Books in the Contemporary Film Directors series

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.

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

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 searing study of one of Mexico's most dynamic directors

A Hollywood director who blends substance with the mainstream

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

Understanding the iconoclastic work of a lifelong cinematic pioneer

An extended take on the innovator of the French New Wave

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

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

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.

A searing study of an important American writer-director

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

An integrated analysis of Egoyan's contemplative cinema

The premier study of an incomparable American director

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".

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.

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.