Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible", Expanded edition

Book Description

In this now-classic study, Linda Williams moves beyond the impasse of the anti-porn/anti-censorship debate to analyze what hard-core film pornography is and does--as a genre with a history, as a specific cinematic form, and as part of contemporary discourse on sexuality. For the 1999 edition, Williams has written a new preface and a new epilogue, "On/scenities," illustrated with 25 photographs. She has also added a supplementary bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

an ok read.......2007-03-19

Hardcores author like to use big words and confusing dialog to get her point across. This is a good book if you can get through all the muddle and crap to get to her point. The book definetly reads like a college textbook and it does get tediouse at times. A good book if you have patience

It's not a monolith, it's a muddle.......2005-11-17

Williams' claim is that all porn is not the same, but her book title is very specific which would lead one to believe she will make claims about only hard core and not about the attendant debates over all of porn's place in society.

You have to be suspicious when the majority of reviewers of an academic book have not graduated high school. I can barely get my university students to read academic writing.

blah blah blah.......2005-04-06

The writing is jagged, superfluous and constantly filled with statements on what the author is intending to say in the book without actually saying it. This book is boring, hard to get through and organized in a questionable fashion. Unless you need to read it for a college course I strongly recommend against it. Frankly I don't understand the other reviews on this page praising the book.

Interesting.......2004-05-08

This is an easy to read, comprehensive analysis of visual pornography. Williams is thorough and openminded, and clearly shows that this isn't a homogenous and stereotypical genre. On the contrary, she maintains that all trends visible in other types of movies exist in pornography as well. An interesting read.

eXXXtremely provocative.......2001-07-20

I should probably look more closely at the covers of the books that I am ordering online. Any reasonable individual might naturally assume a book entitled "Hard Core" would contain information regarding the apple harvesting industry; however, such is most clearly not the case with Doctor William's book.

Amazon.com

The history of gay male erotic images is largely undocumented. Even when the material has been available, "good taste" and "common decency"--those concepts used to stop all talk about sex--have prevented their display. Thomas Waugh's full-length, profusely illustrated study is a breakthrough book that has information and analysis enough for three books. Thoughtful, smart, and well-written, Hard to Imagine uncovers a visual history of gay male eroticism that few know. It chronicles the complicated history of homosexual desire and how it has been depicted and repressed.

Book Description

Spanning more than a century of photography and film, Hard to Imagine is the first visual chronicle of the evolution of gay male image culture, from the canonical works of "art" photography and cinema to the private and often highly explicit productions of amateurs. This comprehensive work explores a vast, eclectic tradition in its totality, analyzing the aesthetics of the visual imagery, its production, circulation, and consumption, and broad social and legal implications.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Book.......2002-07-10

This book collects the amazing research the author has done on physique photography, magazines and gay porn of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. It is great stuff, presented with a smart and detailed analysis. The only downside is the format, a weird and pricey mix of scholarly tome and coffeetable book. With the boom in "visual culture" and gay studies, it's a pity Cambridge has never brought this out in paper: it would be a surefire hit.

WOW.......1998-04-05

This is truly a great book..especially for vintage gay porn buffs... Its written and produces with an college text book feel.... which on one hand.. is good.. gives it a lot of depth.. and smarts.. but.. with the $75 price tag.. i was a bit dissapointed.. was hoping for some really great quality photos.. while the photo's quality arent bad at all. quite clear and sharp. was hoping for something along the lines of art book quality... so ifyou looking for an art coffee table book.. this really isnt one.. but if you r looking for indepth analysis (still with loads of pictures) of early gay porn.. then this is for U!!!!!!!

