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The Cinema of Discomfort
Disquieting, Awkward and Uncomfortable Experiences in Contemporary Art and Indie Film
by Geoff King
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Book Presentation:
How do we understand types of cinema that offer experiences of discomfort, awkwardness or disquieting uncertainty? This book examines a number of examples of such work at the heart of contemporary art and indie film. While the commercial mainstream tends to offer comforting viewing experiences - or moments of discomfort that exist largely to be overcome - The Cinema of Discomfort analyses films in which discomfort is offered in a sustained manner. Cinema of this kind confronts us with material such as distinctly uncomfortable sexual encounters. It invites us into uncertain relationships with awkward and sometimes unlikable characters. It presents us with challenging behaviour or what are presented as uncomfortable realities. It often refuses information on which to base judgments. More discomfortingly, cinema of this kind tends to provoke uncertainty at the level of what emotional responses we are encouraged to have towards difficult, sometimes controversial, characters or events.
The Cinema of Discomfort examines a number of case-studies, including Palindromes by Todd Solondz (US) and Dogtooth from Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece), along with other examples from Austria, Sweden, the UK, the US and Germany. Offering close textual analysis of the manner in which discomfort is generated, it also asks how we should understand the appeal of such work to certain viewers and how the existence of films of this kind can be explained, as products of both their socio-cultural context and the more particular institutional realms of art and indie film.
About the Author:
Geoff King is Professor of Film Studies at Brunel University London, UK. He is author of numerous books, including pioneering studies of American independent and Indiewood cinemas. His most recent publications are Quality Hollywood: Markers of Distinction in Contemporary Studio Film (2016) and Positioning Art Cinema: Film and Cultural Value (2019).
See the publisher website: Bloomsbury Academic
> From the same author:
Arthouse Crime Scenes (2024)
Art Film, Genre and Crime in Contemporary World Cinema
by Geoff King
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Indie 2.0 (2014)
Change and Continuity in Contemporary American Indie Film
by Geoff King
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
American Independent Cinema (2012)
indie, indiewood and beyond
Dir. Geoff King, Claire Molloy and Yannis Tzioumakis
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
Science Fiction Cinema (2001)
From Outerspace to Cyberspace
by Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska
Subject: Genre > Science Fiction
> On a related topic:
The Talent Management of Indie Authorship (2024)
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Screening American Independent Film (2023)
Dir. Justin Wyatt and W.D. Phillips
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How Not to Make a Movie (2020)
An Independent Filmmaker in Hollywood Hell
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
Hope for Film (2020)
A Producer's Journey Across the Revolutions of Indie Film and Global Streaming
by Ted Hope and Anthony Kaufman
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
The Stillness of Solitude (2019)
Romanticism and Contemporary American Independent Film
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
Rewriting Indie Cinema (2019)
Improvisation, Psychodrama, and the Screenplay
by J. J. Murphy
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
Engaging Dialogue (2018)
Cinematic Verbalism in American Independent Cinema
Subject: Genre > Independent cinema
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