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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema > Film theory & criticism
What can film tell us about enjoyment and sexual difference? Can
cinematic fiction be more Real than reality? Fabio Vighi looks at
Jacques Lacans theory of sexuality alongside some of the best-known
works of European cinema, including films by Fellini, Truffaut,
Antonioni and Bergman.
"Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media" contextualizes
historical films in an innovative way--not only relating them to
the history of cinema, but also to premodern and early modern
media. This philological approach to the (pre)history of cinema
engages both old media such as scrolls, illuminated manuscripts,
the Bayeux Tapestry, and new digital media such as DVDs, HD DVDs,
and computers. Burt examines the uncanny repetitions that now
fragment films into successively released alternate cuts and extras
(footnote tracks, audiocommentaries, and documentaries) that
(re)structure and reframe historical films, thereby presenting new
challenges to historicist criticism and film theory. With a double
focus on recursive narrative frames and the cinematic paratexts of
medieval and early modern film, this book calls our attention to
strange, sometimes opaque phenomena in film and literary theory
that have previously gone unrecognized.
The Mad Max Effect provides an in-depth analysis of the Mad Max
series, and how it began as an inventive concoction of a number of
influences from a range of exploitation genres (including the biker
movie, the revenge film, and the car chase cinema of the 1970s), to
eventually inspiring a fresh cycle of international low budget
'road warrior' movies that appeared on home video in the 1980s. The
Mad Max Effect is the first detailed academic study of the most
famous and celebrated post-apocalypse film series, and examines how
a humble Australian action movie came from the cultural margins of
exploitation cinema to have a profound impact on the broader media
landscape.
Films are full of words on the screen. There are letters that come
in the post, written and printed papers, and epitaphs. They can be
declarations of love, or the words that tell us where we are or
what is happening, varying from the most intimate confessions to
straightforward signs. We do not often pause to think about our own
interpretation of them, yet our response to reading and writing can
be an important part of how we understand films. This book looks in
detail at five films - Letter from an Unknown Woman; All This, and
Heaven Too; The Man who Shot Liberty Valance; Into the Wild; and
The Reader - and reveals how words work on screen, and the
importance of literacy in their worlds. It sheds new light on some
classic films and explores the uses of this form of expression in
the work of modern film makers.
Boaz Hagin carries out a philosophical examination of the issue of
death as it is represented and problematized in Hollywood cinema of
the classical era (1920s-1950s) and in later mainstream films,
looking at four major genres: the Western, the gangster film,
melodrama and the war film.
From the perspective of cultural conservatives, Hollywood movies
are cesspools of vice, exposing impressionable viewers to
pernicious sexually-permissive messages. Offering a groundbreaking
study of Hollywood films produced since 2000, Abstinence Cinema
comes to a very different conclusion, finding echoes of the
evangelical movement's abstinence-only rhetoric in everything from
Easy A to Taken. Casey Ryan Kelly tracks the surprising
sex-negative turn that Hollywood films have taken, associating
premarital sex with shame and degradation, while romanticizing
traditional nuclear families, courtship rituals, and gender roles.
As he demonstrates, these movies are particularly disempowering for
young women, concocting plots in which the decision to refrain from
sex until marriage is the young woman's primary source of agency
and arbiter of moral worth. Locating these regressive sexual
politics not only in expected sites, like the Twilight films, but
surprising ones, like the raunchy comedies of Judd Apatow, Kelly
makes a compelling case that Hollywood films have taken a
significant step backward in recent years. Abstinence Cinema offers
close readings of movies from a wide spectrum of genres, and it
puts these films into conversation with rhetoric that has emerged
in other arenas of American culture. Challenging assumptions that
we are living in a more liberated era, the book sounds a warning
bell about the powerful cultural forces that seek to demonize
sexuality and curtail female sexual agency.
The 1960s was a decade of massive political and cultural change in
Western Europe, as seismic shifts took place in in attitudes
towards sexuality, gender, and motherhood in everyday life. Through
case studies of British and French films, Pepsi and the Pill offers
a fresh vision of a pivotal moment in European culture, exploring
the many ways in which political activity and celebrated film
movements mutually shaped each other in their views on gender,
sexuality, and domesticity. As the specter of popular nationalism
once again looms across Europe, this book offers a timely account
of the legacy of crucial debates over issues including reproductive
rights, migration, and reproductive nationalism at the intersection
of political discourse, protest, and film.
