Objet A(ffect) and Che(www) Vuoi

Screen Bodies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Dewey Musante
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Film Criticism ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Close Analysis

Leigh Janiak’s Honeymoon (2014) and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Spring (2015) initially seem like two horror films birthed in the spirit of classical psychoanalytic film criticism. They deal with a monstrous female, a fearful, castrated male, and the “otherness” of sexual relationships. Through a close analysis of each film, however, I suggest in the following that both films “think” through problems of the gendered other, sexual politics, and cinematic affect outside the bounds of contemporary psychoanalytic or affect theory. By suggesting and analyzing two neologisms that blend the insights of psychoanalytic and affective film theory—objet a(ffect) and che(www) vuoi—I argue that both films not only complicate typical readings of horror films “about” gender and sex, but that each film performs its own type of philosophical thought about gender and “otherness” through its very form and content.

Victorians in the Closet: Oscar Wilde's Monstrous Hollywood Legacy

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-729
Author(s):  
Kate Hext
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Early Cinema ◽  
Visual Effects ◽  
Early American ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Twentieth Century America

This essay offers a new perspective on the Victorians’ representation in early cinema. It argues that the profile of Oscar Wilde and the decadent movement was such, in early twentieth-century America, that its movies often viewed the Victorians through a decadent lens. Situating its discussion in a detailed exposition of Hollywood's interest in late-Victorian decadence, this essay discusses the reciprocal relationship between Oscar Wilde's imagination and cinematic horror. It sketches the inherently cinematic qualities in decadent writing and, focusing on Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), offers a new reading of how it incorporates different cinematic technologies to create a sense of supernatural horror. The essay goes on to examine how Wilde's novel inspired early American horror films, with close analysis of how its dialogue and visual effects were incorporated into the genre-defining adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde (1920).

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jordan Schonig
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Gestalt Psychology ◽  
Film Criticism ◽  
Philosophical Intuition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Generic Structures ◽  
Temporal Flow ◽  
Film Form

The Introduction examines why “movement” is often invoked as a term in film criticism and film theory but is rarely analyzed as an aspect of film form. The reason for this is twofold. First, because film theory has largely examined movement only as a defining property of the cinematic medium, movement is rarely singled out in film criticism. Second, because film theory has inherited the philosophical intuition that form is primarily spatial rather than temporal, formal analysis in film studies tends to break up the temporal flow of film into static units, such as in shot breakdowns and frame analyses. In film studies, then, “form” and “movement” are conceptually incompatible. As a means of thinking motion and form together, the Introduction proposes the concept of “motion forms,” generic structures, patterns, or shapes of motion. The Introduction then explores the philosophical roots of the motion form in phenomenology and Gestalt psychology, and explains how such a way of thinking about cinematic motion differs from other phenomenological approaches in film studies. Finally, the introduction outlines the six chapters of the book, each of which investigates a particular motion form that emerges throughout the history of cinema.

scholarly journals Dr Dario Llinares in Conversation with Dr Sarah Atkinson

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Llinares ◽  
Sarah Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Film Criticism ◽  
Film Production ◽  
The Core ◽  
Expanded Cinema ◽  
Mobile Cinema ◽  
Recent Monograph ◽  
Historical Antecedents ◽  
Networked Society

Dr Dario Llinares interviews Dr Sarah Atkinson about the core themes addressed in her recent monograph Beyond the Screen: Emerging Cinema and Engaging Audiences (Bloomsbury, 2014). The conversation explores the context for new conceptualisations of cinema, which encompass and reflect the myriad ways film can be experienced beyond the auditorium in a digitally networked society. They also explore the historical antecedents for embodied cinema, discuss examples of expanded, extended and mobile film spectatorship, and postulate as to the effect of these transformations for film production, criticism and scholarship.     KEYWORDS Expanded Cinema; Film Criticism; Film Theory; Digital Technology; Mobile Cinema; Spectatorship

scholarly journals Introduction: Gender, Space, and Affects in Film

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Maud Ceuterick
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Feminist Film Theory ◽  
Negative Affects ◽  
The World ◽  
Feminist Film ◽  
Gender Space ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Way

Abstract The way mobility and gender are perceived and analysed in the cinema needs to change. As this chapter retraces the scholarship on gender and space, it draws attention to the binaries, starting with the figure of the flâneur, that have portrayed women as being restricted in their movement and in their wilfulness. A transformation of women’s spatial imaginaries beyond patriarchal boundaries requires the consideration of space as fluid, practised, and affective rather than conceived and fixed. Placing feminist geographer Doreen Massey’s concepts of space-time and power-geometries in dialogue with feminist film theory and affect theory shows how cinema may act as a ‘way of thinking’ towards the world and contribute to transforming negative affects into productive forces, as advocated by Rosi Braidotti.

