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Transnational European Cinema
Representation, Audiences, Identity
by Huw D. Jones
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Book Presentation:
This book explores how audiences in contemporary Europe engage with films from other European countries. It draws on admissions data, surveys, and focus group discussions from across the continent to explain why viewers are attracted to particular European films, nationalities, and genres, including action-adventures, family films, animations, biopics, period dramas, thrillers, comedies, contemporary drama, and romance. It also examines how these films are financed, produced, and distributed, how they represent Europe and other Europeans, and how they affect audiences. Case-studies range from mainstream movies like Skyfall, Taken, Asterix & Obelix: God Save Britannia, and Sammy’s Adventures: A Turtle’s Tale to more middlebrow and arthouse titles, such as The Lives of Others, Volver, Coco Before Chanel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Intouchables, The Angels’ Share, Ida, The Hunt, and Blue Is the Warmest Colour. The study shows that watching European films can sometimes improve people’s understandings of other countries and make them feel more European. However, this is limited by the strong preference for Anglo-American action-adventures that offer few insights into the realities of European life. While some popular European arthouse films explore a wider range of nationalities, social issues, and historical events, these mainly appeal to urban-dwelling graduates. They can also sometimes accentuate tensions between Europeans instead of bringing them together. The book discusses what these findings mean for the European film industry, audiovisual policy, and scholarship on transnational and European cinema. It also considers how surveys, focus groups, databases and other methods that go beyond traditional textual analysis can offer new insights into our understanding of film.
About the Author:
Huw D. Jones is a Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Southampton, UK. He previously worked on ‘Mediating Cultural Encounters through European Screens’ (MeCETES), a collaborative project on the transnational production, distribution and reception of European film and television drama, funded by Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA).
Press Reviews:
"This study, based on a wealth of original research, analyses the production, circulation and reception of European films since 2005, considering their impact on broader cultural and social issues, notably the vexed question of what constitutes a European identity. Throughout, the author tests various theorisations and conceptual frameworks against the empirical evidence he has unearthed. His carefully considered interpretation will be widely welcomed as an important contribution to understanding European cinema." (Andrew Spicer, Professor of Cultural Production, University of the West of England Bristol, UK)
See the publisher website: Palgrave MacMillan
> On a related topic:
Making Worlds (2020)
Affect and Collectivity in Contemporary European Cinema
Mythopoetic Cinema (2017)
On the Ruins of European Identity
Film and Place in an Intercultural Perspective (2024)
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by Krzysztof Stachowiak, Hania Janta, Jani Kozina and Therese Sunngren-Granlund
Subject: Sociology
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