Showing posts with label Medieval on Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medieval on Film. Show all posts

Friday, June 10, 2016

New Book Chaucer on Screen

Came across this last month. No details yet on exact contents.

Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales
https://ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?books/book%20pages/kelly_pugh_chaucer.html
Edited by Kathleen Coyne Kelly and Tison Pugh
Foreword by Terry Jones

Ohio State University Press
Series: Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture

Books are expected to be available December 2016
$94.95 cloth
296 pp. 6x9
978-0-8142-1317-9

“This is a ground-breaking volume. It reflects a continued interest in the intersection of the medieval as a theme, subject matter, and source with more recent technologies and ways of (re)telling narratives.”—Kevin J. Harty, La Salle University

“This volume will be highly significant for scholars interested in adaptations of canonical texts, including but not limited to the medieval and Chaucer.” —Helen Young, La Trobe University

Unlike William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and other great authors who have enjoyed continued success in Hollywood, Geoffrey Chaucer has largely been shunted to the margins of the cinematic world. Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales, edited by Kathleen Coyne Kelly and Tison Pugh, investigates the various translations of Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales to film and television, tracing out how the legacies of the great fourteenth-century English poet have been revisited and reinterpreted through visual media. Contributors to this volume address the question of why Chaucer is so rarely adapted to the screen, and then turn to the occasional, often awkward, attempts to adapt his narratives, including such works as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s lyrical A Canterbury Tale (1944), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s still-controversial I racconti di Canterbury (1972), Bud Lee’s soft-core The Ribald Tales of Canterbury (1985), Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale (2001), and BBC television productions, among others. Chaucer on Screen aims to rethink some of the premises of adaptation studies and to erase the ideological lines between textual sources and visual reimaginings in the certainty that many pleasures, scholarly and otherwise, can be found in multiple media across disparate eras.

Kathleen Coyne Kelly is Professor of English at Northeastern University. Tison Pugh is Professor of English at the University of Central Florida.



Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Elliott's The Return of Epic Film

Seems I'm very much behind here. More details on recent scholarship in the field.

The Return of the Epic Film: Genre, Aesthetics and History in the 21st Century
Edited By: Andrew Elliot
(Information from Edinburgh University Press)
(Information from Oxford University Press)

Edinburgh University Press
Publication Date: Mar 2014
Dimensions: 234 x 156 mm
Extent: 240 pages
Illustrations:
12 bw Ill., film stills

Hardback
ISBN: 9780748684021
Price: £70.00

Paperback
ISBN: 9781474402842
Price: £19.99

This book is distributed in North & South America by Oxford University Press USA

Hardcover (01 April 2014) for $120.00 (same ISBN as UK edition)

Paperback (available for pre-orders and will ship on 01 March 2015) $34.95 (same ISBN as UK edition)


Details (Edinburgh)

Explores the return of the ‘epic’ in twenty-first-century cinema

With the success of Gladiator, both critics and scholars enthusiastically announced the return of a genre which had lain dormant for thirty years. However, this return raises important new questions which remain unanswered. Why did the epic come back, and why did it fall out of fashion? Are these the same kinds of epics as the 1950s and 60s, or are there aesthetic differences? Can we treat Kingdom of Heaven, 300 and Thor indiscriminately as one genre? Are non-Western histories like Hero and Mongol epics, too? Finally, what precisely do we mean when we talk about the return of the epic film, and why are they back?
The Return of the Epic Film offers a fresh way of thinking about a body of films which has dominated our screens for a decade. With contributions from top scholars in the field, the collection adopts a range of interdisciplinary perspectives to explore the epic film in the twenty-first century.


Details (Oxford)

What does the new epic film now look like? How is it classified? Why has it returned?

The success of Gladiator re-launched a genre which had lain dormant for 35 years. The Return of the Epic Film is one of the first books to examine this return as a coherent body of films. Studying a range of films from Gladiator to Clash of the Titans, the various essays question how we define these new epics, their aesthetics, their relationship to history, and who decides which films should be in the canon. Over the course of 11 essays by key figures in the field, the book examines in what ways, why, and how the epic film has returned to our cinemas.