The Descent

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Marriott
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Film Criticism ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Time Out ◽  
Rolling Stone ◽  
Object Lesson

The story of an all-female caving expedition gone horribly wrong, The Descent (2005) is arguably the best of the mid-2000s horror entries to return verve and intensity to the genre. Unlike its peers (Saw [2004], Hostel [2011], etc.), The Descent was both commercially and critically popular, providing a genuine version of what other films could only produce as pastiche. For Mark Kermode, writing in the Observer, it was “one of the best British horror films of recent years,” and Derek Elley in Variety described it as “an object lesson in making a tightly-budgeted, no-star horror pic.” Time Out's critic praised “this fiercely entertaining British horror movie;” while Rolling Stone's Peter Travers warned prospective viewers to “prepare to be scared senseless.” Emphasizing female characters and camaraderie, The Descent is an ideal springboard for discussing underexplored horror themes: the genre's engagement with the lure of the archaic; the idea of birth as the foundational human trauma and its implications for horror film criticism; and the use of provisional worldviews, or “rubber realities,” in horror.

Peeping Tom as a proto-slasher

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
Kiri Bloom Walden
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Male Gaze ◽  
Original Script ◽  
Feminist Film Theory ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
History Of ◽  
Feminist Film

We explore the film in the wider context of the history of the Horror genre. This chapter looks at the idea that Peeping Tom can be seen as a proto-Slasher. Looking specifically at the Cinematography and use of the ‘killer’s Point of View’ shot we see how Peeping Tom has also gone on to influence later Horror films. This chapter includes analysis of camera technique and elements of the original script. We look at the film in relation to film theory, especially feminist film theory which has developed in relation to the act of looking and the role of the ‘male gaze’ in Horror films.

All Het Up!: Rescuing Heterosexuality on the Oprah Winfrey Show

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Epstein ◽  
Deborah Lynn Steinberg
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Heterosexual Relationships ◽  
Oprah Winfrey ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Order ◽  
Selection Of

The Oprah Winfrey Show provides an interesting set of contradictions. On the one hand, it appears to challenge common-sense assumptions about relationships, specifically heterosexual relationships (for example, by consistently raising issues of sexual violence within a heterosexual context). Yet, at the same time, Oprah's presentation often works to reinforce precisely the norms she seeks to challenge. Through a close analysis of a selection of programme clips from one particular programme among many about relationships, sexuality and families, this article will consider the ways in which the Oprah Winfrey Show both problematizes and yet normalizes the boundaries of heterosexuality. Here we shall discuss both the resolute exposure and exploration of what could be termed the casualities of normative (and compulsory) heterosexuality and, paradoxically, its recuperation as a ‘rational’ ideal. In exploring the ways in which this recuperation takes place, we shall begin with a brief consideration of two of the key discourses which shape the show: the discourse of therapy and that of kinship. Our analysis of the sexual politics of the Oprah Winfrey Show in these terms will focus on the programme, ‘How to Make Love Last’ (18 January 1993). Like so many other programmes, ‘How to Make Love Last’ intends to highlight and deal with problems within heterosexual relationships as distressing but solvable (through the medium of therapeutic self-help). At another level, however, the programme also (unwittingly) reveals a different order of problems which, ironically, can only be reinforced by the mode of rescue proposed and staged.

scholarly journals Interstices and impurities in the cinema

2013 ◽  
pp. 6-24
Author(s):  
Angela Dalle Vacche
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Medium Specificity ◽  
Perpetual Motion ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Aspect

Through a close analysis of Alain Resnais’s Mon Oncle d’Amerique (1980), Angela Dalle Vacche argues that the French filmmaker interrogates the “humanity” of humans through art, science, and religion in the light of Andre Bazin’s film theory. On the scientific side, Resnais’s film clarifies Bazin’s modified Darwinian scheme about the history of the cinema. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, for Bazin and Resnais, the cinema is an illusionistic perpetual motion machine that aligns projection with a pseudo-resurrection of those who were in front of the camera. Finally, in contrast to all the arts and media that precede and follow the cinema, the references to interwoven textiles in Mon Oncle d’Amerique validate Bazin’s claim that cinema is not characterised by medium specificity.

scholarly journals “In the Name of Love”

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
Matty Hemming
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Queer Of Color Critique ◽  
Queer Of Color ◽  
Black Queer ◽  
The Erotic

This essay explores Black queer feminist readings of the sexual politics of James Baldwin’s Another Country. Recent work at the intersection of queer of color critique and Black feminism allows us to newly appreciate Baldwin’s prescient theorization of the workings of racialized and gendered power within the erotic. Previous interpretations of Another Country have focused on what is perceived as a liberal idealization of white gay male intimacy. I argue that this approach requires a selective reading of the novel that occludes its more complex portrayal of a web of racially fraught, power-stricken, and often violent sexual relationships. When we de-prioritize white gay male eroticism and pursue analyses of a broader range of erotic scenes, a different vision of Baldwin’s sexual imaginary emerges. I argue that far from idealizing, Another Country presents sex within a racist, homophobic, and sexist world to be a messy terrain of pleasure, pain, and political urgency. An unsettling vision, to be sure, but one that, if we as readers are to seek more equitable erotic imaginaries, must be reckoned with.

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