Exploring B-Movie Themes in Virtual Reality: the Woman Who Fell to Earth and Met the Pontianak
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Extreme Art Film: Text, Paratext and DVD Culture Simon Hobbs
Extreme Art Film: Text, Paratext and DVD Culture Simon Hobbs The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth. September 2014 Declaration Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. Word count: 85,810 Abstract Extreme art cinema, has, in recent film scholarship, become an important area of study. Many of the existing practices are motivated by a Franco-centric lens, which ultimately defines transgressive art cinema as a new phenomenon. The thesis argues that a study of extreme art cinema needs to consider filmic production both within and beyond France. It also argues that it requires an historical analysis, and I contest the notion that extreme art cinema is a recent mode of Film production. The study considers extreme art cinema as inhabiting a space between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art forms, noting the slippage between the two often polarised industries. The study has a focus on the paratext, with an analysis of DVD extras including ‘making ofs’ and documentary featurettes, interviews with directors, and cover sleeves. This will be used to examine audience engagement with the artefacts, and the films’ position within the film market. Through a detailed assessment of the visual symbols used throughout the films’ narrative images, the thesis observes the manner in which they engage with the taste structures and pictorial templates of art and exploitation cinema. -
Appalling! Terrifying! Wonderful! Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South
Antoni Górny Appalling! Terrifying! Wonderful! Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South Abstract: The so-called blaxploitation genre – a brand of 1970s film-making designed to engage young Black urban viewers – has become synonymous with channeling the political energy of Black Power into larger-than-life Black characters beating “the [White] Man” in real-life urban settings. In spite of their urban focus, however, blaxploitation films repeatedly referenced an idea of the South whose origins lie in antebellum abolitionist propaganda. Developed across the history of American film, this idea became entangled in the post-war era with the Civil Rights struggle by way of the “race problem” film, which identified the South as “racist country,” the privileged site of “racial” injustice as social pathology.1 Recently revived in the widely acclaimed works of Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) and Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), the two modes of depicting the South put forth in blaxploitation and the “race problem” film continue to hold sway to this day. Yet, while the latter remains indelibly linked, even in this revised perspective, to the abolitionist vision of emancipation as the result of a struggle between idealized, plaintive Blacks and pathological, racist Whites, blaxploitation’s troping of the South as the fulfillment of grotesque White “racial” fantasies offers a more powerful and transformative means of addressing America’s “race problem.” Keywords: blaxploitation, American film, race and racism, slavery, abolitionism The year 2013 was a momentous one for “racial” imagery in Hollywood films. Around the turn of the year, Quentin Tarantino released Django Unchained, a sardonic action- film fantasy about an African slave winning back freedom – and his wife – from the hands of White slave-owners in the antebellum Deep South. -
LAUREN BLISS the Cinematic Body in View of the Antipodes: Philip Brophy's Body Melt As the Bad Copy
Lauren Bliss, The Cinematic Body in View of the Antipodes: Philip Brophy’s Body Melt as the bad copy LAUREN BLISS The Cinematic Body in View of the Antipodes: Philip Brophy’s Body Melt as the bad copy ABSTRACT Through a wide ranging study of Philip Brophy's academic and critical writings on horror cinema, this essay considers how Brophy's theory of the spectator's body is figured in his only horror feature Body Melt (1993). Body Melt is noteworthy insofar as it poorly copies a number of infamous sequences from classical horror films of the 1970s and 1980s, a form of figuration that this essay will theorise as distinctly Antipodean. Body Melt will be related as an antagonistic 'turning inside out' of the subjectivity of the horror movie spectator, which will be read in the light of both the usurped subject of semiotic film theory, and the political aesthetics of Australian exploitation cinema. Philip Brophy’s Body Melt, made in 1993, is a distinctly antipodean film: it not only copies scenes from classic horror movies such as The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Alien (1979), The Thing (1982) and Scanners (1981), it also copies the scenes badly. Such copying plays on and illuminates the ‘rules’ of horror as the toying with and preying upon the spectator’s expectation of fear. Brophy’s own theory of horror, written across a series of essays in academic and critical contexts between the 1980s and the 1990s, considers the peculiarity of the spectator’s body in the wake of the horror film. It relates that the seemingly autonomic or involuntary response of fear or suspense that horror movies induce in a viewer is troubled by the fact that both film and viewer knowingly intend this response to occur from the very beginning. -