This collection examines two recent phenomena: the return of
realist tendencies and practices in world cinema and television,
and the rehabilitation of realism in film and media theory. The
contributors investigate these two phenomena in detail, querying
their origins, relations, divergences and intersections from a
variety of perspectives.
This new collection of writings on Alfred Hitchcock celebrates the
remarkable depth and scope of his artistic achievement in film. It
explores his works in relationship both to their social context and
to the traditions of critical theory they continue to inspire. The
collection draws on the best of current Hitchcock scholarship,
featuring the work of both new and established scholars. It
displays the full diversity of critical methods that have
characterized the study of this director's films in recent years.
The articles are grouped into four thematic sections: "Authorship
and Aesthetics" examines Hitchcock as auteur and investigates
central topics in Hitchcockian aesthetics. "French Hitchcock" looks
at Hitchcock's influence on filmmakers such as Chabrol, Truffaut
and Rohmer, and how film critics such as Bazin and Deleuze have
engaged with Hitchcock's work. "Poetics and Politics of Identity"
explores the representation of personal and political in
Hitchcock's work, and the final section, "Death and
Transfiguration" addresses the manner in which the spectacle and
figuration of death haunts the narrative universe of Hitchcock's
films, in particular his subversive masterpiece "Psycho,"
Contents: Volume I Part 1: Essence and Specificity 1. Ricciotto Canudo, 'The Birth of the Sixth Art', translated by Ben Gibson, Don Ranvaud, Sergio Sokota and Deborah Young, Framework, 13, Autumn 1980, pp. 3-7. (Originally published in Les Entretiens Idealistes, 25th October, 1911). 2. Vachel Lindsay, 'Sculpture-in-Motion', in The Art of the Moving Picture, (New York: Macmillan, 1915), pp. 79-96. 3. Hugo Münsterberg , 'The Means of the Photoplay', in The Photoplay: A Psychological Study, (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1916), pp. 170-190. 4. Louis Delluc, 'Photogénie', in Pierre Lherminier, ed., Ecrits Cinématographiques I: Le Cinéma et les Cinéastes, (Paris: Cinémathèque Française, 1985), pp. 34-35. (Originally published in Paris, 1920). 5. Jean Epstein, 'On Certain Characteristics of Photogénie', translated by Tom Milne, Afterimage, 10, Autumn 1981, pp. 20-23. (Originally published in Jean Epstein, Le Cinématographe vu de l'Etna, Paris: Les Écrivains réunis, 1923). 6. Germaine Dulac, 'The Essence of the Cinema: The Visual Idea', translated by Robert Lamberton, in P. Adams Sitney, ed., The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism, (New York: New York University Press, 1978), pp. 36-42. (Originally published in Les Cahiers du Mois, 16/17, 1925). 7. Maya Deren, 'The Instrument of Discovery and the Instrument of Invention/The Art of Film', in An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film, (New York: Alicat Bookshop Press, 1946), pp. 44-52. 8. Stan Brakhage, Extracts from 'Metaphors on Vision': subtitled 'Metaphors on Vision' and 'The Camera Eye', Film Culture, Fall 1963, unpaginated. 9. Noël Carroll, 'Concerning Uniqueness Claims for Photographic and Cinematographic Representation', Dialectics and Humanism, 14, 2, 1987, pp. 29-43. Part 2: Language 10. Sergei Eisenstein, Extract from 'The Montage of Film Attractions', translated by Richard Taylor, in Richard Taylor, ed., S. M. Eisenstein: Writings 1922-34 Selected Works Volume 1, (London: British Film Institute, 1988), pp. 39-49. (Originally published in 1924). 11. Viktor Shklovsky, 'The Semantics of Cinema', translated by Richard Taylor, in Ian Christie and Richard Taylor, eds., The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988), pp. 131-133. (Originally published as V. B. Shklovskii, 'Semontika kino', Kinozhumal A. R. K., 8, August, 1925). 12. V. I. Pudovkin, 'The Plastic Material', translated by Ivor Montagu, in On Film Technique: Three Essays and an Address by V. I. Pudovkin, (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1929), pp. 50-72. (Originally published in 1926). 13. Lev Kuleshov, 'Montage as the Foundation of Cinematography', translated by Ronald Levaco, in Ronald Levaco, ed., Kuleshov on Film: Film Writings by Lev Kuleshov, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), pp. 42-55. (Originally published in 1929). 