Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
The Spanish Prisoner
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
Despite more than a passing nod to such crowdpleasing classics as Hitchcock's North by Northwest, playwright-turned-independent filmmaker David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner is a particularly idiosyncratic film that betrays its origin outside the Hollywood mainstream. Featuring a convoluted narrative, an excessive, often anti-classical, visual style, and belonging to the generic category of the'con game film' which often challenges the spectator's cognitive skills, The Spanish Prisoner is a film that bridges genre filmmaking withpersonal visual style, independent film production with niche distribution,and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic techniques.This book discusses The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent cinema while also using the film as a vehicle to explore several key ideas in film studies, especially in terms of aesthetics, narrative, style, spectatorship, genre and industry.
Key Features
• Distinguishes between independent and 'indie' cinema through anexamination of the 'classics divisions,' especially Sony Pictures Classics
• Assesses the position of David Mamet within American cinema
• Introduces the genre categories of the 'con artist' and the 'con game' film and discusses The Spanish Prisoner as a key example of the latter
• Examines the ways in which narrative, narration and visual style deviate from the mainstream/classical aesthetic
Yannis Tzioumakis Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at theUniversity of Liverpool.
About the Author:
Yannis Tzioumakis is Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at the University of Liverpool.
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
See The Spanish Prisoner (1997) on IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Rock around the Clock (2025)
Exploitation, Rock 'n' roll and the Origins of Youth Culture
by Yannis Tzioumakis and Siân Lincoln
Subject: One Film > Rock around the Clock
United Artists (2020)
by Peter Kramer, Gary Needham, Yannis Tzioumakis and Tino Balio
Subject: Studio > United Artists
The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Politics (2018)
Dir. Yannis Tzioumakis and Claire Molloy
Subject: Sociology
The Hollywood Renaissance (2018)
Revisiting American Cinema's Most Celebrated Era
Dir. Peter Kramer and Yannis Tzioumakis
Subject: History of Cinema
The Time of Our Lives (2013)
Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture
Dir. Siân Lincoln and Yannis Tzioumakis
Subject: One Film > Dirty Dancing
American Independent Cinema (2012)
indie, indiewood and beyond
Dir. Geoff King, Claire Molloy and Yannis Tzioumakis
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
Hollywood's Indies (2012)
Classics Divisions, Specialty Labels and American Independent Cinema
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
> On a related topic:
Everywhere an Oink Oink (2025)
An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood
by David Mamet
Subject: Director > David Mamet
The Secret Knowledge (2012)
On the Dismantling of American Culture
by David Mamet
Subject: Director > David Mamet
Back
