’s legacy
Authors: Mitchell Neil
Published: February 2021

This chapter highlights Carrie's legacy. The influence of Brian De Palma's Carrie, in terms of themes, structure, and milieu, would be felt across not just the horror genre but also the comedy genre in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Carrie's focus on adolescents, its ‘final scream’ sequence, pre-occupation with bodily emissions, victim/hero/monster central character, contemporary settings, and pop culture references within a genre-straddling narrative would be referenced by and provide the inspiration, in one form or another, for a multitude of subsequent movies. The high school, or other educational establishment, became a regularly used setting, with the Queen Bee, school jock, nerdy hangers-on, ineffectual adults, delinquent boys and sexually promiscuous (bordering on nymphomaniac) girls all becoming stock-in-trade characters. Carrie's distinction lay not in it being the first horror movie to centre on a group of young people ‘under vicious assault’ in a contemporary setting or in it being the first to use psychic/supernatural powers as a central narrative theme. What Carrie did was popularise its distinct elements within its singular narrative that film-makers, of horror, comedy, or comedy-horror films, then used, consciously or unconsciously, as noticeable elements in their own films.
The Heist
Authors: Elliott Paul
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates the British heist film. The heist movie is more than a film about robbery and financial gain; it is a carefully constructed generic type that developed in the late 1950s and evolved from both Hollywood and European cinema. The image of the gentleman crook, the jewel thief, or safe breaker who remain undetected whilst carrying out their crime is an important one in both English and French crime fiction. It was Jules Dassin's 1955 film Du rififi chez les hommes, more succinctly known as Rififi, that set the tone, structure, and aesthetic for the heist thriller and ensured that it would become ‘an international cinematic genre’. Rififi contains the three main narrative stages that will come to typify the heist thriller: the plan, the execution, and the aftermath. These stages, although often varying in length, are present in most, if not all, heist thrillers and not only shape the audiences' expectations but propel the narrative forward. The chapter then looks at Basil Dearden's The League of Gentlemen (1960) and Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast (2000).
‘What the hell are you looking at me like that for?’
Authors: Conolly Jez
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the significance of camera angles, and how this affects the way the story is received by the audience. It discusses how the camera, under the control of a filmmaker, can be put to use as the 'eyes' of the intended audience. It cites that the subjective point-of-view (POV) shot has been put to potent use in horror cinema many times, and how this is able to heighten the suspense. It describes how the different camera angles employed in The Thing allows the audience to witness the story from the point-of-view of different characters in the film. It also talks about how framing affects the way the audience is invited to view a character. It compares The Thing to The Shining and how the two films also offer their own interpretation on the concept of 'alienation': The Shining on a psychofamilial and spiritual/supernatural level, and The Thing on a psychosocial and actual physical level. The chapter also discusses the film's soundeffects and soundtrack and how these have added an extra visceral edge through the vocal range of the characters, both human and Thing.
Introduction
Authors: Harmes Marcus K.
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein as a visible and important cinematic commodity, despite predictions from film critics that it would debase civilisation. The chapter discusses the film's impact in the history of cinema for exemplifying the theory that even bad publicity is good publicity, and for launching the international careers of particular members of the cast. It tackles how The Curse of Frankenstein became the foundation of twenty years' worth of gothic horror and of the commercial and cinematic exploitation of public tastes for gore and violence. The chapter details Marcus K. Harmes' overall goal to assess The Curse of Frankenstein as an adaptation that is a powerful hybrid of literature and film, and to examine the creation and impact of The Curse of Frankenstein and how the film was not just a matter of bringing a well-known novel onto screen, but in fact brought a range of different and even conflicting texts and storytelling traditions into dialogue with each other.
The Film and its Critics
Authors: Harmes Marcus K.
Published: February 2021

This chapter gives a detailed summary of the events in the film, and discusses the techniques and devices it employs to tell the story. It describes how Terence Fisher, the director of The Curse of Frankenstein, was received by some film critics. He was as an auteur, a director with a unique creative vision, which imbues his oeuvre with particular and consistent artistic qualities for some, and for others, he was a hack and a plodder who made derivative and uninteresting films. The chapters also talks about the remarkably vigorous quality of the team's work ethics. It describes how the team remained harmonious and excited throughout the making of the film even though the working conditions were not always ideal. The chapter also discusses how the film was able to work around its relatively small budget. Though it manifests in the small number of shooting locations and the size of the cast, the budget limits were otherwise extremely well hidden by the deceptively spacious scenes captured by Fisher's camera, and in the immaculate costume and scenographic design. The chapter also discusses how audiences received the film when it was first shown in theaters.
