Average customer rating:
|
Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema: From Banderas to Bardem (Oxford Studies in Modern European Culture)
Chris Perriam
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Actors & Actresses
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
History & Criticism
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Men
| Gender Studies
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Arts & Photography
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Biographies & Memoirs
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Entertainment
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Reference
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 019815996X |
Book Description
Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema focuses on the careers of ten Spanish film actors, including Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem, and Eduardo Noriega. Chris Perriam traces their development as stars in the Spanish context and builds on recent, exciting work on Spanish film and culture by combining close study of performance in specific scenes with the theoretical paradigms of Star Studies and research into masculinities. Full use of popular and intellectual press coverage of these actors grounds the approach in the certain specifics of Spanish audience responses and production contexts in the period covered - more or less from Almodovar's Labyrinth of Passion to the latest premieres. Scenes from thirty key films are covered in detail, and the full range of each star's Spanish career is studied by briefer reference to some seventy films or more. Spanish cinema is among the most exciting and distinctive cinemas in Europe and this new study is a key contribution to the growing fields of Spanish Cultural and Film Studies.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Modern Language Review, published by Modern Humanities Research Association on July 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1956 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema: From Banderas to Bardem.(Book Review)
Author: Maria M. Delgado
Publication:
The Modern Language Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2004
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
Volume: 99
Issue: 3
Page: 818(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Amazon.com
A quick stroll through the toy aisles in any American superstore splits gender as neatly as Moses did the Red Sea. On your left, the pink and purple ghetto reserved for girls intent on dolls and their endless accoutrements; to the right, the swaggering, bare-chested superheroes with bulging plastic muscles doled out to boys. Once out of the toy store, a gazillion more real and imaginary "tough guys" like Bruce Lee and Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and James M. Cain and Ernest Hemingway lope across the social radar. It's only in the last few decades that a battalion of "tough girls" hailing from toy stores, comic books, films, TV, and video games have carved out their own clearly lucrative niche. "In a culture where women are often considered the natural victims of men, tough women rewrite the script," says Sherrie Inness, author of Tough Girls. Whether you like them or loathe them, she adds, these cartoonish femme icons flexing muscle and attitude expand the acceptable scope of gender roles in the public consciousness. Deftly exploring how images of toughness and femininity play out in pop culture, politics, the military, and business, Inness also pays heed to how and why women's punches get pulled. --Francesca Coltrera
Customer Reviews:
Tough Girls.......1999-12-08
I felt that this was an excellent resource for the research of how women are depicted in the media and how important it is to recognize even the smallest steps taken to debunk traditional stereotypes of women. I used this in writing a content analysis of the depictions of women in professional wrestling, and found her theories to be sound and her arguments legitimate. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone studying female representation in the media.
It made me angry........1999-09-24
I read half the book and got so angry I couldn't finish it. The author argues that Dana Scully of"X-Files, Xena, Emma Peel of "Avengers", Thelma & Louise, Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, Captain Janeway of "Voyager", Ripley of "Aliens" etc. all have their toughness defused by having feminine characteristics or clothing. What the author seem to want is one dimensional characters. Having feminine characteristics does not make characters less tough. Only the "bad guys" in films are portrayed as totally tough. Tough men in films are not without their softer, more "feminine" side. No one would find them compelling or sympathetic otherwise. The author says, "In many ways Ripley and Janeway are tough, but their toughness is lessened by emphasis placed on their maternal and nurturing sides." (page 119) This is ludicrous. Nurturing and positive "women" traits do not negate toughness. In point of fact, it increases it. When one can show a softer side, that shows that one is not insecure and overly dominant and aggressive. Innes states,"Thus toughness for Ripley is not some new feminist ideal, where she takes the best part of femininity and masculinity and forges them into a type of toughness that has not been seen yet" (page 107) In this line the author seems to indicate that toughness combined with "feminine" traits would be the best ideal for women, yet she successfully dismisses all the women who show "feminine" characteristics as not tough. I believe the character of Janeway has a great combination of what I would call womanly toughness. Having her hair down and being in a soft nightgown when she was suppose to be sleeping does not turn her into a victim. Innes writes, "Even if Picard had awakened to find Q in bed with him, such a scene would be interpreted far differently than the scene with Janeway. Q is viewed as a male predator who might threaten Janeway sexually but never Picard." (page 117). Q is not viewed as a threat at all; he is more of a comical character. The interpretation of this episode sounds hysterical, like a person overly sensitive to insults. In other words, the author comes across as untough, not Janeway. In point of fact Picard did wake up to find Q lying next to him and Picard pulls the covers up over his naked chest. (Episode: "Tapestry, U.S. airdate Feb. 28, 1993). I also take exception to the idea that clothing is always a meter of toughness. If a woman decides to wear pink frilly blouses than she is still the same tough woman. The idea that clothes are a meter of personality is what lawyers say to try to blame women for "getting" raped. The author has a more stringent requirement for women to be tough than men. Men can wear sexy outfits, have romance, save and be nurturing to children, be tender, and still they are tough. However, the author says if a woman character shows these same characteristics than her toughness is lessened. Hogwash! I am disappointed with the book because I feel it does a great disservice to women.
