The Feel-Bad Film Nikolaj Lübecker Is Associate Professor in French at the University of Oxford, Fellow of St John’S College
Edinburgh Studies in Film and Intermediality Series Editors: Martine Beugnet and Kriss Ravetto Founding Editor: John Orr NIKOLAJ NIKOLAJ A series of cutting-edge scholarly research monographs covering core aspects of film studies. The series’ internationally respected authors contribute analytical and often controversial volumes, offering a critical intervention into their subject. ‘Nikolaj Lübecker clearly and insightfully analyses many of the most controversial films of recent years by cinematic heavyweights like Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, Claire L Denis and Gus Van Sant. In doing so, he invites his readers to reconsider movies in ÜBECKER general: maybe sometimes it’s not so bad for a movie to make us feel bad. As we root around for hope at a time when it seems thin on the ground, Lubecker paradoxically conjures hope where there seemed to be none. A unique and ground-breaking work.’ William Brown, Senior Lecturer in Film, University of Roehampton, London In recent years some of the most innovative European and American directors have made films that place the spectator in a position of intense discomfort. Systematically The Feel- manipulating the viewer, sometimes by withholding information, sometimes through shock or seduction, these films have often been criticised as amoral, nihilistic, politically irresponsible or even anti-humanistic. But how are these unpleasurable viewing experiences created? What do the directors believe they can achieve via this ‘feel-bad’ experience? How can we situate these films in intellectual history? And why B should we watch, study and teach feel-bad films? ad Film Answering these questions through the analysis of work by directors such as Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Brian de Palma, Bruno Dumont and Harmony Korine, The Contemporary Feel-Bad Film invites readers to consider cinematic art as an experimental activity with ethical norms that are wholly different from the ones we would hope to find outside the movie theatre.
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