Nigel Morris

A companion to Steven Spielberg

A Companion to Steven Spielberg provides an authoritative collection of essays exploring the achievements and legacy of one of the most influential film directors of the modern era. Offers comprehensive coverage of Spielberg s directorial output, from early works including Duel, The Sugarland Express, and Jaws, to recent films Explores Spielberg s contribution to the development of visual effects and computer games, as well as the critical and popular reception of his films Topics include in–depth analyses of Spielberg s themes, style, and filming techniques; commercial and cultural significance of the Spielberg brand and his parallel career as a producer; and collaborative projects with artists and composers Brings together an international team of renowned scholars and emergent voices, balancing multiple perspectives and critical approaches Creates a timely and illuminating resource which acknowledges the ambiguity and complexity of Spielberg s work, and reflects its increasing importance to film scholarship

‘Do you like taster menus?’ Beyond hybridity: The Trip & The Trip to Italy

In episode two of the cinematic-televisual hybrid The Trip, which has been released to various markets in diverse formats, providing different selections from core content, the protagonists discuss restaurant taster menus, one of which they are about to experience. This essay both utilizes established approaches in television studies and examines developments in film and book marketing over two decades to explore how The Trip and its sequel The Trip to Italy contribute to, exploit and satirize associated developments in literary, cinematic and televisual culture. It concludes that at a time when each of these aspects of art and entertainment, and institutions behind them, face unprecedented pressure from technological change, the series provide taster menus for BBC public service entertainment and educational output.

Metropolis and the Modernist Gothic

Metropolis a serious, full-length, utopian feature, is arguably the first science fiction film.1 While this genre problematises current reality and therefore belongs to modernity, it insists, against scientific reason, on the danger of the new. Seeking menace within the familiar, and educing dread in exploration of the unfamiliar, science fiction shares Gothic obsessions with the uncanny. Both invert perceptions, create ambivalence, and transgress binary oppositions by acknowledging the repressed negative within every positive.