Filmhistorie, filmteori og filmkritik

Nicolas Cage har gennem de seneste fem årtier været en af filmkunstens mest fascinerende og enigmatiske skuespillere. Som ingen andre har Nicolas Cage været både feteret og elsket, hånet og latterliggjort. Too Great for the Eye of Man fortolker en række af Cages store roller, hans tilgang til skuespil, og de dybe længsler hans figurer manifesterer. Det er samtidig et kritisk blik på den dominerende opfattelse af kunst, af hvad der er godt. Bogen undersøger, hvorfor vi elsker Nicolas Cage, men også hvorfor Cage ofte er blevet opfattet som så meget for meget, så sublim, at vi er nødt til at afvise ham.

Die vorliegende Vergleichsstudie untersucht Körperinszenierungen im Film anhand eines repräsentativen Korpus. Das Augenmerk liegt insbesondere auf Performativität, Intermedialität und Genderdarstellung im europäischen Avantgardefilm sowie im expressionistischen Kunstfilm und im US-amerikanischen Spielfilm der 1920er Jahre. Ein diachroner Vergleich mit US-amerikanischen und schwedischen Experimentalfilmen der 1940er und -50er Jahre sucht Antworten auf die Frage, ob der Experimentalfilm neue, zusätzliche Inszenierungen des Körpers entwickelt. Über die bisherige Forschung hinausgehend werden ¿ auf Basis eines theoretisch fundierten, auf ausgewählte Körperkonzepte rekurrierenden Analyserahmens ¿ grundlegende Entwicklungsdynamiken und kulturübergreifende Querbezüge herausgearbeitet.

In der Zeit des wirtschaftlichen Aufschwungs Deutschlands nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg waren die Wochenschauen im Vorprogramm jeder Kinovorstellung eine bedeutende Informationsquelle. Mit eindrucksvollen Bildern auf einer großen Leinwand ¿ begleitet von gesprochenem Kommentar, Musik und Geräusch ¿ gaben sie Orientierung und prägten die Erinnerung. In zahlreichen dokumentarischen Film- und Fernsehformaten werden bis heute einzelne Bilder oder kurze Sequenzen aus der Kino-Wochenschau als historische Belege, als Illustrationen oder zur Dramatisierung verwendet. Die außergewöhnlichen Prinzipien der Informationsvermittlung kommen dabei jedoch nicht mehr zur Geltung. Um das Publikum zu erreichen, war damals eine Mischung aus informativen Berichten und unterhaltenden Beiträgen unerlässlich. Die in diesem Buch vorgenommenen Fallanalysen spiegeln elementare Themenbereiche der Zeit des wirtschaftlichen Aufschwungs beider deutscher Staaten (1950-1965) wider. Neben den Prinzipien der audiovisuellenGestaltung wird auch die zentrale Vermittlungsstrategie herausgearbeitet. Transmediale und transnationale Aspekte, die hierbei eine Rolle spielen, weisen die Wochenschau als Teil eines (internationalen) Mediensystems aus.

Darstellungen von Schule in deutschen Spielfilmen scheinen immer wieder auf ähnliche Bilder und Semantiken von Bildung, Erziehung und sozialer Selektion zurückzukehren, selbst bei Filmen, die zeitlich weit voneinander entfernt produziert wurden. Woran liegt das? Wie es zum audiovisuellen Austausch zwischen Filmen aus verschiedenen Epochen kommt und wie neue Filme sich alte Schuldbilder immer wieder neu aneignen, untersucht diese Monografie. Dabei sieht das Buch die Darstellungen von Schule als sinnliche Erforschung einer gemeinsam geteilten Wahrnehmungswelt, welche sich erst durch Aneignungen von und Bezüge zu anderen Filmen und Fiktionen herstellt. Der wissenschaftliche Ansatz dieser poetologischen Analyse baut maßgeblich auf den politikwissenschaftlichen Theorien Jacques Rancières, Hannah Arendts und Richard Rortys auf und verbindet dabei film- und kulturwissenschaftliche, soziologische wie bildungswissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Dieses Buch ist die erste größere filmhistoriografische Publikation, die sich dem Thema aus einer umfänglichen Perspektive widmet und dabei exemplarische Werke aus über 100 Jahren gemeinsamer und geteilter deutscher Filmgeschichte analysiert.