Average customer rating:

Artistic Hardcore Porn

Cinema Hard
Vittoria Perzan
Manufacturer: Erotic Print Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Erotic Photography | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Erotic | Other Media | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Pornography | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Italian | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Entertainment | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All Italian Books | Italian | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Beyond the Top Shelf: The Private Photographs of Eric Wilkins
Spank!
F**K FASHION: The Erotic Photography of Ben Westwood
Fresh: Girls of Seduction
Richard Kern: Action

ASIN: 1904989152

Book Description

Can pornography ever be art? With unique access to the closed world of Italian porn movies, this is the question urgently posed by the remarkable work of Vittoria Perzan, fashion model turned photographer. Taking a series of porn shoots as their subject matter, the photographs in Cinema Hard find beauty where so many claim it cannot exist, discover humanity in a notoriously heartless industry and reassess a medium that is now so demonised as to be considered past redemption. In black and white, and in colour, Perzan's talented eye captures a rich diversity of images that shock and stimulate in a way that is both sexual and aesthetic. Most would have thought that art simply couldn't exist in the context of porn. But it can and does, and in over 250 exquisite shots Perzan proves this with great style and verve; she documents the excitement and passion, the sadness and laughter and, most importantly, the human story of one of the greatest obsessions of our age.

Customer Reviews:

Artistic Hardcore Porn.......2007-07-31

I loved this book, but I'm a pervert. I bought this book for my wife - she loved it too! No, she not a pervert - BUT she's not a prude either! We are both 50 ish, married for over 30 years, and still "passionately" in love. We MUST be doing something right! So, if you enjoy explicit, hardcore photographs,shot in a stylish kind of way,then you'll like this book. If your looking for some boring, hi-brow, art - then look else where

Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry

Average customer rating:

Provocative Title, Thorough Study

Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry
Jon Lewis
Manufacturer: NYU Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Controlling Hollywood: Censorship and Regulation in the Studio Era (Depth of Field Series)
Pre-Code Hollywood
Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code, from the 1920s to the 1960s
Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood
The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939 (Wisconsin Studies in Film)

ASIN: 0814751431
Release Date: 2002-09-01

Book Description

"When it comes to censorship in Hollywood, the bottom line is theticket line. That's the central message in Jon Lewis's provocativeand insightful investigation of the movie industry's history ofself-regulation.…Lewis shows that Hollywood films are a triumph ofcommerce over art, and that the film industry has consistently usedinternal censorship and government-industrial collusion to guaranteethat its cash flow is never seriously threatened."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"…an accomplished, comprehensive, and provocative new history ofcensorship and the American film industry…And what of the perennialtussles between politicos and the film industry? All show business,suggests Lewis, make-believe veiling the real power structure that hasnothing to do with morals, let alone art (it would be interesting toget his take on the recent marketing brouhaha and its relationship tothe recent threatened actors and writers strikes). A staggering sagaworthy itself of a Hollywood movie, Hollywood v. Hardcore is filmhistory at its most illuminating and intense."
--The Boston Phoenix

"As provocative as his sometimes X-rated subject matter, film scholar Lewis detects an intimate relationship between the seemingly strange bedfellows of mainstream Hollywood cinema and hardcore pornography. From postal inspector Anthony Comstock to virtue maven William Bennett, from the Hays Office that monitored the golden age of Hollywood to the alphabet ratings system that labels the motion pictures in today's multiplex malls, Lewis's wry, informative, and always insightful study of American film censorship demonstrates that the most effective media surveillance happens before you see the movie. Hollywood v. Hard Core is highly recommended for audiences of all ages."
--Thomas Doherty, author of Pre-Code Hollywood

"Jon Lewis weaves a compelling narrative of how box office needs-rather than moral strictures-have dictated the history of film regulation. Telling the complex and fascinating story of how Hollywood abandoned the Production Code and developed the ratings system and then telling the even more compelling story of how the X rating became a desirable marketing device when hard core pornography became popular, Hollywood v. Hard Core reveals a great deal about the true business of censorship."
--Linda Williams, author of Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible"

"This is a fascinating account, both entertaining and scholarly."
—Journal of the West

In 1972, The Godfather and Deep Throat were the two most popular films in the country. One, a major Hollywood studio production, the other an independently made "skin flick." At that moment, Jon Lewis asserts, the fate of the American film industry hung in the balance.

Spanning the 20th century, Hollywood v. Hard Core weaves a gripping tale of censorship and regulation. Since the industry's infancy, film producers and distributors have publicly regarded ratings codes as a necessary evil. Hollywood regulates itself, we have been told, to prevent the government from doing it for them. But Lewis argues that the studios self-regulate because they are convinced it is good for business, and that censorship codes and regulations are a crucial part of what binds the various competing agencies in the film business together.

