Stella Bruzzi

Bruzzi relates contemporary cinema to the documentary tradition, exploring questions of authorship, spectatorship and 'truth' in the context of issues of race, gender and performance.

A Critical Introduction

New Documentary

Praise for New Documentary: 'It's refreshing to find a book that cuts through the tired old debates that have surrounded documentary film and television. It heralds a welcome new approach.' Sight and Sound 'Documentary practice changes so fast that books on the subject are often out of date before they are published. Bruzzi's achievement is to have understood the genre as an activity based on performance rather than observation. This is a fresh perspective which illuminates the fundamental shifts that will continue to take place in the genre as it enters its second century.' John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London New Documentary provides a contemporary look at documentary and fresh and challenging ways of theorising the non-fiction film. As engaging as the original, this second edition features thorough updates to the existing chapters, as well as a brand new chapter on contemporary cinema release documentaries. This new edition includes: Contemporary films such as Capturing the Friedmans, Être et avoir, Farenheit 9/11, The Fog of War and Touching the Void as well as more canonical texts such as Hoop Dreams and Shoah Additional interviews with influential practitioners, such as director Michael Apted and producer Stephen Lambert A comprehensively revised discussion of modern observational documentary, including docusoaps, reality television and formatted documentaries The work of documentary filmmakers such as Nicholas Barker, Errol Morris, Nick Broomfield, Molly Dineen and Michael Moore and the work of Avant-Garde filmmakers such as Chris Marker and Patrick Keiller Gender identity, queer theory, performance, race and spectatorship. Bruzzi shows how theories of documentary filmmaking can be applied to contemporary texts and genres, and discusses the relationship between recent, innovative examples of the genre and the more established canon of documentary.

'Seven Up' was made as a one-off documentary by Granada's flagship current affairs series 'World in Action' in 1964. This title discusses the ground-breaking series, looking at its origins and development within the context of British documentary history.

Seven Up

Pamela Church Gibson

From the catwalk to the shopping mall, from the big screen to the art museum, fashion plays an increasingly central role in contemporary culture. Fashion Cultures investigates why we are so fascinated by fashion and the associated spheres of photography, magazines and television, and shopping. Fashion Cultures: * re-addresses the fashionable image, considering the work of designers from Paul Smith to Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan * investigates the radicalism of fashion photography, from William Klein to Corinne Day * considers fashion for the 'unfashionable body' (the old and the big), football and fashion, and geographies of style * explores the relationship between fashion and the moving image in discussions of female cinema icons - from Grace Kelly to Gwyneth Paltrow - and iconic male images - from Cary Grant to Malcolm X and Mr Darcy - that have redefined notions of masculinity and cool * makes a significant intervention into contemporary gender politics and theory, exploring themes such as spectacle, masquerade, and the struggle between fashion and feminism.

Theories, Explorations and Analysis

Fashion Cultures

From Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy, to sharp-suited gangsters in Tarantino movies, clothing is central to film. In Undressing Cinema, Stella Bruzzi explores how far from being mere accessories, clothes are key elements in the construction of cinematic identities, and she proposes new and dynamic links between cinema, fashion and costume history, gender, queer theory and psychoanalysis. Bruzzi uses case studies drawn from contemporary popular cinema to reassess established ideas about costume and fashion in cinema, and to challenge conventional interpretations of how masculinity and femininity are constructed through clothing. Her wide-ranging study encompasses: * haute couture in film and the rise of the movie fashion designer, from Givenchy to Gaultier * the eroticism of period costume in films such as The Piano and The Age of Innocence * clothing the modern femme fatale in Single White Female, Disclosure and The Last Seduction * generic male chic in Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, and Leon * pride, costume and masculinity in `Blaxploitation' films, Boyz `N The Hood and New Jack City * drag and gender confusion in cinema, from the unerotic cross-dressing of Mrs Doubtfire to the eroticised ambiguity of Orlando.

Clothing and identity in the movies

Undressing Cinema

Following on from the ground-breaking collection Fashion Cultures, this second anthology, Fashion Cultures Revisited, contains 26 newly commissioned chapters exploring fashion culture from the start of the new millennium to the present day. The book is divided into six parts, each discussing different aspects of fashion culture: Shopping, spaces and globalisation Changing imagery, changing media Altered landscapes, new modes of production Icons and their legacies Contestation, compliance, feminisms Making masculinities Fashion Cultures Revisited explores every facet of contemporary fashion culture and the associated spheres of photography, magazines and television, and shopping .Consequently it is an ideal companion to those interested in fashion studies, cultural studies, art, film, fashion history, sociology and gender studies.

Stella Bruzzi

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