Peter Krämer

George Lucas, the New Hollywood and the Baby Boom Generation

American Graffiti

What is the attraction of violence? What is the relationship between real and imagined violence? What should be the state's response to both? These questions are raised by Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). The film is a graphically violent, sexually explicit, wickedly funny, visually stunning and deeply ambiguous adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel. A Clockwork Orange became one of the biggest hits of the early 1970s and was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece. At the same time, it was the target of extraordinary critical attacks, which condemned its apparent message about human nature and its presumed negative impact on young cinemagoers. Drawing on new research in the Stanley Kubrick Archive, Peter Krämer's study explores the production, marketing and reception as well as the themes and style of A Clockwork Orange against the backdrop of Kubrick's previous work and wider developments in British and American cinema, culture and society from the 1950s to the early 1970s. 'This is a remarkable and highly unusual book. Krämer turns aside from the endlessly repeated queries about whether a film like A Clockwork Orange might 'cause people to go out and rape', and asks instead: how does this film participate in that very debate? What philosophy of human nature drove Kubrick to construct the film? Krämer takes us into the film's detailed construction, so we can judge its contribution for ourselves.' Martin Barker, Aberystwyth University Peter Krämer is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK. He is the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey in the BFI Film Classics series (2010) and The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars (2005).

A Clockwork Orange

Gary Needham

Tino Balio

Yannis Tzioumakis

Established in 1919 by Hollywood's top talent United Artists has had an illustrious history, from Hollywood minor to industry leader to a second-tier media company in the shadow of MGM. This edited collection brings together leading film historians to examine key aspects of United Artists' centennial history from its origins to the sometimes chaotic developments of the last four decades. The focus is on several key executives – ranging from Joseph Schenck to Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise – and on many of the people making films for United Artists, including Gloria Swanson, David O. Selznick, Kirk Douglas, the Mirisch brothers and Woody Allen. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, individual case studies explore the mutually supportive but also in places highly contentious relationships between United Artists and its producers, the difficult balance between artistic and commercial objectives, and the resulting hits and misses (among them The General, the Pink Panther franchise, Heaven’s Gate, Cruising, and Hot Tub Time Machine). The second volume in the Routledge Hollywood Centenary series, United Artists is a fascinating and comprehensive study of the firm’s history and legacy, perfect for students and researchers of cinema and film history, media industries, and Hollywood.

United Artists

Dieter Behrens

Lectures Held at the 8th DECHEMA Annual Meeting of Biotechnologists, May 28-30, 1990, Frankfurt Am Main, F.R.G.: Biochemical methods for water analysis (GDCh-Workshop), Presentation of cell culture technology laboratories, Microbial principles in bioprocesses applied genetics, Microbial material deterioration, Environmental biotechnology

Richard Daniels

Tatjana Ljujić

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives brings together essays by scholars who have examined the traces that Kubrick's work has left in archives, in particular his own collection of film-related materials, which was donated to the University of the Arts London in 2007. Richly illustrated with film stills and previously unseen material from the Stanley Kubrick Archive, this book is designed to open the reader's eyes to the wonder and richness of Kubrick's oeuvre. The collection held by the University is made up of a range of material including props, scripts, research, production paperwork such as call sheets, costumes and photographs for all his films and Look, as well as material for those projects that were conceived but never visualised. By maintaining a high degree of control in the film making process, Kubrick was able to retain material generated by his pioneering techniques, research and production work: arguably making this collection one of the most complete examples of film making practice world wide. Kubrick's films have inspired a huge amount of critical commentary, yet until recently critics and scholars have made little use of archival resources. The essays included in this collection offer new perspectives on Kubrick's working methods, the manifold influences on his films, their themes and style as well as their marketing and reception. Between them, the essays cover the totality of Kubrick's career, from his beginnings as a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker in the late 1940s and early 1950s to his last movie, Eyes Wide Shut, which was released a few months after his death in 1999. Ranging from low-budget noir thrillers to spectacular historical and futuristic epics, from war films to erotic dramas, from horror to topical movies, Kubrick's work explores fundamental questions about sexuality and violence, military organisations and combat, male bonding and marriage, human nature and social change. In doing so, he has produced iconic images (and sounds) representing key events and developments of the 20th century, including World War I, the threat of nuclear apocalypse, the space race, the Vietnam War, the rise of juvenile delinquency and family breakdown.

New Perspectives

Stanley Kubrick

"This edited collection brings together leading film historians to examine key aspects of United Artists' centennial history from its origins to the sometimes chaotic developments of the last four decades. The focus is on several key executives - ranging from Joseph Schenck to Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise - and on many of the people making films for United Artists, including Gloria Swanson, David O. Selznick, Kirk Douglas, the Mirisch brothers and Woody Allen. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, individual case studies explore the mutually supportive but also in places highly contentious relationships between United Artists and its suppliers, the difficult balance between artistic and commercial objectives, and the resulting hits and misses (among them The General, the Pink Panther franchise, Heaven's Gate, Cruising and Hot Tub Time Machine). The second title of the Routledge Hollywood Centenary series, United Artists is a fascinating and comprehensive study of the firm's history and legacy, perfect for students and researchers of cinema and film history, media Industries, and Hollywood"--

Peter Kramer

In 1967, Time Magazine's cover featured 'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967) and announced a renaissance in American cinema. The author looks at the influence this generation had on Hollywood at the time, not only in the aesthetics and politics of the films, but also the changes in the studio system.