“No Reason to Be Seen”: Cinema, Exploitation, and the Political
“No Reason to Be Seen”: Cinema, Exploitation, and the Political by Gordon Sullivan B.A., University of Central Florida, 2004 M.A., North Carolina State University, 2007 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2017 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH THE KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Gordon Sullivan It was defended on October 20, 2017 and approved by Marcia Landy, Distinguished Professor, Department of English Jennifer Waldron, Associate Professor, Department of English Daniel Morgan, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago Dissertation Advisor: Adam Lowenstein, Professor, Department of English ii Copyright © by Gordon Sullivan 2017 iii “NO REASON TO BE SEEN”: CINEMA, EXPLOITATION, AND THE POLITICAL Gordon Sullivan, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2017 This dissertation argues that we can best understand exploitation films as a mode of political cinema. Following the work of Peter Brooks on melodrama, the exploitation film is a mode concerned with spectacular violence and its relationship to the political, as defined by French philosopher Jacques Rancière. For Rancière, the political is an “intervention into the visible and sayable,” where members of a community who are otherwise uncounted come to be seen as part of the community through a “redistribution of the sensible.” This aesthetic rupture allows the demands of the formerly-invisible to be seen and considered. We can see this operation at work in the exploitation film, and by investigating a series of exploitation auteurs, we can augment our understanding of what Rancière means by the political. -
Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South
Antoni Górny Appalling! Terrifying! Wonderful! Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South Abstract: The so-called blaxploitation genre – a brand of 1970s film-making designed to engage young Black urban viewers – has become synonymous with channeling the political energy of Black Power into larger-than-life Black characters beating “the [White] Man” in real-life urban settings. In spite of their urban focus, however, blaxploitation films repeatedly referenced an idea of the South whose origins lie in antebellum abolitionist propaganda. Developed across the history of American film, this idea became entangled in the post-war era with the Civil Rights struggle by way of the “race problem” film, which identified the South as “racist country,” the privileged site of “racial” injustice as social pathology.1 Recently revived in the widely acclaimed works of Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) and Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), the two modes of depicting the South put forth in blaxploitation and the “race problem” film continue to hold sway to this day. Yet, while the latter remains indelibly linked, even in this revised perspective, to the abolitionist vision of emancipation as the result of a struggle between idealized, plaintive Blacks and pathological, racist Whites, blaxploitation’s troping of the South as the fulfillment of grotesque White “racial” fantasies offers a more powerful and transformative means of addressing America’s “race problem.” Keywords: blaxploitation, American film, race and racism, slavery, abolitionism The year 2013 was a momentous one for “racial” imagery in Hollywood films. Around the turn of the year, Quentin Tarantino released Django Unchained, a sardonic action- film fantasy about an African slave winning back freedom – and his wife – from the hands of White slave-owners in the antebellum Deep South. -
BAM Presents NYC Horror, Oct 31—Nov 5, a Series of New York Nightmares
BAM presents NYC Horror, Oct 31—Nov 5, a series of New York nightmares October 3, 2019/Brooklyn, NY—From Thursday, October 31 through Tuesday, November 5, BAM presents NYC Horror, a series that explores the terrors, both supernatural and quotidian, of life in New York City. The series begins with Michael Almereyda’s downtown vampire film, Nadja (1994), which blends poetic horror and deadpan comedy, accompanied by lustrous black-and-white cinematography and a dreamy soundtrack featuring My Bloody Valentine and Portishead. Other films include Bill Gun’s visionary, avant- garde mélange of vampire tales and Afrocentric mythologies Ganja & Hess (1973), which filmed at the Brooklyn Museum; Brian De Palma’s Staten Island-set, lurid psychosexual thriller Sisters (1973); Mary