124 research outputs found
Conference report: 'The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh and the Giallo: An International Film Conference, Rome, 7-9 June'
No full textBeyond the pleasure principle: exploring the limits of a pervasive term
No full textThis article aims to discuss pleasure as a way of understanding film. I do not seek to judge the correctness, political or otherwise, of certain pleasures, or to offer any overarching theory of pleasure. Instead I investigate what film scholars talk about when we talk about pleasure. Understanding pleasure more as an attitude to film spectatorship rather than an object in and of itself, I consider the importance not solely of the rational pursuit of prima facie pleasures but also of more enigmatic emotional needs relating to intimacy, pain and the confirmation of shared values. Separating cinematic pleasure from any necessary association with positivity, I caution against the potential for pleasure to be instrumentalized as part of a neo-liberal ethic of happiness. <br/
Spaghetti Westerns at the Crossroads: Studies in Relocation, Transition and Appropriation: Book Review
No full textSpaghetti Westerns at the Crossroads: Studies in Relocation, Transition andAppropriation, edited by Austin Fisher, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2016, 304pp., £70 (hardback), ISBN 978074869545
Early film theories in Italy 1896–1922
No full textEarly film theories in Italy 1896–1922, edited by Francesco Casetti with Silvio Alovisio and Luca Mazzei, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2017, 512pp., notes. bibliography, US$74.95 (paperback), ISBN 97890896455
Can there be a progressive nostalgia? Layering time in pride's retro-heritage
No full textPride is notable for its dynamic treatment of time, which is key both to its appeal as a film and to its presentation of the processes of political change. By combining nostalgia, retro, and heritage, Pride manifests an artistic practice I refer to as temporal layering, which draws attention to how any single moment implies potential relationships with numerous interacting others. I use this notion to understand both the role that the 1984-5 miners' strike assumes in cultural revisions of the 1980s, and the kind of cinematic past that Pride presents. This past can be understood as a development in the heritage genre appropriate to reimagining modern British history, especially that of the 1980s, that could be called retro-heritage. By paying attention to the varied temporal layers thus present in Pride, a new perspective is offered on how nostalgia's presumed conservatism sits alongside the 'left-wing melancholy' (Traverso, 2017) that has dominated in the era of defeats since the 1980s. My ultimate aim is to ask what potential nostalgia may have when envisaging a different future.</p
Stars and masculinities in contemporary Italian cinema, by Catherine O’Rawe, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, 2014, 230 pp., £60, ISBN 978-1-137-38147-7
No full text
Book review of Francesco Pitassio, Neorealist Film Culture 1945-1954: Rome, Open Cinema
No full textBook review of Francesco Pitassio, Neorealist Film Culture 1945-1954: Rome, Open Cinema
Italy on screen: national identity and Italian imaginary
No full textItaly on screen: national identity and Italian imaginary, edited by Lucy Bolton and Christina Siggers Manson, Oxford, Peter Lang, 2010, 217pp., £34 (pbk). ISBN 978-303911416
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