Tuesday 24 September 2013

New CINEPHILE 8.2 on Contemporary Extremism

Screenshot from 올드보이/Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
What happens to the specificity of the films of the new European extremism and their self-conscious address to the spectator when the category of extremism is opened up, and takes on global dimensions? To what extent is it useful or important to retain this label of a “new extremism” in cinema across these disparate contexts? And how do we account for the many-faceted contexts in which this idea of extreme cinema manifests itself? [Tanya Horeck and Tina Kendall, 'The New Extremisms: Rethinking Extreme Cinema', CINEPHILE 8.2, 2012 - clicking on this link downloads a large PDF]

Film Studies For Free has just found that the latest issue of one of its favourite journals has just gone online: a special issue on Contemporary Extremism of the Canadian film journal CINEPHILE (8.2, 2012). Here is a link to the archive where you can find the issue. The extremely excellent contents are listed below.

Preface: 'The New Extremisms: Rethinking Extreme Cinema' by Tanya Horeck and Tina Kendall

Articles
  • 'Rites of Passing: Conceptual Nihilism in Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s Des filles en noir' by Tim Palmer
  • 'Subject Slaughter' by Kiva Reardon
  • 'Sacrificing the Real: Early 20th Century Theatrics and the New Extremism in Cinema' by Andrea Butler
  • 'Cinematography and Sensorial Assault in Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible' by Timothy Nicodem
  • 'Infecting Images: The Aesthetics of Movement in Rammbock' by Peter Schuck
  • 'The Quiet Revulsion: Québécois New Extremism in 7 Days' by Dave Alexander
Report
  • 'Extreme Vancouver' by Chelsea Birks and Dana Keller
LARGE PDF of whole issue

Monday 16 September 2013

FILMICON: The New Journal That Will Launch a Thousand (Plus) Greek Film Studies


Film Studies For Free is delighted to announce the launch of Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies. A peer-reviewed, open access and cross-cultural project, its mission (excerpted from, below) is a refreshing, important and timely one, indeed.

The lively and original contents of its first issue are also linked to below. FSSF would particularly like to flag up Olga Kourelou's brilliantly useful English-language bibliography on Greek Cinema (2010-13), which contains links to numerous online and open access items of further interest, and Deb Verhoeven's excellent study of the Greek film circuit in Australia

FSFF wishes Filmicon the very best of luck: Καλὴ τύχη! 

Screen shot of Filmicon's mission


Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies, Issue 1, September 2013 

EDITORIAL: Creating an Open-Access, Cross-cultural Home for Greek Film Studies


ARTICLES
BOOK REVIEWS

FILM REVIEWS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LOLA: Issue 4 on "Walks"; Tourneur, Hitchcock, De Palma, Pacino and much more

Screen shot from Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma, 1993). Read Adrian Martin's essay on this film in the new issue of LOLA .
Film Studies For Free is thrilled to hear that a new rolling issue of LOLA has launched. Issue 4 treats the very cinematic topic of 'Walks' and contains some items (Victor Bruno on lighting effects in Out of the Past, a fine translation of an Alain Bergala essay on Vertigo and Obsession, and several further excellent pieces on De Palma) that will very much repay a speedy stroll over there to check them out.

Over the coming weeks, LOLA will go on to present further articles on Kira Muratova, Frank Tashlin, the Cinema of Compassion, CinemaScope, The Grandmaster, and much more! Those enticing contents will slowly be added to the already delightful ones linked to below.

Monday 2 September 2013

Cult Controversies! New CINE-EXCESS eJournal launches

Updated with further contents (September 6, 2013)!
Screenshot from The Last House on the Left (Dennis Iliadis, 2009). Read Claire Henry's article about this remake of Wes Craven's 1972 film here.
Film Studies For Free is scandalously excited to announce the publication of the new peer-reviewed eJournal Cine-Excess. Like the long-running conference and festival, directed by cult film scholar Xavier Mendik, to which it is related, the Cine-Excess journal brings together leading film critics and theorists "alongside international film directors and icons to discuss debates and traditions of global cult film activity".

The special launch issue of the Cine-Excess eJournal is entitled Subverting the Senses, Circumventing Limits and is edited by Mikita Brottman and John Mercer. It is described as follows:
[Issue 1] focuses on the theme of the controversial cult image in its political, historical and aesthetic contexts. With the resurgence of critical interest in the 1980s ‘video nasties’, as well as whole new generation of films being subject to official state control, the cult image is now becoming a crucial index between the censor and the censored. In order to explore the phenomenon fully, contributions to the launch issue considers a range of controversial cult case-studies,  with the creators of these unsettling images commenting directly on these critical interpretations.
The contents for the Subverting the Senses, Circumventing Limits are listed below and you can also read the abstracts of these papers here. There is a lot more of interest going on at the Cine-Excess website, though, so do be sure to take a good look around.