14. André Bazin, 'The Evolution of the Language of Cinema', translated by Hugh Gray, in Hugh Gray, ed., What is Cinema? Vol. 1, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 23-40. (Revised from articles originally published in 1950, 1952 and 1955). 15. Christian Metz, extract from 'The Cinema: Language or Language System?', translated by Michael Taylor, in Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 31-91. (Extract: pp. 31-57, pp. 61-65, pp. 67-69). (Originally published in Christian Metz, Essais sur la signification au cinema, 1964). 16. Peter Wollen, 'The Semiology of the Cinema', in Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, (London: Secker and Warburg in Association with the British Film Institute, 1969), pp. 116-155. 17. Roland Barthes, 'The Third Meaning: Research Notes on some Eisenstein Stills', translated by Stephen Heath, in Image-Music-Text, (London: Fontana, 1977), pp. 52-68. (Originally published as 'Le troisiéme sens: Notes de recherché sur quelques photogrammes de S. M. Eisenstein', Cahiers du cinema, 222, 1970). Part 3: Technologies 18. Henry V. Hopwood, 'Past, Present, and Future', in Living Pictures: Their History, Photo-Production and Practical Working, (London: The Optician and Photographic Trades Review, 1899), pp. 225-234. 19. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Bruno Corra, Emilio Settimelli, Arnaldo Ginna, Giacomo Balla and Remo Chiti, 'The Futurist Cinema', translated by R. W. Flint, in R. W. Flint, ed., Marinetti: Selected Writings, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1971), pp. 130-134. (Originally published as 'La cinematogria futurista' in L'Italia futurista, November 15, Milan, 1916). 20. Dziga Vertov, 'Kinoks: A Revolution', translated by Kevin O'Brien, in Annette Michelson, ed., Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), pp. 11-21. (Originally published in 1923). 21. Walter Benjamin, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', translated by Harry Zohn, in Hannah Arendt, ed., Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968), pp. 219-253. (Originally published in 1936). 22. André Bazin, 'The Myth of Total Cinema', translated by Hugh Gray, in Hugh Gray, ed., What is Cinema? Vol. 1, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 17-22. (Originally published as 'Le mythe du cinéma total', in Critique, 1946). 23. Claudia Springer, 'The Pleasure of the Interface', Screen, 32, 3, Autumn 1991, pp. 303-323. 24. Lev Manovich, 'Digital Cinema and the History of a Moving Image', in The Language of New Media, (Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press, 2001), pp. 293-308. (An earlier version of this article was originally published in 1996).
Volume II Part 4: Authorship 25. François Truffaut, 'A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema', translator not specified, Cahiers du Cinema in English, 1, January 1966, pp. 30-41. (Originally published in 1954). 26. Andrew Sarris, 'Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962', Film Culture, 27, Winter 1962, pp. 1-8. 27. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, 'Luchino Visconti: Introduction', in Luchino Visconti, (London: Secker & Warburg in Association with the British Film Institute, 1967), pp. 7-13. 28. Peter Wollen, 'The Auteur Theory', in Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, (London: Secker & Warburg in Association with the British Film Institute, 1969), pp. 74-115. 29. Peter Wollen, 'Signs and Meaning in the Cinema: Conclusion', in Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, Revised Edition, (London: Secker & Warburg in Association with the British Film Institute, 1972), pp. 155-175. 30. John Caughie, 'Fiction of the Author/Author of the Fiction', in John Caughie, ed., Theories of Authorship: A Reader, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul in association with the British Film Institute, 1981), pp. 199-207. 31. Timothy Corrigan, 'Auteurs and the New Hollywood', in Jon Lewis, ed., The New American Cinema, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998), pp. 38-63. Part 5: Genre 32. Steve Neale, 'Definitions of Genre', in Genre and Hollywood, (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 9-29. 