Adapting and Transgressing
Authors: Harmes Marcus K.
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes The Curse of Frankenstein as 'transgressive adaptation', where the source selected for adaptation is ultimately a foundation for later deviation away from the original. The chapter discusses how the definition of the word 'adaptation' is contested by many theorists, and how adaptation studies themselves were hidebound by the so-called 'fidelity paradigm.' It discusses how transgression is at the heart of The Curse of Frankenstein in both its plot and its creation. It directly adapts from the source novel, in terms of the contours of its plot, the naming and motivation of characters and the setting of the action, but also deviates wildly as much as it adapts and generated high levels of cultural interest in doing so. The chapter describes The Curse of Frankenstein as a work that draws simultaneously on many different sources, not just Shelley's novel, and that this allows the viewers to understand major aspects of the film's production, themes and reception.
Jews in Poland and Russia: A Short History
Authors: Polonsky Antony
Published: February 2021

For many centuries Poland and Russia formed the heartland of the Jewish world: right up to the Second World War, the area was home to over 40 per cent of the world's Jews. Yet the history of their Jewish communities is not well known. This book recreates this lost world, beginning with Jewish economic, cultural and religious life, including the emergence of hasidism. By the late eighteenth century, other factors had come into play: with the onset of modernization there were government attempts to integrate and transform the Jews, and the stirrings of Enlightenment led to the growth of the Haskalah movement. The book looks at developments in each area in turn: the problems of emancipation, acculturation, and assimilation in Prussian and Austrian Poland; the politics of integration in the Kingdom of Poland; and the failure of forced integration in the tsarist empire. It shows how the deterioration in the position of the Jews between 1881 and 1914 encouraged a range of new movements as well as the emergence of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature. It also examines Jewish urbanization and the rise of Jewish mass culture. The final part, starting from the First World War and the establishment of the Soviet Union, looks in turn at Poland, Lithuania, and the Soviet Union up to the Second World War. It reviews Polish–Jewish relations during the war and examines the Soviet record in relation to the Holocaust. The final chapters deal with the Jews in the Soviet Union and in Poland since 1945, concluding with an epilogue on the Jews in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia since the collapse of communism.
Introduction
Authors: Rapoport-Albert Ada
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at the notion of how the hasidic movement brought about a feminist revolution in Judaism. It mentions the twentieth-century historian of Hasidism named S. A. Horodetsky, who first claimed that the Hasidic movement endowed women with complete equality in the religious life that are expressed in a variety of hasidic innovations. It also discusses women's direct, personal relationship with the rebbe or tsadik that established a new equality between the sexes within the family and the community. The chapter covers the breakdown of the educational barrier of Hebrew and the language of traditional scholarly discourse in the male world of Torah learning. It argues how hasidism has remained predominantly the preserve of men in the early twentieth century.
Reinventing Maimonides in Contemporary Jewish Thought
Authors: Diamond James A. , Kellner Menachem , Kadish Seth
Published: February 2021

Every work on Jewish thought and law since the twelfth century bears the imprint of Maimonides. A. N. Whitehead's famous dictum that the entire European philosophical tradition ‘consists of a series of footnotes to Plato’ could equally characterize Maimonides' place in the Jewish tradition. The critical studies in this volume explore how Orthodox rabbis of different orientations — Shlomo Aviner, Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin (Netziv), Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Joseph Kafih, Abraham Isaac Kook, Aaron Kotler, Joseph Soloveitchik, and Elhanan Wasserman — have read and provided footnotes to Maimonides in the long twentieth century. How well did they really understand Maimonides? And where do their arguments fit in the mainstream debates about him and his works? Each of the seven core chapters examines a particular approach. Some rabbis have tried to liberate themselves from the influence of his ideas. Others have sought to build on those ideas or expand them in ways which Maimonides himself did not pursue, and which he may well not have agreed with. Still others advance patently non-Maimonidean positions, while attributing them to none other than Maimonides. Above all, the chapters published here demonstrate that his legacy remains vibrantly alive today.
