"A History of Violence" meets a History of Classical Cinema


Book Description

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Filmwissenschaft, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Der Stempel Mainstream verheißt in den seltensten Fällen etwas "Gutes"1. Im Gegenteil: Selbst in jenen Besprechungen, die einen massenwirksamen Film als gelungene Ausnahme markieren, stigmatisieren sie meist im gleichen Atemzug a priori die Gattung als Ganzes als etwas, was sich geistig nicht lohne.2 Oder unternehmen Versuche, die Ausnahme wieder ins stereotype Licht zurückzusetzen3, in dem auf die außergewöhnliche Voraussetzungen, die zu diesem einzigartigen Resultat geführt haben, mehr eingegangen wird, als auf den Film (als Text) selbst. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE gehört als sog. Ausnahme in den Kern dieser Debatte, wird er von Kritikern als Cronenbergs kommerziellste Arbeit eingeschätzt4 und zugleich dafür kritisiert, wenn Der Tagespiegel gar fragt, ob Cronenberg sich etwa in den Mainstream verirrt habe5; suggerierend, dass dieser Begriff ein Universum sei, das man tunlichst zu meiden habe. Erstaunlich ist dabei, dass das mit Kitsch und Eskapismus assoziierte "Unwort" schwerlich von der Zielgruppe selbst verwendet wird, wird man den "Mainstreambegriff kaum im Foyer eines Multiplex"6 hören. Als habe die Kritik exklusiv für sich gepachtet um mittels dieses Vokabulars zwischen Kunst und Massenware zu polarisieren, wenn im Mainstream mal wieder ein minderwertiges "Kino der anderen"7 gesehen werden soll. Dabei wird selten selbst ein objektiver Begriff dieser Gattung vorgenommen. Am Beispiel von Cronenbergs A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE soll dargestellt und diskutiert werden, wie sich im Mainstreamkino Erzählweisen herausgebildet haben, die von den idealtypischen Merkmalen des Classical Cinema of Narration (nach David Bordwell) signifikant abweichen respektive ob diese "Flexibilisierungen der (Erzähl-)Konzepte"8 überhaupt noch von einem eindeutigen, abweichbaren Schemata des Unterhaltungskinos ausgehen können oder ob es selbst nicht vielmehr




Classical Film Violence


Book Description

Examines the interplay between the aesthetics and the censorship of violence in classic Hollywood films from 1930 to 1968, the era of the Production Code, when filmmakers were required to have their scripts approved before they could start production. A stylistic history of American screen violence that is grounded in industry documentation. [back cover].




A History of Violence (1973)


Book Description

Once in a century, a book comes along that both defines a genre - and defies it. This is that century. This is that book. The book is A History of Violence (1973). A memoir of the human race. Its concept is simple: take the date in 1973 on which a violent film was first screened - and go beyond the film to see the world that exists outside the theatre. It's a book that realizes that the line between life and cinema is as much a horizon as it is a terminator. A History of Violence (1973) takes you across that horizon to places in time you never even imagined existed. Because bombs don't explode in only one direction. 169 films. The brutal and transgressive sex films (Forced Entry; High Priestess of Sexual Witchcraft; Teenage Jailbait). The films of cinematic masters like Brian De Palma (Sisters), Terence Malick (Badlands), and Nicolas Roeg (Don't Look Now). The Italian crime films (Death Carries a Cane; The Flower With the Deadly Sting; Torso). The police procedurals (Blade; The Laughing Policeman; The Marcus-Nelson Murders). The flat-out shocking and bizarre films that can only be appreciated by surviving them (The Hunchback of the Morgue; The Night God Screamed; The Sinful Dwarf).1973. The year that the War in Vietnam ends, military coups convulse Afghanistan and Chile and Rwanda, and the specter of Watergate looms large.1973. The year that a teen thinks his neighbor is using telepathy to make him gay - so he strips him nude, kills him and his entire family, and burns down their house. The year that a husband kidnaps young men and holds them at gunpoint - while they have sex with his wife. The year that a man goes out for a night on the town with a friend - and comes home to find that his wife has murdered their children, then killed herself. 1973. The year of the deaths of writers W.H. Auden and Victor Jara; actors Bruce Lee and Lon Chaney Jr.; and artists Robert Smithson and Pablo Picasso. The year of Skylab and Pioneer and Kohoutek. The year of the mass murders of Edmund Emil Kemper, Herbert William Mullin, Charlie Chop-Off, and The Alphabet Killer. A History of Violence (1973) also stands as a testament to the tireless efforts of law enforcement to solve the violent crimes that grip America. In 1973, America sees the first blue flashing lights that complete the lightbars of today's police cruisers; the breathalyzer comes into common usage; and Dr. Lester Luntz becomes the first forensic odontologist to try to crack a case by obtaining a search warrant to get a cast of a suspect's teeth. A History of Violence (1973). A history book for the history books. A History of Violence (1973) represents the culmination of 20 years of exhaustive research, employing the digital advances that have thrown wide the doors of archives everywhere for a greater understanding of the human condition - both scaling the heights of creation and plunging to the depths of annihilation. With an audience as wide-ranging as true-crime enthusiasts, police detectives and horror movie buffs, A History of Violence (1973) also presents a seething array of lurid and alluring movie advertising art - some unseen for more than 40 years. This isn't the book about violence you thought you wanted. This is the book about violence you knew you needed.




