What Goes Around Comes Around: The Films of Jonathan Demme

What Goes Around Comes Around: The Films of Jonathan Demme
ISBN-10
0809319837
ISBN-13
9780809319831
Series
What Goes Around Comes Around
Category
Motion picture producers and directors
Pages
176
Language
English
Published
1996
Publisher
SIU Press
Authors
Michael Bliss, Christina Banks

Description

This superb study by Michael Bliss and Christina Banks is the first book-length work to critically address the films of Jonathan Demme, from his first major work in 1974, Caged Heat, to his most recent, Philadelphia. In tracing the themes and techniques that Demme has developed and perfected through two decades, Bliss and Banks point out the distinctive qualities of a Demme film: his sensitive and sympathetic treatment of characters; his use of wry humor, which aids his audience in appreciating human shortcomings; and his sense of joy in the filmmaking process. A graduate of what might be called the Roger Corman School of Filmmaking, Demme quickly managed to outgrow his exploitation film background and establish himself as a director whose concerns for humanistic issues, use of the newest and finest strains in contemporary music, and fascination with darker subjects in the midst of an often comic vision mark him as an impressive cinematic force. Demme is more interested in interpersonal relations and feelings than in deeds, an attitude complemented by his focus on issues of sexual equality and justice. Allowing for the kinds of fictional conclusions involving renewal and hope that exemplify the true mythos of comedy, Demme's films exemplify a statement that occurs in both Something Wild and Married to the Mob: "What goes around comes around".

Other editions

Similar books

  • 'I was a Flawed Modernist': Collected Writings by Paul Sharits, Collected Stories about Paul Sharits
    By Paul Sharits

    'I was a Flawed Modernist': Collected Writings by Paul Sharits, Collected Stories about Paul Sharits

  • Film Directors: A Complete Guide
    By Michael Singer

    May 28 , 1955 - Toronto , Ontario , Canada Business : Sullivan Films , 16 Clarence Square , Toronto , Ontario M5V 1H1 , Canada , 416 / 597-0029 Agent : William Morris Agency - Beverly Hills , 310 / 274-7451 KRIEGHOFF ( TF ) Sullivan ...

  • Playing Piano in a Brothel - M E M O I R S O F A F I L M...
    By Peter Duffell

    I am sure this book will be a great success and will help people to understand how films are made, particularly when the result is clearly the work of a highly skilled hand.

  • Take Ten: Contemporary British Film Directors
    By David Price, Jonathan Hacker

    FILMS DIRECTED BY LINDSAY ANDERSON 1948 1949 1952 Meet the Pioneers . 33 mins . Richard Sutcliffe Ltd. PRODUCERS : Desmond and Lois Sutcliffe . PHOTOGRAPHY : John Jones and Edward Brendon . EDITORS : Lindsay Anderson and Edward Brendon ...

  • David Lynch: Interviews
    By Richard A. Barney

    FORM : And , as far as I know , your house was designed by Lloyd Wright , son of Frank Lloyd Wright . Correct . Lloyd Wright designed the house that I live in , the Beverly Johnson House , in the sixties . Lloyd Wright's son , Eric ...

  • My Mother was Nuts: A Memoir
    By Penny Marshall

    He was a year older than me and later married my friend Jayne Center. When I was in seventh grade, my sister gave me a diary for Christmas and I filled pages with concern and speculation about being asked to the Valentine's Day dance.

  • William Beaudine: From Silents to Television
    By Wendy L. Marshall

    Production manager : Glenn Cook . Music director : Edward J. Kay . Cast : Ralph Morgan , Kane Richmond , Teala Loring , Marjorie Hoshelle , George Meeker , Jayne Hazard , Dewey Robinson , Alan Foster 330 Filmography.

  • Albert Capellani: Pioneer of the Silent Screen
    By Kevin Brownlow, Christine Leteux

    This is a detailed biography of Albert Capellani, affectionately nicknamed 'Cap' by the Americans.

  • Hitchcock's Rereleased Films: From Rope to Vertigo
    By Walter Raubicheck, Walter Srebnick

    In his discussion of Rear Window , Stam analyzes the Jefferies figure as analogous to the film's spectators : his desire is manifested as scopophilia , " looking " as the primary source of sexual pleasure . For Stam the focus of the ...

  • Jonathan Demme: Interviews
    By Robert E. Kapsis

    ... The Neville Brothers ( “ Sister Rosa , " 1987 ) ; Les Frères Parent and The Neville Brothers ( “ Konbit , " 1988 ) ; The Feelies ( “ Away , " 1988 ) ; KRS - One ( “ Heal , " 1990 ) ; Steve Earle ( “ Rich Man's War , " 2004 ) .