Illuminating Shadows: The Mythic Power of Film

By Geoffrey Hill

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877736456
• ISBN13: 9780877736455
• Release Date: February 1992
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

This book is a mind opener.

There have been many books written on film. Most have a different approach to the film and the metamorphism of film. We usually pull apart the elements like characters, costumes, camera angles, and narrative types. As we would look at a person as a series of systems, vascular, lymphatic, respiratory, etc. In the process of dissecting people, we fail to find the soul. In the process of dissecting movies, we do not notice their mystic power. Geoffrey Hill gives a unique view of films. He shows us what we would have missed just treated the movie as entertainment or a story. The movies he chooses to point out are not overtly mystical. Be sure to read the introduction, in which he explains his definition of the terminology used. It also helps to view the movies ahead of the book and then again after. A selection from the table of contents alone will give you an idea of what to expect. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea: The religion of the Nietzschean Samurai Warriors The Seventh Seal: A Morality Play of the Feminine Principle It's a Wonderful Life: Saint George and the Dragon Insignificance: The Destruction of Universal Significance A Year of the Quiet Sun: amazing Grace Shane: The Ambivalent, Violent Prince of Peace Babette's Feast and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover: Two Stories of Redemptive Ritual Sacrifice Little Shop of Horrors: The battle between Heaven and Earth The Trip to Bountiful: Paradise Regained The Graduate: The Terrible Mother from the Black Lagoon Blue Velvet: Embracing the Shadow Santa Sangre: The Bloody Alchemy of the Soul Rumble Fish: The Motorcycle Messiah Taxi Driver: The Mad Messiah of the Historic Christian Art Repo Man: A Prophet of Time Travel Field of Dreams: Seeing the Invisible You will never look at the film the same way again.

Geoffrey Hill was a genius

I had the pleasure of knowing the author of this book and participating in his film group. Geoffrey was incredibly gifted. He was a wonderful poet, psychotherapist and friend. I miss him terribly. If you read his brilliant book you will be enriched by it. You will never look at films the same way.

The BEST book on film myth EVER!

I can do no better than QUOTE:Comments OnILLUMINATING SHADOWS: THE MYTHIC POWER OF FILMI was intrigued by Geoffrey Hill's highly creative collection of essays on the mythic power of film. These deeply felt and carefully crafted writings analyze the current tragic war on Mother Earth caused by an imbalance of patriarchal mythology. I commend Hill's well articulated call for a cinemasophia, the wise voice of the Goddess calling for change.--the late MARIJA GIMBUTAS, Professor Emerita of European archeology at UCLA, author of Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, The Language of the Goddess, and other works.------------------------------------------------------------------------The embers of a bonfire may appear to be dead until someone breathes on them - then they burst into flames. So it is with film: though thousands of people may see a film, its essential meaning may remain hidden until an observer with clear understanding reveals its mythic beauty, making its song resound for one and all. A great peace comes over me when reading what Geoffrey Hill has written about these films: thanks to his inspired analysis, they come to life with a new significance. May the cinema always have commentators of his caliber.--ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY, director of El Topo, Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre