The Detective in Film

In 1888 the name Jack the Ripper entered public consciousness with the brutal murders of women in the East End of London.

From Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade to Jake Gittes, private eyes have made for some of the most memorable characters in cinema. We often view these detectives as lone wolves who confront and try to make sense of a violent and chaotic modern world.

This book introduces film semiotics and demonstrates its use as a theoretical tool for reading Japanese popular movies and anime.

With the exception of die-hard aficionados of European or Italian horror cinema, most people may not have heard of giallo cinema or have seen many films in this subgenre of horror. Most academic film studies tend to ignore horror cinema in general and the giallo specifically.