INTRODUCTION

 Queer cinema/counter cinema  Directors  Sally Potter  Todd Haynes  Kathryn Bigelow  Ang Lee  Learning Outcome 1. Develop the skills of detailed, analytic and discriminating reading and interpretation of films

1 SEXUAL MINORITIES IN MAINSTREAM FILMS

Sexual minorities tend to be killed off/remain unhappy Or are ignored completely (Gerbner – symbolic annihilation) Perhaps why counter cinema/women’s cinema emerged

2 FREE FLOATING IDENTITIES

 Foucault – identity as free-floating  Not connected to essence  Identity not determined by gender, class, ethnicity, age, sexuality  How we choose to behave  No real, true identity (link to postmodernism)  Queer theory – anything that is different to the mainstream norms.  Includes queer reading of films e.g. The Celluloid Closet Trailer 3

COUNTER CINEMA

 Group of films, film makers, institutions which set themselves against Hollywood  Counter discourses  Challenge codes and conventions  No safe narrative  But people may enjoy mainstream Hollywood cinema  Counter cinema can be alienating and hard work e.g. Thriller (1979, Sally Potter)

4 WOMEN’S CINEMA

 Some suggest that women’s cinema needs to be counter cinema  Others suggest women’s cinema can work within the mainstream.  Bechdel Test  Women’s cinema my refer to films made by female directors (Bigelow)  Women’s cinema – films addressed to or concerned with women  Guilty pleasures of watching mainstream representations

5 DIRECTOR: SALLY POTTER

 Women’s cinema as counter cinema  Orlando (1992)  Based on Virginia Woolf novel where the main character keeps being reborn in different centuries. Ending as a woman.  Rage (2009)  A young blogger at a New York fashion house shoots behind-the-scenes interviews on his cell- phone.  Ginger and Rosa (2012)  A look at the lives of two teenage girls - inseparable friends Ginger and Rosa -- growing up in 1960s London as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, and the pivotal event that comes to redefine their relationship. 6  http://sallypotter.com/

DIRECTOR TODD HAYNES  Very successful gay director  Underground roots in experimental cinema  Confrontational approach to representing gayness  Superstar (1987)  Barbie dolls depict Karen Carpenter and her anorexia  Poison (1991)  three stories: Hero, Horror, Homo  Safe (1995)  need for society to label; experience being placed outside society  Velvet Goldmine- (1998)  journalist investigating faked death publicity stunt of David Bowie-esque rock star  I’m not there - (2007)  portraying the life and legend of Bob Dylan through seven fictional characters played by six 7 actors including Cate Blanchett

KATHRYN BIGELOW

 Well known female director in action genre

 Often defined in terms of relationship to ex-husband

 Point Break (1991)

 Strange Days (1995)

 The Hurt Locker (2008)

 Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

8 ANG LEE

 ‘I’m a drifter and an outsider. There’s not one single environment I can totally belong to.’

 Sense and Sensibility (1995)

 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)

 Brokeback Mountain (2005)  film is made for mainstream audience and may suggest that love between men can flourish when it is remote locations away from others

 Life of Pi (2012)  – identity/conforming to norms? 9 SUMMARY

 Queer theory/queer film/queer readings  Counter cinema and others e.g. women’s cinema  Director Sally Potter  Director Todd Haynes  Director Kathryn Bigelow  Director Ang Lee  Assignment 2: Are dominant discourses challenged by queer cinema?  Analyse a range of films in relation to one topic from the module.

 Seminar today – individual feedback on assignment 1. 10 REFERENCES

 Benshoff , H. & Griffin, S. (2004) America on Film. Oxford, Blackwell.

 Russo, V. (1981) The Celluloid Closet, Where, Harper Collins

 Leyda, J. (2012) Something that is dangerous and arousing and transgressive. An interview with Todd Haynes, Bright Lights Film Journal. [Online] Available at: http://brightlightsfilm.com/something-that-is-dangerous-and- arousing-and-transgressive-an-interview-with-todd- haynes/#.VSuYs9zF-Sq [Accessed 20th March 2015].

 Pulver, A. () Women in the film Industry, The Guardian [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/15/women-in- film-industry-celluloid-ceiling [Accessed 13th April 2015]. 11