Yet between 1968 and 1973 Hollywood films were faltering at the box office, and the major studios were in deep trouble. Hollywood's principal competition came from a body of independently produced and distributed films--from foreign art house film Last Tango in Paris to hard-core pornography like Behind the Green Door--that were at once disreputable and, for a moment at least, irresistible, even chic. In response, Hollywood imposed the industry-wide MPAA film rating system (the origins of the G, PG, and R designations we have today) that pushed sexually explicit films outside the mainstream, and a series of Supreme Court decisions all but outlawed the theatrical exhibition of hard core pornographic films. Together, these events allowed Hollywood to consolidate its iron grip over what films got made and where they were shown, thus saving it from financial ruin.

Customer Reviews:

Provocative Title, Thorough Study.......2003-01-16

Jon E. Lewis has written an interesting book in Hollywood v. Hard Core, although it does not entirely live up to or prove its subtitle, How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry, it often comes close. The climax of the book focuses on the battles of the late sixties and early seventies but its vision is much larger and encompasses film history from its origins until the battles at the beginning of this new millenium. He promises heroes and villains and he delivers them and even combines one person (Jack Valenti) in both roles, depending on who is talking about him, of course. The book is always fascinating as it ranges over the history of film and the author always makes the economics clear and central to the debate (something left to the side in most histories of film censorship.) Particularly interesting and illuminating is the section on the McCarthy period. A recommended read.

A Hard Day's Night: The British Film Guide 10 (Turner Classic Movies British Film Guides)

Average customer rating:

A Hard Day's Night: The British Film Guide 10 (Turner Classic Movies British Film Guides)
Stephen Glynn
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles

ASIN: 1850435871
Release Date: 2004-12-23

Book Description

Dubbed by Andrew Sarris "the Citizen Kane of pop musicals," recently given a high-profile release on a two-disc DVD, A Hard Day's Night, directed by Richard Lester, is viewed by Stephen Glynn as that rare event--a cheap exploitation movie that has entered the cultural canon. Following the Fab Four's adventures in New York the film established enduring individual personalities for the four Beatles, invented the pop music video and made us all "buy into" the Beatles. This radical Guide, full of detail and insight, explores its making, its music, fandom, Pop Art style, reception and influence and how the Beatles went to America to make a revolutionary movie.

Hard Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films

Average customer rating:

Attractive Presentation. Format for Quotes Could Be Better.
All the classics...
Hard Boiled a classic

Hard Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films
Peggy Thompson , and Saeko Usukawa
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Genre Films | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Its A Bitter Little World: The Smartest Toughest Nastiest Quotes From Film Noir
The Big Book of Noir
The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir: Quotations from Films of the 40's and 50's (Little Red Books)
Film Noir
The Noir Style

ASIN: 0811808556

Amazon.com

Some days--you know the kind, the kind where you can feel the heat rise off the gritty pavement and the smog is so thick you could slice it up and serve it like day-old bread--you feel the need to change your lingo. A little kick in the teeth for the dames and mugs down at the corner dive. That's when a book like Hard Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films walks in. Hard Boiled collects the snappiest, toughest, most bitter dialogue from the greats into one easy package, ready for whipping out when the opportunity strikes. Need to describe that fatal ex? Why not borrow detective Walter Brown's line from The Narrow Margin: "What kind of a dish was she? The sixty-cent special--cheap, flashy, strictly poison under the gravy." Want to make the bartender stand up and take notice? Order The Blue Dahlia's "Bourbon, straight! With a bourbon chaser!" End a relationship in style with Impact's "I'll never think of our moments together without nausea." For more tender moments, cop a line from Sudden Fear to show that special someone you care: "I'm so crazy about you I could break your bones." Or you can simply emulate the classics with Follow Me Quietly's immortal "Follow that car!" Life may be a crooked game of blackjack with no more chips left to play, but maybe you can bring in a little glimmer of something wonderful if you slide up to your favorite cannon, slip him this book, and mutter softly, "The next person that says Merry Christmas to me, I'll kill them."

