The Legend Returns and Dies Harder Another Day

This work examines film series. Some are representative of three periods in American film history—silent cinema, Classic Hollywood cinema, and the post–Classic or New Hollywood cinema. And some are in the tradition of other national cinemas, including those of France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and India. The series are examined from a variety of cultural and critical perspectives. In the initial chapter the editor analyzes the series form. Part One examines early cinema, outlining the events and situations after 1907 that allowed early filmmakers to begin creating series based on the complex narratives of popular fiction. Part Two explores the cultural implications of such series as Tarzan, Nancy Drew, and Maisie. Chapters in Part Three analyze James Bond and Star Wars, two of the most widely recognized series in Hollywood history. Part Four examines mid-century Germany’s Fridericus and France’s Angélique and Caroline. The final part presents studies of the postwar Japanese series Godzilla and Tora-San, the popular Better Tomorrow series from Hong Kong, and several Hindi series from postcolonial India.

Jennifer Forrest is a professor of French at Texas State University, San Marcos.

Edited by Jennifer Forrest

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 320
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3943-0
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      1

1. The Poetics of Film Series
JENNIFER FORREST      21

Early Cinema
2. The Intertextuality of Early Cinema: A Prologue to Fantômas, Film and Novel
TOM GUNNING      39

Classic Hollywood Cinema
3. Tarzan in Novel and Film
MICHAEL HARNEY      57
4. Narcissistic Doubling and the Question of Identification in Film Series: The Case of Nancy Drew
CAROLE MARTIN      81
5. The Trouble with Maisie: Insubordination and the Empowered Woman Series
JENNIFER FORREST      105

The New Hollywood
6. The James Bond Films
JAMES CHAPMAN      130
7. Who’s Your Daddy? Politics and Paternity in the Star Wars Saga
SUSAN ARONSTEIN and ROBERT TORRY      158

Europe
8. The Transfiguration of Old Fritz: Münchhausen and the Fridericus Series
THOMAS L. COOKSEY      178
9. Caroline and Angélique: Seductresses of the French Screen
PIERRE SIVAN      197

Japan, Hong Kong, and India
10. Through the Years with Godzilla and Tora-San: Film Series in Postwar Japan
WILLIAM M. TSUTSUI      210
11. Serial Brotherhood: The Better Tomorrow Films and Some Wuxia and Western Cousins
KENNETH E. HALL      241
12. The Allegorical Imagination in Hindi Film Series
RASHMI DORAISWAMY      263

About the Contributors      293
Index      297