Studying Surrealist and Fantasy Cinema

Pan's Labyrinth, Stranger Than Fiction, The Science of Sleep . Surreal and fantastic cinema is enjoying a resurgence. A movement that goes back to the earliest days of cinema, it provides an exemplary case study to introduce all sorts of concepts—auteur study, representations, 'shocking cinema', textual analysis. Neil Coombs's guide is ideal for students new to the field, providing an explanation of the origins of Surrealism followed by detailed analyses from the history of 'world cinema', including: Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty, Svankmajer's Alice, Cocteau's Orphée, Lynch's Lost Highway, Jeunet and Caro's The City of Lost Children, and the work of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) and director David Cronenberg (A History of Violence).