33. André Bazin, 'The Western or the American Film par Excellence', translated by Hugh Gray, in What is Cinema? Vol. 2, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 140-148 . (Originally published as 'Le western ou le cinéma américain par excellence', preface to J.-L. Rieupeyrout, Le western ou le cinéma américain par excellence, 7eme Art, Éditions du Cerf, 1953.) 34. Nino Frank, 'A New Kind of Police Drama: The Criminal Adventure', translated by Alain Silver, in Alain Silver and James Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader 2, (New York: Limelight Editions, 1999), pp. 15-19. (Originally published in 1946). 35. Jean-Pierre Chartier, 'Americans also Make Noir Films', translated by Alain Silver, in Alain Silver and James Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader 2, (New York: Limelight Editions, 1999), pp. 21-23. (Originally published in 1946). 36. Robert Warshow, 'The Gangster as Tragic Hero', Partisan Review, February 1948, pp.. 37. Paul Schrader, 'Notes on Film Noir', Film Comment, 8, 1, Spring 1972, pp. 8-13. 38. Jim Collins, 'Genericity in the Nineties: Eclectic Irony and the New Sincerity', in Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins, eds., Film Theory Goes to the Movies: Cultural Analysis of Contemporary Film, (New York: Routledge Inc., 1993), pp. 242-263. 39. Steve Neale, 'Issues, Conclusions and Questions', in Genre and Hollywood, (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 251-255. Part 6: Narrative and Narration 40. Julia Lesage, 'S/Z and Rules of the Game', Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Cinema, 12-13, Winter 1976-77, pp. 45-51. 41. Will Wright, 'The Structure of Myth' (Extract), 'Myth as a Narrative of Social Action' and 'Individuals and Values: The Classical Plot', in Sixguns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), pp. 16-28 (Extract: pp. 25-28), pp. 124-129 and pp. 130-153. 42. David Bordwell, 'Principles of Narration', in Narration in the Fiction Film, (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), pp. 48-62. 43. Bill Nichols, 'Form Wars: The Political Unconscious of Formalist Theory', South Atlantic Quarterly, 88, 2, Spring 1989, pp. 487-515. 44. Tom Gunning, 'Theory and History: Narrative Discourse and the Narrator System', in D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early Years at Biograph, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), pp. 10-30 . 45. Edward Branigan, 'Levels of Narration', in Narrative Comprehension and Film, (London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 87-124. Volume III Part 7: Audiences and Spectatorship 46. Maxim Gorky, 'The Lumière Cinematograph', translated by Richard Taylor, in Ian Christie and Richard Taylor, eds., The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988), pp. 25-26. (Originally published as 'I.M. Pacatus', 'Beglye zametki. Sinematograf Lyum'era', Nizhegorodskii listok, 4 July 1896). 47. Emilie Altenloh, 'A Sociology of the Cinema: The Audience', translated by Kathleen Cross, Screen, 42, 3, Autumn 2001, pp. 249-293. (Originally published as Zur Soziologie des Kino, 1914). 48. Laura Mulvey 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', Screen, 16, 3, Autumn 1975, pp. 6-18. 49. Laura Mulvey, 'Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' Inspired by Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946)', Framework, 15-17, 1981, pp. 12-15. 50. Tom Gunning, 'An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the Incredulous Spectator', Art and Text, 34, Spring 1989, pp. 31-45. 51. Mary Carbine, '"The Finest Outside the Loop": Motion Picture Exhibition in Chicago's Black Metropolis, 1905-1928', Camera Obscura, 22, 1990, pp. 9-41. 52. Jackie Stacey, 'Feminine Fascinations: A Question of Identification?', in Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship, (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 126-175. Part 8: Personal Identities and Representation 53. Geraldyn Dismond, 'The Negro Actor and the American Movies', in James Donald, Anne Friedberg and Laura Marcus, eds., Close Up 1927-1933: Cinema and Modernism, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 73-79. (Originally published in Close Up, 5, 2, August 1929, pp. 6-13). 54. Parker Tyler, 'Mother Superior of the Faggots and Some Rival Queens', in Screening the Sexes: Homosexuality in the Movies, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972), pp. 1-16. 