Book Description

The boss chewed you out? Try this: I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you -- you're twenty minutes (Jan Sterling in The Big Carnival). How about something for that special moment? I felt pretty good -- like an amputated leg (Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet). In the cult, crime, and noir films of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, everyone was supremely eloquent. Now contemporary fans of these classics can be equally clever with this inspired collection of over 300 lines from nearly 150 of the greatest noir movies ever produced. With full-color reproductions of publicity photos, promotional posters, and film stills, Hard-Boiled is a glamorous look back at the golden era of film noir.

Customer Reviews:

Attractive Presentation. Format for Quotes Could Be Better........2006-07-07

"Hard-Boiled: Great Lines from Classic Noir Films" contains over 300 quotable lines of dialogue from nearly 150 crime films released between 1932 and 1964. As you might infer from such a lengthy time period, the lines are not all from strictly "noir" films. "Casablanca", "The Lost Weekend", and even "The Thin Man" are represented. After an introduction by Lee Server, the lines are organized alphabetically by film. So it's easy to find the line you seek if you know the film but not if you are looking for lines by theme. There is an index of actors, directors, and writers in the back of the book as well as an index of first lines -so if you remember how your favorite quote begins, you can find out how it ends. Both indexes are useful tools if you can't remember the name of the film or if you are interested in a particular artist's contributions to hard-boiled repartee.

"Hard-Boiled"'s shortcomings are that it misses many memorable, deliciously blunt quotes, misquotes a few, includes a lot that is not film noir, and attributes the dialogue awkwardly. The book's strength is its attractive presentation. "Hard-Boiled" is a 8"x8 ¾" almost square paperback. It's pages are slick and glossy, ideal for reproducing photographs. Amid the quotes, there are 38 still photos from noir films and 28 lobby cards, black-and-white and color, from small prints to some that take up more than a page. The photos are all captioned. My pet peeve is that the quotes are attributed to the actors, followed by the characters' name and description in parentheses. This makes it difficult to tell who is saying what and why, which detracts from the pleasure and ease of reading the quotes. Oddly, the captions for the photographs do the opposite: The character name is always first, followed by the actor's name in parentheses.

"Hard-Boiled" is certainly a handsome volume. And the artist and first line indexes are valuable additions. A more recent collection of film noir lines is Charles Pappas' "It's a Bitter Little World". Inevitably, it also includes a lot that isn't film noir and omits some quotes that I wish were included. It covers film noir and neo-noir 1940-2004 and is organized by theme and decade (and indexed by film). I think the format that Pappas uses for dialogue is easier to read, but there are no glossy photos. Both books have their own merits.

All the classics..........2000-09-19

All of the best lines from the great "film noir" classics are here. There's a line to cover just about every subject, and you can amaze, amuse or astound your friends by using these quotes in everyday conversation. And, in the process, you can discover some pretty great films, as well--there's a lot of gems in here, and not just big ones like "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Big Sleep." Check da others out--you'll be glad ya did!

Hard Boiled a classic.......1999-12-30

The book hit me like a cold, hard slap in the face.

Customer Reviews:

One of the Best.......2000-03-27

I've been a serial fan since the Republic serials played on TV in the '60's and found this book to be a refreshing, well researched and even-handed treatment of its subject.

Big disappointment.......1999-11-29

I looked forward to reading this book but found little of interest. For each of 31 serials, none of them "hard sf" despite the subtitle, Kinnard lists credits and cast, story, and comments. Often the story (a nearly unreadable plot summary) exceeds 42 column inches (as for MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND)--- for no known reasons--- while other serials get less than 6 column inches, with no rationale. I suspect the insanely expanded plot summaries were added to bulk out a very slender book-- less than 200 pages of text. Comments on the serials are repetitive and tend to lack insight or specifics. For instance, the gross overuse of rear projection in FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS is not mentioned. Misprints are few but often hilarous, as "Mephisto lashes Brand with a ship and stalks out of the room," on p. 111. There are odd errors, particularly phonetic spelling of character names!