Dreams and the Cinema
Authors: Carter David
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the oneiric film theory which claims that the experience of cinema is akin to that of dreaming, before considering what methods are used in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010) to depict the dream states. It details how Inception uses dream theory. It is clear that the film assumes the existence of an unconscious area of the mind, which can be influenced through access by skilled operators. This is very much in accordance with Sigmund Freud's concept of repression: disturbing thoughts are repressed from consciousness, but, if such thoughts, or ideas, are too disturbing they start to force their way back into consciousness, and the sleeping mind distorts them, changes them in some way, so that they can be contemplated in dreams but will not break through into consciousness. Extraction is a process of gaining access to such a repressed idea. A sci-fi element is thus introduced in the film, with the notion that it is possible to train the subconscious to defend itself against extraction. The chapter then looks at the dream states depicted in the film and considers the presuppositions about the nature of dreams and the subconscious mind.
Critical Reception
Authors: Carter David
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the critical reception of Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010). Rarely in the press and media is popular cinema, of which Inception is surely an example, subject to rigorous critical examination. Occasionally, however, some writers do provide insights worth discussing at greater depth, cues to possible lines of analysis and appraisal. Justin Chang, in Variety, described the film as 'a heist thriller for surrealists, a Jungian Rififi'. Whether this colourful description makes valid comparisons can be determined by considering the conventions of 'heist' films. The British critic Mark Kermode has argued that the film demonstrates 'that it is possible for blockbusters and art to be the same things'. Meanwhile, many negative reviews of the film are simply dismissive and lacking in any justification, but here and there one can find some provocative statements worthy of serious consideration. In the light of contemporary theories about the nature of mind and consciousness, the notion of inception can be seriously challenged.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Authors: Towlson Jon
Published: February 2021

For many, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K) is not so much a movie as a religious experience. On its release in 1977, CE3K virtually redefined the science-fiction film, shifting it away from spaceships, laser guns, and bug-eyed monsters into a modified form of science fiction that John Wyndham once called ‘logical fantasy’. What would it be like if extra-terrestrials made contact with people on Earth? How would it feel? Like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Steven Spielberg's primary inspiration, CE3K is concerned with mankind's evolution towards the stars, towards a state of transcendence. But Spielberg's vision hinges not so much on cool scientific intellect being the key to our next stage of evolution, as on the necessary development of emotional intelligence. To that end, we must regain our childlike curiosity for what lies beyond the skies, we must recover our capacity to experience wonder. Intensity of emotion is inherent to the film's meaning, and the aim of this book is to explore this in detail. Along the way, the book delves into the film's production history, explores Spielberg's remarkable cinematic realization of the film (including a comparison study of the three different release versions), and considers in detail how CE3K fits into the Spielberg oeuvre.
Textual Analysis
Authors: Redmond Sean
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses textual analysis as the best way to get to understand how a film produces meaning. It points out how close textual analysis enables the critical reader to get beneath the skin of the film by breaking it down into its main sequences or scenes, which reveal its formal, narrative structures, its pleasures, and its ideological messages. It also talks about close textual analysis that involves the assessment or deconstruction of shot, lighting, setting, performance, sound, editing, plot, and narrative. The chapter focuses on the close textual analysis of an early scene from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which occurs at approximately 7 minutes into the film that shows Leon's cold-blooded shooting of Holden. It describes Blade Runner's scene that begins with a long, panoramic aerial shot of the futuristic metropolis.
The Presentation of the Supernatural – ‘Strange things I have in head’
Authors: Owens Rebekah
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on how Roman Polanski exploited violence that can engender a physical response in the audience. It analyses how the feel of violence and emotional response it provokes provide one of the key ingredients that make Polanki's Macbeth a horror film. It also shows how Polanski very cleverly used the traditions of the Gothic horror film to raise an expectation of something supernatural is about to happen. The chapter describes the sight of alternative truths on signs of the supernatural that punctuated Macbeth as the audience are led by Polanski's cinematic sleight-of-hand into thinking the film is about a numinous force controlling the affairs of the humans. It points out Polanski's clever play on concessions to beliefs in the creation of an atmosphere of dreadful suspense.
How to Define Waltz with Bashir: Animated Documentary or Animated Fiction, or Both?