55. Claire Johnston, 'Women's Cinema as Counter-Cinema', in Claire Johnston, ed., Notes on Women's Cinema, (London: Society for Education in Film and Television, 1973), pp. 24-31. 56. Teresa de Lauretis, 'Aesthetic and Feminist Theory: Rethinking Women's Cinema', New German Critique, 34, Winter 1985, pp. 154-175. 57. Richard Dyer, 'White', Screen, 29, 4, Autumn 1988, pp. 44-64. 58. bell hooks, 'The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators' in Black Looks: Race and Representation, (London: Turnaround, 1992), pp. 115-131. 59. Judith Butler, 'Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion', in Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex", (New York: Routledge Inc., 1993), pp. 121-140. 60. Yvonne Tasker, 'Women Warriors: Gender, Sexuality and Hollywood's Fighting Heroines', in Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema, (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 14-34. Part 9: Cultural Identities, Colonialism and Postcolonialism 61. Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, 'Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World', translated by Julianne Burton and Michael Chanan, in Michael Chanan, ed., Twenty-five Years of the New Latin American Cinema, (London: British Film Institute and Channel Four Television, 1983), pp. 17-27. (Originally published in 1969) 62. Julio García Espinosa, 'For an Imperfect Cinema', translated by Julianne Burton, in Michael Chanan, ed., Twenty-five Years of the New Latin American Cinema, (London: British Film Institute and Channel Four Television, 1983), pp. 28-33. (Originally published in 1970). 63. The Committee on Peoples Cinema (under the Chairmanship of Lamine Merbah), 'Resolutions of the Third World Film-Makers Meeting, Algiers, Algeria, December 5-14, 1973', Cineaste Pamphlet No. 1, Cineaste Magazine, 1974, unpaginated. 64. Homi K. Bhabha, 'The Other Question: The Stereotype and Colonial Discourse', Screen, 24, 6, November/December 1983, pp. 18-36. 65. Teshome H. Gabriel, 'Towards a Critical Theory of Third World Films', in Altaf Gauhar, ed., Third World Affairs 1985, (London: Third World Foundation, 1985), pp. 355-369. 66. Trinh T. Minh-ha 'Outside In Inside Out', in Jim Pines and Paul Willemen, eds., Questions of Third Cinema, (London: British Film Institute, 1989), pp. 133-149. 67. Stuart Hall, 'Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation', Framework, 36, 1989, pp. 68-81. 68. Edward Said, 'Jungle Calling: On Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan', Interview, 19, 6, June 1989, pp. 60-65 & p. 112. Volume IV Part 10: Realism and the Real 69. Siegfried Kracauer, Extract from 'Basic Concepts', in Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960), pp. 27-39 (Extract: p. 27 & pp. 30-39). 70. André Bazin, 'The Ontology of the Photographic Image', translated by Hugh Gray, in Hugh Gray ed., What is Cinema? Vol. I, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 9-16. (Originally published as 'Ontologie de l'image photographique', Problemes de la peinture, 1945). 71. Rudolf Arnheim, 'Film and Nature', translated by L. M. Sieveking and Ian F. D. Morrow, in Film, (London: Faber and Faber, 1933), pp. 17-38. 72. Cesare Zavattini, 'Some Ideas on the Cinema', translated by Pier Luigi Lanza, Sight and Sound, 23, 2, October-December 1953, pp. 64-69. (Originally published in 1952). 73. Colin MacCabe, 'Realism and the Cinema: Notes on some Brechtian Theses', Screen, 15, 2, Summer 1974, pp. 7-27. 74. Raymond Williams, 'A Lecture on Realism', Screen, 18, 1, Spring 1977, pp. 61-74. 75. Stephen Prince, 'True Lies: Perceptual Realism, Digital Images, and Film Theory', Film Quarterly, 49, 3, Spring 1996, pp. 27-37. 76. Julia Hallam with Margaret Marshment, Extract from 'Space, Place and Identity: Re-viewing Social Realism', in Realism and Popular Cinema, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 184 -219 (Extract: pp. 190-219). Part 11: Modernism and Postmodernism 77. Peter Wollen, 'The Two Avant-Gardes', Studio International: Film Issue, 190, 978, November-December 1975, pp. 171-175. 78. Dziga Vertov, 'We: Variant of a Manifesto', translated by Kevin O'Brien, in Annette Michelson, ed., Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), pp. 5-9. (Originally published in 1922). 