Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

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types with individuality and humanity, making them into differentiated characters. CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD Although character actors as a group are associated with the studio period, they are also valued in the New Hollywood. In the more naturalistic context of film acting since the 1960s, the ordinariness of character actors is their stock in trade, belying though it does their idiosyncrasy and frequently their range. In one evening at the movies in September 1979 Charles Durning (b. 1923) was seen in Starting Over, a film then being sneakpreviewed; in North Dallas Forty, the theater’s regular feature; and in the coming-attractions trailer for yet a third movie, When a Stranger Calls. Continuing this cyclical, generational theme, in 2002 John C. Reilly (b. 1965), the kind of supporting actor, who, like Mitchell and Durning, is called ‘‘dependable’’ by reviewers, had featured roles in three of the five Academy AwardÒ nominees for Best Picture: Chicago, The Hours, andGangs of New York. The year before, Jim Broadbent (b. 1951), a ‘‘reliable’’ British character actor, had played key roles alongside three of the Best Actress nominees, Judi Dench (b. 1934) in Iris, Nicole Kidman (b. 1967) in Moulin Rouge, and Renee Zellweger (b. 1969) in Bridget Jones’s Diary. After all this fine support, the least the Academy could do was name Broadbent the year’s Best Supporting Actor, which it did, for Iris. After films made them known, Durning, Reilly, and Broadbent all found on the stage, where each of them started, a fount of lead roles. Furthermore, Durning, a veteran of D-Day who continued to maintain a full work schedule in his eighties, also found television to be a steadier source of meaty roles than the movies, just as Thomas Mitchell had five decades before. Very occasionally, actors have broken through to lead roles and stardom after years of character parts: examples are Walter Matthau (1920–2000), Lee Marvin (1924–1987), Tommy Lee Jones (b. 1946), Morgan Freeman (b. 1937), and Paul Giamatti (b. 1967). Others, such as Claude Rains (1899–1967), Kathy Bates (b. 1948), Mary Steenburgen (b. 1953), John Heard (b. 1946), Alfre Woodard (b. 1952), Ed Harris (b. 1950), and Jon Voight (b. 1938), receded into character roles after taking a run at stardom. Women, in the gender caste system of Hollywood, are more likely than men to fall from lead roles to character parts after age forty, and are much more likely to find work on television than in films. Character actors, unlike some stars, are usually equally adept at drama and comedy. The same qualities that make these actors effective as menacing heavies or pathetic victims can render them comic as well. For Character Actors Ed Harris in Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992). EVERETT COLLECTION. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION. example, Durning, a skilled farceur, started in films playing tough cops and other gruff professionals in The Sting (1973), The Front Page (1974), The Hindenburg (1975), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and others. A former hoofer, Durning was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, the only nomination accorded the musical comedy Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), in which he appeared in a single scene as a prevaricating singing governor in a show-stopping number, ‘‘Sidestep.’’ The same year he conveyed ardor, hurt feelings, and embarrassment, all with delicate comic timing, as a would-be suitor to Dustin Hoffman-in-drag in Tootsie. Years later he played broad comedy in two Joel and Ethan Coen pastiches, The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) (as another dancing governor), which pay homage to the breakneck comedies of Capra and Preston Sturges (1898–1959) with their large retinues of character actors (often the same ones shared between them). Short, overweight, with a bulbous nose, Durning was probably born to play W. C. Fields in some never-tobe-made biopic, but will have to settle instead for the anti-Fields, Santa Claus, whom Durning has portrayed five times to date in TV films or movies made for the children’s video market, such as Elmo Saves Christmas (1996). SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM 249
Character Actors SEE ALSO Acting; Casting; Star System; Stars; Studio System; Supporting Actors FURTHER READING Davis, Ronald L. The Glamour Factory: Inside Hollywood’s Big Studio System. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, 1993. DeCordova, Richard. Picture Personalities: The Emergence of the Star System in America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Dyer, Richard. Stars. London: British Film Institute, 1979. Naremore, James. Acting in the Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Roof, Judith. All about Thelma and Eve: Sidekicks and Third Wheels. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Dennis Bingham 250 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM
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Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film
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Project Editor Michael J. Tyrkus Ed
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VOLUME 1 Contents Preface IX List o
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PREFACE subject in English. In a fe
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LIST OF ARTICLES CO-PRODUCTIONS Mar
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LIST OF ARTICLES UNIVERSAL Thomas S
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Academy Awards Ò members fund the
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Academy Awards Ò Denzel Washington
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Academy Awards Ò KATHARINE HEPBURN
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Academy Awards Ò Katharine Hepburn
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The performances seen in films refl
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films and high-concept blockbusters
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However, in contrast to media celeb
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encounter film performances. Anothe
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John Cassavetes. EVERETT COLLECTION
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Bertolt Brecht. EVERETT COLLECTION.