Customer Reviews:
Another great supplement..........1999-02-17
...from a cancelled product line. Birthright was one of TSR's most innovative settings, so I was startled that it was cancelled after less than 3 years. There were misfires (a couple lackluster adventures and the seemingly endless barrage of realm books) but this supplement proves just how good Birthright could be. The spectacular glimpse into a distant past when noble Giants ruled the land is worth the price alone.
Customer Reviews:
Not much to it.............2005-10-21
I agree with a previous reviewer who said that the authors didn't pay much attention to who the target audience was for this book.
It starts off like a C++ book, then you have some .NET stuff thrown in (ofcourse, you are not told why you need them, its like "This is a .NET book, and there has to be some .NET material!!"). I have been programming in C++ for quite long, and I thought I could progress to .NET with this one. I was wrong. The book doesnt even take time off to explain what "Managed" C++ is all about. There are some nuggets of info here and there, but its so disorganised, I dont think they will benefit anyone.
Good book for intermediate C++ & new to .NET.......2005-10-06
Step by Step is a good description of what this book is about. While it would be very helpful to have some prior C++ experience, you could probably just have a copy of .NET and this book, and get alot out of it. However, if you are experienced in Visual C++.NET, this book would be of little use. It would be impossible to comprehensively cover all of the topics addressed in this book in it's
< 600 pages, but it gives, in my opinion, and great introduction to some of C++.NET's features. I found the section on ADO.NET especially helpful, and was able to write some fine database mgt. software for my personal use. This book also gives a solid introduction to Windows Forms programming as well as to exception handling in .NET. I think some of the longer reviews for this book are over done. It would be very easy for a knowlegdeable .NET developer to sharpshoot was is wrong with it. I am glad I didn't listen to them before I bought this book. It was worth every penny.
OK Book but just an overview.......2005-09-12
This book was recommended to me because I was coming from a Borland environment. I have been struggling to get into windows development and finding resources that are instructional to someone that has written many Console based apps, and is pretty knowledgable in OOP, has become a nightmare. Most of the books I have found are made toward beginers, and they all reitterate the same information for beginners. I almost believe that the writers out there either don't understand the languages themselves, or have descovered if they keep regurgitating the same novice information with a new cover they can sell more books to suckers thinking they will learn anything more than what an array is, or how to say "Hello, World!". This book did give me a good introduction to the user interface and slight language differences from my Borland experience. But it gives nothing more than an introduction. The examples are exactly as the title states "Step by Step". I do not see the relavence of the examples, nor there application to real world programming. This is a feel good book for anyone who would like to pretend that they are programming real windows applications; and have no real understanding of the language. The examples will walk you through it all so you don't have to understand or learn any more than that. Don't expect this book to tell you how any of this, or the examples relate to real applications. For example the window example has you create a window. Woohoo! I could figure that out from playing with the environment for 2 minutes. It will not tell you anymore about how to put real data or information into the window. Or, how to trigger new windows, or new information. What is worse is that Microsoft seems to want to keep all the knowledge to themselves, by way of the MS Press (once again reflecting back to my making money scheme, Bill you sly dog!).