79. Sergei Eisenstein, 'The Problem of the Materialist Approach to Form', translated by Richard Taylor and William Powell, in Richard Taylor, ed., The Eisenstein Reader, (London: British Film Institute, 1998), pp. 53-59. (Originally published as 'K vopruso o materialisticheskom podkhode k forme' Kinozhurnal ARK, 4/5, April/May, 1925). 80. Peter Gidal, 'Theory and Definition of Structural/Materialist Film', Studio International: Film Issue, 190, 978, November-December 1975, pp. 189-196. 81. J. Hoberman, 'Vulgar Modernism', Artforum, 20, 6, February 1982, pp. 71-76. 82. Jean Baudrillard, 'The Evil Demon of Images', translated by Paul Patton and Paul Foss, Power Institute Of Fine Arts Publication Number 3, 1987, pp. 13-31. (Originally from 'The Evil Demon of Images', The First Mari Kuttna Memorial Lecture, The University of Sydney, 25th July 1984). 83. Fredric Jameson ,'Postmodernism and Consumer Society', in Ann E. Kaplan, ed., Postmodernism and Its Discontents: Theories, Practices, (London: Verso, 1988), pp. 13-29. 84. Giuliana Bruno, 'Ramble City: Postmodernism and Blade Runner', October, 41, Summer 1987, pp. 61-74. 85. Linda Hutcheon, 'Postmodern Film?', in The Politics of Postmodernism, (London: Routledge, 1989), pp. 107-117. 86. Peter Brooker and Will Brooker, 'Pulpmodernism: Tarantino's Affirmative Action', in Deborah Cartmell, I. Q. Hunter, Heidi Kaye and Imelda Whelehan, eds., Pulping Fictions: Consuming Culture Across the Literature/Media Divide, (London: Pluto Press, 1996), pp. 135-151. Part 12: Economics and Globalisation 87. Janet Staiger, Extract from 'The Hollywood Mode of Production 1930-1960', in David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production, (London: Routledge, 1988), pp. 311-319, (Extract: 313-319). 88. Mae D. Huettig, 'The Motion Picture Industry Today', in Economic Control in the Motion Picture Industry: A Study in Industrial Organization, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944), pp. 54-95. 89. Thomas H. Guback, 'Hollywood's International Market', in Tino Balio (ed.), The American Film Industry, (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), pp. 387-409. 90. Tino Balio, '"A Major Presence in all of the World's Important Markets": The Globalization of Hollywood in the 1990s', in Murray Smith and Steve Neale (eds.), Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 58-73. 91. Constance Balides, 'Jurassic Post-Fordism: Tall Tales of Economics in the Theme Park', Screen, 41, 2
This is a scholarly study of cinematic emotions, highlighting the
relationship between spectator and film, and thematically divided
into chapters including Love, Hate, Shame and Fear. There is an
upsurge of interest in contemporary film theory towards cinematic
emotions. Tarja Laine's innovative study proposes a methodology for
interpreting affective encounters with films, not as objectively
readable texts, but as emotionally salient events. Laine argues
convincingly that film is not an immutable system of representation
that is meant for (one-way) communication, but an active, dynamic
participant in the becoming of the cinematic experience. Through a
range of chapters that include Horror, Hope, Shame and Love - and
through close readings of films such as "The Shining", "American
Beauty" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", Laine
demonstrates that cinematic emotions are more than mere indicators
of the properties of their objects. They are processes that are
intentional in a phenomenological sense, supporting the continuous,
shifting, and reciprocal exchange between the film's world and the
spectator's world. Grounded in continental philosophy, this
provocative book explores the affective dynamics of cinema as an
interchange between the film and the spectator in a manner that
transcends traditional generic patterns.
Considered a notorious subset of horror in the 1970s and 1980s,
there has been a massive revitalization and diversification of
rape-revenge in recent years. This book analyzes the politics,
ethics, and affects at play in the filmic construction of rape and
its responses.
Most people are too busy to keep up with all the good movies they'd
like to see, so why should anyone spend their precious time
watching the bad ones? In Why It's OK to Love Bad Movies,
philosopher and cinematic bottom feeder Matthew Strohl
enthusiastically defends a fondness for disreputable films.