By embracing a range of approaches which take into account the production process, and by questioning the canon of films conventionally accepted as epics, this book will inspire Film Studies students and scholars to rethink the epic film.


Contents

Introduction: The Return of the Epic, Andrew B.R. Elliott (read online)

Part I: Epics and Ancient History
Sir Ridley Scott and the Rebirth of the Epic, Jeffrey Richards
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and America since the Second World War: Some Cinematic Parallels, Kevin J. Harty
There’s Nothing So Wrong with a Hollywood Script that a Bunch of Giant CGI Scorpions Can’t Solve: Politics, Computer Generated Images and Camp in the Critical Reception of the Post-Gladiator Historical Epics: Mark Jancovich
Popcorn and Circus: An Audience Expects, Robert Stow

Part II: Epic Aesthetics and Genre
Colour in the Epic Film: Alexander and Hero, Robert Burgoyne
Defining the Epic: Medieval and Fantasy Epics, Paul Sturtevant
Special Effects, Reality, and the New Epic, Andrew B.R. Elliott

Part III: Epic Films and the Canon
Pass the Ammunition: A Short Etymology of Blockbuster, Sheldon Hall
Epic Stumbling Blocks, Saër Maty Bâ
The Greatest Epic of the 21st Century?, Deborah Bridge
Ramayana and Sita in Films and Popular Media: The Repositioning of a Globalised Version, Aarttee Kaul Dhar


Editor

Andrew B.R. Elliott is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lincoln, UK, where he works on the depiction of history in popular culture. In addition to his work on epics, he has written on the use of the Middle Ages, Robin Hood, Vikings, and Classical Antiquity in film, as well as the depiction of the past in video games and television.





New/Recent: Medieval Motion Picture: The Politics of Adaptation

Here's another recent book of interest. This one looks to be from mostly European scholars.

The Medieval Motion Picture: The Politics of Adaptation
Edited by Andrew James Johnston, Margitta Rouse, Philipp Hinz
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Series The New Middle Ages

$95.00
ISBN 9780230112506
Publication Date April 2014
Hardcover (256 pages)
Formats Hardcover Ebook (EPUB) Ebook (PDF)

Details

Providing new and challenging ways of understanding the medieval in the modern and vice versa, The Medieval Motion Picture: The Politics of Adaptation highlights how medieval aesthetic experience breathes life into contemporary cinema. Engaging with the subject of time and temporality, the essays examine the politics of adaptation and our contemporary entanglement with the medieval: not only in overtly medieval-themed films but also in such diverse genres as thrillers, horror films, performance animation, and even science fiction. Among the films and TV shows discussed are productions such as HBO's award winning series Game of Thrones, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, Akira Kurosawa's Ran, and M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense.


Contents

Introduction: Temporalities of Adaptation; Andrew James Johnston and Margitta Rouse (read online)

1. "Now is the time": Shakespeare's Medieval Temporalities in Akira Kurosawa's Ran; Jocelyn Keller and Wolfram R. Keller

2. Dracula's Times: Adapting the Middle Ages in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula; Cordula Lemke

3. Rethinking Anachronism for Medieval Film in Richard Donner's Timeline; Margitta Rouse

4. Otherness Redoubled and Refracted: Intercultural Dialogues in The Thirteenth Warrior; Judith Klinger

5. Crisis Discourse and Art Theory: Richard Wagner's Legacy in Films; Veith von Fürstenberg and Kevin Reynolds Stefan Keppler-Tasaki

6. Adaptation as Hyperreality: The (A)historicism of Trauma in Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf; Philipp Hinz and Margitta Rouse

7. Perils of Generation: Incest, Romance and the Proliferation of Narrative in Game of Thrones; Martin Bleisteiner

8. Arthurian Myth and Cinematic Horror: M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense; Hans Jürgen Scheuer

9. Marian Re-writes the Legend: The Temporality of Archaeological Remains in Richard Lester's Robin and Marian; Andrew James Johnston

Bibliography


Editors

Andrew James Johnston is Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and author of Performing the Middle Ages from Beowulf to Othello.

