Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film (a BFI Compendium)

Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film explores the shadowy world of Gothic cinema and television – a haunted place stalked by vampires and werewolves, ghosts and tormented monsters, mad scientists and the living dead, brooding Princes of Darkness and imperilled heroines…

Through a range of lavishly illustrated new essays, written by some of the foremost authorities in the field, Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film reveals how the archetypes of Gothic horror and romance have endured, reflecting our deepest fears back at us.

It charts the story of how the Gothic found its dark heart in Britain, and came to life on film across the world, from its origins in the silent era, through the Universal horrors of the 1930s, the rise of Hammer in the 1950s, and many other twilight stops on its path to the present.

With contributions from Mark Gatiss, Sir Christopher Frayling, Guillermo del Toro, Anne Billson, Jonathan Rigby, Mark Kermode, Roger Luckhurst, Richard T. Kelly, Reece Shearsmith, Matthew Sweet, Ramsey Campbell, Glen Duncan, David Pirie, Marina Warner, Charlie Higson, Roger Clarke, Kim Newman, Victoria Nelson, Helen Oyeyemi, Stephen Volk, Catherine Spooner, David Punter, Rob Young, Geoffrey O’Brien and more.

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Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder - A BFI Compendium

Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder

Our latest compendium charts a course through the other worlds, future visions and altered states of sci-fi film and television, taking us from the magical invention of early cinema and onwards past the flying saucers, forbidden planets and Martian invaders of 1950s Cold War sci-fi and the adventures in space and time of Doctor Who.

With 160 pages of lavishly illustrated new essays written by many of the foremost authorities in the field, including Kim Newman, Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Matthew Sweet, Helen Lewis, John Clute, Roger Luckhurst, Adam Roberts, Adam Rutherford and Simon Ings. 

Electric Shadows: A Century of Chinese Cinema

An introduction to the long and illustrious history of Chinese cinema, from the earliest silent films through the glamour and invention of Shanghai’s golden age in the 1930s, from the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution to the grand renaissance of the Fifth Generation directors in the 1980s, and from the underground, independent spirit of the 1990s to the booming multiplex cinema of the present.

Contributors include Chris Berry, Michael Berry, Peggy Chiao, Tony Rayns, Bérénice Reynaud, Yingjin Zhang, and filmmakers Tsui Hark, Jia Zhangke, Ann Hui, Feng Xiaogang and Stanley Kwan.

39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock

The first BFI Compendium offers a complete portrait of the man the world came to know as the ‘Master of Suspense’, and a fuller understanding of just what we mean when we describe something as ‘Hitchcockian’.

Featuring essays by 39 of the world’s foremost authorities on Hitchcock, including Charles Barr, Patrick McGilligan, Laura Mulvey, Camille Paglia, David Thomson and Guillermo del Toro.