Violence and American Cinema


Book Description

American cinema has always been violent, and never more so than now: exploding heads, buses that blow up if they stop, racial attacks, and general mayhem. From slapstick's comic violence to film noir, from silent cinema to Tarantino, violence has been an integral part of America on screen. This new volume in a successful series analyzes violence, examining its nature, its effects, and its cinematic and social meaning.




Film


Book Description

This clear, well illustrated text takes the reader through the basics of film analysis, drawing on a wide range of film for discussion. Questions of genre and the contexts and meanings of film are considered.




A History of Violence


Book Description

Originally published: New York: Paradox Press, 1997.




When Heimat Meets Hollywood


Book Description

Contemporary connections between German directors and Hollywood and their implications for German, American, and transnational film.The film histories of Germany and the United States have long been seen as intertwined, but scholarship has focused on émigré works of the 1930s and 1940s, on links between Weimar film and American film noir, and on the conflictedrelationship between directors of the New German Cinema and Hollywood. Recently, German film studies has begun reexamining the interconnection of the two film cultures and focusing on the internationalism of German cinema, but little research has been done on contemporary German directors'' involvement in American cinema, a gap in scholarship that this book fills. The study offers ways of understanding current German cinematic engagement with America and different directorial responses to the hegemonic pressures of Hollywood. It delineates the historical trajectory of German-American film relations in the 20th century, then analyzes the careers and works of four German-born directors who have significant ties with American cinema: Wolfgang Petersen, Roland Emmerich, Percy Adlon, and Tom Tykwer. A series of close readings of their productions isolates the cinematic practices and strategies with which these filmmakers negotiate the different national cultural and cinematic paradigms they traverse. The book analyzes constructions of national cultural identity, probes the boundaries of national cinemas, and expands our understanding ofemerging hybrid film cultures. It is a contribution to German film studies and to the emerging field of transnational film studies. Christine Haase is Associate Professor of German at the University of Georgia.s of four German-born directors who have significant ties with American cinema: Wolfgang Petersen, Roland Emmerich, Percy Adlon, and Tom Tykwer. A series of close readings of their productions isolates the cinematic practices and strategies with which these filmmakers negotiate the different national cultural and cinematic paradigms they traverse. The book analyzes constructions of national cultural identity, probes the boundaries of national cinemas, and expands our understanding ofemerging hybrid film cultures. It is a contribution to German film studies and to the emerging field of transnational film studies. Christine Haase is Associate Professor of German at the University of Georgia.s of four German-born directors who have significant ties with American cinema: Wolfgang Petersen, Roland Emmerich, Percy Adlon, and Tom Tykwer. A series of close readings of their productions isolates the cinematic practices and strategies with which these filmmakers negotiate the different national cultural and cinematic paradigms they traverse. The book analyzes constructions of national cultural identity, probes the boundaries of national cinemas, and expands our understanding ofemerging hybrid film cultures. It is a contribution to German film studies and to the emerging field of transnational film studies. Christine Haase is Associate Professor of German at the University of Georgia.s of four German-born directors who have significant ties with American cinema: Wolfgang Petersen, Roland Emmerich, Percy Adlon, and Tom Tykwer. A series of close readings of their productions isolates the cinematic practices and strategies with which these filmmakers negotiate the different national cultural and cinematic paradigms they traverse. The book analyzes constructions of national cultural identity, probes the boundaries of national cinemas, and expands our understanding ofemerging hybrid film cultures. It is a contribution to German film studies and to the emerging field of transnational film studies. Christine Haase is Associate Professor of German at the University of Georgia.paradigms they traverse. The book analyzes constructions of national cultural identity, probes the boundaries of national cinemas, and expands our understanding ofemerging hybrid film cultures. It is a contribution to German film studies and to the emerging field of transnational film studies. Christine Haase is Associate Professor of German at the University of Georgia.




Death in Classical Hollywood Cinema


Book Description

Boaz Hagin carries out a philosophical examination of the issue of death as it is represented and problematized in Hollywood cinema of the classical era (1920s-1950s) and in later mainstream films, looking at four major genres: the Western, the gangster film, melodrama and the war film.




Projecting the Past


Book Description

Brought vividly to life on screen, the myth of ancient Rome resonates through modern popular culture. Projecting the Past examines how the cinematic traditions of Hollywood and Italy have resurrected ancient Rome to address the concerns of the present. The book engages contemporary debates about the nature of the classical tradition, definitions of history, and the place of the past in historical film.




American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11


Book Description

American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11 is a ground-breaking collection of essays by some of the foremost scholars writing in the field of contemporary American film. Through a dynamic critical analysis of the defining films of the turbulent post-9/11 decade, the volume explores and interrogates the impact of 9/11 and the 'War on Terror' on American cinema and culture. In a vibrant discussion of films like American Sniper (2014), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Spectre (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), Lincoln (2012), The Mist (2007), Children of Men (2006), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), noted authors Geoff King, Guy Westwell, John Shelton Lawrence, Ian Scott, Andrew Schopp, James Kendrick, Sean Redmond, Steffen Hantke and many others consider the power of popular film to function as a potent cultural artefact, able to both reflect the defining fears and anxieties of the tumultuous era, but also shape them in compelling and resonant ways.