The Mabuse phenomenon is recognized as an icon of horror in Germany as Frankenstein and Dracula are in the United States. A study of the 12 motion pictures and five books (and some secondary films) that make up the eight decades of adventures of master criminal Mabuse, created by author Norbert Jacques in the best-selling 1922 German novel and brought to the screen by master filmmaker Fritz Lang in the same year. Both on screen and off, the story of Dr. Mabuse is a story of love triangles and revenge, of murder, suicides, and suspicious deaths, of betrayals and paranoia, of fascism and tyranny, deceptions and conspiracies, mistaken identities, and transformation. This work, featuring much information never before published in English, provides an understanding of a modern mythology whose influence has pervaded popular culture even while the name Mabuse remains relatively unknown in the United States.

Back in print at last is Dr. Mabuse. This extremely rare English translation of the Norbert Jacques novel appeared only once in 1923 and then was lost for decades. And what a fantastic find it is! Molded as much by legendary film director Fritz Lang as by novelist Norbert Jacques, Dr. Mabuse remains one of the more enigmatic figures in crime fiction and cinema. Created between the Great War and World War II, he became an embodiment of the rising Nazi Party and the disintegration of Germany's Weimar Republic. The parallels were so close between Hitler and Mabuse that Lang's first two Mabuse films were banned in Germany by Joseph Goebbels' propaganda machine. There is a broad streak of the weird running through the Dr. Mabuse legacy. Is he an evil genius-a mere mortal with a malignant bent, or is he a demon spirit who carries on the dark crusade long after the human avatar is destroyed by his own maniacal ambitions? The plot is wickedly simple. Dr. Mabuse has a mad dream to create his own personal empire in Brazil, an empire called Citopomar. In Citopomar he can rule without constraint. He can be a god! . . . but even a god requires some start-up cash, so he regrettably returns to his hated Europe to raise funds by any criminal means necessary. Why make money when you can steal it? Why merely cheat somebody at cards when you can control their hand through telepathic hypnosis? Why be just another common criminal when you can be an evil genius mastermind bent on world domination? Man or devil, he is a prototype super-villain whose sinister incantations still resonate in fiction and film today. Fascinating parallels can be found in Ian Fleming's first James Bond outing, Casino Royale. In that novel, bad boy Le Chiffre trolls the high-roller casinos to fund his schemes and even dares to embezzle from SMERSH in order to fund his human trafficking pipeline. Le Chiffre is yet another reincarnation of Dr. Mabuse. Bruin Asylum is proud to announce the resurrection of Dr. Mabuse by Norbert Jacques. English translation by Lillian A. Clare.

Chion analyzes imaginative uses of the human voice by directors like Lang, Hitchcock, Ophuls, Duras, and de Palma.

ln this volume Tom Gunning examines the films of Fritz Lang not only as a stylistically coherent body of work, but as an attempt to portray the modern world through cinema. The world of modernity in which systems replace individuals is conveyed by Lang's mastery of cinematic set design, composition and editing. Lang presents not only a decades-long vision of cinematic narrative which can be compared to that of Alfred Hitchcock or Jean Renoir, but a view of modernity that relates strongly to the ideas of Adorno, Brecht, Benjamin and Kracauer. From the sweeping allegorical films of the 20s to the chilly and abstract thrillers of the 50s, Lang's films, Gunning claims, are 'among the most precious records of the twentieth century'. The Films of Fritz Lang immeasurably enriches our understanding of a great artist and, in so doing, reimagines what a film arlist is: an author who fades away even in being recognised and interpreted, an enigmatic figure at the junction of aesthetics, history, biography and theory.

An essential work of the cinematic history of the Weimar Republic by a leading figure of film criticism First published in 1947, From Caligari to Hitler remains an undisputed landmark study of the rich cinematic history of the Weimar Republic. Prominent film critic Siegfried Kracauer examines German society from 1921 to 1933, in light of such movies as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, M, Metropolis, and The Blue Angel. He explores the connections among film aesthetics, the prevailing psychological state of Germans in the Weimar era, and the evolving social and political reality of the time. Kracauer makes a startling (and still controversial) claim: films as popular art provide insight into the unconscious motivations and fantasies of a nation. With a critical introduction by Leonardo Quaresima which provides context for Kracauer’s scholarship and his contributions to film studies, this Princeton Classics edition makes an influential work available to new generations of cinema enthusiasts.

A classic on the aesthetics of filmmaking from the pioneering Soviet director who made Battleship Potemkin. Though he completed only a half-dozen films, Sergei Eisenstein remains one of the great names in filmmaking, and is also renowned for his theory and analysis of the medium. Film Form collects twelve essays, written between 1928 and 1945, that demonstrate key points in the development of Eisenstein’s film theory and in particular his analysis of the sound-film medium. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Jay Leyda, this volume allows modern-day film students and fans to gain insights from the man who produced classics such as Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible and created the renowned “Odessa Steps” sequence.

Deals with issue of sound in audio-visual images