"Lucid, lively and extremely knowledgeable." Sight & Sound Catherine Fowler's study positions Jeanne Dielman as a 'contrary' classic, its contrariness arising from director Chantal Akerman's decision to frame an unliberated housewife through a kind of 'slow looking'. By choosing to stay with Jeanne in the kitchen, the film both 'differences' the canon and diverges from Akerman's liberated early films, which involved the rejection of domestic space, married life and the heterosexual script. Fowler draws on original footage, scripts, unmade and unseen projects, interviews and other documents to painstakingly piece together the making of the film, discovering an alternative origin story which centers upon female alliances, forged through a combination of shared film culture and lived sexism. Those viewers who take up Akerman's invitation to spend time with Jeanne will find their expectations of cinema are changed. Because more than any other film before or since, it reminds us that we give our time to a film; and in making us look both harder and for longer it asks us to feel time slipping away, for ourselves as much as for its protagonist.

The European Cinema Reader is a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of national cinemas in Europe, bringing together classic writings by key filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, Luis Buñuel and John Grierson, and critics from Andre Bazin to Peter Wollen. Contributors explore attempts to define European film culture and examine key issues of auteurism and the art house film, national cinemas, the relationship between European film and Hollywood, and issues of funding and distribution. Each section features an editor's introduction setting debates in their context, and the volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.

The European Cinema Reader is a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of national cinemas in Europe, bringing together classic writings by key filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, Luis Buñuel and John Grierson, and critics from Andre Bazin to Peter Wollen. Contributors explore attempts to define European film culture and examine key issues of auteurism and the art house film, national cinemas, the relationship between European film and Hollywood, and issues of funding and distribution. Each section features an editor's introduction setting debates in their context, and the volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.

Although the urban setting in film has received much critical attention, little has been written about the use of land, or the rural, in the cinema - despite its equally prolific and consistent history as a backdrop to both fiction and documentary work. This collection demonstrates the viability of rural cinema as a benchmark of national identity by bringing into critical focus the space the rural occupies, both on cinema screens and in the national imagination. Whether rural space is figured as idyllic or troubled, mythological or historical, obsolete or perennial, this collection argues that it constitutes a rich medium through which to enunciate shifting concepts of identity and nationhood. Spanning time periods and world locations, the films discussed in this volume use the land as physical territory, living place, unspoken character, or mythic and symbolic presence. The book's twenty chapters fall into four thematic sections. In ""Land"" and ""Peasants,"" the focus is on films in which land is seen from the perspective of its inhabitants. Essays in ""Landscape"" and ""Rural and Nation"" examine films in which the landscape functions an index to national identity. Here, geography is taken to an ideological level, where the land is key to the social and national cohesion of its inhabitants and to their cultural survival. In all, the essays presented explore the inextricable link between the urban and the rural as points of tension rather than simple points of contrast. ""Representing the Rural"" attempts to formulate a template for rural cinema, set forth its most salient characteristics and provide a guideline for discussion and analysis. Students and film scholars will appreciate this unique volume.

This survey of Sally Potter's work explores her cinematic development from the feminist reworking of La Boheme in Thriller to the provocative contemplation of romantic relationships after 9/11 in Yes. Catherine Fowler traces a clear trajectory of developing themes and preoccupations and shows how Potter uses song, dance, performance, and poetry to expand our experience of cinema beyond the audiovisual. Potter has relentlessly struggled against predictability and safe options. Again and again, her works grapple with the complexities of being a woman in charge. Instead of the quest to find a romantic partner that drives mainstream cinema, Potter's films feature characters seeking answers to questions about their sexual, gendered, social, cultural, and ethnic identities. They find answers by retelling stories, investigating mysteries, and traveling and interacting with people. At the heart of Potter's work is a concern with the ways narrative circumscribes women's ability to act, speak, look, desire, and think for themselves. Her first two films, Thriller and The Gold Diggers, largely deconstruct found stories, cliches, and images. By contrast, later films like Orlando and The Tango Lesson create new and original narratives that place female acts, voices, looks, desires, and thoughts at their center. Fowler's analysis is supplemented by a detailed filmography, bibliography, and an extensive interview with the director.