{"product_id":"a-companion-to-film-comedy-isbn-9781444338591","title":"A Companion to Film Comedy","description":"A wide-ranging survey of the subject that celebrates the variety and complexity of film comedy from the ‘silent’ days to the present, this authoritative guide offers an international perspective on the popular genre that explores all facets of its formative social, cultural and political context\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eA wide-ranging collection of 24 essays exploring film comedy from the silent era to the present\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eInternational in scope, the collection embraces not just American cinema, including Native American and African American, but also comic films from Europe, the Middle East, and Korea\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eEssays explore sub-genres, performers, and cultural perspectives such as gender, politics, and history in addition to individual works\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eEngages with different strands of comedy including slapstick, romantic, satirical and ironic\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eFeatures original entries from a diverse group of multidisciplinary international contributors\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e  \u003cp\u003eNotes on Editors and Contributors ix\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eComic Introduction: ‘‘Make ’em Laugh, make ’em Laugh!’’ 1\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart I Comedy Before Sound, and the Slapstick Tradition\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 The Mark of the Ridiculous and Silent Celluloid: Some Trends in American and European Film Comedy from 1894 to 1929 15\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eFrank Scheide\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 Pie Queens and Virtuous Vamps: The Funny Women of the Silent Screen 39\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eKristen AndersonWagner\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 ‘‘Sound Came Along and OutWent the Pies’’: The American Slapstick Short and the Coming of Sound 61\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eRob King\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart II Comic Performers in the Sound Era\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4 MutiniesWednesdays and Saturdays: Carnivalesque Comedy and the Marx Brothers 87\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eFrank Krutnik\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5 Jacques Tati and Comedic Performance 111\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eKevinW. Sweeney\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6 Woody Allen: Charlie Chaplin of New Hollywood 130\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDavid R. Shumway\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e7 Mel Brooks, Vulgar Modernism, and Comic Remediation 151\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eHenry Jenkins\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart III New Perspectives on Romantic Comedy and Masculinity\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e8 Humor and Erotic Utopia: The Intimate Scenarios of Romantic Comedy 175\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eCelestino Deleyto\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 Taking Romantic Comedy Seriously in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Before Sunset (2004) 196\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eLeger Grindon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e10 The View from the Man Cave: Comedy in the Contemporary ‘‘Homme-com’’ Cycle 217\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTamar Jeffers McDonald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e11 The Reproduction of Mothering: Masculinity, Adoption, and Identity in Flirting with Disaster 236\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eLucy Fischer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart IV Topical Comedy, Irony, and Humour Noir\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e12 It’s Good to be the King: Hollywood’s Mythical Monarchies, Troubled Republics, and Crazy Kingdoms 251\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eCharles Morrow\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e13 No Escaping the Depression: Utopian Comedy and the Aesthetics of Escapism in Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take it with You (1938) 273\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eWilliam Paul\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e14 The Totalitarian Comedy of Lubitsch’s To Be or Not To Be 293\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMaria DiBattista\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e15 Dark Comedy from Dr. Strangelove to the Dude 315\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMark Eaton\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart V Comic Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e16 Black Film Comedy as Vital Edge: A Reassessment of the Genre 343\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eCatherine A. John\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e17 Winking Like a One-Eyed Ford: American Indian Film Comedies on the Hilarity of Poverty 365\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJoshua B. Nelson\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e18 Ethnic Humor in American Film: The Greek Americans 387\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDan Georgakas\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart VI International Comedy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e19 Alexander Mackendrick: Dreams, Nightmares, and Myths in Ealing Comedy 409\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eClaire Mortimer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e20 Tragicomic Transformations: Gender, Humor, and the Plastic Body in Two Korean Comedies 432\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eJane Park\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e21 Comedy ‘‘Italian Style’’ and I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958) 