Books by Norman Kagan

In this book, Norman Kagan explores of the nature of comedy and helps readers discover why they are laughing, new reasons to laugh, and new films to that will offer a source of laughter.

Romance Film is a critical history of significant romance films from Hollywood and abroad. Each chapter analyzes a type of lover, including the siren, intriguer, dandy, innocent, coquette, charmer, charismatic, and comic, and the self-destructive lover. It discusses each type's continuities and the social forces and emotions that shape it.

Robert Zemeckis has risen to the forefront of American filmmaking with a string of successes: Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future I, II, & III, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Forrest Gump, and Castaway. Herein, Norman Kagan unlocks themind behind the making of these diverse and groundbreaking hits-appraising each work's public and critical appeal while placing the films in the context of Zemeckis's career.