A Cinema of Loneliness [Paperback]

An updated and expanded version of this classic study of contemporary American film, the new edition ofA Cinema of Lonelinessreassesses the landscape of American cinema over the past decade, incorporating discussions of directors like Judd Apatow and David Fincher while offering assessments of the recent, and in some cases final, work from the filmmakers--Penn, Scorsese, Stone, Altman, Kubrick--at the book's core.

Preface to First Edition
Preface to Fourth Editoin
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. Body's Montage, History's Mise-en-Scene, Contours of the Horizontal Line,Arthur Penn, Oliver Stone, and David Fincher
Chapter Two. Tectonics of the Mechanical Man,Stanley Kubrick
Chapter Three. Expressions of the Streets,Martin Scorsese
Chapter Four. Steven Spielberg, War, Superheroes, and the Digital Mise-en-Scene
Chapter Five. Radical Surfaces and Independent Means,Robert Altman

An excellent work of film criticism, and as such, demands response and debate....Kolker's analyses of each director's work...are stimulating, provocative, insightful and passionate, models of film analysis. --San Francisco Review of Books

Brings the films into clearer focus for film-goers. The filmmakers themselves will find Kolker's analysis of their works extremely accurate. --Martin Scorsese

The best book on contemporary American film . --The Washington Post Book World

Robert Kolkeris Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Maryland and Adjunct Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He is the author of numerous works on film and media, includingThe Altering Eye; Film, Form, and Culture; and Media Studies: An Introductory Textbook.