Margitta Rouse is Assistant Professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. She teaches medieval English literature as well as cinematic adaptation.

Philipp Hinz curates film festivals and publishes stage-to-screen adaptations on DVD.

Friday, October 31, 2014

October 2014 Listings on Syfy

Here are the listings for this past month, October 2014, on Syfy. There are the usual movie repeats as well as a new medieval-themed episode of Face Off.


THURS., 2 OCT

01:00 AM
Movie: Witchslayer Gretl
03:00 AM
Movie: Witchville

09:30 AM
Movie: Witchville
11:30 AM
Movie: Witchslayer Gretl


SUN., 5 OCT

03:30 AM
Movie: Dark Relic


MON., 13 OCT

11:00 AM
Movie: Dracula 2000


THURS.,16 OCT

11:00 AM
Movie: Reign of the Gargoyles
01:00 PM
Movie: Grendel


FRI., 17 OCT

08:30 AM
Movie: Dracula 2000
12:30 AM
Movie: Dracula II: Ascension


SAT., 18 OCT

02:00 AM
Movie: Dracula 2000
4:00 AM
Movie: Dracula II: Ascension


TUES., 28 OCT

09:00 PM
Face Off: One Knight Only (season 7 finale ends with "A knight challenge")

11:00 PM
Face Off: One Knight Only


WEDNES., 29 OCT

03:00 PM
Ghost Hunters: Knights of the Living Dead (at Higgins Armory Museum)


FRI., 31 OCT

11:00 PM
Face Off: One Knight Only




Syfy Listings for September 2014

I seem to be forever catching up here. Here at last are the listings for September 2014. October 2014 will follow tonight and the rest of the 2014 backlog this weekend.

WEDNES., 3 SEPT

03:00 AM
Movie: Sinbad and the Minotaur

02:30 PM
Ghost Hunters: Knights of the Living Dead (Higgins Armory Museum)


THURS., 4 SEPT

11:10 PM
Syfy Original Movie: Thor: Hammer of the Gods


FRI., 5 SEPT

3:20 AM
Movie: Almighty Thor

11:00 PM
The Almighty Johnsons: "Hunting Reindeer on Slippery Rocks"


SAT., 6 SEPT

12:00 AM
The Almighty Johnsons: "Every Good Quest Has a Sacrifice"

03:00 AM
The Almighty Johnsons: "Hunting Reindeer on Slippery Rocks"
04:00 AM
The Almighty Johnsons: "Every Good Quest Has a Sacrifice"


SUN., 7 SEPT

1:30 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Riverworld (Part 1)
3:30 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Riverworld (Part 2)


WEDNES., 10 SEPT

01:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Black Forest
03:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Witchville

03:30 PM
Movie: Vikingdom

09:00 PM
Movie: Robin Hood


FRI., 12 SEPT

12:10 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Aladdin And The Death Lamp

04:10 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Book Of Beasts, The


SAT., 13 SEPT

04:00 PM
Movie: Outlander


MON., 15 SEPT

05:00 AM
The Twilight Zone: A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain


THURS., 25 SEPT

11:30 AM
Movie: Jabberwock


FRI., 26 SEPT

12:35 AM
Movie: Dracula 2000
02:35 AM
Movie: Dracula II: Ascension

09:00 AM
Movie: Dracula 2000
11:00 AM
Movie: Dracula II: Ascension


Friday, January 24, 2014

Chiller July 2013

Here is the final listing from Chiller featuring material from last July:

MON., 1 JULY
7:00 AM
The Outer Limits: The Shroud


WEDNES., 10 JULY
03:00 AM
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
A slacker takes a job directing a weird spinoff of "Hamlet" starring a vampire. [Actually, a Grail film.]


