Cycling and Cinema

Cycling and Cinema PDF Author: Bruce Bennett
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1906897999
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
A unique exploration of the history of the bicycle in cinema, from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films. Cycling and Cinema explores the history of the bicycle in cinema from the late nineteenth century through to the present day. In this new book from Goldsmiths Press, Bruce Bennett examines a wide variety of films from around the world, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films, to consider the complex, shifting cultural significance of the bicycle. The bicycle is an everyday technology, but in examining the ways in which bicycles are used in films, Bennett reveals the rich social and cultural importance of this apparently unremarkable machine. The cinematic bicycles discussed in this book have various functions. They are the source of absurd comedy in silent films, and the vehicles that allow their owners to work in sports films and social realist cinema. They are a means of independence and escape for children in melodramas and kids' films, and the tools that offer political agency and freedom to women, as depicted in films from around the world. In recounting the cinematic history of the bicycle, Bennett reminds us that this machine is not just a practical means of transport or a child's toy, but the vehicle for a wide range of meanings concerning individual identity, social class, nationhood and belonging, family, gender, and sexuality and pleasure. As this book shows, two hundred years on from its invention, the bicycle is a revolutionary technology that retains the power to transform the world.

Cycling and Cinema

Cycling and Cinema PDF Author: Bruce Bennett
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1906897999
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Get Book

Book Description
A unique exploration of the history of the bicycle in cinema, from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films. Cycling and Cinema explores the history of the bicycle in cinema from the late nineteenth century through to the present day. In this new book from Goldsmiths Press, Bruce Bennett examines a wide variety of films from around the world, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films, to consider the complex, shifting cultural significance of the bicycle. The bicycle is an everyday technology, but in examining the ways in which bicycles are used in films, Bennett reveals the rich social and cultural importance of this apparently unremarkable machine. The cinematic bicycles discussed in this book have various functions. They are the source of absurd comedy in silent films, and the vehicles that allow their owners to work in sports films and social realist cinema. They are a means of independence and escape for children in melodramas and kids' films, and the tools that offer political agency and freedom to women, as depicted in films from around the world. In recounting the cinematic history of the bicycle, Bennett reminds us that this machine is not just a practical means of transport or a child's toy, but the vehicle for a wide range of meanings concerning individual identity, social class, nationhood and belonging, family, gender, and sexuality and pleasure. As this book shows, two hundred years on from its invention, the bicycle is a revolutionary technology that retains the power to transform the world.

Hollywood Rides a Bike

Hollywood Rides a Bike PDF Author: Steven Rea
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781883318635
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Long before cycling was uber-trendy, the hottest film stars were pedalling their way to glory on the big screen. Renowned film critic Steven Rea presents a stunning homage to the humble bicycle by showing Hollywood's biggest stars on two (and sometimes three) wheels. This beautiful collection of over 125 rare vintage photographs showcases classic stars such as Brigitte Bardot, Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart... on wheels! Hollywood Rides a Bike includes a special index about bikes especially for cycling aficionados, as well as an index devoted to a 'Who's Who' of Hollywood.

Culture on Two Wheels

Culture on Two Wheels PDF Author: Jeremy Withers
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803269722
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
"Analyzes how print and visual texts of various kinds reflect, refract, and respond to the social and political significance of the bicycle from its origins in the nineteenth century to the present"--

Routledge Companion to Cycling

Routledge Companion to Cycling PDF Author: Glen Norcliffe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000575403
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 802

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Book Description
Routledge Companion to Cycling presents a comprehensive overview of an artefact that throughout the modern era has been a bellwether indicator of the major social, economic and environmental trends that have permeated society The volume synthesizes a rapidly growing body of research on the bicycle, its past and present uses, its technological evolution, its use in diverse geographical settings, its aesthetics and its deployment in art and literature. From its origins in early modern carriage technology in Germany, it has generated what is now a vast, multi-disciplinary literature encompassing a wide range of issues in countries throughout the world.

Cycle of Violence

Cycle of Violence PDF Author: Colin Bateman
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
ISBN: 9781559703499
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Miller's ever-so-smart aleck mouth has earned him a disciplinary transfer from his downtown Belfast beat to Crossmaheart, a beleaguered and depressed outpost where the preferred response to murder is a hilarious one-liner. Miller is replacing a reporter who has disappeared - to no one's great surprise in this postterrorist ghetto full of leftover guns, plentiful whiskey, and a secret more sordid than the locals' resumes of political "activism". Crossmaheart is a notoriously fatal place in which to ask questions, and Miller is determined to forgo his professional curiosity, to compromise his journalist's integrity in the interest of staying alive. He is particularly intent on keeping himself clear of whatever involvements caused the job opening at the Crossmaheart Chronicle in the first place. But once he falls for his predecessor's troubled girlfriend, Marie - a former Catholic schoolgirl to complement Miler's own Protestant heritage - his plan begins to fall apart.

