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Stars in Our Eyes The Star Phenomenon in the Contemporary Era
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Angela Ndalianis, Charlotte Henry
ISBN: 0-275-97480-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97480-0
250 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 3/30/2002
List Price: $98.95 (UK Sterling Price: £68.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: The media star has become a powerful, almost unparalleled, cultural sign, even as the star system has undergone radical transformation since the era of the Hollywood studio system. Today's film industry continues to market and promote its products through actors in ways that seek to capture the often elusive quality that a star can embody. Using contemporary stars such as Robert De Niro, Keanu Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Dennis Hopper, this anthology of essays applies a variety of theoretical tools in its attempt to understand how we interpret stars, and how we can begin to understand their cultural significance.

Likewise, the study explores how the star system has become an increasingly complex phenomenon within society at large, extending its impact beyond the cinema into music, sports, and fashion. Many of the essays collected here consider this shift and examine how personae including the director (Sam Peckinpah), the royalty (Princess Diana) and even the digital star (Lara Croft) have captured the cultural imagination and have come to attain qualities as star-like as those of the silver screen.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction by Angela Ndalianis
    Individual Case Studies
    The Misleading Man: Dennis Hopper by Adrian Martin
    The Replicator: Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Great Meme-Machine by Louise Krasniewicz and Michael Blitz
    Choosing Silence: Robert De Niro and the Celebrity Interview by Greg M. Smith
    The Cultural Impact of Star Images
    The Keanu Effect--Stardom and the Landscape of the Acting Body: Los Angeles/Hollywood as Sight/Site by Carmel Giarratana
    More Sign Than Star: Diana, Death, and the Internet by Michael Punt
    Virtually Touching the Stars--from the Moon to Heaven's Gate and Beyond by Leonie Cooper
    Directors and Characters as Stars
    The Auteur as Star: Violence and Utopia in the Films of Sam Peckinpah by Gabrielle Murray
    Birth of a Hero: Rocky, Stallone, and Mythical Creation by Rikke Schubart
    Digital Stars in Our Eyes by Angela Ndalianis
    Index
About the Author: ANGELA NDALIANIS is a senior lecturer in Cinema Studies and New Media at the University of Melbourne. She has contributed articles to various journals, and has written chapters for two anthologies of essays on media.

CHARLOTTE HENRY has taught Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Melbourne and in the School of Studies in Creative Arts and the Victorian College of the Arts. Currently the Acquisitions Coordinator at the Australian Film Institute, she is also an active member of Women in Film and Television.
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