B Is for Bad Cinema

Aesthetics, Politics, and Cultural Value

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Edited by Claire Perkins and Constantine Verevis

Type

Studies

Subject

General

Keywords

badfilms, aesthetics

Publishing date

2015

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Collection

SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema

1st publishing

2014

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 274 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ½ inches (16 x 24 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4384-4996-8

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Book Presentation:
Considers films that lurk on the boundaries of acceptability in taste, style, and politics.

B Is for Bad Cinema continues and extends, but does not limit itself to, the trends in film scholarship that have made cult and exploitation films and other "low" genres increasingly acceptable objects for critical analysis. Springing from discussions of taste and value in film, these original essays mark out the broad contours of "bad"—that is, aesthetically, morally, or commercially disreputable—cinema. While some of the essays share a kinship with recent discussions of B movies and cult films, they do not describe a single aesthetic category or represent a single methodology or critical agenda, but variously approach bad cinema in terms of aesthetics, politics, and cultural value. The volume covers a range of issues, from the aesthetic and industrial mechanics of low-budget production through the terrain of audience responses and cinematic affect, and on to the broader moral and ethical implications of the material. As a result, B Is for Bad Cinema takes an interest in a variety of film examples—overblown Hollywood blockbusters, faux pornographic works, and European art house films—to consider those that lurk on the boundaries of acceptability.

About the authors:
Claire Perkins is Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is the author of American Smart Cinema and the coeditor (with Verevis) of Film Trilogies: New Critical Approaches. Constantine Verevis is Associate Professor in Film and Television Studies at Monash University. His previous books include Australian Film Theory and Criticism, Volume 1: Critical Positions (coauthored with Noel King and Deane Williams); Second Takes: Critical Approaches to the Film Sequel (coedited with Carolyn Jess-Cooke), also published by SUNY Press; and Film Remakes.

See the publisher website: State University of New York Press