Authors: Miller Giulia
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at the form of Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir and confirms whether it is an animated work of fiction or an animated documentary, or even both. It discusses how Waltz with Bashir was never originally promoted as a documentary and analyses the original Hebrew movie poster that simply gives the film's title, while the English language version says in small print 'based on a true story'. It also discloses how Waltz with Bashir has been praised for accurately portraying the more unreliable psychological state of the traumatised soldier through animated dreams and flashbacks. The chapter examines the distinction between how Waltz with Bashir was originally promoted and how it became to be defined as crucial. It points out how the viewer's expectations would have been different if Waltz with Bashir had been initially advertised as a documentary concerning Israel's role during the Sabra and Shatila massacres.
Occultism, Hauntology and the Urban ‘Wyrd’
Authors: Scovell Adam
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates the presence of the occult-flavoured esoteric content within the Folk Horror genre; where pagan entities evoke forms of devil worship, witchcraft, and magic(k). It also considers the concept of Hauntology. Hauntology was specifically referring to the ‘Spectre of Marx’ as Jacques Derrida called it in his 1993 book of the same title. It is now commonly used to account for our own cultural, and sometimes moral, relationships with British artefacts from the 1970s as well as artwork that deals with the concept of lost futures. In this context, it is largely a word denoting relationships in and towards 1970s British culture, especially on film and television, and how this reflects social elements in both the period and in our need to look back towards it. The chapter then looks at two separate problems regarding Folk Horror: the resurgence, with hindsight, of interest in occultism and other forms of ‘occulture’ in counter-culture film and television; and the presence of an urban setting and a concept in a genre which has been shown to rely on both rural settings and sociological isolation, two things which, in traditional cinematic practices, are difficult and relatively uncommon in urban-set dramas.
The Legacy of RoboCop
Authors: Ahmed Omar
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the legacy of Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop in terms of the original critical reception, the film's relationship with its two sequels, and the marketing of the film. Released in the summer season of 1987, RoboCop was an unexpected commercial success, leading to the creation of the RoboCop universe, extending into television, video games, animation, and numerous sequels. The chapter then considers Verhoeven's work in the Hollywood science-fiction genre. The success of RoboCop led to an interest in science-fiction cinema that would lead Verhoeven to direct three more science-fiction films: Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). None of the films are pure science fiction but hybrids, fusing conventions from a broad range of genres including war movie, horror, and the political thriller.
Reception and Marketing: The Selling of Scream
Authors: West Steven
Published: February 2021

This chapter cites Mark Jancovich, who views the negative horror fan reaction to Wes Craven's Scream in the context of recurring 'intrageneric conflicts' between fans of a particular genre. It analyses how Scream films have endured as popular films within the horror-fan community, with the original notably regarded in terms of classic status by a particular element of the fan base. It also characterises the negative-horror-fan reaction to Scream via specific elements that were central to the film's marketing campaigns and crossover mainstream success. The chapter describes an implicit distinction between the real horror fan and the usurpation of horror by inauthentic others. It mentions Bram Stoker's Dracula, Wolf, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as part of a spate of big-budget horror films for people who don't like horror.
Gainsborough
Authors: Dixon Wheeler Winston
Published: February 2021

This chapter mentions Portrait from Life from 1948, a low-budget production that was made for Gainsborough and represented another step up for the young Terence Fisher. It talks about how Gainsborough referred to Portrait From Life in their publicity materials as Fisher's first full-length feature that hit the 90-minute mark. It also discusses Louise Heck-Rabi's excellent Women Filmmakers: The Critical Reception, which provides an invaluable overview of the Gainsborough production process. The chapter recounts how Sydney Box joined Gainsborough in August 1945 as head of production after its independent success as the producers of the 1945 smash hit The Seventh Veil. It discusses how Gainsborough became associated with productions in two distinct film genres: starry-eyed soap opera romances and topical films that exploited recent events in the news.
The Gothic Impulse – Vampirism
Authors: Dixon Wheeler Winston
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses how Terrence Fisher's and Hammer Studios's use of a mechanistic medium to distribute film mirrors the use of the printing press to first publish the “Penny Dreadfuls” in Victorian England. It mentions James B. Twitchell, who notes in his study Dreadful Pleasures that the key to the central elements of the Gothic mythos for the public is “repeatable image-making”. It also notes Fisher as the first Gothicist to have precisely the right censorial climate and the sensibility to be able to translate the term “implicit” to the screen. The chapter discusses how Fisher adamantly stated in a 1975 interview that he had not originated either Dracula or The Curse of Frankenstein as a project. It looks at Fisher's insistence to have very little input on casting in Dracula, which was subordinate to his interests in the narrative.