The worst disaster in bookwriting EVER!.......2005-09-10
This is unbelievable!!! I just bought this book and thought: Ah, I've been out of programming... So this book can get me started in C++ again. No way. As usual with Microsoft in house writing this book looks ok, read ok but the software does not match the book. Yep, it's C++ alright but just try to install the MSDN or try to type in an example.... It all does not work. My occupation is not in the field of programming so I don't have much time to waste on this bull)(*# book. Having programmed in Basic, Pascal 5.5 and machine language (yep it's old but AT LEAST IT WORKED!!!) before I thought to give it a go... What a waste of time indeed!
Microsoft Visual C++ .NET S... is a very good choice to learn about OOP in the .NET C++ environment........2005-08-24
I bought this book over a month ago, and even though I am not finished reading it I believe that this is the best C++ book that you can buy in the market if you haven't been exposed to the .NET environment. I already know C++, but I wanted to learn about coding in the .NET environment, and so far even though the information in the first few chapters is too basic, there are many chapters in this book that teach you to design GUI stuff and utilize advanced functionality that only .NET can offer. Even the first few chapters had some new stuff too.
Book Description
Teach yourself Visual C# .NET version 2003#151;and start developing Microsoft .NET-connected applications#151;one step at a time. Master language fundamentals at your own pace and use the learn-by-doing exercises to dig in and code!
Customer Reviews:
Close but no wee-oh.......2006-06-10
This book does, indeed, take you through C# step by step. It does a farly good job of introducing concepts and showing them in action. Usually by opening a file and entering the code. My biggest complaint about this book and the vast majority of other programming books that I've encountered is the lack of exercises. It's all well and good to demonstrate a while statement and the data types but just saying, "Type in the following lines", doesn't teach you to write a program.
It's a pretty good book for beginner who has some programming experience.......2006-03-12
this is pretty good book for a beginner who has some programming experience and wish to learn C#. i have read some of the comments such as "Definitely Not For Beginners". i would like to say, probably the reader doesn't know how to program at all. the example is easy to follow. i have to admit that i didn't test on all the sample code from CD, but with the thorough elaboration learned from the book, it's enough for me to write my own testing code. For example, there is some topic about ArrayList and the book provide a sample for playing card, instead of using the sample provided, i rather write my own to test it out.
this book is not for those who want to learn windows programming in c# or web development. if you already know c# but want to know more about windows / asp.net programming. this is not the book for you.
lackluster (not step by step) or for beginners.......2005-12-21
It starts out in the first ten chapters explaining the concepts pretty well, and then it turns into an example-fest without any consideration for its namesake ("step by step"). All the examples are incomplete using "..." to signify previously exampled code. Its like a freaking jigsaw puzzle (especially CH 15) unless you have a laptop and are following the source from the cd), but why must you use both? The book itself should be self-contained.
I read some other reviews and felt the same criticisms reading it in the book for the first time (especially on the "ternary operator statement" from the review by ANT).
THE BOOK IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS.
I still don't fully understand what struts or interfaces are. In places, it uses allegories instead of definitions. The book is just bad. I think Im writing this review mostly for venting frustration about the amount of time I spent reading it.
Visual C# .Net.......2005-09-10
One of the best book I have seen on the subject for people new to C# .Net, but know some other language.
