Books in the Contemporary Film Directors series

Offers a postmodern analysis of the Coen brothers' approach to filmmaking.

A consideration of the distinctly independent filmmaker's explicitly political cinema

The first complete study of the protean filmmaker

A searing study of a controversial international auteur

Performing the real through the lens of a renowned innovator of documentary filmmaking

A new look at a well-loved director's critical engagement with cinema

Tracing the filmmaker Roman Polanski's remarkably diverse career from its beginnings to the present, this book provides commentary on the major films in their historical, cultural, social, and artistic contexts.

Argues for Abel Ferrara's place in a line of grand inventors who have blurred distinctions between industry and avant-garde film, including Orson Welles, Monte Hellman, and Nicholas Ray. This work also argues that films such as "Bad Lieutenant" express this evil through visionary characters struggling against the inadmissible.

Traces Wong Kar-Wai's perennial themes of time, love, and loss, and examines the political implications of his films, especially concerning the handover of former British colony Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. This book covers a range of Wong's work, from his first film, "As Tears Go By", to "2046".

The premier study of an incomparable American director

An integrated analysis of Egoyan's contemplative cinema

Analyzing an influential film director's vivid deconstructions of gender and narrative

A searing study of an important American writer-director

Follows Pedro Almodovar's career chronologically as he moves from amateur to international celebrity, and understands the films' complexity in terms of the director's central themes and the Spanish film tradition from which he comes. This work is of interest to new film students and specialists alike.

The subversive style of the woman who has become one of the world's greatest directors

Understanding the iconoclastic work of a lifelong cinematic pioneer

An extended take on the innovator of the French New Wave

A perceptive analysis of the daring Danish filmmaker's oeuvre

Frames Petzold's cinema at the intersection of international art cinema and sophisticated genre cinema.

A Hollywood director who blends substance with the mainstream

A searing study of one of Mexico's most dynamic directors

Provides a full critical discussion of the films of Latin America's most important living director. This is one of our first two titles in new Contemporary Film Directors series.

A thematic examination of a prolific rising star in contemporary French filmmaking

Widely regarded as one of the most innovative and passionate filmmakers working in France today, Claire Denis has continued to make beautiful and challenging films since the 1988 release of her first feature, "Chocolat". The author's comprehensive study of these films traces Denis' career and discusses her major feature films in rich detail.

Since the release of Do the Right Thing in 1989, Spike Lee has established himself as a cinematic icon. Lee's mostly independent films garner popular audiences while at the same time engaging in substantial political and social commentary. The author argues that Lee uses excess in his films to intervene in issues of philosophy, politics, and art.

Inside the shocking cinema of Dario Argento