Stars are central to the cinema experience, and this collection offers a variety of fresh and informed perspectives on this important but sometimes neglected area of film studies.This book takes as its focus film stars from the past and present, from Hollywood, its margins and beyond and analyses them through a close consideration of their films and the variety of contexts in which they worked. The book spreads the net wide, looking at past stars from Rosalind Russell and Charlton Heston to present day stars including Sandra Bullock, Jackie Chan and Jim Carrey, as well as those figures who have earnt themselves a certain film star cachet such as Prince, and the martial artist Cynthia Rothrock. The collection will be essential reading for students and lecturers of film studies, as well as to those with a general interest in the cinema. -- .
Introduction - Andy Willis 1. Clara Bow is 'It' - Cynthia Felando 2. Contesting the feminine mystique: Rosalind Russell, 'Auntie Mame' and performativity - Jane Hendler 3. 'Charlton Heston is an axiom': Spectacle and performance in the development of the blockbuster - Mark Jancovich 4. Jim Carrey: The cultural politics of dumbing down - Philip Drake 5. The rise and fall of Sandra Bullock: Notes on starmaking and female stardom in contemporary Hollywood - Peter Kramer 6. Rumble in the USA: Jackie Chan in translation - Mark Gallagher 7. Kenneth Branagh: Shakespearean film, cultural capital and star status - Nick Cox 8. 'Baby I'm a star': Towards a political economy of the actor formally known as Prince - Lisa Taylor 9. Cynthia Rothrock: From the ghetto of exploitation - Andy Willis -- .
