Dana Polan

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) is a film very much of its cinematic moment, combining the gritty realism of entrapment in the everyday with furtive dreams of escape.

Dana Polan's compelling study of the film examines its significance to New Hollywood cinema and the science fiction genre. He argues that Close Encounters is a film that is an allegory of the cinematic experience overall; it both narrates a tale of visual seduction and plays it out viscerally for the spectator who shares the amazement of the protagonist Roy Neary as his mundane reality is transformed into something awe-inspiring.

Providing an in-depth look into the film's production history, including all three different versions, Polan situates Close Encounters within Spielberg's repertoire. He argues that despite the film's popular success, it is in fact a rejection of several entrenched American values, including family, home and marriage. It offers, through its visual fascination, alternative understandings of masculinity and morality, familial responsibility, and what it means to follow the 'American Dream'.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK eBooks
• Seitenzahl: 104
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. Oktober 2024
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781839025785
• Artikelnr.: 72250668

Autorenporträt

Dana Polan is Martin Scorsese Professor of Cinema Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, USA. His books include Power and Paranoia: History, Narrative, and the American Cinema, 1940-1950 (1986), In a Lonely Place (BFI Film Classics, 1993), Pulp Fiction (BFI Film Classics, 2000) and Dreams of Flight: The Great Escape in American Film and Culture (2021).

Inhaltsangabe

OverturePlotSetting the Scene: A Study in Modern American CultureThe Ultimate Trip (?)Whoosh'Are you seeing what I'm seeing?'Ways of SeeingThe Sound of Hands ClappingCocoons of SoundThe Cinema of 1977Seventies 'New - ' and 'Newer' - HollywoodMaking a New Hollywood MoviePortraits of the ArtistResponsesSpin-Offs, Ancillary Items, and 'Sequels'Continuing Encounters with Close EncountersNotesCredits