Combining philosophy of art with film criticism, Strohl flips
conventional notions of "good" and "bad" on their heads and makes
the case that the ultimate value of a work of art lies in what it
can add to our lives. By this measure, some of the worst movies
ever made are also among the best. Through detailed discussions of
films such as Troll 2, The Room, Batman & Robin, Twilight,
Ninja III: The Domination, and a significant portion of Nicolas
Cage's filmography, Strohl argues that so-called "bad movies" are
the ones that break the rules of the art form without the aura of
artistic seriousness that surrounds the avant-garde. These movies
may not win any awards, but they offer rich opportunities for
creative engagement and enable the formation of lively fan
communities, and they can be a key ingredient in a fulfilling
aesthetic life. Key Features: Written in a humorous, approachable
style, appealing to readers with no background in philosophy.
Elaborates the rewards of loving bad movies, such as forming
unlikely social bonds and developing refinement without narrowness.
Discusses a wide range of beloved bad movies, including Plan 9 from
Outer Space, The Core, Battlefield Earth, and Freddy Got Fingered.
Contains the most extensive discussion of Nicolas Cage ever
included in a philosophy book.
"Frontiers of Screen History" provides an insightful exploration
into the depiction and imagination of European borders in cinema
after World War II. While films have explored national and
political borders, they have also attempted to identify, challenge,
and imagine frontiers of another kind: social, ethnic, religious,
and gendered. The book investigates all these perspectives. Its
unique focus on the representation of European borders and
frontiers via film is groundbreaking, opening up a new field of
research and scholarly discussion. The exceptional variety of
national and cultural perspectives provides a rewarding
investigation of borders and frontiers.
Interdisciplinary and engaging, Masculinities in Contemporary
Argentine Popular Cinema is the first scholarly work to link visual
representations of heterosexual masculinities to the neo-liberal
transformations in Argentina. Rocha critically examines
contemporary cinematic representations of Argentine masculinities
produced after the crucial changes of the 1990s affected both the
social construction of gender and the financing of domestic film
productions. Theoretically innovative, this study provides detailed
analysis of six Argentine blockbusters.
Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978) is as controversial as it is
beloved. Whether due to the tear-jerking hit song 'Bright Eyes' or
its notorious representation of violence inflicted by and upon
animated rabbits, the film retains the ability to move and shock
audiences of all ages, remaining an important cultural touchstone
decades after its original release. This open access collection
unites scholars and practitioners from a diversity of perspectives
to consider the ongoing legacy of this landmark of British cinema
and animation history. The authors provide nuanced discussions of
Watership Down's infamous animated depictions of violence, death
and its contentious relationship with child audiences, as well as
examinations of understudied aspects of the film including its
musical score, use of language, its increasingly relevant political
and environmental themes and its difficult journey to the screen,
complete with behind-the-scenes photographs, documents and
production artwork. As the first substantial work on Watership
Down, this book is a valuable companion on the film for scholars,
students and fans alike. The eBook editions of this book are
available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on
bloomsburycollections.com.
Contents: Woollacott Texts and their readings 2. Annette Kuhn Women's genres 3. Judith Mayne Paradoxes of Spectatorship 4. Janet Staiger Reception studies in Film and Television Part 2: Technologies 5. Edward Buscombe Sound and colour 6. Steve Neale Colour and film aesthetics 7. Richard Dyer Lighting for whiteness 8. Gianluca Sergi A cry in the dark: the role of post-classical filmm sound 9. Stephen Prince True Lies: perceptual realism, digital images and film theory 10. Barbara Creed The cyberstar: digital pleasures and the end of the Unconscious Part 3: Industries 11. Tom O'Regan A National Cinema 12. John Hill British cinema as a national cinema: Production, audience and representation 13. Stepehen Teo Postmodernism and the end of Hong Kong cinema 14. Thomas Schatz The new Hollywood 15. Tino Balio 'A major presence in all the world's important markets': the globalisation of Hollywood in the 1990s Part 4: Meanings and pleasures 16. Richard Dyer Monroe and Sexuality: Desirability 17. P. David Marshall The cinematic apparatus and the construction of the film celebrity 18. Jane Feuer Spectators and spectacles 19. Stella Bruzzi Desire and the costume film: Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Age of Innocence, The Piano 20. Tania Modleski The Terror of Pleasure: the contemporary horror film and postmodern theory 21. Jim Collins Genericity in the 90s: Eclectic irony and the new sincerity Part 5: Identities 22. Yvonne Tasker Action heroines in the 1980s: the limits of 'musculinity' 23. Sabrina Barton Your Self Storage: Female investigation and male performativity in the woman's psychothriller 24. Chris Straayer The Hypothetical Lesbian Heroine in Narrative Feature Film 25. Susan Jeffords Can Masculinity be Terminated? 26. Issac Julien and Kobena Mercer De Margin and De Centre 27. Ella Shohart and Robert Stam The imperial imaginary Part 6: Audiences and Consumption 28. Justin Wyatt High Concept and market research: Movie marketing by the numbers 29. Miriam Hansen Charmeleon and Catalyst: The cinema as an alternative public sphere 30. Jackie Stacey Hollywood Cinema - the great escape 31. Jacqueline Bobo Watching The Color Purple: Two Interviews 32. Mark Jancovich 'A Real Shocker': authenticity, genre and the struggle for distinction
This volume provides a collection of original essays from leading
scholars in the field exploring the contemporary debates, concerns
and controversies ongoing in Spanish film industry, culture and
scholarship. The essays reveal the far-reaching shifts that have
occurred in the Spanish film scene, making essential reading for
all interested in European cinema.