Six Late Films
Authors: Dixon Wheeler Winston
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1959, which was an unusual project for Terrence Fisher in many ways and represents one of two Sherlock Holmes films he made. It analyses how The Hound of the Baskervilles became known as a film from Hammer's finest period that took advantage of the usual Hammer expertise of that era. It also discusses Fisher's Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles, which are films that deal with legendary manifestations of evil and begin with lengthy, narrated flashbacks. The chapter describes Fisher's skill in designing shots, which he manages to accomplish with style, intelligence, and economy. It looks at Fisher's modesty that is apparent when he does not hesitate to interrupt the shot a number of times, rather than leave it intact as a “stunt”.
Last Supper
Authors: Cooper Ian
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at Alfred Hitchcock's last finished film, Family Plot (1976). Family Plot is an amusing light-hearted mystery which saw the Master return to sunnier climes (Northern California). But the notion that Hitchcock was mellowing is a false one. The last film he worked on, abandoned due to his failing health, was to be The Short Night. Based on the story of the escaped spy George Blake, starring Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, or Walter Matthau playing opposite Liv Ullmann or Catherine Deneuve and set in London and Finland, the script was to be written by Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter of North by Northwest (1959). However, Lehman left the project over Hitchcock's desire to include a graphic rape scene. This is history repeating itself, as a similar row about sexual violence had led The Birds (1963) screenwriter Evan Hunter to walk out on Marnie (1964).
‘The New Bible’
Authors: Blyth Michael
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on religion as a common motif employed throughout John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1995). As with many Western horror films, Christianity serves as a theological foundation, but Carpenter's film also draws interesting parallels with the Church of Scientology. In its depiction of the all-knowing, omnipotent author, able to alter reality with the mere power of their words, In the Mouth of Madness elevates the figure of the writer to near-religious status. As Sutter Cane types away on his very own ‘word processor of the Gods’, he too becomes one of those Gods, with divine control over those in his literary kingdom. With this notion in mind, the chapter explores the ways in which Carpenter's film repositions the writer from mere cultural commentator to modern-day prophet, or untouchable celestial being. It also considers how the film utilises theological concepts to form the basis of its philosophical framework, ultimately presenting religious cultdom as an extension of Carpenter's critiques on mindless consumerism and his apocalyptic obsessions with the loss of individuality and free will.
‘The flesh. It should make the computer, uh, crazy’: Remaking The Fly
Authors: Westwood Emma
Published: February 2021

This chapter details the process of remaking The Fly. Strip out all the special effects from The Fly and you've got a singularly focused and somewhat forthright drama, heavily driven by dialogue with just the occasional set and location change. But add in these special effects and the film production becomes a whole different beast — a titanic effort in both problem-solving and firsts in filmmaking or, at the very least, filmmaking tactics very rarely attempted. However, to reduce The Fly to the narrow label of ‘a special effects movie’ could not be more inaccurate. Unlike the ‘special effects movies’ of a new millennium, The Fly relied less on post-production and more on effects produced in-camera and/or on-set, the exception being optical animation. In a case of life imitating art, David Cronenberg fully embraced the symbiotic themes within The Fly film and then extended them into his practical filmmaking approach. He confesses to being the physically fittest he has ever been during The Fly's shoot due to the daily workouts in the filming breaks, mirroring what Jeff Goldblum was doing and completing this fusion-of-sorts with his lead actor.
‘Be afraid, be very afraid’: Aftermath and Legacy
Authors: Westwood Emma
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies the reception and legacy of David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986). Critical discourse around The Fly leapt on a social anxiety that was generating worldwide media attention at this exact time in the mid-1980s and appeared to be playing out explicitly in The Fly — that of a man suffering through the incremental stages of death from AIDS. Cronenberg has publicly steered clear of supporting the AIDS analogy theories, openly stating at a number of occasions that drawing such parallels to the AIDS epidemic was not on his agenda. In watching The Fly retrospectively, a far broader meaning is unmistakable. That is not to say the AIDS metaphor is meaningless in any way, but The Fly is not just about death and mortality through AIDS; it is about death and mortality, full-stop. The chapter then looks at the sequel, The Fly II, which was directed by Chris Walas. Just as the original The Fly continues to be attributed in pop culture, Cronenberg's work receives its fair share of homages too.
