This "must have" resource is chock-full of information for anyone who has a child interested in an acting career! Learn about classes, agents, headshots, resumes ­ even scams! Educate yourselves before you send your darlings into the spotlight!

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In Praise of Film Studies brings together essays by scholars of Japanese cinema from around the world, all of whom have drawn on the collection of Makino Mamoru for their research. Makino Mamoru was a filmmaker and essayist who began assembling an enormous collection of film-related materials. While most collectors concentrate on image-centric items like posters and stills, Makino recognized the importance of books, magazines and other written texts for scholarship. His collection spans the entire history of Japanese cinema, and contains periodicals, books, pamphlets, posters, programs, scripts, diaries, studio records, fan zines, catalogs, textbooks, photographs, newspapers, clipping files, and the personal libraries of a number of film personalities. Makino opened the collection to a variety of film scholars, enabling them to write histories that were otherwise unimaginable. This volume brings together a number of these scholars to honor Makino Mamoru and his dedication to the study of Japanese cinema. (In English and Japanese.)

A new "easy to read" book that explains "the method" (past & present) and the "how to" of acting, writing, directing and teaching.

For the first time a book that talks about:

• What went on Behind the Scenes during the shooting of the original GODFATHER film.
• Talks about Richard S. Castellano's real life "Family Connections" and the visit his "Uncle Paul" made to the GODFATHER set during filming.
• Discusses the unique relationship that developed between Francis Coppola and Richard Castellano. (Read the letters written by Francis to Richard.)
• Shares the Origin of the "real" MAFIA and the "Code of Behaviour" that traveled to America.
• Offers a Character Comparison of the original "Don Corleone" with a reputed Crime Boss who died in prison.
• Further reveals the Art of Sicilian Storytelling with a sample introduction to a new original Screenplay, THE BOYS'LL HANDLE IT."

Book Cover Art and Design by Lisette Rotman

With its thoughtful, light-hearted insights and simple physical exercises this book will help you achieve the coveted "balance" that affects every aspect of your life. Discover how this 100-year-old dance can lead you to a more balanced life.

Even if you can't dance.

The Wobbling Crank is a book about the movies and their beginnings by the best unknown film scholar of his generation-- Cuthbbert Cuthbbertsön. Cuthbbertsön does for the movies what P.D.Q. Bach has done for classical music, Monty Python for large snakes, Dame Edna for cross-dressing and haute couture.

This is the second edition of The Wobbling Crank. The first edition (3 copies), printed on cigarette paper and bound in clapboards, appeared and disappeared in 1985 when left behind by Cuthbbertsön in the Stanley Theater, Jersey City, after a revival showing of The Last Days of Pompeii. The present edition (2 copies) has been reconstructed with ridiculous fidelity from the original unoriginal handwritten manuscript (carpenter's pencil on foolscap).

To understand why the movies and why serious writing about the movies are today in such a sorry state one must read this book. Wobbling Crank takes us back to the beginnings of the whole mess, focusing ruthlessly on the "prehistory" of the movies and the so-called silent film error.

"The only way to understand what happened in the past ('history')," writes Cuthbbertsön in this ground breaking (pothole) work, "is to focus on what did not happen ('prehistory'). Mine is a 'prehistory.'"

The Wobbling Crank documents with uncommon honesty the "prehistoric" experiments, discoveries, accidents, bad personal habits, and criminal behaviors that led to the invention of the moving pictures (the felonious activities of Thomas Edison and his assistant, Black Maria; the poor dietary habits of the Lumiére brothers; violin recitals by Georges Méliès at beheadings, and more). Not the kind of stuff you'll find in your ordinary paperback history of the movies.

The Wobbling Crank is mainly devoted, however, to an exhaustive (exhausting) oral "prehistory" of the silent film error--the recorded stories of movie pioneers who were there although not all there in the beginning. This senseless remnant includes: a studio laundress, a sausage maker, a ghost town projectionist, a porter-inventor-dramatist, a giant camerawoman, some wardrobe mistresses, an incendiary cinematographer, a Hollywood ventriloquist-dentist, a producer's mother, a bordello proprietress, a not-so-special effects man, and others equally strange or insignificant.

Cuthbbertsön makes no claim for the absolute (or even minimal) accuracy of the recorded accounts of these obscure witnesses, especially given their age and mental and physical condition (few ambulatory, all over 90, some dead). Then, again, these interviews were transcribed from scratchy audio tape and memory onto scraps of brittle yellow foolscap using a carpenter's pencil, adding considerably to the problem. But these are small matters.