MON., 29 JULY
07:00 AM
The Outer Limits: The Tipping Point

Monday, January 20, 2014

Syfy December 2013

Continuing from the previous post, here are the relevant listings from Syfy for December 2013.

Lost data 12/9.

SAT., 7 DEC
09:00 AM
Movie: Stargate: The Ark Of Truth

03:30 PM
Movie: Outlander


SUN., 8 DEC
12:00 AM
Movie: Outlander


TUES., 10 DEC
10:00 PM
Killer Contact: Vlad The Impaler: Dracula [premiere]


WEDNES., 11 DEC
12:00 AM
Killer Contact: Vlad The Impaler: Dracula
01:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Gryphon
03:00 AM
Movie: Book Of Beasts, The

07:00 PM
Killer Contact: Vlad The Impaler: Dracula

10:00 PM
Killer Contact: Lucrezia Borgia [premiere] 


THURS., 12 DEC
12:00 AM
Killer Contact: Lucrezia Borgia

03:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Beyond Sherwood Forest

03:00 PM
Syfy Original Movie: Rock Monster
05:00 PM
Syfy Original Movie: Dungeons & Dragons: The Book Of Vile Darkness

11:30 PM
Syfy Original Movie
Dungeons & Dragons: The Book Of Vile Darkness


FRI., 13 DEC
01:30 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Rock Monster


SAT., 14 DEC
Dec 14
07:00 PM
Movie: Underworld: Evolution


SUN., 15 DEC
05:00 PM
Movie: Underworld: Evolution


TUES., 17 DEC
01:00 AM
Movie: Dracula 2000


WEDNES., 18 DEC
01:00 PM
Killer Contact: Vlad The Impaler: Dracula
02:00 PM
Killer Contact: Lucrezia Borgia


FRI., 20 DEC
09:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Beauty And The Beasts: A Dark Tale
11:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Almighty Thor


THURS., 26 DEC
03:00 PM
Syfy Original Movie: Witchslayer Gretl


FRI., 27 DEC
01:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Witchslayer Gretl

10:00 PM
Movie: Underworld: Evolution


SAT., 28 DEC
01:30 PM
Movie: Outlander


SUN.,29 DEC
09:00 AM
Movie: Outlander

Syfy November 2013

Catching up (again). Here are the relevant listings from Syfy for November 2013.

Lost data for 11/1-11/3, 11/10-11/11, and 11/28.

MON., 4 NOV
09:30 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Dark Relic


TUES., 5 NOV
07:00 PM
Face Off: Dark Magic


THURS., 7 NOV
03:00 PM
Movie: Stargate: The Ark Of Truth


FRI., 8 NOV
02:00 AM
Movie: Stargate: The Ark Of Truth

03:00 PM
Syfy Original Movie: Reign Of The Gargoyles


THURS., 14 NOV
1:00 AM
Movie: Dracula 2000
03:00 AM
Movie: Wes Craven Presents: Dracula II: Ascension


MON., 18 NOV
08:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Grendel
10:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Dragon Dynasty
12:00 PM
Syfy Original Movie: Fire And Ice


WEDNES., 20 NOV
01:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie: Rise Of The Gargoyles


MON., 25 NOV
08:00 AM
Merlin: The Diamond Of The Day - Part One
09:00 AM
Merlin: The Diamond Of The Day - Part Two
10:00 AM
Movie: In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale



Monday, September 9, 2013

CFPs PCA/ACA 2014 (11/1/13)

The Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association has published its calls for papers for the 2014 meeting in Chicago. Relevant areas include the following. Click the link for further details:


Medievalism in Popular Culture

Shakespeare on Film and Television

Tolkien Studies - Special Topic – New for 2014!

