{"product_id":"the-cinema-of-paolo-sorrentino-commitment-to-style-9780231189934","title":"The Cinema of Paolo Sorrentino: Commitment to Style","description":"\u003cp\u003ePaolo Sorrentino, director of \u003ci\u003eIl Divo\u003c\/i\u003e (2008) and \u003ci\u003eThe Great Beauty\u003c\/i\u003e (2013) and creator of the HBO series \u003ci\u003eThe Young Pope\u003c\/i\u003e (2016), has emerged as one of the most compelling figures in twenty-first-century European film. From his earliest productions to his more recent transnational works, Sorrentino has paid homage to Italy's cinematic past while telling stories of masculine characters whose sense of self seems to be on the brink of dissolution. Together with his usual collaborators (including cinematographer Luca Bigazzi and editor Cristiano Travagliolo) and actors (chief among them Toni Servillo), Sorrentino has produced an incisive depiction of the contemporary European condition by means of an often spectacular postclassical style that nevertheless continues postwar Italian film's tradition of political commitment. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book is a critical examination of Sorrentino's work, focusing on his emergence as a preeminent transnational auteur. Russell J. A. Kilbourn offers close readings of Sorrentino's feature films and television output from \u003ci\u003eOne Man Up\u003c\/i\u003e (2001) to \u003ci\u003eThe Young Pope\u003c\/i\u003e (2016) and \u003ci\u003eLoro\u003c\/i\u003e (2018), featuring in-depth analyses of the director's exuberant and intensified film style. Addressing the crucial themes of Sorrentino's output--including a masculine subject defined by a melancholic awareness of its own imminent demise, and a critique of the conventional cinematic representation of women--Kilbourn illuminates Sorrentino's ability to suffuse postmodern elegies for the humanist worldview with a sense of social awareness and responsibility. Kilbourn also foregrounds Sorrentino's contributions to the ongoing transformations of cinematic realism and the Italian and European art cinema traditions more broadly. The first English-language study of the acclaimed director's oeuvre, \u003ci\u003eThe Cinema of Paolo Sorrentino\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates why he is considered one of the most dynamic figures making films today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRussell J. A. Kilbourn is professor of English and film studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His books include \u003ci\u003eCinema, Memory, Modernity: The Representation of Memory from the Art Film to Transnational Cinema\u003c\/i\u003e (2010) and \u003ci\u003eW. G. Sebald's Postsecular Redemption: Catastrophe with Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e (2018).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wallflower Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50369098711314,"sku":"9780231189934","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9f448579-1f85-4ae5-ab85-5f9ce20cd5e7.jpg?v=1728520564","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-cinema-of-paolo-sorrentino-commitment-to-style-9780231189934","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}