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Portrait of Marlon Brando at the ti
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Pearson, Roberta E. Eloquent Gestur
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Action and Adventure Films Bruce Wi
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Action and Adventure Films ERROL FL
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Action and Adventure Films and high
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Action and Adventure Films Arnold S
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It seems certain that the first ‘
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the Garbo vehicle A Woman of Affair
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JOHN HUSTON b. Nevada, Missouri, 5
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provide formidable barriers that ha
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RAYMOND CHANDLER b. Chicago, Illino
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Witches of Salem, 1957), from The C
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Africa South of the Sahara Senegale
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Africa South of the Sahara ‘‘pu
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Africa South of the Sahara Emitai (
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Africa South of the Sahara employin
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Africa South of the Sahara cultures
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African American Cinema Spike Lee
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African American Cinema OSCAR MICHE
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African American Cinema Sidney Poit
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African American Cinema Sidney Poit
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African American Cinema characters
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African American Cinema Spike Lee.
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Agents and Agencies from numerous e
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Agents and Agencies LEW WASSERMAN b
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Agents and Agencies motion pictures
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‘‘Actors are cattle,’’ Alfr
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created by using a real tarantula a
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Courage of Lassie (1946), with Eliz
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Even in the contemporary era, when
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of short stop-motion films made by
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Pal’s legacy in Europe has been s
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Jan Svankmajer. JAN SVANKMAJER/ATHA
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CORE Digital Pictures in Toronto, C
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Norman McLaren. Ó CORBIS KIPA. Wha
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The ‘‘Arab world’’ constitu
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influenced film practice in other A
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Elia Suleiman. EVERETT COLLECTION.
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Manal Khader in Divine Intervention
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Film and television history can onl
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HENRI LANGLOIS b. Smryna (Izmir), T
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The National Film Preservation Boar
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Argentine filmmaking dates approxim
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attention, but none has yet to atta
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The term ‘‘art cinema’’ is
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Michelangelo Antonioni. Ó JOHN SPR
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that run counter to the body of con
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filmmakers Akira Kurosawa (1910-199
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ASIANAMERICANCINEMA Asian American
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The ‘‘white man’s burden’
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Named after John Wayne, Wang studie
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an Asian American context. However,
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Between 1910 and 1912, eighty Austr
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improving American sales, Longford
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Peter Weir shooting The Mosquito Co
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the strange volcanic rocks at Hangi
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Jane Campion at the time of Sweetie
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AUTEUR THEORY AND AUTHORSHIP Transl
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HOWARD HAWKS b. Goshen, Indiana, 30
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the originality of the auteur lies
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pasts, helping ideas about authorsh
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In important respects—and this wa
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journalism, relatively untroubled b
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BMovies Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Man
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BMovies as Jane Eyre (1934). Monogr
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BMovies Edgar G. Ulmer. EVERETT COL
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BMovies Okuda, Ted. The Monogram Ch
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Biography more unlikely, see at pub
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Biography Ken Russell’s The Music
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Biography Ken Russell has had a mul
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Biography Bingham, Dennis. ‘‘I
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Brazil Brazilian audience through i
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Brazil Carlos ‘‘Cacá’’ Die
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Brazil Challenge, Paulo Saraceni, 1
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Brazil expressed by Arnaldo Jabor (
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The motion picture camera is the ba
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THOMAS ALVA EDISON b. Milan, Ohio,
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Light from external subject Lens Di
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will look like. Because it is not a
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Richard Leacock (center) with Rober