454\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eRoberta Di Carmine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e22 ‘‘Laughter that Encounters a Void?’’: Humor, Loss, and the Possibility for Politics in Recent Palestinian Cinema 474\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNajat Rahman\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart VII Comic Animation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e23 Laughter is Ten Times More Powerful than a Scream: The Case of Animated Comedy 497\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ePaul Wells\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e24 Theatrical Cartoon Comedy: From Animated Portmanteau to the Risus Purus 521\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSuzanne Buchan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex 545\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e“And of course, it very much is. An important subject needs an important companion.  This is it. That’s all, folks.”  (\u003ci\u003eReference Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, 1 January 2014)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“This work is indispensible for any student or scholar who, in the spirit of Rabelais, Swift, and Chesterton, will laugh while studying film images. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.”  (\u003ci\u003eChoice,\u003c\/i\u003e 1 July 2013)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eAndrew Horton\u003c\/b\u003e is the Jeanne H. Smith Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma, USA. An award-winning screenwriter, he is also the author of twnty-eight books on film, screenwriting and cultural studies, including \u003ci\u003eScreenwriting for a Global Market\u003c\/i\u003e (2004), \u003ci\u003eWriting the Character-Centered Screenplay\u003c\/i\u003e (2nd edition, 2000), and \u003ci\u003eThe Films of Theo Angelopoulos\u003c\/i\u003e (2nd edition, 1999). His screenplays include Brad Pitt’s first feature film, \u003ci\u003eThe Dark Side of the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e (1988), and the award-winning \u003ci\u003eSomething in Between\u003c\/i\u003e (1983), directed by Srdjan Karanovic. He has led screenwriting workshops around the world as well as across the United States.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoanna E. Rapf\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor of English and Film \u0026amp; Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma, USA. She writes regularly about film comedy, with recent essays on Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harry Langdon, and Marie Dressler, and has edited books on a range of subjects including Sidney Lumet, \u003ci\u003eOn the Waterfront\u003c\/i\u003e, and Buster Keaton.\u003c\/p\u003e  From the very dawn of the era of moving pictures, filmmakers from Hollywood to Hong Kong have been playing it for laughs. Yet despite comedy’s levity as a form, the legendary French auteur François Truffaut called it ‘by far the most difficult genre, the one that demands the most work, the most talent, and also the most humility’.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cp\u003eThis wide-ranging celebration of the variety and complexity of international film comedy covers work from the days of silent movies to the present, and from around the world, including Europe, the Middle East and Asia as well as the United States. These specially commissioned essays map the myriad ways that comic films have reflected and influenced history, culture, politics, and social institutions. As well as engaging with different strands of comedy such as slapstick, romantic, satirical and ironic, the Companion tackles mixed comic genres, individual performers and directors, and broader topics including gender and social-political issues in comedy. Each subject is placed in its formative social, cultural and political context, while the multidisciplinary international contributors ensure a depth and breadth of perspective.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e“’Make 'em laugh!’ may be a Hollywood musical imperative, but exactly how to make em' laugh-- and what it means when they do-- is harder to figure out. For this provocative, eclectic, and, yes, amusing compendium of essays, editors Andrew Horton and Joanna E. Rapf have corralled a gifted ensemble of comic-minded film scholars to ruminate over the pratfalls, wisecracks, and zany antics that--from custard-pie-thick one-reelers to sappy rom-coms--have left motion picture audiences rolling in the aisles and rolling their eyes. In examining the mechanics and cultural meanings of the serious business of film comedy, the essayists herein tackle a dizzying array of laugh-inducing  genres (slapstick, screwball, sophisticated, ethnic, and gross-out, to name a few) and people  (Charles Chaplin, Ernest Lubitsch, Jacques Tati, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, and Ben Stiller, to name a very few).  Best of all, the essays in this film companion are themselves all sharp-witted and good-humored: in dissecting film comedy, they manage not to kill the patient.”\u003cbr\u003e - \u003ci\u003eThomas Doherty, Brandeis University\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“An impressive array of our best critical thinkers and an invaluable spectrum of comedians from Max Linder to Jim Carrey – it’s a vital, challenging addition to film comedy studies.\"\u003cbr\u003e - \u003ci\u003eEd Sikov\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“The most wide-ranging collection on the topic to appear in years, this volume features essays by both leading scholars and new voices that will both redefine and expand the ways we think about many kinds of film comedy and the artists who create it.”\u003cbr\u003e  –\u003ci\u003eMatthew H. Bernstein, Emory University\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wiley-Blackwell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47988606894309,"sku":"NP9781444338591","price":239.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781444338591.jpg?v=1761780949","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/a-companion-to-film-comedy-isbn-9781444338591","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}