From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars

The New Hollywood

Alan Lovell

Peter Kr?mer

Using the history of screen acting as a means of evaluating the style and approach of performers, the book explores the relationship between performance in the theatre, on film and television.

Screen Acting

In December 1967, Time magazine put Bonnie and Clyde on its cover and proudly declared that Hollywood cinema was undergoing a 'renaissance'. For the next few years, a wide range of formally and thematically challenging films were produced at the very centre of the American film industry, often (but by no means always) combining success at the box office with huge critical acclaim, both then and later. This collection brings together acknowledged experts on American cinema to examine thirteen key films from the years 1966 to 1974, starting with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a major studio release which was in effect exempted from Hollywood's Production Code and thus helped to liberate American filmmaking from (self-)censorship. Long-standing taboos to do with sex, violence, race relations, drugs, politics, religion and much else could now be broken, often in conjunction with extensive stylistic experimentation. Whereas most previous scholarship has examined these developments through the prism of auteurism, with its tight focus on film directors and their oeuvres, the contributors to this collection also carefully examine production histories and processes. In doing so they pay particular attention to the economic underpinnings and collaborative nature of filmmaking, the influence of European art cinema as well as of exploitation, experimental and underground films, and the connections between cinema and other media (notably publishing, music and theatre). Several chapters show how the innovations of the Hollywood Renaissance relate to further changes in American cinema from the mid-1970s onwards.

Revisiting American Cinema's Most Celebrated Era

The Hollywood Renaissance

On December 8, 1967 Time magazine put Bonnie and Clyde on its cover and announced, "The New Cinema: Violence Sex Art." The following decade has long been celebrated as a golden age in American film history. In this innovative study, Peter Krämer offers a systematic discussion of the biggest hits of the period (including The Graduate [1967], The Exorcist [1973] and Jaws [1975]). He relates the distinctive features of these hits to changes in the film industry, in its audiences and in American society at large.

Stanley Kubrick's futuristic juvenile delinquency movie A Clockwork Orange (1971) is an adaptation of Anthony Burgess' 1962 novel of the same title. Film and novel tell the story of an extremely violent teenager who allows himself to be subjected to aversion therapy (making him unable to indulge his violent and sexual impulses) so as to get out of prison; he then becomes the target of violent attacks and political manipulation which in turn culminate in the removal of his psychological conditioning. Drawing on new research in the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts London, Krämer's study explores the production, marketing and reception as well as the themes and style of A Clockwork Orange against the backdrop of Kubrick's previous work and of wider developments in cinema, culture and society from the 1950s to the early 1970s.

Oliver Gruner

Bringing together a group of international scholars from diverse academic backgrounds, ‘Grease Is the Word’ analyses the cultural phenomenon Grease. From the stage show’s first appearance in 1971 to the Hollywood film of 1978 and twenty-first century responses to the ‘Grease Megamix’, ‘Grease Is the Word’ reflects on the musical’s impact and enduring legacy. With essays covering everything from the film’s production history, political representations and industrial impact to its stars and reception, the book shines a spotlight on one of Broadway’s and Hollywood’s biggest commercial successes. By adopting a range of perspectives and drawing on various visual, textual and archival sources, the contributors maintain a vibrant dialogue throughout, offering a timely reappraisal of a musical that continues to resonate with fans and commentators the world over.

Exploring a Cultural Phenomenon

'Grease Is the Word'

Lee Grieveson

Professor Peter Kramer

The Silent Cinema Reader brings together key writings on cinema from the beginnings of film in 1894 to the advent of sound in 1927, addressing the development of film production and exhibition technologies, methods of distribution, film form, and film culture during this critical period on film history. Thematic sections address: film projection and variety shows; storytelling and the Nickelodeon; cinema and reform; feature films and cinema programs; classical Hollywood cinema and European national cinemas. Each section is introduced by the editors, and contains suggestions for further readings and film viewings.

The Silent Cinema Reader

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is widely regarded as one of the best films ever made. It has been celebrated for its beauty and mystery, its realistic depiction of space travel and dazzling display of visual effects, the breathtaking scope of its story, which reaches across millions of years, and the thought-provoking depth of its meditation on evolution, technology and humanity's encounters with the unknown. 2001 has been described as the most expensive avant-garde movie ever made and as a psychedelic trip, a unique expression of the spirit of the 1960s and as a timeless masterpiece. Peter Krämer's insightful study explores 2001's complex origins, the unique shape it took and the extraordinary impact it made on contemporary audiences, drawing on new research in the Stanley Kubrick Archive to challenges many of the widely-held assumptions about the film. This edition includes a new afterword by the author.

Peter Krämer

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