Kite Runner

Robert Webb, David Mitchell

This Mitchell and Webb Book

Dive into the bizarre yet strangely familiar world of Mitchell and Webb - the wittiest men on television, or anywhere else.From the two finest comedians of their generation comes the ultimate Christmas comedy book - lavishly illustrated in colour, containing all sorts of outrageous stuff that will have you laughing into the spring and beyond.David Mitchell and Robert Webb have been hard at work cramming all the comic genius that marked their award-winning TV and radio shows into one very beautiful and very funny hardback book.Ted the snooker commentator's Hello Magazine photo shoot will be unveiled for the very first time, and expect guest appearances from Dr Jonathan Miller and CSI's David Caruso.David and Rob have also unearthed Hitler's lost text messages and some notes Peter Mandelson left on his fridge. They will offer tips on surviving the credit crunch for all those that need them.Expect a board game put together by Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar, a guide to the cheeses of Saudi Arabia, and news of the ever-expanding range of Mitchell and Webb products.This Mitchell and Webb book will be supported by a frankly enormous marketing budget and stunning publicity everywhere. This will ...

Lee Mendelson

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic

Trick-or-treating has never been more fun--with scary costumes, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Sally, Schroeder, Linus, and, of course, the Great Pumpkin. Since its first airing forty years ago, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" has become synonymous with Halloween. This collection of remembrances and behind-the-scenes treasures celebrates the timeless television classic with: A full script illustrated with screen art from the showNever-before-seen photographs, storyboard excerpts, and production materialsInterviews with the original child actors who were the voices of the Peanuts gangReminiscences and insider tidbits from executive producer Lee Mendelson and animator Bill MelendezAnd much more

Mark L. Berrettini

Hal Hartley

Since the late 1980s, Hal Hartley has challenged standards of realist narrative cinema with daring narrative constructions, character development, and the creation of an unconventional visual world. In this pioneering critical overview of his work and its cultural-historical context, Mark L. Berrettini discusses seven of Hartley's feature films, including The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, Amateur, Henry Fool, Fay Grim, and The Book of Life. Drawing on journalism, theories of representation, narrative and genre, and cinema history, Berrettini discusses the absurdist-comedic representation of serious themes in Hartley's films: impossible love, coincidence and human relations, extreme isolation, and the restrictions posed by gender norms. He looks at the films' consistently absurd tone and notes how these themes reappear within framing narratives that shift from the seemingly mundane in Hartley's earliest works to the vibrantly creative and fantastic in his later films. Employing close analysis and theories related to cinematic narrative and to realism, the book's critical appraisal of Hartley's films considers aspects of American independent cinema and postwar European ...