Adaptation (Film, TV, Lit., & Electronic Gaming)

 

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Open Call Quarterly Review of Film and Video

A head's up from the MLA's Announcements of General Interest list:

Quarterly Review of Film and Video (QRFV) seeks new submissions on film, video, and moving-image studies. QRFV is devoted to providing innovative perspectives from a broad range of methodologies, including writings on newly developing technologies, as well as essays and interviews in any area of film history, production, reception, and criticism. The editors invite compelling, well-crafted essays on all aspects of film and the moving image—history, theory, and criticism—and welcomes essays on video games and video installations, the moving image in popular culture, and the ways in which the digital and filmic image now intersect in production, distribution, and exhibition. Also of interest are articles that explore the recovery of neglected films and issues arising from the digitization of the moving image, as well as interviews with directors, festival reports, and theoretical essays. QRFV regularly publishes 6–10-page book reviews. Potential reviewers should query the editors before undertaking a review. The editors also assign reviews. Submissions are accepted throughout the year; there is no deadline. The journal publishes five issues a year (four regular issues and one year-end special issue). Articles range from 20 to 35 pages in length, including notes and works-cited list, and may be in MLA or Chicago format. The complete guidelines for QRFV articles and reviews can be downloaded at http://eng-wdixon.unl.edu/format.html. The Transfer of Copyright Agreement, which must be downloaded, signed by the author, and submitted with each article or review, is at http://eng-wdixon.unl.edu/qrfv.pdf. Send submissions to wheelerdixon@windstream.net. For more information, write or call the editors, Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Dept. of English, 202 Andrews Hall, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln 68588-0333 (402 472-6064; fax: 402 472-9771).

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Sword in Stone and Robin Hood Updates

Advance reviews of both The Sword in thse Stone and Robin Hood Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Edition combo packs reveal that both releases will include concept art for scenes deleted from the films. Further details at the following site:

The Sword in the Stone:

http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-review/the-sword-in-the-stone-dual-format-edition/disney/1202

http://moviemansguide.com/main/2013/07/review-swordinthestone-bd/


Robin Hood:

http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-review/robin-hood-dual-format-edition/disney/1204

http://moviemansguide.com/main/2013/07/review-robinhood-bd/



Kozintsev’s Shakespeare Films by Tiffany Ann Conroy Moore

Sorry to have missed this:

Kozintsev’s Shakespeare Films: Russian Political Protest in Hamlet and King Lear
https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/kozintsevs-shakespeare-films/
Tiffany Ann Conroy Moore
McFarland

Price: $40.00
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-7135-5
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-4766-0028-4
9 photos, notes, bibliography, index
202pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2012

Available for immediate shipment

About the Book

This book is a study of Grigory Kozintsev’s two cinematic Shakespeare adaptations, Hamlet (Gamlet, 1964), and King Lear (Korol Lir, 1970). The films are considered in relation to the historical, artistic and cultural contexts in which they appear, and in relation to the contributions of Dmitri Shostakovich, who wrote the films’ scores; and Boris Pasternak, whose translations Kozintsev used. The films are analyzed respective to their place in the translation and performance history of Hamlet and King Lear from their first appearances in Tsarist Russian arts and letters. In particular, this study is concerned with the ways in which these plays have been used as a means to critique the government and the country’s problems in an age in which official censorship was commonplace. Kozintsev’s films (as well as his theatrical productions of Hamlet and Lear) continue along this trajectory of protest by providing a vehicle for him and his collaborators to address the oppression, violence and corruption of Soviet society. It was just this sort of covert political protest that finally effected the dissolution and fall of the USSR.


Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Preface 1

Introduction 3

1. Kozintsev’s Contexts 1: Hamlet in Russia in the 18th and 19th Centuries 25

2. Kozintsev’s Contexts 2: Soviet Hamlets from the Revolution until after Stalin’s Death 52

3. Hamlet in the "Thaw" and Kozintsev’s 1964 Film Adaptation 74

4. Kozintsev’s Contexts 3: Russian and Soviet King Lears from the 18th Century through World War II 106

5. King Lear Revisited in the Brezhnev Era: Kozintsev’s 1970 Film Adaptation 136

Epilogue 179

Chapter Notes 182

Bibliography 185

Index 193


About the Author

Tiffany Ann Conroy Moore teaches writing, literature, film and public speaking at several colleges in Southern New Hampshire.