De stumme gudinder er en håndtegners hyldest til de kvindelige filmskuespillere, der gennem deres optræden på det hvide lærred i stumfilmens æra ikke alene skrev sig ind i filmhistorien, men desuden var med til at bane vejen for den moderne, selvstændige kvinde.

Chris Wade explores the career of actor and director David Hemmings, one of the most unfairly overlooked figures to emerge during the British cinema boom of the 1960s. Primarily known for his lead role in Michelangelo Antonioni's iconic masterpiece Blow Up (1966), Hemmings appeared in dozens of films and TV shows. He also worked prolifically as a director for both the cinema and the small screen. This colourful body of work, which includes roles in such stand out films as Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975), is crammed full of surprises and hidden treats. In a series of articles on each era of his life, Wade studies the key work from the Hemmings canon; cult classics like Barbarella (1967), unsung masterpieces like The Long Day's Dying (1969), lost gems such as Fragment of Fear (1970) and Voices (1973), important directorial films including The 14 (1973) and Just A Gigolo (1978), not to mention Hemmings' final screen appearances in such fare as Gladiator (2000) and Last Orders (2001). From early rock and roll pictures to directing The A Team, plus everything in between, the career of David Hemmings is endlessly fascinating.

Ideal Beauty reveals the woman behind the Garbo mystique, a tough negotiator who used her newfound power in Hollywood to develop a distinctly new feminist screen persona. Examining how she was an icon who helped to define female beauty in the twentieth century, the book also considers Garbo’s spiritual and sexual exploration away from the camera’s glare.

"I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence." These eight treasonous words delivered with intense earnestness by Nicolas Cage would launch a pop culture phenomenon in National Treasure (2004) and its sequel, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (2007). Years after the films were box office hits, quotes and sentiments from the two-part franchise are frequently referenced in response to both the most joyous and most scathing moments in recent history. But even so, the films have been heavily criticized for purportedly "crazy" storylines, forcing National Treasure enthusiasts to defend their fandom against those who think it merely a guilty pleasure.But what if the majority of National Treasure's plot points were inspired by real figures and events, its heists drew upon actual techniques in science and technology, and production choices were made with the hope that viewers would better remember both triumphs and failures of history? In this book, franchise experts Aubrey Paris and Emily Black, hosts of the National Treasure Hunt podcast, set the record straight, taking a scene-by-scene approach to prove that National Treasure, like protagonist Benjamin Franklin Gates, is not crazy, but rather one step short. Their analyses unearth lesser-known stories from history while considering the ethics of character decisions, assessing comparisons with similar film franchises, interpreting key deleted scenes, and revealing behind-the-scenes secrets from filming. The result is a more complete understanding of the franchise, one that might just turn National Treasure skeptics into begrudging admirers. In the end, don't we all want to know what's on page forty-seven? National Treasure experts Aubrey Paris and Emily Black, hosts of the National Treasure Hunt podcast, bring their expertise to their first book.

By combining close analyses of five films made between 1947 and 1988 with extensive archival research, this book unravels the complex status of films dealing with Jewish persecution produced in a country that consistently privileged narratives of political persecution above racial victimhood.

Drawing on cultural policy, queer and feminist theory, materialist media studies, and postcolonial historiography, Bliss Cua Lim analyzes the crisis-ridden history of Philippine film archiving—a history of lost films, limited access, and collapsed archives.