The horror film is now one of the most popular and talked-about film genres and yet, outside of the Hammer studio, very little has been written about British horror. Going beyond Hammer, British Horror Cinema investigates a wealth of horror filmmaking in Britain, from early chillers like The Ghoul and Dark Eyes of London to acknowledged classics such as Peeping Tom and The Wicker Man. ^ Contributors explore the contexts in which British horror films have been censored and classified, judged by their critics and consumed by their fans. Uncovering neglected modern classics like Deathline, and addressing issues such as the representation of family and women, they consider the Britishness of British horror and examine sub-genres such as the psycho-thriller and witchcraft movies, the work of the Amicus studio, and key filmmakers including Peter Walker. British Horror Cinema also features a comprehensive filmography and interviews with key directors Clive Barker and Doug Bradley. Chapters include: *the 'Psycho Thriller' *the British censors and horror cinema *femininity and horror film fandom *witchcraft and the occult in British horror *Horrific films and 1930s British Cinema *Peter Walker and Gothic revisionism
Established in 1955, the Leipzig International Documentary Film
Festival became a central arena for staging the cultural politics
of the German Democratic Republic, both domestically and in
relation to West Germany and the rest of the world. Screened
Encounters represents the definitive history of this key event,
recounting the political and artistic exchanges it enabled from its
founding until German unification, and tracing the outsize
influence it exerted on international cultural relations during the
Cold War.
The book explores European artists' critical engagement with the
images and stories that politicians and the media use to advocate
globalization.
In Against Transmission Barker rethinks the history of audio-visual
media as a history of analytical instruments. Rather than viewing
media history as the commonly told story of synthetic media (media
that make a new whole from connecting separate parts), by focusing
on the analytical function of mediation Against Transmission is
able to focus on the way that media that have historically been
used to count, measure and analyse experience still continue to
provide the condition for contemporary life. By studying the
engineering of transmission, transduction and storage through the
prism of process philosophy, the book interrogates how the
understanding of media-as-machine may offer new ways to describe a
particular phenomenological relationship to the world, asking: what
can the hardware of machines that segment information into very
small elements tell us about experiences of time, memory and
history? This book investigates the technical architecture of media
such as television, computers, cameras, and cinematography. It
achieves this through in-depth archive research into the history of
the development of media technology, including innovative readings
of key concepts from philosophers of media such as Harold A. Innis,
Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Kittler, Siegfried Zielinski and
Wolfgang Ernst. Teaming philosophical inquiry with thorough
technical and historical analysis, in a broad range of
international case studies, from early experimental cinema and
television to contemporary media art and innovative hardware
developments, Barker shows how the technical discoveries made in
these contexts have engineered the experiences of time in
contemporary media culture.
Hitchcock and Contemporary Art introduces readers to the
fascinating and diverse range of artistic practices devoted to
Alfred Hitchcock's films. These practices are more than
celebrations of his cinematic achievements. The artworks considered
here are motivated by a cinephilia often deeply imprinted by
epistemophilia, that is, a love of cinema charged by a desire to
know more about it and to revel in the pleasures of discovery. As
such, these works have the capacity to activate sophisticated
engagements with Hitchcock's films and cinema more generally,
tackling issues of time and space, memory and history, and sound
and image.
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