B for Bad Cinema: Colloquy from Monash

Image from Snakes on a Plane (David R. Ellis, 2006); Read Kirsten Stevens's article Snakes on a Plane and the prefabricated cult film' (pdf) from the new issue of Colloquy

It's going to continue to be a little quiet around here at Film Studies For Free as its author busies herself with finishing off a couple of video essays that will be posted here very shortly.

The essays will also form the basis of two talks to be given in the next few weeks: on March 8 at Liverpool John Moores University; and on March 17 at the University of Sussex (details to follow).

The title of both talks, as per the following abstract, is:

Quote/Unquote? The "Unattainable [Film] Text" in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Following the lead of scholars Christian Keathley, Eric Faden, Jason Mittell, Andrew Miller and Craig Cieslikowski in the summary of their conference panel on The Scholarship of Sound and Image: Producing Media Criticism in the Digital Age (MIT6, Stone and Papyrus, Storage and Transmission, April 24-26, 2009), in this talk Catherine Grant will revisit Raymond Bellour's essay on 'The Unattainable Text' (Screen, Vol 16, No 3, 1975: 19-27), as well as Laura Mulvey's more recent considerations of film 'possession', and 'pensiveness' in the digital age (Death 24x a Second (London: Reaktion, 2006). Then she will examine the issue of film quotation in audiovisual work, as well as, more generally, the possibilities offered to film studies by the rising generation of online digital-video essays about films and film theory.

To sustain FSFF's terribly loyal readers until then, here's news (via David Hudson @theauteursdaily) of a wonderful e-journal special issue entitled B for Bad Cinema. All the film-related contents are linked to below. Enjoy! It has some particularly choice items on horror cinema, as well as on David Lynch and Lars von Trier.

This usually indefatigable blog will be back properly soon. In the meantime you can continue to follow its much more succinct recommendations on Twitter courtesy of @filmstudiesff.

All articles are in pdf format. To download the whole issue as one file, click Issue 18.
Front
Contents
Editorial

B for Bad Cinema from Colloquy (Monash University), Issue 18, December 2009

• Introduction: B for Bad Cinema Julia Vassilieva and Claire Perkins

• Excremental Ecstasy, Divine Defecation and Revolting Reception: Configuring a Scatological Gaze in Trash Filmmaking Zoe Gross

• “They don’t call ’em exploitation movies for nothing!”: Joe Bob Briggs and the Critical Commentary on I Spit on Your Grave Tristan Fidler

• Erasing the B out of Bad Cinema: Remaking Identity in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Craig Frost

• “Fucking Americans”: Postmodern Nationalisms in the Contemporary Splatter Film Phoebe Fletcher

• Their Time Has Come: Bad Cinema Nerds as Late-Capitalist Paradigm Mark Steven

• Snakes on a Plane and the prefabricated cult film Kirsten Stevens

• “Bad Form”: Contemporary Cinema’s Turn to the Perverse. David Lynch: Lost Highway (1997) Lars von Trier: Breaking the Waves (1996) Hester Joyce and Scott Wilson

• The Other Side of Indonesia: New Order’s Indonesian Exploitation Cinema as Cult Films Ekky Imanjaya

• Doing It for the Kids: Rebels and Prom Queens in the Cold War Classroom Film Anika Ervin-Ward

• Family Demons: The Ghost as Domestic Inheritance Donna McRae

• B for Bad, B for Bogus and B for Bold: Rupert Kathner, The Glenrowan Affair and Ned Kelly Stephen Gaunson

• Horror-Ritual: Horror Movie Villains as Collective Representations, Uncanny Metaphors and Ritual Transgressors Mario Rodriguez

• From Kracauer to Clover: Some Reflections on Genre and Gender in 70s/80s Slasher Films Tyson Namow