Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Author: Vítězslav Nezval
Publisher:
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2005
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

"Written in 1935 at the height of Czech Surrealism but not published until 1945, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a bizarre erotic fantasy of a young girl's maturation into womanhood. Drawing on Matthew Lewis's The Monk, Sade's Justine, K. H. Macha's May, and Murnau's Nosferatu as well as the form and language of the pulp serial novel, Nezval has constructed a lyrical, menacing dream of sexual awakening involving a vampire with a taste for chicken blood, changelings, a lecherous priest, a malicious grandmother desiring her lost youth, and an androgynous merging of brother with sister. Part fairy tale, part Gothic horror, the novel is a meditation on youth and age, sexuality and death - an exploration of the grotesque that juxtaposes high and low genres with shifting registers of language and moods, thus placing it squarely in the tradition of the Czech avant-garde."--BOOK JACKET.

Visions of Paradise

Visions of Paradise
Author: Wheeler W. Dixon
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2006
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813537983

Illustrated throughout with rare stills, and organized so as to provide historical context, this book surveys an array of films that have offered us glimpses of a life that is meaningful, free from strife, devoid of pain and privation, and full of harmony in every sense.

Surrealism and Cinema

Surrealism and Cinema
Author: Michael Richardson
Publisher: Berg
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2006-03-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1847881084

Surrealism has long been recognised as having made a major contribution to film theory and practice, and many contemporary film-makers acknowledge its influence. Most of the critical literature, however, focuses either on the 1920s or the work of Buuel. The aim of this book is to open up a broader picture of surrealism's contribution to the conceptualisation and making of film.Tracing the work of Luis Buuel, Jacques Prvert, Nelly Kaplan, Walerian Borowcyzk, Jan vankmajer, Raul Ruiz and Alejandro Jodorowsky, Surrealism and Cinema charts the history of surrealist film-making in both Europe and Hollywood from the 1920s to the present day. At once a critical introduction and a provocative re-evaluation, Surrealism and Cinema is essential reading for anyone interested in surrealist ideas and art and the history of film.

Avant-garde to New Wave

Avant-garde to New Wave
Author: Jonathan L. Owen
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2011-02-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0857451278

The cultural liberalization of communist Czechoslovakia in the 1960s produced many artistic accomplishments, not least the celebrated films of the Czech New Wave. This movement saw filmmakers use their new freedom to engage with traditions of the avant-garde, especially Surrealism. This book explores the avant-garde's influence over the New Wave and considers the political implications of that influence. The close analysis of selected films, ranging from the Oscar-winning Closely Observed Trains to the aesthetically challenging Daisies, is contextualized by an account of the Czech avant-garde and a discussion of the films' immediate cultural and political background.

Media, Materiality and Memory

Media, Materiality and Memory
Author: Elodie A. Roy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317098749

Media, Materiality and Memory: Grounding the Groove examines the entwinement of material music objects, technology and memory in relation to a range of independent record labels, including Sarah Records, Ghost Box and Finders Keepers. Moving from Edison’s phonograph to digital music files, from record collections to online archives, Roy argues that materiality plays a crucial role in constructing and understanding the territory of recorded sound. How do musical objects ‘write’ cultural narratives? How can we unearth and reactivate past histories by looking at yesterday’s media formats? What is the nature, and fate, of the physical archive in an increasingly dematerialized world? In what ways do physical and digital musical objects coexist and intersect? With its innovative theoretical approach, the book explores the implications of materialization in the fashioning of a musical world and its cultural transmission. A substantial contribution to the field of music and material culture studies, Media, Materiality and Memory also provides a nuanced and timely reflection on nostalgia and forgetting in the digital age.

The Company of Wolves

The Company of Wolves
Author: James Gracey
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2017-08-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1800347073

Co-written by Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan and British novelist Angela Carter, and based on several short stories from Carter's collection The Bloody Chamber, The Company of Wolves (1984) is a provocative reinvention of the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Unraveling a feverish metaphor for the blossoming of a young girl's sexuality and her subsequent loss of innocence, the film entwines symbolism and metaphor with striking visuals and grisly effects. Released in the early 1980s, a time which produced several classic werewolf films (including An American Werewolf in London and The Howling), The Company of Wolves sets itself apart from the pack with its overtly literary roots, feminist stance, and art-house leanings. The film's narrative takes the form of a puzzle box, unfolding as dreams within dreams, and stories within stories, which lead further into the dark woods of the protagonist's psyche, as she finds herself on the cusp of womanhood. This Devil's Advocate explores all these aspects, as well as placing the film in the context of the careers of its creators and its position as an example of the "Female Gothic."

The Czech Reader

The Czech Reader
Author: Jan Bažant
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2010-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0822347946

Frances Starn is a writer living in Berkeley, California. --Book Jacket.

A Little Tour Through European Poetry

A Little Tour Through European Poetry
Author: John Taylor
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1351534963

This book is both a sequel to author John Taylor's earlier volume Into the Heart of European Poetry and something different. It is a sequel because this volume expands upon the base of the previous book to include many more European poets. It is different in that it is framed by stories in which the author juxtaposes his personal experiences involving European poetry or European poets as he travels through different countries where the poets have lived or worked. Taylor explores poetry from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, Albania, Romania, Turkey, and Portugal, all of which were missing in the previous gathering, analyzes heady verse written in Galician, and presents an important poet born in the Chuvash Republic. His tour through European poetry also adds discoveries from countries whose languages he reads fluently-Italy, Germany (and German-speaking Switzerland), Greece, and France. Taylor's model is Valery Larbaud, to whom his criticism, with its liveliness and analytical clarity, is often compared. Readers will enjoy a renewed dialogue with European poetry, especially in an age when translations are rarely reviewed, present in literary journals, or studied in schools. This book, along with Into the Heart of European Poetry, motivates a dialogue by bringing foreign poetry out of the specialized confines of foreign language departments.

Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies - Second Edition

Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies - Second Edition
Author: Folk Horror Revival
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 550
Release: 2018-03-11
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0244068305

A new and revised edition of the seminal tome Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies. A collection of essays, interviews and artwork by a host of talents exploring the weird fields of folk horror, urban wyrd and other strange edges. Contributors include Robin Hardy, Ronald Hutton, Alan Lee, Philip Pullman, Thomas Ligotti, Kim Newman, Adam Scovell, Gary Lachman, Susan Cooper and a whole host of other intriguing and vastly talented souls. An indispensable companion for all explorers of the strange cinematic, televisual, literary and folkloric realms. This edition contains numerous extra interviews and essays as well as updating some information and presented with improved design. 100% of all sales profits of this book are charitably donated at quarterly intervals to The Wildlife Trusts.

Czech and Slovak Cinema

Czech and Slovak Cinema
Author: Peter Hames
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2010-08-09
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0748686835

Examines the key themes and traditions of Czech and Slovak cinema, linking inter-war and post-war cinemas together with developments in the post-Communist period.