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29 Jun 2021 15:57:55 UTC
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50950
Author: Gene Phillips
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Two-time Academy Award winner Sir David Lean (19081991) was one of the most prominent directors of the twentieth century, responsible for the classics The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Doctor Zhivago (1965). British-born Lean asserted himself in Hollywood as a major filmmaker with his epic storytelling and panoramic visions of history, but he started out as a talented film editor and director in Great Britain. As a result, he brought an art-house mentality to blockbuster films. Combining elements of biography and film criticism, Beyond the Epic The Life and Films of David Lean uses screenplays and production histories to assess Leans body of work. Author Gene D. Phillips interviews actors who worked with Lean and directors who knew him, and their comments reveal new details about the directors life and career. Phillips also explores Leans lesser-studied films, such as The Passionate Friends (1949), Hobsons Choice (1954), and Summertime (1955). The result is an in-depth examination of the director in cultural, historical, and cinematic contexts. Leans approach to filmmaking was far different than that of many of his contemporaries. He chose his films carefully and, as a result, directed only sixteen films in a period of more than forty years. Those films, however, have become some of the landmarks of motion-picture history. Lean is best known for his epics, but Phillips also focuses on Leans successful adaptations of famous works of literature, including retellings of plays such as Brief Encounter (1945) and novels such as Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), and A Passage to India (1984). From expansive studies of war and strife to some of literatures greatest high comedies and domestic dramas, Lean imbued all of his films with his unique creative vision. Few directors can match Leans ability to combine narrative sweep and psychological detail, and Phillips goes beyond Leans epics to reveal this unifying characteristic in the directors body of work. Beyond the Epic is a vital assessment of a great directors artistic process and his place in the film industry. **Review For admirers of storytelling on a vast canvas, and of an old master, Phillips study is an overdue pleasure.Hollywood Reporter I found it hard to stop reading. I was impressed that Gene Phillips had spoken to so many of the people in the Lean circle. His enthusiasm for the films comes through strongly.Kevin Brownlow, author of David Lean A Biography Gene Phillips provides the final wordLester Keyser, author of Hollywood in the Seventies An entertaining, in-depth look at Sir Davids life and diverse career. . . . A welcome addition.Library Journal An entertaining, in-depth look at Sir Davids life and diverse career.Library Journal Phillips brings out the person, the immense talent, and the consummate skills of the director.Midwest Book Review [Gives] its subject a thorough treatment.San Antonio Current, Armchair Cinephile Its a step forward... for the legacy of the man who created The Bridge on the River Kwai , A Passage to India , and Lawrence of Arabia , the greatest film ever made.The Week It takes a great author to write about a great film director. In Beyond the Epic The Life and Films of David Lean Gene Phillips matches the excellence and meticulous artistic care Lean brought to the cinema. Utilizing biography, analysis, criticism, historical background, journalistic reporting, and the inner-workings of the moviemake process, Phillips totally captures the total filmmaker. David Lean was a towering genius who demanded emotional and physical perfection as well as the freedom to make his human epics. Gene Phillips is a writer with wisdom, tenacity and the ability to write in the spirit of his subject. Reading Beyond the Epic The Life and Films of David Lean is like watching a David Lean film. Phillips takes us on a journey to a place beyond the formalities of filmmaking into the heart of the artistic process itself and into the soul of a true cinema artist. The result is beyond definitive and approaches the inner secrets of why movies are both magical and life altering.Vincent LoBrutto, author of Stanley Kubrick A Biography and Becoming Film L [Phillips] offers an in-depth examination of prominent filmmaker David Lean.Partners About the Author Gene D. Phillips is a professor of film history and modern literature at Loyola University. He is the author of numerous books, including Creatures of Darkness Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir and Godfather The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola.
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83536
Author: Mohammad Salama
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Telling a new story of modern Egypt, Mohammad Salama uses textual and cinematic sources to construct a clear and accessible narrative of the dynamics of Islam and culture in the first half of the twentieth century. The conflict between tradition and secular values in modern Egypt is shown in a stimulating and challenging new light as Salama bridges analysis of nationalism and its connection to Islamism, and outlines the effects of secular education versus traditional Islamic teaching on varied elements of Egyptian society. These include cultural production, politics, economic, identity, and gender relations. All of this helps to discern the harbingers that led to Egypts social transition from the monarchy to the republic and opens the possibility of Islam as an inspiring and inspirational force. This illuminating, provocative and informative study will be of use to anyone interested in the period, whether general readers, students, or researchers. **Review This is a scholarly achievement of the highest caliber. Salama goes to great lengths to offer a compelling (re)reading of Egypts cultural history through the lens of literary theory in a project intent on deciphering the codes connecting Islam, culture, and modernity. He boldly identifies vital intersections between the formative tenets of modernity and conventions of Islamic thought ... Salamas book is bound to provoke vital debate that will enrich knowledge and elevate consciousness of a moment of history in Egypts culture which current generations are in dire need of revisiting and contemplating, as Salama does, armed with tools of contemporary literary theory. It shows us that we must not be content with reading our history using only the tools of the past. Modernity does not have a definitive endpoint and therefore readings and re-readings can only yield positive epistemologies and fresh understandings of both Islam and modernity. Gaber Asfour, Cairo University and Former Minister of Culture, Egypt Advance praise Professor Mohammad Salama raises the perennial question of identity in modern times, in this case Egyptian identity ... [he] has written an outstanding book not just for literary scholars and historians in Arabic studies but for all those reflecting on first world and third world culture. Peter Gran, Temple University, Pennsylvania Advance praise This is a critically self-assured, excitingly competent, and beautifully written book. It is nothing less than a most formative treatment of a precisely delineated, historical slice of literary - but also broadly cultural - time that made Modern Egypt ... This book may very well become the recommended - if not obligatory - reading for the present Egyptian generation old and young. Jaroslav Stetkevych, University of Chicago Advance praise This is a groundbreaking book. Salamas goal is to address the relationship between Islam, culture and history (p. 216) in twentieth-century Egypt, and he does an outstanding job of presenting relevant examples to his readers, from the first novel (Zaynab) to the films of Youssef Chahine. He personalizes and makes engaging his journey along the way, but never loses sight of important theoretical insights by both Arab and Western critics, and how they can illuminate the course of events he treats. No student of modern Arabic literature and culture can afford to be unacquainted with this work. Terri DeYoung, University of Washington Advance praise Islam and the Culture of Modern Egypt is another insightful discussion of a field that has been inviting heatedand also rigorous debates. In his effort to tackle issues of culture, modernity, and Islam,Salamaoffers a significant contribution to the intellectual history of Egypt. Muhsin al-Musawi, Columbia University Advance praise Islam and the Culture of Modern Egypt is a tour de force treating the reader to a unique behind the scenes glimpse into the heart of Egyptian history and politics in the last century. In a highly original, lucid, and comparatively sophisticated diction, Mohammad Salama proves that despite Islams contested and celebrated reiterations in Egypts philosophical, literary, and cinematic production, it continues to shape our understanding of a precarious national identity during colonial, Islamist, Nasserist, Pan-Arabism, and revolutionary times. A vital contribution to the fields of Arab cultural and Islamic studies. Hanadi Al-Samman, University of Virginia Book Description Boasting an in-depth analyses of individual texts over half a century, this intriguing history of the dynamics of Islam and culture in modern Egypt presents the conflict between tradition and secular values in a challenging new light. Including literature and film as crucial sources, this book is accessible to general readers and scholars alike.
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4 weeks ago
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English