A Long Hard Look at Psycho (BFI Film Classics)

Average customer rating:

A Long Hard Slog Through Psycho Babble
A Long Hard Look at Psycho is a detailed examinatiion of a Hitchcock classic

A Long Hard Look at Psycho (BFI Film Classics)
Raymond E. Durgnat
Manufacturer: British Film Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Reference | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Entertainment | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)
Vertigo (BFI Film Classics)
Citizen Kane (BFI Film Classics)
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
Introducing Film

ASIN: 0851709206

Book Description

In an American Film Institute poll in 2001, Psycho was voted the greatest thriller of all time. Its scenes and characters are among the most iconic in all cinema.
Alfred Hitchcock was prompted to make Psycho after seeing Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1954), which took the thriller genre to a new level of shock-value. Not to be undone, Hitchcock adapted a pulp novel by Robert Bloch with a view to pulling off an unprecedented feat of audience manipulation.
The result was a triumph, the talk of the moviegoing world in 1960. But most of the talk, then and since, has been about the twist. In spite of the widespread acknowledgment of Hitchcock's and his collaborators' achievements on Psycho, its complexity and sophistication as cinema aren't fully appreciated.
In this book, Raymond Durgnat shows the extent of the achievement. In a meticulous analysis, he explores all the elements that make up this remarkable film. He also develops various lines of argument--about spectatorship, Hollywood narrative codes, psychoanalysis, editing and shot-composition, among other themes--that amount to a reinvention of cinema studies.
With more than 150 illustrations, A Long Hard Look at Psycho is likely to become the definitive book on its subject and an indispensible contribution to the study of Hitchcock.

Customer Reviews:

A Long Hard Slog Through Psycho Babble.......2006-07-02

Worth no more than a glance.

Which I actually regret to say, considering the amount of time, attention and determination to explain every single damn frame of this fascinating movie the good Professor obviously devoted to his project. Nonetheless, any serious attempt to make sense of his every profundity is absolutely guaranteed to turn off all but the most tiresomely nerdish cineaste. It took me two years to build up the desire to make it all the way through - and I am a fanatic about Psycho.

Thus the scholars continue their age-old campaign to ruin enjoyment of art. Enough of this sort of psuedo-intellectual compulsive-obsessive navel gazing is certain to result in blinding students to an honest appreciation of film just as successfully as a few decades of it has soured most of us on reading literature for pleasure.

They say that those who cannot do,teach. But what exactly is it that they do try to teach? (And just wait until the PhDs get around to videogames!)

Anyway, what is saddening and maddening about Mr. Durgnat's effort is that there are indeed numerous excellent and fascinating insights about Psycho to be discovered amidst its many pages of self congratulation. Had these pages been briskly edited down into a concise and readable essay - say one quarter the book's length - I am certain that it would have earned and deserved a much wider and truly appreciative audience.

Unfortunately, as it stands, an honest admirer of this marvelous and historic film can only be obligated to shout out - in true horror-mode fashion - to the curious reader thinking of taking a peek deep down inside: Don't go in there!

Or, if you must, just borrow a copy for a quick "diegetic" browse. Or read Mr. Rebello's excellent "The Making of Psycho" instead.

A Long Hard Look at Psycho is a detailed examinatiion of a Hitchcock classic.......2006-01-05

British film scholar Raymond Durgnat has written a detailed
guidebook to the wonders of Hitchcock's classic thriller Psycho.
Durgnat examines each of the key scenes with insights he has gleaned from filming techniques; psychological insights and keen observation of what is going on up on the big screen.
Many readers will find the work to be enlighting. However, the
book does tend to delve into psychobabble forgetting Hitch's own
dictum "It's only a movie."
The book would be best used in film study classes or with the study of Hitchcock and his films in an academic setting.

Film Scripts Four/Darling a Hard Days Night/the Best Man

Average customer rating:

Film Scripts Four/Darling a Hard Days Night/the Best Man
George P. Garrett , O. B. Hardison , and Jane R. Gelfman
Manufacturer: Irvington Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Guides & Reviews | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Screenplays | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0829022783

Average customer rating:

Between Cinema and a Hard Place
Frances Morris
Manufacturer: Tate Modern
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ILHEHS

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books