Harron’s controversial, bloody satire of Wall Street greed and white male privilege American Psycho (2000); Michael Winner’s satanism-in-Brooklyn shocker The Sentinel (1977); Larry Cohen’s subversive, sci-fi portrait of society gone mad God Told Me To (1976), as well as his Q (1982), the director’s homage to Ray Harryhausen-style creature-features; and Michael Wadleigh’s werewolf flick-cum-gentrification critique Wolfen (1981). The series continues with Mark Robson and B-movie producer extraordinaire Val Lewton’s Greenwich Village-set The Seventh Victim (1943), one of the most haunting, transgressive horror films of Hollywood’s Golden Age; the Wes Craven-directed Eddie Murphy cult comedy Vampire in Brooklyn (1995); George P. Cosmatos’ darkly relatable tale of man-versus-rat, Of Unknown Origin (1983); writer- director-producer-star James Bond III’s stylish monster horror Def by Temptation (1990), shot by legendary cinematographer Ernest Dickerson; and cult auteur Larry Fessenden’s portrait of alcoholic paranoia and emotional (and possibly literal) vampirism, Habit (1995). -
9. List of Film Genres and Sub-Genres PDF HANDOUT
9. List of film genres and sub-genres PDF HANDOUT The following list of film genres and sub-genres has been adapted from “Film Sub-Genres Types (and Hybrids)” written by Tim Dirks29. Genre Film sub-genres types and hybrids Action or adventure • Action or Adventure Comedy • Literature/Folklore Adventure • Action/Adventure Drama Heroes • Alien Invasion • Martial Arts Action (Kung-Fu) • Animal • Man- or Woman-In-Peril • Biker • Man vs. Nature • Blaxploitation • Mountain • Blockbusters • Period Action Films • Buddy • Political Conspiracies, Thrillers • Buddy Cops (or Odd Couple) • Poliziotteschi (Italian) • Caper • Prison • Chase Films or Thrillers • Psychological Thriller • Comic-Book Action • Quest • Confined Space Action • Rape and Revenge Films • Conspiracy Thriller (Paranoid • Road Thriller) • Romantic Adventures • Cop Action • Sci-Fi Action/Adventure • Costume Adventures • Samurai • Crime Films • Sea Adventures • Desert Epics • Searches/Expeditions for Lost • Disaster or Doomsday Continents • Epic Adventure Films • Serialized films • Erotic Thrillers • Space Adventures • Escape • Sports—Action • Espionage • Spy • Exploitation (ie Nunsploitation, • Straight Action/Conflict Naziploitation • Super-Heroes • Family-oriented Adventure • Surfing or Surf Films • Fantasy Adventure • Survival • Futuristic • Swashbuckler • Girls With Guns • Sword and Sorcery (or “Sword and • Guy Films Sandal”) • Heist—Caper Films • (Action) Suspense Thrillers • Heroic Bloodshed Films • Techno-Thrillers • Historical Spectacles • Treasure Hunts • Hong Kong • Undercover -
Mary in Film
PONT~CALFACULTYOFTHEOLOGY "MARIANUM" INTERNATIONAL MARIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE (UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON) MARY IN FILM AN ANALYSIS OF CINEMATIC PRESENTATIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY FROM 1897- 1999: A THEOLOGICAL APPRAISAL OF A SOCIO-CULTURAL REALITY A thesis submitted to The International Marian Research Institute In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree Licentiate of Sacred Theology (with Specialization in Mariology) By: Michael P. Durley Director: Rev. Johann G. Roten, S.M. IMRI Dayton, Ohio (USA) 45469-1390 2000 Table of Contents I) Purpose and Method 4-7 ll) Review of Literature on 'Mary in Film'- Stlltus Quaestionis 8-25 lli) Catholic Teaching on the Instruments of Social Communication Overview 26-28 Vigilanti Cura (1936) 29-32 Miranda Prorsus (1957) 33-35 Inter Miri.fica (1963) 36-40 Communio et Progressio (1971) 41-48 Aetatis Novae (1992) 49-52 Summary 53-54 IV) General Review of Trends in Film History and Mary's Place Therein Introduction 55-56 Actuality Films (1895-1915) 57 Early 'Life of Christ' films (1898-1929) 58-61 Melodramas (1910-1930) 62-64 Fantasy Epics and the Golden Age ofHollywood (1930-1950) 65-67 Realistic Movements (1946-1959) 68-70 Various 'New Waves' (1959-1990) 71-75 Religious and Marian Revival (1985-Present) 76-78 V) Thematic Survey of Mary in Films Classification Criteria 79-84 Lectures 85-92 Filmographies of Marian Lectures Catechetical 93-94 Apparitions 95 Miscellaneous 96 Documentaries 97-106 Filmographies of Marian Documentaries Marian Art 107-108 Apparitions 109-112 Miscellaneous 113-115 Dramas -
How Low-Budget Horror Films Defy Sexual Morality and Heteronormativity in Bollywood