Cycling and Cinema

Cycling and Cinema PDF Author: Bruce Bennett
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1912685035
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
A unique exploration of the history of the bicycle in cinema, from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films. Cycling and Cinema explores the history of the bicycle in cinema from the late nineteenth century through to the present day. In this new book from Goldsmiths Press, Bruce Bennett examines a wide variety of films from around the world, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films, to consider the complex, shifting cultural significance of the bicycle. The bicycle is an everyday technology, but in examining the ways in which bicycles are used in films, Bennett reveals the rich social and cultural importance of this apparently unremarkable machine. The cinematic bicycles discussed in this book have various functions. They are the source of absurd comedy in silent films, and the vehicles that allow their owners to work in sports films and social realist cinema. They are a means of independence and escape for children in melodramas and kids' films, and the tools that offer political agency and freedom to women, as depicted in films from around the world. In recounting the cinematic history of the bicycle, Bennett reminds us that this machine is not just a practical means of transport or a child's toy, but the vehicle for a wide range of meanings concerning individual identity, social class, nationhood and belonging, family, gender, and sexuality and pleasure. As this book shows, two hundred years on from its invention, the bicycle is a revolutionary technology that retains the power to transform the world.

Bicycle Thieves (Ladri Di Biciclette)

Bicycle Thieves (Ladri Di Biciclette) PDF Author: Robert S. C. Gordon
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1844572382
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette, 1948) is unarguably one of the most important films in the history of cinema. It is also one of the most beguiling, moving and (apparently) simple pieces of narrative ever made. The film tells the story of one man and his son, as they search fruitlessly through the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle; the bicycle which had offered the possibility of escape from the poverty and humiliation of long-term unemployment. One of a cluster of extraordinary films to come out of post-war, post-Fascist Italy - loosely labelled 'neorealist' – Bicycle Thieves won an Oscar in 1949, topped the first Sight and Sound poll of the best films of all time in 1952 and has been hugely influential throughout world cinema ever since. It remains a necessary point of reference for any cinematic engagement with the labyrinthine experience of the modern city, the travails of poverty in the contemporary world, the complex bond between fathers and sons, and the capacity of the camera to capture something like the essence of all of these. Robert S. C. Gordon's BFI Film Classics volume shows how Bicycle Thieves is ripe for re-viewing, for rescuing from its worthy status as a neorealist 'classic'. It looks at the film's drawn-out planning and production history, the vibrant and riven context in which it was made, and the dynamic geography, geometry and sociology of the film that resulted. ROBERT S. C. GORDON is Reader in Modern Italian Culture, Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK.

Bicycle Diaries

Bicycle Diaries PDF Author: David Byrne
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101464399
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"...an engaging book: part diary, part manifesto." The Guardian A round-the-world bicycle tour with one of the most original artists of our day. Urban bicycling has become more popular than ever as recession-strapped, climate-conscious city dwellers reinvent basic transportation. In this wide-ranging memoir, artist/musician and co-founder of Talking Heads David Byrne--who has relied on a bike to get around New York City since the early 1980s--relates his adventures as he pedals through and engages with some of the world's major cities. From Buenos Aires to Berlin, he meets a range of people both famous and ordinary, shares his thoughts on art, fashion, music, globalization, and the ways that many places are becoming more bike-friendly. Bicycle Diaries is an adventure on two wheels conveyed with humor, curiosity, and humanity.

Seven Deadly Sins

Seven Deadly Sins PDF Author: David Walsh
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501133195
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The basis for the upcoming major motion picture The Program directed by Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, The Queen, Philomena), starring Chris O'Dowd as journalist David Walsh and Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong. When Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999, the sports world had found a charismatic new idol. Journalist David Walsh was among a small group covering the tour who suspected Armstrong’s win wasn’t the feel-good story it seemed to be. From that first moment of doubt, the next thirteen years of Walsh’s life would be focused on seeking the answers to a series of hard questions about Armstrong’s astonishing success. As Walsh delved ever deeper into the shadow world of performance-enhancing drugs in professional athletics, he accumulated a mounting pile of evidence that led a furious Armstrong to take legal action against him. But he could not make Walsh—or the story—go away, and in the autumn of 2012, Walsh was vindicated when the cyclist was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. With this remarkable book, Walsh has produced both the definitive account of the Armstrong scandal, and a testament to the importance of journalists who are willing to report a difficult truth over a popular fantasy.

Culture on Two Wheels

Culture on Two Wheels PDF Author: Jeremy Withers
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803290454
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Bicycles have more cultural identities than many realize, functioning not only as literal vehicles in a text but also as “vehicles” for that text’s themes, ideas, and critiques. In the late nineteenth century the bicycle was seen as a way for the wealthy urban elite to reconnect with nature and for women to gain a measure of personal freedom, while during World War II it became a utilitarian tool of the French Resistance and in 1970s China stood for wealth and modernization. Lately it has functioned variously as the favored ideological steed of environmentalists, a means of community bonding and aesthetic self-expression in hip hop, and the ride of choice for bike messenger–idolizing urban hipsters. Culture on Two Wheels analyzes the shifting cultural significance of the bicycle by examining its appearances in literary, musical, and cinematic works spanning three continents and more than 125 years of history. Bringing together essays by a variety of cyclists and scholars with myriad angles of approach, this collection highlights the bicycle’s flexibility as a signifier and analyzes the appearance of bicycles in canonical and well-known texts such as Samuel Beckett’s modernist novel Molloy, the Oscar-winning film Breaking Away, and various Stephen King novels and stories, as well as in lesser-known but equally significant texts, such as the celebrated Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Sacrifice and Elizabeth Robins Pennell’s nineteenth-century travelogue A Canterbury Pilgrimage, the latter of which traces the route of Chaucer’s pilgrims via bicycle. Listen to an interview with the author.