While few can deny its incalculable influence on popular filmmaking during and after World War II, film noir has been and remains one of the most contentious categories of cinema, providing more debate than consensus about what constitutes a noir. Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema explores the amorphous parameters of this dark cinematic phenomenon by utilising an expanded, nuanced definition of film noir which reaches beyond traditional conceptions of genre, style and cycle to examine its complex international origins and issues of liminality. Through illuminating case studies of single films from Argentina, the former Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, Poland, Spain and the US, this collection consider elements of genre hybridity, border crossing, boundary breaching and other signifiers of liminality to reassess classical-era films that defy conventional generic and stylistic categorisation. Elyce Rae Helford is Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University Christopher Weedman is Assistant Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University

In Hammer Goes to Hell, Foster utilises never seen before materials held in the Hammer Script Archive to present a new perspective on one of Britain's most famous production studios. While Hammer Films has been extensively researched, the significant amount of creative and economic labour that went into over 100 unmade projects at the company have yet to be recognised accordingly. Using primary materials such as screenplays and correspondence, Hammer Goes to Hell examines the production contexts of an eclectic range of Hammer's unmade films, ranging from Nessie to Kali Devil Bride of Dracula. Using Hammer as a case study, this book represents a significant academic intervention by being the first sustained industry study to primarily use unmade projects. Offering a fresh perspective on this legendary film studio, Foster argues for the importance and sustained study of unmade films. Kieran Foster is a Teaching Associate in Film and Media Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Contemporary Thai Horror Film focuses on the most significant and dominant characteristic of Thai cinema throughout its history: the Thai incarnation of the horror genre and its central role in Thailand's film industry. Tracing the development of Thai cinema throughout wider contextual changes, Ainslie explores the influence of audiences and viewing scenarios from previous decades upon this industry today. Most evident in the popular horror genre, close analysis of films demonstrates a specific style of Thai cinema as well as the wider social forces that have shaped Thai cinema as a national industry. By examining these films with a framework built from horror theory, this book questions our understanding of 'horror' as a generic category when we move outside of its traditional Euro-American origins and the voyeuristic viewing scenario often associated with the genre. Mary Jane Ainslie is Associate Professor in Film and Media at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China Campus.

Transgressive Art Films offers a holistic approach to the way we consider controversial and extreme cinema - not just as individual or grouped texts for analysis - but as artefacts that ought to be considered within a complex network of social factors. Kenny provides a rigorous framework for understanding some of the most controversial films from the late 1990s onwards. The term 'transgressive art film' refers to a handful of controversial films recuperated each year by the cinematic world as an expansion of film art. Rather than seeing controversial films as aberrations, this book suggests that transgressive art films should be understood as a socio-cultural phenomenon and a driver of cinema's need for newness, innovation, and renewal. By paying attention to all scales of cinema, from close analysis of individual frames and the discourse constructed around them, up to global distribution and film-festival networks, Transgressive Art Films details how certain kinds of cinematic transgression gain wide-ranging institutional support rather than being overlooked. Oliver Kenny is Lecturer in Film and Media at the Institute of Communication Studies (ISTC), Université Catholique de Lille.

Annemarie Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker whose work is recognised globally as innovative, politically challenging, and genre-crossing. Most scholarship on the politics of film and its role in political conflicts is usually marked by historical overviews of geopolitical events and developments. In contrast, ReFocus: The Films of Annemarie Jacir offers an auteur-focused study of Jacir's transnational cinematic oeuvre, which is informed by the Palestinian experiences as well as the geopolitics and the political discourse around the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Shagufta Cheema and Van de Peer offer an in-depth study of Jacir's oeuvre by locating it in a geospatial and sociopolitical framework to critically analyse her development as an influential contemporary artist, filmmaker, and curator of film. Iqra Shagufta Cheema is an Assistant Professor in Humanities at Graceland University, Iowa. Stefanie Van de Peer is Reader in Film & Media at Queen Margaret University.