‘I Wasn’t Born with Enough Middle Fingers’: How low-budget horror films defy sexual morality and heteronormativity in Bollywood Aditi Sen Queen’s University Abstract. In the early 1980s the Ramsay Brothers gave Bollywood a new genre of monster flicks with blockbusters likePurana Mandir, Hotel, and Veerana. Following the work of the Ramsay Brothers, low-budget horror films that were made exclusively for the small towns and rural market increased in the decades of 1980s and 1990s. These films are primarily known for their unintentional humor owing to poor production and acting, but they have never been acknowledged for their actual content. This article argues that Bollywood low-budget films fulfilled the basic function of horror movies— that is, they subverted mainstream moral order and sexual morality. These films opened up space for dialogues that the mainstream cinema had totally neglected; particularly, in the areas of incest, female lust, ‘othering’ of male sexuality, and transgendered identities. On a different register, the relationship between low-budget horror films and mainstream Bollywood can be compared to folklore and canonical literature, where folklore repeatedly resists the conformities endorsed by the mainstream prescriptive texts. I start by describing a scene from a movie released in 1993. A group of young women decide to have a ‘kitty party’. They get together in the Mumbai suburban farmhouse of one of their friends and there, they party hard, get drunk, and soon they want more. As the lone male servant quietly brings drinks, one of the women comments on his attractive appearance. The ladies start to dance and one of them goes inside the kitchen to seduce the servant. -
Manifest Density: Decentering the Global Western Film
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2018 Manifest Density: Decentering the Global Western Film Michael D. Phillips The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2932 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] MANIFEST DENSITY: DECENTERING THE GLOBAL WESTERN FILM by MICHAEL D. PHILLIPS A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 Michael D. Phillips All Rights Reserved ii Manifest Density: Decentering the Global Western Film by Michael D. Phillips This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. __________________ ________________________________________________ Date Jerry W. Carlson Chair of Examining Committee __________________ ________________________________________________ Date Giancarlo Lombardi Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Paula J. Massood Marc Dolan THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Manifest Density: Decentering the Global Western Film by Michael D. Phillips Advisor: Jerry W. Carlson The Western is often seen as a uniquely American narrative form, one so deeply ingrained as to constitute a national myth. This perception persists despite its inherent shortcomings, among them its inapplicability to the many instances of filmmakers outside the United States appropriating the genre and thus undercutting this view of generic exceptionalism. -
Giving Yourself Over to Absolute Pleasure
Hugvísindasvið Giving Yourself Over to Absolute Pleasure - a study on the cult of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Ritgerð til B.A.-prófs Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Maí 2010 Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Enska Giving Yourself Over to Absolute Pleasure - a study on the cult of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Ritgerð til B.A.-prófs Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Kt.: 051287-2669 Leiðbeinandi: Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir Maí 2010 Summary: In this thesis I intend to discover what makes a movie acquire cult status and what that title means. I want to know if there is a certain standard a movie has to meet to become a cult movie and find out if the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show meets that standard. This movie tells the story of two “ordinary” people who happen to knock on the door of Frank-N-Furter, an alien who wants to create the perfect man. This movie has become one of the best known cult movies of all time and can even be called “the ultimate cult movie.” It has one of the steadiest fan bases ever known and the fans have created their own mini-society based on the movie and a ritual has evolved around watching it at the cinema. By reviewing the behaviour of cult fans I will find out what sets them apart from “normal” fans and why they are often frowned upon by those outside of the cult society. I will look into the cult elements that can be found in this movie and find out if it is justifiable to call the movie one of the best known cult films today. -
Ethics and Politics in New Extreme Films
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Queen Mary Research Online ETHICS AND POLITICS IN NEW EXTREME FILMS Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Oliver Kenny Department of Film Queen Mary University of London I, Oliver Kenny, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the elec- tronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information de- rived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Date: 20th December 2017 2 Abstract This thesis investigates a corpus of controversial, mainly European films from 1998 to 2013, to determine which features have led to their critical description as ‘new extreme’ films and according to what ethical framework ‘new extreme’ films operate.