Not in depth enough.......2005-08-28
Coming from a VB background I chose two books to step up to C#. The first was Charles Petzolds excellent book, programming in the key of C#. My second book was this one. While this fills in many holes left out of Petzolds book, (mainly to do with the .NET framework & the .NET IDE, since Petzold deals purely with the C# language) it does so at the expense of clarity & in depth explanations as to `why' we do certain things. Often this book uses explanations dealing with as yet explained methods or objects, hence its flow is not contiguous, & the information supplied shallow. Had I not first worked through the `Key of C#' book, I would have been left scratching my head with this one. As in one example, it uses the conditional ternary operator statement having not yet explained this simple yet enigmatic little piece of code. (Fortunately I'd learnt this in the previous book). At other times, it gives examples that don't result in anything of value as code methodology. In another example the authors declare a property as 'money' without any prior indication of creating a money class, which led me to search MSDN online documentation for a non existent money data type that i may have overlooked. Not good. They have a skill of muddying simple concepts with overly complex examples. I came away thinking this book would be more for the experienced C++ developer, however, it doesn't really supply any ground breaking information on C# or its framework; it only skims over what could be discovered by yourself with a bit of exploration.
As I said originally, it does serve to fill in some gaps left out by other books, but I would steer away from this book if you are a beginner or even new to OOP. Another thing that in fact annoyed me about this book was its false claim that the .NET guidelines recommend against ANY use of Hungarian Notation at all. In fact the guidelines only recommend against using hn for exposed members. Private variables are still up to the team to decide upon. This was personal point of view & not related to true recommendations.
This book may better well serve as a reference but definitely not as a step by step beginner's book. It will leave you with more questions than answers. I would go for a book more dedicated to a particular facet of .NET, rather than this `all in one' step by step. For that reason, I'd probably choose Petzolds if you're looking to learn the C# `language', (It is also an excellent start in learning about OOP, though it doesn't touch upon Interfaces). There are also other excellent books on OOP, ADO & the .NET framework.
The style of this book leads me to believe it was written with the C++/Java developer in mind who want a quick jump to C#, rather than the VB developer who needs to adapt to the new framework. I'd only buy it if what you're looking for is a brief overview of the lot.
Book Description
Teach yourself how to write high-performance Web applications with ASP.NET and Visual Basic .NET - one step at a time. This practical, hands-on tutorial expertly guides you through the fundamental tools and technologies, including the common language runt
Customer Reviews:
Bad Code.......2006-03-18
It's really frustrating to try to learn from a programming book where the author's code doesn't work! None of the examples I tried would actually compile without my having to "fix" his code. In most cases that worked out ok, but in some cases I never really knew if my "fix" was a legitimate way to solve the problem or if it might cause problems later. Not a good way to learn!
I was robbed.......2005-11-20
This is the least useful book I have ever bought. It doesn't have anything useful and didn't answer me any questions I had. No wonder it was so cheap. I spent $9.95 for the book from Amozon, but I feel like I was robbed. I can give it to you for free if you ask for, but I would be guilty if I do, becuase it would waste your valuable time. Look at other's review and I was not the only victim, don't buy this one, it is 100% garbage.
Someone should have proofread this book.......2005-05-27
As an ASP developer who has not used Visual Studio, I found the first chapters of this book very insightful. The author does a good job explaining ASP.NET and its differences with ASP coding.
But if there's one thing that I can't stand in a programming book, it's a lack of proofreading of the code given in the book and poor programming practices displayed. This book, unfortunately, has a lot of that.
An example (from page 216):
Label6.Text = "Final Balance: $" + CalcBalance(Convert.ToInt32(TextBox1.Text),
Convert.ToInt32(TextBox2.Text) / 100,
Convert.ToInt32(TextBox3.Text),
Convert.ToInt16(DropDownList1.SelectedItem.Value)).ToString();
private string CalculateBalance(int Principal, double Rate, int Years, int Period)
{
double result;
double NumToBeRaised = (1 + Rate + Period);
result = Principal * System.Math.Pow(NumToBeRaised, (Years * Period));
return(result.ToString("C"));
}
This is to be a Compound Interest Calculator.
If you enter this code, as given in the book, it won't run. There are several errors:
Error 1) In the calling procedure, it's CalcBalance. In the function, it's CalculateBalance.