Exotic Cinema is the first systematic analysis of decentred exoticism in contemporary transnational and world cinema. By critically examining regimes of visuality such as the imperial, the ethnographic and the exotic gaze, which have colonised our minds and ways of looking, Daniela Berghahn makes an important contribution to the urgent agenda of decolonising film studies. Berghahn demonstrates that decentred exoticism's aesthetic versatility and alluring alterity are uniquely relevant for understanding the transnational appeal of world cinema. She addresses prevalent controversies surrounding exoticism and illustrates that, in contemporary world cinema, it is utilised to draw attention to new ethical and socio-political goals. Global in scope and transnational in perspective, Exotic Cinema invites students and researchers to reassess this prominent mode of cultural representation. Daniela Berghahn is Professor of Film Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her books include Head On (2015), Far-Flung Families in Film: The Diasporic Family in Contemporary European Cinema (2013), European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe (2010) and Hollywood Behind the Wall: The Cinema of East Germany (2005).

Short animated documentaries dealing with the Holocaust began appearing in the late 1990s. Holocaust Representations in Animated Documentaries provides the first comprehensive analysis of movies produced in the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and Israel. The selected Holocaust animated documentaries analysed in this book epitomise the aesthetic and thematic features of Holocaust animated documentaries in the Western World. Applying theories developed in the fields of animated documentary, Holocaust studies, trauma studies, film studies and memory studies, Steir-Livny analyses how animated Holocaust documentaries create a new layer of Holocaust commemoration. It clarifies the ways in which animated documentaries can broaden and deepen the range of representations by visualising subject matter that previously eluded live-action documentaries, but also points to the dangers inherent to filmmakers' deliberate choices to marginalise the horrors. This extensive analysis of animated Holocaust documentaries constitutes an in-depth outlook on this new layer of contemporary Holocaust memory. Liat Steir-Livny is an Associate Professor at Sapir Academic College and the Open University of Israel.

Hong Kong Crime Films details the post-war history of the Hong Kong crime film prior to the release of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986), the film that turned it into perhaps the signature genre from Hong Kong. Focusing on what it calls the mode of 'criminal realism' in the crime film, this book shows how depictions of Hong Kong's social reality were for decades anxiously policed by colonial censors, and how crime films tended to confound and transgress critical definitions of realism. Drawing on extensive archival research, Hong Kong Crime Films covers several neglected topics in the study of Hong Kong cinema, such as the evolving generic landscape of the crime film prior to the 1980s, the influence of colonial film censorship on the genre, and the prominence and contestation of 'realism' in the local history of the crime film. Kristof Van den Troost is Assistant Professor at the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

The Intensive-Image in Deleuze's Film-Philosophy takes an important category from Deleuze's philosophy--the notion of intensity--and explores its background in the context of philosophical ideas about cinematic intensity, the philosophy of difference, and thermodynamics. Escobar argues that the notion of intensity has the potential to change the way in which we think about Deleuze¿s classification of films as signifying two separate periods, the classical period of the movement-image and the modern period of the time-image, by bringing them together and overcoming the separation that Deleuze's film taxonomy creates. This book also discusses ways in which the intensive-image varies and differentiates itself from other images and the role it plays in contemporary cinema. Cristóbal Escobar is a Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Melbourne, Film Programmer at FIDOCS and Co-Founder of the Screening Ideas program.

The Late and Post-Dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea examines the growth of art film exhibition, consumption, and cinephilia during 1985-1997. This moment of heightened interest in art film altered how many Koreans conceptualised cinema and helped pave the way for the critical success of South Korean film. In this historical study, Jackson analyses the cultural, political, social, and economic developments of the post-1985 period that generated an increased interest in European art film. He considers the interactions of art house exhibitors with cinephile audiences, the media and the state-level administrators responsible for governing the industry. The aim of young cinephiles was nothing less than a bottom-up cultural transformation of a society emerging from three decades of dictatorship. Based on the previously unheard voices of audiences who participated in the cinephilia, Jackson's work is a history of Korean cinema and an investigation of the impact of this cultural renewal period on the industry. Andrew David Jackson is an Associate Professor, Convenor of Korean Studies and Director of the Monash University Korean Studies Research Hub at Monash University, Melbourne.