The Wobbling Crank remains a hugely entertaining account of the early movies, no matter how distorted, unreliable, or downright untrue that narrative may be. This forgotten and forgettable work can thus confidently be expected to take its place among the many cinematic studies of its kind that continue to be published at an alarming rate in America, Europe, the Near and Far East, and parts of Africa--by academic scholars, journalists, film historians, critics, reviewers, and other comic writers.

The Wobbling Crank marks the end of film scholarship as we know it. Finally, some good . . .

Reviews and Comments

"Cuthbbert Cuthbbertsön ... the best film historian of his generation."      Clotildda Cuthbbertsön

"Does for film history what the Hindenburg did for lighter-than-air flying."      Jane's Fighting Airships

"Le cinéma selon Cuthbbertsön? Si grand-père avait pu prevoir qu'on en viendrait là, il ne l'aurait pas inventé."      Wendie Jo Lumiére

"If I were alive and reading film books, this would be #1 on my list."      Henry James (dec.)

"A book to be read with the eyes closed."      Jean-Luc Godard Jr.

My purpose in writing this book is to take you through the concluding stages of an amazing television show: "The X-Files." Consider this book to be a guide through the final four seasons of "The X-Files." Along the way, you will hear from some of the people who made the key story decisions on the series as well as thoughts and comments from many of the show's fans, whose passion for "The X-Files" made it such a resounding success.

You will see how the show affected them positively and negatively. You will get an in-depth look at how the series, its two main characters and their fascinating relationship evolved after moving from Vancouver to Los Angeles. The good, the bad and the ugly. This book will bring it all to you - and much, much more.

At the book's core will be my episode reviews and essays. They are just the thoughts of one fan, but it is my hope they will strike a chord with each of you and serve as a written testimony of the powerful emotional resonance this wonderful series had on all those it touched.

For nine seasons, "The X-Files" provided thrills and drama unlike anything I had ever seen on television before. I doubt another show will come along that will be its equal and it will be the rare series which will inspire the type of devotion from its viewers this show enjoyed. It was an amazing ride, ones which began with such promise and ended with so much uncertainty. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I did.

The previous three booklets were produced in order to assist the beginner and reduce the time spent taking notes during workshops. This book replaces and expands those booklets, drawing attention to some of the many aspects of dance which are very often ignored in the modern day workshop. The use of a simple tabulation enables the taps and rhythms to be analysed and the building blocks to be recognised, abbreviated, and assembled into traditional music patterns and phrasing. All of the tap schedules are shown as musical rhythms at the end of each chapter when required.

The book contains chapters detailing two solo's; one is a pedestal clog dance and the other a simple step dance into which clog steps may be put and everyone is encouraged to develop a stage further. More importantly, the book details the entire repertoire of Samuel Bell, a past champion clog dancer, together with a short history of his life and details of the North Country competitions in the thirties. Finally, there is a more recent record of a simple duet which is suitable for all ages that does not require great athletic ability. The book is not presented as a complete work on clog dancing, but is an attempt to show in detail some of the steps and rhythms in music and tabulation format, with a few points above their performance.

The main emphasis is to improve performance, in particular the understanding of timings and the rapport that is required between the dancer, audience, and the musician. It is essentially a guide to be used by dancers, if so inspired to try the dances and impose their own personalitites upon them.

That achievement could not be sustained, however. It was eventually squandered, with attendance falling to a mere annual 12 million as the State enterprise which achieved what was a profitable success, spent its way to virtual bankruptcy.

The Sri Lankan experience is at once an object lesson in how film development and State enterprise can succeed, massively so. It is also story of how and why such an accomplishment could not be preserved and improved upon and why it eventually failed so wretchedly.

That story, hitherto untold, is of relevance to film buffs and Governments struggling to develop their film industries. The experience is also of direct relevance to State enterprise and Public Organization students the world over.

The tale is one of clash of private and public enterprise, the dominance of mainstream and the formula film; the tension between film art and business, the national cinema against the foreign, the producers verses the exhibitors. Nihalsingha takes the reader beyond the glamour of production into the hitherto untouched backrooms of the behind-the-scenes work that makes film possible as an art and as an industry: film distribution, exhibition and imports in an Asian country. This focus is all the more important when these facets remain submerged as discourse on film-as-art dominates the terrain.