Böcker av Dana (New York University Polan

Pulp Fiction was one of the films that defined American cinema of the 1990s, and remains one of the stand-out movies of its director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino's style - violent, fast, funny and full of knowing pop culture references - epitomises 90s post-modernism. Pulp Fiction was a phenomenal cult success and one of the first films to generate hot debate in internet chatrooms and on fan websites.Dana Polan's compelling analysis sets out to uncover the style and technique of Pulp Fiction. He shows how broad Tarantino's points of reference are, and analyzes the film's narrative accomplishment and complexity. Where some critics dismissed Pulp Fiction for its violence and its worship of a certain brand of cool, Polan shows how the film exemplifies new kinds of engagement with cultural and social codes, such as those around racial identity. In addition, Polan argues that the film's celebration of macho attitudes is more nuanced than might first appear. In a new afterword to this new edition, Polan looks back on Pulp Fiction 30 years after its first release.

Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) is a film very much of its cinematic moment, combining the gritty realism of entrapment in the everyday with furtive dreams of escape. Dana Polan's compelling study of the film examines its significance to New Hollywood cinema and the science fiction genre. He argues that Close Encounters is a film that is an allegory of the cinematic experience overall; it both narrates a tale of visual seduction and plays it out viscerally for the spectator who shares the amazement of the protagonist Roy Neary as his mundane reality is transformed into something awe-inspiring. Providing an in-depth look into the film's production history, including all three different versions, Polan situates Close Encounters within Spielberg's repertoire. He argues that despite the film's popular success, it is in fact a rejection of several entrenched American values, including family, home and marriage. It offers, through its visual fascination, alternative understandings of masculinity and morality, familial responsibility, and what it means to follow the 'American Dream'.