Page 193 and 194: CAMERA MOVEMENT Camera movement is
Page 195 and 196: Kenji Mizoguchi. THE KOBAL COLLECTI
Page 197 and 198: to use zooms more frequently beginn
Page 199 and 200: cranes up to a great height, reveal
Page 201 and 202: Max Ophüls. MAX OPHÜLS/THE KOBAL
Page 203 and 204: FURTHER READING Bazin, André. What
Page 205 and 206: Canada north, they’ll soon be dri
Page 207 and 208: Canada dialogue and script, shootin
Page 209 and 210: Canada Typical Canadian losers Doug
Page 211 and 212: Canada Born in Egypt to Armenian pa
Page 213 and 214: Canada Morris, Peter. Embattled Sha
Page 215 and 216: Canon and Canonicity served as a re
Page 217 and 218: Canon and Canonicity same time, gro
Page 219 and 220: Cartoons Winsor McCay’s Gertie th
Page 221 and 222: Cartoons CHUCK JONES b. Spokane, Wa
Page 223 and 224: Cartoons Chuck Jones parodied Wagne
Page 225 and 226: Casting is one of the least underst
Page 227 and 228: Charles Coburn when looking for a w
Page 229 and 230: Lynn Stalmaster. KEVIN WINTER/GETTY
Page 231 and 232: fame: John Wayne as Genghis Khan in
Page 233 and 234: Censorship WILL H. HAYS b. William
Page 235 and 236: Censorship The suggestive image of
Page 237 and 238: Censorship Peter Watkins’s The Wa
Page 239 and 240: Censorship ‘‘indecency,’’ w
Page 241 and 242: Character Actors public also embrac
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Page 247 and 248: Child Actors Jackie Cooper with Wal
Page 249 and 250: Child Actors Shirley Temple was an
Page 251 and 252: Child Actors Most young actors in t
Page 253 and 254: Children’s films may be divided i
Page 255 and 256: most in the realm of animated featu
Page 257 and 258: disability issues. Oliver! (1968) b
Page 259 and 260: Chilean cinema emerged at the turn
Page 261 and 262: Raúl Ruiz studied law and theology
Page 263 and 264: dictatorship; Gringuito (Sergio Cas
Page 265 and 266: China 1934), both depicting the pli
Page 267 and 268: China Gong Li in Zhang Yimou’s Ra
Page 269 and 270: China Zhang Yimou. PHOTO BY S. SARA
Page 271 and 272: The job of choreographer or dance d
Page 273 and 274: Roy Scheider as choreographer Joe G
Page 275 and 276: Bob Fosse on the set of All That Ja
Page 277 and 278: Cinematography Gregg Toland’s dee
Page 279 and 280: Cinematography GREGG TOLAND b. Char
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Page 283 and 284: Cinematography Néstor Almendros wi
Page 285 and 286: Cinematography James Wong Howe’s
Page 287 and 288: Cinematography Néstor Almendros’
Page 289 and 290: The first filmgoers who referred to
Page 291 and 292: wars of high and low categories of
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to be the most important art form
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Mike Leigh. PHOTOBYCJCONTINO/EVERET
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acism, sexism, and militarism). Goi
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The science fiction film Strange In
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answer questions that would have in
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Edward Dmytryk on location directin
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Dalton Trumbo. EVERETT COLLECTION.
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number (57) of Communists he claims
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A Hollywood myth has it that the co
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and his gifted cameraman Gunnar Fis
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COLONIALISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM Amo
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Although the visual artist Tracey M
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(Robert Flaherty, 1922), but also c
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notice, such as in Once Were Warrio
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Color The Wizard of Oz (Victor Flem
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Color HERBERT THOMAS KALMUS b. Bost
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Color Monica Vitti in Il Deserto ro
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Color The Band Wagon (Vincente Minn
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The rise of Columbia Pictures to Ho
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HARRY COHN b. New York, New York, 2
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not only scripted but also informal
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Rita Hayworth in Gilda (Charles Vid
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From Here to Eternity (1953), On th
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In a valuable insight on the nature
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Ferrell (b. 1967) fails as a toymak
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Charlie Chaplin in 1936, the year o
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Parody is often enhanced by various
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‘‘boy-meets-girl’’ formula
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FURTHER READING Bergson, Henri. Lau
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Comics and Comic Books than three h
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Comics and Comic Books Among the mo
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Co-productions other languages as w
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Co-productions sion programs throug
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Costume design is as crucial to the
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out contradictions such as Walter P
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ADRIAN b. Adrian Adolph Greenburg,
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Piero Gherardi’s extreme costumes
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The word ‘‘credits’’ refers
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Saul Bass. EVERETT COLLECTION. REPR
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Saul Bass’s credits for Otto Prem
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multiple exposures, and the musical
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Crew The size and diversity of mode
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Crew VISUAL DESIGN The production d
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Crew musical score is designed by a
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Crime films rule the world from Eas
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series of crime comedies at England
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HUMPHREY BOGART b. New York, New Yo
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victim in Midnight in the Garden of
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Born in Queens, Martin Scorsese gre
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Krutnik, Frank. In a Lonely Street:
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