Books in the Cinema and Society series

An account of how popular films in America, just after the close of the Second World War, played out America's mood at that crucial time. This book is also a revisionist challenge to the scholarly understanding of this mood, has tended to be seen as characterized by an abiding pessimism most clearly manifested in the films noir of the period.

An exploration of the development of anti-war cinema in Britain, America, Germany and France from the ground-breaking Lay Down Your Arms in 1914 through to Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory

Combining archival research and interviews with Rank's contemporaries and family, this study charts the 1940s "golden era" of the British film industry that Rank, having bought the Odeon and Gaumont British chains and made inroads into the American market, helped to create.

At the outbreak of the WWII, all cinemas in Britain were closed. Ten days later, they were opened again as a way of boosting morale. Over the next six years, some 300 feature films and thousands of short films were produced in what is seen as British cinema's 'finest hour'. This work charts this period through the eyes of thirteen key films.

Focusing on the 1950s when Hollywood's interest in the past was at its peak, this book reconstructs how filmmakers understood their treatment of the past, suggesting why many of them saw their work as superior to that of professional historians. It explains how and why Hollywood blurs the boundaries between fiction and historical reality.

A detailed study of the workings of the American film industry during the 1930s. Schindler illustrates how the studios helped to foster ideas of social unity and patriotism.

Travelling from Warsaw to Blackpool, Marseilles to Madrid, this study investigates the postmodern nature of contemporary Europe's urban life and cinema, showing how European films represent these cities across old and new Europe. It tackles changes wrought under the effects of political change.

The films "Brigadoon" and "Braveheart" have an enormous resonance and provide general impressions of "Scottishness". This provocative study discusses the films' representations of Scotland and the Scots, looking at how Scotland is (mis)recognized and yet often comes to be "known".

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made a range of films, from "The Spy in Black" and "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" to "A Canterbury Tale" and "The Red Shoes". This book looks at these classic films to explore their complex relationship to national identity, and their interest in exile, borderlands, utopias, escapism, art and fantasy.

Gives a picture of popular consensus between the government and the film industry over the cinematic representation of Britain and the British at war. It examines the role of the cinema as a vehicle of propaganda, and shows the relationship between the Ministry of Information and the film industry.

Exploring debates about children and how they use and respond to the media, the author researches attempts to control children's viewing, the ideas that supported these approaches and the extent to which they were successful. She develops a proposition that children are agents in the regulation of their own viewing and not passive consumers.

Looking at popular British film in the 1940s, Realism and Tinsel goes beyond the established histories of the Ealing Comedies to excavate a rich tradition of melodrama, morbid thrillers and costume pictures.

This text focuses on the dynamic relationship between narrative and spectacle in Hollywood cinema. It shows how narrative - far from being eclipsed by special effects - remains integral to the cinematic "blockbuster", citing the continuing relevance of the mythic American frontier.

Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler and Goebbels regarded cinema as their most important weapon for mass political propaganda. This book examines the ways in which cinema was used for political purposes by two of the most highly politicised societies in 20th-century European history.