This book challenges the established conceptual and historical paradigm in Anglo-American film studies that perceives European cinema as essentially "high art." Through a study of the specific contexts in which popular European films are produced, distributed and exhibited, the book proposes new analytical and critical frameworks for their study. Films analyzed in the book include "Cinema Paradiso", "Mediterraneo", "Bhaji on the Beach", "Until the End of the World", "Underground", and "JamonJamon".

Cinematic Journeys explores the interconnected histories, theories and aesthetics of mobile vision and cinematic movement. It traces the links between certain types of movement of/in the frame and broader cultural trends that have historically informed Western sensibilities. It contextualises that genealogy with detailed analysis of contemporary and recent 'travel films' as well as older works. The book investigates how movements of exploration, discovery and revelation are activated in specific cinematic narratives of travelling and displacement. Such narratives are analysed with attention to the mass population movements and displacements that form their referential background. Cinematic Journeys also examines the ways in which travelling affects film itself. Case studies focus on films as travelling commodities (with the popularity of Indian films in Greece in the 1950s and 60s as case study); and, through a study of subtitles, on the category of the 'foreign spectator' (who in the encounter with 'foreign' films moves across cultural borders). Films considered in the book include Sunrise, Slow Motion, Hukkle, Death in Venice, Voyage to Italy, The Motorcycle Diaries, Koktebel, Japon, Blackboards, Ulysses' Gaze, and the work of directors Tony Gatliff and Fatih Akin.

Asian cinema is an area of increasing interest in Anglo-US film studies while Asian films are now widely distributed and popular with western audiences. The fascination with Asian cinema must be examined in the context of a complex and often problematic relationship between western scholars, students, viewers and Asian films. This book, therefore, examines a number of detailed case studies (such as the films of Ozu, Bruce Lee, Hong Kong and Turkish cinema, Hindi melodramas, Godzilla films, Taiwanese directors and Fifth Generation Chinese cinema) and uses them in order to investigate the limitations of Anglo-US theoretical models and critical paradigms. By engaging the readers with familiar areas of critical discourse (such as postcolonial criticism, 'national cinema', 'genre', 'authorship' and 'stardom') the book aims to introduce within such contexts the 'unfamiliar' case studies which will be explored in depth and detail. The advantage of such an approach is that it works with the dynamics of familiarity/unfamiliarity and resists the temptation to construct Asian cinemas as a gallery of exotic objects that might be particularly fascinating but remain deeply distant and foreign. Features *A comprehensive study of Asian cinemas, including Hong Kong, Japan, China, India, Turkey and Taiwan *An accessible guide for the study and research of Asian cinema which addresses undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers * Each section contains a contextualising introduction * Includes key texts by Ackbar Abbas, Rey Chow, David Desser, Dimitris Eleftheriotis, Nezih Erdo