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Contemporary Directors' Cinema
by Jacob Leigh
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Book Presentation:
Contemporary Directors’ Cinema refreshes the argument about the role of the director through the practice of evaluative criticism. The book identifies what makes nine recent films successful achievements by their directors and collaborators. Each chapter gives some context for the director’s work, but the central argument focuses on the style, form and themes of each film, while explicating aspects of point of view and tone. Contemporary Directors’ Cinema argues that in each of its nine case studies the director’s work is central to the achievement of economy, unity, eloquence, subtlety, depth, vigour, vividness and intensity. By offering critical readings of nine films from mainstream film culture, Contemporary Directors’ Cinema demonstrates that cinema remains vital as a directors’ medium. The films discussed in this book are: Pain and Glory (2019); Shoplifters (2018); Parasite (2019); The White Ribbon (2009); Les Chansons d'amour (2007); The Bling Ring (2013); The Great Beauty (2013); Leviathan (2014); and Winter Sleep (2014).
About the Author:
Jacob Leigh teaches Film Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. UK. He teaches the work of a wide range of filmmakers, including Howard Hawks, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, George Cukor, F.W. Murnau, John Ford, Max Ophuls, Carl Dreyer, Yasujiro Ozu and Roberto Rossellini. His research is focussed on the following areas: film interpretation, film style, film storytelling and film aesthetics. He wrote his PhD and first book on realism and politics in Ken Loach's films and since then he has written about Terrence Malick, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol.
Press Reviews:
"Jacob Leigh's Contemporary Directors' Cinema does many things at once, all brilliantly. It argues for the continuing, central role of the film director. It explores the richness of individual films. It canvasses the diversity of current production around the world. It stands up for the artistry of cinema in our 21st century, digital world. And it offers flexible but precise tools for close analysis. What more could we ask for?" ―Adrian Martin, Professor and film critic, Monash University, Australia
"Jacob Leigh's engaging study of nine significant 21st-century films upholds a method of criticism rooted in detailed close analysis that has become sadly unfashionable in recent years. Writing proudly in the tradition of such formative figures as V.F. Perkins and Robin Wood, he convinces the reader that the careful study of "patterns, motifs, settings, performances, costumes, point of view, realism and complexity" can still produce valid and exciting film criticism." ―Alexander Jacoby, Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, Oxford Brookes University, UK
See the publisher website: Bloomsbury Academic
> From the same author:
The Cinema of Eric Rohmer (2012)
Irony, Imagination, and the Social World
by Jacob Leigh
Subject: Director > Eric Rohmer
> On a related topic:
New Blood in Contemporary Cinema (2020)
Women Directors and the Poetics of Horror
Women Filmmakers (2016)
Refocusing
Dir. Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul
Subject: General
Educating Film-Makers (2014)
Past, Present and Future
by Duncan Petrie and Rod Stoneman
Subject: General
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