[link updated 25 June 2018]

Reel Middle Ages at 15

For immediate release:

In 1999, Kevin J. Harty's The Reel Middle Ages: American, Western and Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Asian Films About Medieval Europe was published by McFarland and ushered in a renascence for the study of medieval subjects on film, television, and electronic games.

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages seeks help in commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of this ground-breaking work. If you are interested in helping us to further the study of the medieval on screen, please sign up to our moderated discussion list Medieval Studies at the Movies at http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/MSAM_DL/ , which will be re-launched later this year, and/or become a follower of our blog Medieval Studies on Screen at http://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/ . Previous members of the discussion list are asked to contact the list moderator, as many accounts are now inactive.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Co-Founder, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Monday, July 29, 2013

From the Disney Vault Update

Disney is re-releasing both The Sword in the Stone (1963) and Robin Hood (1973) to Blu-ray next month as part of special anniversary editions including digital copies of both films (whether purchased as part of the DVD or Blu-Ray/DVD combo sets). Both were recently released as DVD special editions (in 2008 and 2006, respectively). No word yet on whether or not they will include any new extras. I append the advertisement from the Disney Movie Club. Both films can also be purchased from various online sellers, though, curiously, Disney's own DisneyStore.com fails to list either product.

Also of interest, the Disney Movie Club is offering Season 2, Volume 2 of the popular 1990s' series Gargoyles as a 3-disc club exclusive. The set completes the season (first released to DVD in 2005). The Gargoyles are originally from 10th century Scotland but active in the modern world, where they interact with a number of figures from medieval myth and legend, including Macbeth, King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake, Cú Chulainn, Odin, and the Weird Sisters from Macbeth. In addition, this half of the season introduces Titania (from Midsummer Night's Dream) into the Gargoyles universe and also integrates both her and Puck (also from MND) firmly into the Gargoyle's extended family.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Contents for Beowulf on Film

According to WorldCat here are the contents for Haydock and Risden's Beowulf on Film: Adaptations and Variations due out from McFarland this fall:

Introduction-a Freud complex and the problem of Beowulf in film / E.L. Risden --

Film theory, the sister arts tradition and the cinematic Beowulf / Nickolas Haydock --

The cinematic commoditization of Beowulf: The serial fetishizing of a hero / E.L. Risden --

Making sacrifices / Nickolas Haydock --

The hero, the mad male Id, and a feminist Beowulf: the sexualizing of an Epic / E.L. Risden --

Dragon, where art thou? "othering" in Beowulf films / E.L. Risden --

Meat puzzles: Beowulf and the horror film / Nickolas Haydock --

Our man Beowulf: Bowra, Ker, and the contemporary struggle with heroism / E.L. Risden --

Conclusion-the postmodern Beowulf / Nickolas Haydock.


In addition, in terms of cataloging, the book is listed solely as Beowulf -- Film adaptations; this is unfortunate, for it fails to link to the larger range of scholarship on medievalisms on screen.


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Haines's Music in Films on the Middle Ages

Update number three for the night highlights an intriguing new book from Routledge (unfortunately the price may limit its reach):

Music in Films on the Middle Ages: Authenticity vs. Fantasy
By John Haines

To Be Published October 14th 2013 by Routledge

Series: Routledge Research in Music

Hardback: $125.00
978-0-415-82412-5
Available for pre-order

DESCRIPTION:

This book explores the role of music in the some five hundred feature-length films on the Middle Ages produced between the late 1890s and the present day, ranging from historical epics such as Joan the Woman (1917) to medievalist stories such as The Lord of the Rings (2001-3). Haines focuses on the tension in these films between authenticity and fantasy, between the surviving evidence for medieval music and the idiomatic tradition of cinematic music. The latter is taken broadly as any musical sound occurring in a film, from the clang of a bell off-screen to a minstrel singing his song; it includes both diegetic and non-diegetic modes. Medieval film music must is considered in the broader historical context of pre-cinematic medievalisms, on the one hand, and, on the other, of medievalist cinema’s main development in the course of the twentieth century as an American appropriation of European culture. The book treats six pervasive moments that define the genre of what could be called medieval film: the church-tower bell, the trumpet fanfare or horn call, the music of banquets and courts, the singing minstrel, performances of Gregorian chant, and the music that accompanies horse-riding knights, with each chapter visiting representative films as case studies. These six signal musical moments create a fundamental visual-aural core that is central to making a film feel medieval to modern audiences, and these musical stereotypes originate in medievalist works predating cinema by some three centuries.


CONTENTS:

Preface
1. The Making of the Middle Ages
2. The Bell
3. The Trumpet Fanfare and the Horn Call
4. Banquet and Court Music
5. The Singing Minstrel
6. Chant
7. The Riding Warrior
8. Conclusion
References
Filmography


AUTHOR BIO:

John Haines is Professor of Music History and Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Return of A Knight at the Movies

Two of three updates for the night:

This just in from Routledge--

A Knight at the Movies: Medieval History on Film, 2nd Edition 
By John Aberth

To Be Published June 30th 2014 by Routledge – 352 pages

Purchasing Options:

Paperback:
$39.95
978-0-415-82532-0
Not yet available

Hardback:
$130.00
978-0-415-82531-3
Not yet available


Details on the first edition are available from the publisher at http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415938860/ and on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Movies-Medieval-History-Film/dp/0415938864/.

The new edition includes about 20 additional pages. It is unknown at this point how extensive the revisions will be. It also not yet available for pre-ordering from Amazon.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Lee on Cold War Comics and Films

With apologies for the multiple cross-postings:

Lee, Peter W. “Red Days, Black Knights: Medieval-themed Comic Books in American Containment Culture.”Corporate Medievalism II. Ed. Karl Fugelso. Studies in Medievalism 22. Cambridge, Eng.: D. S. Brewer-Boydell & Brewer, 2013. 181-200. Print.


Haydock on Beowulf in SiM

From the latest volume of Studies in Medievalism:


Haydock, Nickolas. “Film Theory, the Sister Arts Tradition, and the Cinematic Beowulf.” Corporate Medievalism II. Ed. Karl Fugelso. Studies in Medievalism 22. Cambridge, Eng.: D. S. Brewer-Boydell & Brewer, 2013. 153-80. Print.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Wood's The Medieval Filmscape

Coming this December from McFarland. Wood is no stranger to Medieval Studies on screen, but the idea that this is "an informal attempt at defining the genre" does worry me a bit (not to mention the fact that medievalism on film is transgeneric). More to follow as available.


The Medieval Filmscape:Reflections of Fear and Desire in a Cinematic Mirror
William F. Woods 

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-4651-3
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-4766-1341-3
ca. 20 photos, filmography, notes, bibliography, index
softcover (6 x 9) 2013
Price: $40.00
Not Yet Published, Available Fall/Winter 2013

About the Book

This book is an informal attempt at defining the genre of medieval film by describing its features and analyzing its effects and their significance, there being few works presently available that work toward such definition. There are three parts: the introduction enters the medieval film world, describing its typical features and showing how they create a convincing sense of its time; three short chapters discuss authenticity, simplicity and spectacle--the roots of film medievalism; and six longer chapters comment on individual films. Works are discussed that extend the reach of the genre, such as Dreyer’s La Passion de Jeanne D’Arc with its emotional range, or Bergman’s Seventh Seal, which creates a universal symbolism. In short, the author describes what goes into a medieval film and how it affects its audience, while offering suggestions about why its themes are meaningful to us.

About the Author

William F. Woods is the M.V. Hughes Professor of English at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. He lives in Wichita.