Error 2) If you fix that oversight and run it, your result is the same as the given Principal. Why? Because the function calls for a double Rate variable, and yet the calling routine converts the Rate to an int variable. If you change "Convert.ToInt32(TextBox2.Text) / 100" to "Convert.ToDouble(TextBox2.Text) / 100", the result is correct - sort of...
Error 3) The result will be displayed as "$$67,537.12" instead of "$67,537.12". The reason for the double-$ is that the function converts the result to a currency string, but then the calling procedure adds an extra "$".
Fixing these three errors will solve the problems, but obviously no one tried this code before the book was published.
And a couple of picky points just because I'm so irritated with something so glaring as these errors.
Error 4) Since the function returns as a string, why then convert the result to a string in the calling procedure?? It's unnecessary.
Error 5) The code uses default naming of objects instead of taking 1 minute to give some meaningful names, like txtPrincipal instead of TextBox1.
Two stars for having no thought to the simplest details.
Not Really Good for Beginners.......2005-04-22
I expect that this book will help me learn ASP.NET thru VB.NET. I am very frustrated, it didn't really help me to easily understand the simple thought of ASP.NET thru VB.NET. For beginners like me, I will not suggest this book. Much better to browse the web.
This book is just bad.......2005-02-26
I started this book with a background in both VB and classic ASP, with the goal of upgrading my knowledge to ASP.NET. I'll state that I think this book is just bad.
It seems that half the book presupposes that you have extensive knowledge of classic ASP, and the other half assumes that you've never used any sort of scripting language before. The examples are horribly simplistic to the point that they have absolutely no relation to modern web applications. But, you won't understand large parts of the book unless you have a background in programming.
The first two parts (six chapters) could actually be somewhat useful to a true beginner. They start slow and build up some very basic skills.
Part 2 is a little different. Chapter 7 on web forms is fairly decent, but could use to be longer. Chapter 8 on server controls is just poorly written. Chapter 9 on accessing date is AWFUL. It presupposes you have a fairly good background in traditional database access with something like ADO, so it's definitely not for beginners. For instance it compares the DataReader object to a read-only forward-only cursor, but if you don't have a background in data access you aren't going to understand how cursors work. This is right next to where he explains that the password key "Specifies the password to use to log into the SQL Server database." Yeah, DUH. Also, a bulk of the chapter is devoted to working with XML data but the chapter sets out to work with databases. For a 68 page chapter it conveys surprisingly little actual new information. No time is given to explaining how databases have traditionally been accessed and used in actual working applications. I just wanted to scream as I read it.
Chapter 10 on creating custom server controls and chapter 11 on creating web services are very brief introductions to some fairly advanced and complicated topics. They provide simplistic examples and then expect you might be able to actually use the knowledge you gained in the chapters. Yeah right.
Chapter 13 is aimed at beginners on deploying ASP.NET applications. Chapter 14 on tracing and debugging is actually not bad. (Not good either.)
Also the book is based on using Visual Studio .NET. I'll state that I have a bias against using IDEs for simple scripting, so I won't comment on appropriateness here. But be forewarned that three-quarters or more of the examples involve VS.NET.
Books:
- Steve Irwin: The Incredible Life of the Crocodile Hunter
- Storm of the Century: An Original Screenplay
- Sweethearts of the Sage: Biographies and Filmographies of 258 Actresses Appearing in Western Movies
- The Art of Ratatouille
- The Blue and the Gray on the Silver Screen: More Than Eighty Years of Civil War Movies
- The Cinema of Britain and Ireland (24 Frames)
- The Cognitive Semiotics of Film
- The Comedy World of Stan Laurel/Centennial Edition
- The Complete Films of Joan Crawford
- The Films of Joseph Losey (Cambridge Film Classics)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
- Understanding By Design
- Peachtree Accounting Practice Set: The Coddled Canine
- The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977
- Ten Days in the Hills
- ttyl
- The Things They Carried
- Prentice Hall Federal Taxation 2003: Comprehensive and Tax Analyst OneDisc Tax Research Program
- The Federal Reserve System: An Encyclopedia
- The Best of Rumpole: Chosen By the Author
