The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe - Hardcover

Tanya C. Horeck; Tina Kendall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0748641602 ISBN 13: 9780748641604

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Explosive images of sex and violence in films by directors such as Catherine Breillat, Gaspar Noe, Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier have attracted media attention for the ways in which they seek to shock and provoke the spectator into powerful affective and visceral responses. This first collection of essays devoted to the new extremism in contemporary European cinema critically interrogates this highly contentious body of work and demonstrates that these films and the controversies they engender are indispensable to the critical task of rethinking the terms of spectatorship. Through critical discussions of key films and directors, this book sheds new light on cutting-edge debates in Film Studies regarding sexuality, violence and spectatorship, affect and ethics, and the political dimensions of extreme cinema. Including important new work from internationally renowned scholars Martin Barker and Martine Beugnet, as well as combining a range of approaches to extreme cinema across audience research and theories of spectator ship, this exploration of the darkest side of cinema will be an invaluable resource for film scholars and students.

About this title

Review:

A stimulating, wide-ranging survey of a controversial and confrontational field of new European cinema. Addressing a style of film that challenges both the viewer and a wide range of taboos, the collection questions the meanings and uses of 'extremity' and conveys the complexity and diversity of a cinema that is vital, troubling and above all, itself critical. --Jonathan Romney, Film Critic, Independent on Sunday

About the Author:

Tanya Horeck is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Anglia Ruskin University. She has published essays in a number of journals including Screen, New Formations and Women: A Cultural Review, and is the author of the book Public Rape: Representing Violation in Fiction and Film (Routledge, 2004). Her research interests include film theory, representations of crime and violence, documentary theory and film, affect and spectatorship. Tina Kendall is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Anglia Ruskin University, where she is also Pathway Leader for the undergraduate Film Studies degree. Her research interests include theories of spectatorship, affect, and unpleasure, especially as these relate to contemporary European cinema. She has published on questions of stillness, intermediality, disgust, and the new materialism in film. She is currently preparing a monograph on the cinema of Bruno Dumont.

About this edition

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0748641602
• ISBN 13: 9780748641604
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Tanya C. Horeck, Tina Kendall