Genre and Themes
Authors: Mee Laura
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the themes of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). The Shining, in its themes of family trauma and domestic violence, racial and class tension, all connected through the film's approach to the horror of history, has been criticised for seemingly reducing the supernatural focus of Stephen King's book and replacing it with a more human evil. Like these varied themes and any one of the potential alternative readings, however, the emphasis is ultimately left to the viewer's subjective interpretation. The result, as ever, is the uncertain tone which emphasises the film's horror. The Shining might not quite 'fit' with the independent, low-budget cycle of 1970s American horror cinema which saw the emergence of a new wave of genre auteurs, but it can nonetheless be aligned with a number of that cycle's social allusions, and it be would be remiss to remove the film from this context. Ultimately, Kubrick made The Shining with the intention of achieving commercial success, and looked to the horror genre to achieve this.
Introduction
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Joseph Losey's sci-fi film The Damned (1963). The film's reputation has undoubtedly risen because of its historical interest, as 1960s culture continues to exert a fascination for cultural writers and consumers. The Damned was made on the cusp of the 1060s, and it exists in a fold between one era and another. In various strands of cinema history, too, The Damned has become a useful case study. This book attempts to set The Damned in context, or in a series of contexts: as a Joseph Losey film, as a Hammer film, as a science fiction film, as a product of the Cold War and the atmosphere of atomic terror that prevailed at the time. It also examines the film's treatment of stock figures such as the scientist, the child, the artist, and the 'yob', and its experiments with imagery and ideas of living and non-living.
‘When The Time Comes’: The Damned and British Cold War Culture
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates the influence of the British Cold War culture on Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963). British cinema was far slower than Hollywood to address the nuclear threat in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was a reflection of the government's own reticence on the matter. The Edgehill Establishment, Bernard's secret facility, would have been a familiar sight to most people in Great Britain by the early 1960s. Such 'secret establishments' became a regular feature of science fiction from the late 1950s onwards, embodying the growing public distrust in the government's defence programme and anxieties about safety. Ultimately, The Damned inhabits a historical moment between the wane of public deference towards the government concerning nuclear weapons and the more full-throated protests and bolder visualisations of nuclear war that appeared mid-decade.
Creating Woman, Falling Man
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This chapter addresses how women artists were not a common sight in the cinema of the period; in fact, it is hard to think of any that predate Freya in Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963) — any who are treated seriously, anyway. The introduction of this worldly, European female artist is the film's biggest alteration from the novel, and is a piece of brilliance on Losey's part. Yes, it risks pretension, and some critics judged that the risk was realised, but its effects on the dynamics and the structure of the film are invigorating. Freya's sculptures provide an answering force for the kitsch on the Esplanade and the corrupt powers that it represents. The use of British sculptor Elisabeth Frink's work is crucial to the film's tone and its imagery; Losey conceived the part of Freya with her art in mind, having lately become acquainted with her, and even considered casting her.
Violent Reactions and Absurd Heroics
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This chapter reflects on the heroic failure to rescue the radioactive children in Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963). In the latter half of The Damned, the children are released, only to be rounded up and re-incarcerated; this is not what one expects of a rescue plot. The chapter offers several suggestions that, at least partially, fit with the larger narrative and with the terms of Losey's film-making at this point. First, for the children it enacts a kind of fall, just as the other characters have fallen, but in this case it is a fall from innocence or ignorance. Second, it leaves one in no doubt as to the ruthlessness and effectiveness of the state-sanctioned violence. And third, in a film that has been drawing circles since the very first shot, here at the centre is the tightest, and the cruellest, circular motion of all.
After-Effects
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the legacy of Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963). Unlike many cult films, The Damned has not become a staple of late-night screenings or the subject of internet memes. But it does strike a spark or two of recognition, when it is not being confused with Village of the Damned (1960) or Children of the Damned (1964). By 1970, Joseph Losey was played out, his health deteriorating after years of heavy drinking and mental strain. Nevertheless, imagery from The Damned sometimes resurfaced in his later work. Meanwhile, Hammer's science fiction output dwindled after The Damned, as its gothic horror productions took over.