The cinema of Jonathan Demme champion of the soul Louis Black and Steven Fore

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Black, Louis, 1950- Author.

Fore, Steven James, 1951- author.

Series:

Directors' cuts

Directors' cuts series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Demme, Jonathan, 1944-2017--Criticism and interpretation.

Demme, Jonathan.

Genre:

Film criticism

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Columbia University Press (Lightning Source), 2026.

New York Columbia University Press [2026]

Summary:

"Jonathan Demme's career spanned 18 feature films and 12 documentaries over 40 years. Beginning as a junior publicist for Roger Corman's exploitation-oriented New World Pictures before rapidly rising through the ranks to become a director, Demme learned to make reliably profitable films cheaply and quickly. While his later work included several big-budget Hollywood films, he always retained something of his original journeyman-filmmaker identity. Working in widely varied production contexts, genres and styles, Demme's artistic identity, as Steve Fore and Louis Black argue, remained remarkably consistent. Tracing his work chronologically, from ultra low-budget Corman production shot under legally dubious circumstances in the Philippines, to the pinnacle of Hollywood success with Silence of the Lambs (which swept the 5 major Oscar categories), and through a revealing series of modest and idiosyncratic side projects, Fore and Black draw together the disparate strands of the filmmaker's work. Demme's films, the authors argue, articulate a compassionate, emotionally and intellectually generous perspective on human nature. While his early work is defined by a guileless humanism preoccupied with nostalgia and pop cultural detritus (witness Handle With Care, a thinly plotted attempt to cash in on the CB radio craze of the late 70s), his later films grew darker and more morally complex. One of his few directorial trademarks, the ""Demme close-up"" in which a character seems to address the camera directly, is emblematic of the Demme's empathy for his characters, a nudge towards identification with both heroes and villains. Fore and Black attend closely to production histories of each of Demme's films, showing that, while he was seldom in a position to choose his material, he nonetheless found ways to build a consistent and coherent body of work."-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Frontmatter CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction to DemmeWorld 1. Life Before Corman 2. The Roger Corman School of American Filmmaking 3. Caged Heat (1974) 4. Crazy Mama, Fighting Mad (1975-1976) 5. Citizens Band, Last Embrace (1977-1979) 6. Melvin and Howard, Who Am I This Time? (1980-1982) 7. Swing Shift, Stop Making Sense (1983-1984) 8. Something Wild (1985-1986) 9. Haiti: Dreams of Democracy, Swimming to Cambodia, Married to the Mob (1987-1988) 10. The Silence of the Lambs (1989-1991) 11. Cousin Bobby, Philadelphia (1992-1993) 12. Storefront Hitchcock, Beloved (1994-1998) 13. The Truth About Charlie, The Agronomist, The Manchurian Candidate (1999-2004) 14. Neil Young/Carolyn Parker/Jimmy Carter, Rachel Getting Married (2005-2012) 15. A Master Builder, Ricki and the Flash (2013-2015) Conclusion: "Champion of the Soul" Notes Bibliography Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR platform, viewed August 3, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version Black, Louis, 1950- Cinema of Jonathan Demme

ISBN:

9780231566377

0231566379

9780231564854

0231564856

OCLC:

1594862606

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license