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First book on documentary cinema's most innovative and influential director
The Cinema of Errol Morris offers close analyses of the director's films—from box office successes like The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War to Morris's early works like Vernon, Florida and controversial films like Standard Operating Procedure. Film scholar David Resha's reappraisal of Morris's films allows us to rethink the traditional distinction between stylistically conservative documentaries, which are closely invested in evidence and reality, and stylistically adventurous films, which artfully call to question such claims of nonfiction and truth. According to Resha, Errol Morris does not fit neatly in this division of the documentary tradition. Rather, his experiments with documentary conventions constitute another way to investigate reality—in particular, to examine the ways in which his subjects understand, and misunderstand, themselves and the world around them. Seen within the nonfiction tradition, an Errol Morris documentary is a flexible form of lively, engaging storytelling and shrewd, cutting, in-depth reportage.
Hardcover is un-jacketed.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida
The Thin Blue Line
A Brief History of Time
Television Commercials and Errol Morris's First Person
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control
Mr. Death
The Fog of War
Standard Operating Procedure
Tabloid
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
DAVID RESHA is an assistant professor of media and film studies at Birmingham-Southern College. He is on the board of directors for the Alabama Moving Image Association.
"A Film Studies scholar now teaching in Alabama, David Resha has written a great book for anyone who cares about one of the most compelling figures in the contemporary mediascape ... If the extended close readings of films do not compel the general reader, they will prove very useful to film students hoping to learn more about Morris's influential career."
~Randolph Lewis, Boston Review
""A Film Studies scholar now teaching in Alabama, David Resha has written a great book for anyone who cares about one of the most compelling figures in the contemporary mediascape If the extended close readings of films do not compel the general reader, they will prove very useful to film students hoping to learn more about Morris's influential career.""
~Randolph Lewis, Boston Review
""David Resha's recently published The Cinema of Errol Morris [is] the first – and long overdue – comprehensive book about the provocative, pioneering, Cambridge-based filmmaker.""
~Peter Keough, Boston Globe
"Finally, a highly readable, in-depth study of our most fascinating and important documentary filmmaker. For anyone interested in Errol Morris, this is essential reading."
~Carl Plantinga, author of Moving Viewers: American Film and the Spectator's Experience
"Errol Morris is clearly one of the most interesting and complex of current film-makers, and this is the first full-length critical study of his work. I applaud Resha's film-by-film analysis, and his ability to raise a broad range of significant issues. This will serve as an excellent introduction to Morris's work for a long time to come.""
~Stephen Mamber, author of Cinema Verité in America
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