“There is a certain thrill inherent in a scholarly anthology that wholly embraces those films usually deemed disreputable, disgusting, cheap, and perhaps even anti-intellectual. . . . A satisfyingly subversive addition to film studies and cultural studies. . . .” - Adam Dodd, <i>M/C Reviews</i>

“One of the most intriguing essayists in the book is Kay Dickinson, on how music figured in Britain’s banning of five Italian films from videotape distribution.” - <b>Nina C. Ayoub</b>, <i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i>

“Personally, I found the book’s first section, ‘Sleazy Historyies,’ to be the most compelling . . . . The book’s second section, ‘Sleazy Afterlives,’ contains some top-notch retrospective analyses of marginal films.” - <b>Mikita Brottman</b>, <i>PopMatters</i>

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“<i>Sleaze Artists</i> constitutes an honest attempt to trip the cultural rift. There's a becoming undercurrent of humility to most of the essays, which suggests that even the brightest minds in cultural studies are still refining their approach to what is generally a back-breaking endeavor—elevating the low into the rarefied (and suffocating) air of academic contemplation.” - Adam Nayman, <i>Cineaste</i>

“<i>Sleaze Artists</i> represents an articulate, accessible, and thoughtful adventure into the world of cinematic bad taste and low culture. . . . <i>Sleaze Artists</i> provides us with clear, thoughtful discussion about some great sleazy movies.” - Parley Ann Boswell, <i>Journal of American Cultures</i>

“<i>Sleaze Artists</i> is an excellent collection, which covers a wide range of topics important to the understanding of sleaze cinema, and is a great addition to both cinema and cultural studies.” - Lyndall Clipstone, <i>Media International Australia</i>

“Aztec blood sacrifices! Knife-wielding psychos!! Libido-crazed military men!!! Martin Heidegger!!!! With verve and vigor, <i>Sleaze Artists</i> offers this . . . and more! The book boldly rips the lid off the wacky world of sleaze movies with subversive delight and intellectual insight!! Don’t go into this volume alone!—unless you are ready for sharp scholarship, rigorous historiography, careful argument, and a deep commitment to an understanding of cinema in all its richness across a variety of taste cultures!!”—Dana Polan, Cinema Studies, New York University

“<i>Sleaze Artists</i> constitutes an honest attempt to trip the cultural rift. There's a becoming undercurrent of humility to most of the essays, which suggests that even the brightest minds in cultural studies are still refining their approach to what is generally a back-breaking endeavor—elevating the low into the rarefied (and suffocating) air of academic contemplation.”

- Adam Nayman, Cineaste

“<i>Sleaze Artists</i> is an excellent collection, which covers a wide range of topics important to the understanding of sleaze cinema, and is a great addition to both cinema and cultural studies.”

- Lyndall Clipstone, Media International Australia

“<i>Sleaze Artists</i> represents an articulate, accessible, and thoughtful adventure into the world of cinematic bad taste and low culture. . . . <i>Sleaze Artists</i> provides us with clear, thoughtful discussion about some great sleazy movies.”

- Parley Ann Boswell, Journal of American Culture

“One of the most intriguing essayists in the book is Kay Dickinson, on how music figured in Britain’s banning of five Italian films from videotape distribution.”

- Nina C. Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education

“Personally, I found the book’s first section, ‘Sleazy Historyies,’ to be the most compelling . . . . The book’s second section, ‘Sleazy Afterlives,’ contains some top-notch retrospective analyses of marginal films.”

- Mikita Brottman, PopMatters

Bad Girls Go to Hell. Cannibal Holocaust. Eve and the Handyman. Examining film culture’s ongoing fascination with the low, bad, and sleazy faces of cinema, Sleaze Artists brings together film scholars with a shared interest in the questions posed by disreputable movies and suspect cinema. They explore the ineffable quality of “sleaze” in relation to a range of issues, including the production realities of low-budget exploitation pictures and the ever-shifting terrain of reception and taste.Writing about horror, exploitation, and sexploitation films, the contributors delve into topics ranging from the place of the “Aztec horror film” in debates about Mexican national identity to a cycle of 1960s films exploring homosexual desire in the military. One contributor charts the distribution saga of Mario Bava’s 1972 film Lisa and the Devil through the highs and lows of art cinema, fringe television, grindhouse circuits, and connoisseur DVD markets. Another offers a new perspective on the work of Doris Wishman, the New York housewife turned sexploitation director of the 1960s who has become a cult figure in bad-cinema circles over the past decade. Other contributors analyze the relation between image and sound in sexploitation films and Italian horror movies, the advertising strategies adopted by sexploitation producers during the early 1960s, the relationship between art and trash in Todd Haynes’s oeuvre, and the ways that the Friday the 13th series complicates the distinction between “trash” and “legitimate” cinema. The volume closes with an essay on why cinephiles love to hate the movies.Contributors. Harry M. Benshoff, Kay Dickinson, Chris Fujiwara, Colin Gunckel, Joan Hawkins, Kevin Heffernan, Matt Hills, Chuck Kleinhans, Tania Modleski, Eric Schaefer, Jeffrey Sconce, Greg Taylor
Les mer
Continuing film lovers' ongoing conversation about the low, the bad, and the sleazy face of cinema, this book examines the ineffable quality of "sleaze" in relation to a range of issues, including the production realities of low-budget exploitation pictures and the ever-shifting terrain of reception and taste.
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Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Part 1: Sleazy Histories Pandering to the “Goon Trade”: Framing the Sexploitation Audience through Advertising / Eric Schaefer 19 Women’s Cinema as Counterphobic Cinema: Doris Wishman as the Last Auteur / Tania Modleski 47 Representing (Repressed) Homosexuality in the Pre-Stonewall Hollywood Homo-Military Film / Harry M. Benshoff 71 Pornography and Documentary: Narrating the Alibi / Chuck Kleinhans 96 El signo de la muerte and the Birth of a Genre: Origins and Anatomy of the Aztec Horror Film 121 Art House or House of Exorcism? The Changing Distribution and Reception Contexts of Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil / Kevin Heffernan 144 Part 2: Sleazy Afterlives Troubling Synthesis: The Horrific Sights and Incompatible Sounds of Video Nasties / Kay Dickinson 167 The Sleazy Pedigree of Todd Haynes / Joan Hawkins 189 Para-Paracinema: The Friday the 13th Film Series as Other to Trash and Legitimate Film Cultures / Matt Hills 219 Boredom, Spasmo, and the Italian System / Chris Fujiwara 240 Pure Quidditas or Geek Chic? Cultism as Discernment / Greg Taylor 259 Movies: A Century of Failure / Jeffrey Sconce 273 Selected Bibliography 311 Contributors 321 Index 325
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The impact that non-mainstream and middlebrow film genres have had on popular culture--including sexploitation, horror, cult, XXX, and indie films.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780822339533
Publisert
2007-10-24
Utgiver
Vendor
Duke University Press
Vekt
640 gr
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

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Om bidragsyterne

Jeffrey Sconce is Associate Professor in the Screen Cultures Program at Northwestern University. He is the author of Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television, also published by Duke University Press.