The excess of mystery and ‘meaning’ in Twin Peaks: Season 3 (2017) reflects the post-truth ontological dissonance of information overload, tantalising the thirst for answers that dominates digital ...

ABSTRACT This research is a creative exploration of transmedia’s ability to offer up a model of distribution and audience engagement for political documentary. Transmedia, as is well known, is a fluid concept. It is not restricted to the activities of the entertainment industry and its principles also reverberate in the practice of political and activist documentary projects. This practice-led research

Since 2020, Netflix has emphasised the diversity of representation the platform provides through its content. Following the publication of its diversity report, the streamer positions itself as a d...

ABSTRACT This paper examines the political effects of the representation of historical paintings in film. It contends that the inclusion of this ‘older’ form, painting, and of the world associated with its popularity brings a mythological past to bear on contemporary philosophical and political issues in a novel and complex manner. Using the formal qualities of film, like montage and close-up, film

Netflix’s status as a personalised service has been central to its business proposition and brand. However, recent changes to include community-based metrics within the user interface – such as the...

In the introduction to his recent collection Filmed Thought, Robert B. Pippin offers in passing a broad definition of philosophy as “the non-empirical exploration of meaning and value” (2020, p. 5). This definition captures well the spirit of Hans Maes and Katrien Schaurbroeck’s edited collection, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight: A Philosophical Exploration, which forms part of the Routledge

One of the most important Hegel scholars of his generation, Robert Pippin has taken a very interesting late-career turn into the philosophy of film, with Filmed Thought: Cinema as Reflective Form being one of a string of works that Pippin has authored on the subject in recent years. While the majority of Pippin’s film books address the philosophical mode of expression found in genres, most notably

Nico Baumbach’s Cinema/Politics/Philosophy presents a systematic reinterpretation and reevaluation of three contemporary European philosophers’ work on cinema: Jacques Rancière, Alain Badiou, and Giorgio Agamben. Several features separate Baumbach’s work from similar studies of these figures. First, Baumbach pairs his interpretations of each of these philosophers’ engagement with cinema with a particular

Groundhog Day (GD) (1993), directed by Harold Ramis and Only Lovers Left Alive (Lovers) (2013), directed by Jim Jarmusch, are fantasy films that use the device of practical immortality in order to raise important philosophical questions about what constitutes a good life and to explore the nature of romantic love. GD provides fairly conventional answers about how to live a good life by focusing on

How could power “exercise its highest prerogatives by putting people to death, when its main role was to ensure, sustain, and multiply life?” (Foucault, 1976/1978, p. 138). In the first volume of The History of Sexuality (1976) Michel Foucault raises this question only to immediately answer: “One had the right to kill those who represented a kind of biological danger to others” (1978, p. 138). According

David Lynch’s early drawings of heads are characteristically unusual; looking at them does not replicate the feeling of looking in a mirror, of registering recognisable features. A cursory glance provides little, if anything, you might consider your own. The heads are clearly human, but their features are distorted (see S. Huijts, 2019, pp. 44–7). In one, a skull looks cracked and halved like the ground

The linking together that occurs when we reason … is not a linking of names but of the things that are signified by the names, and I am surprised that the opposite view should occur to anyone. Who doubts that a Frenchman and a German can reason about the same things, despite the fact that the words that they think of are completely different? And surely the philosopher refutes his own position when

Throughout the 20th century, Western society increasingly substituted the absolute for the particular, certainty for relativism, and religious and metaphysical dogmas for a widespread philosophical scepticism. In a progressively industrial and mechanical society, human existence is no longer primarily explained through the postulation of an “unmoved mover”. Not God but the individual carries the sovereign

This article discusses Michel Serres's topological thinking and his approach to space and time from a film studies perspective, specifically looking at connections between Serresian philosophy and the work of Christopher Nolan, using Dunkirk (2017) as an example of folded time. The article provides a selective overview of Serres's topological thinking, which opposes a geometrical approach to space

For Naomi Kawase, cinema’s ability to preserve time also makes it a medium that can capture memory, making the film itself a material form of preserved memory.1 As the director herself once stated in an interview: When I discovered cinema, I learned to record and film with the camera; I feel that it is a medium that can preserve time. This capacity of preserving time is what fascinates me most about

Small Axe, a series of five films, has brought innovation and prestige to TV drama not only for its overdue history of Caribbean migrant experiences in post-war Britain but also for its transformat...

ABSTRACT Joan of Arc has inspired many works of art. The iconographical discourse of this artistic tradition is twofold: she is portrayed either as the homeland’s saviour or as a religious virgin. The cinematic adaptations by Carl Th. Dreyer and Robert Bresson – respectively La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (Dreyer, 1928) and Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (Bresson, 1962) – demonstrate, however, that the latter

ABSTRACT This article aims to examine Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy’s Ballet mécanique (1924), focusing on its response to technological modernity. Firstly, it assesses the film’s ‘Purist’ leanings, and especially the notion that it provides moments of reprieve from the perceptual shock that typifies modern urban life. Following this, it provides a close examination of the relationship between the

ABSTRACT Disney’s Moana (2016) portrays a village leader’s daughter who leaves her home island and sails across the open ocean to undo a curse spreading across Polynesia in response to a Promethean blunder by the demigod Maui. The film’s popular reception focuses on its representation of Polynesian culture, often placing an emphasis on the corporate history and practices of the Walt Disney Company

This article analyses how three South Korean multicultural-themed reality television programmes discursively produce Koreanness. We ground our study in scholarship on ‘othering’ and the notion of b...

ABSTRACT Osmosis (Netflix, 2019) is only the second French television series to be commissioned by Netflix. Set in a near-future Paris and dramatising the final beta-testing and launch of a revolutionary dating application, the programme has frequently been compared to Black Mirror (Channel 4 Television Corporation/Netflix, 2011–19). This article argues that the parallel is unhelpful since Osmosis

ABSTRACT This essay argues that by deploying the mind-game tropes of body swap and time travel, the Japanese animated film Your Name poses questions of time, memory, and mediation that must be considered in light of the 2011 national disaster. To take up these questions, I juxtapose three lines of interrogation that situate the film at varying timescales. The first analyzes the film’s use of myth to

For this final issue in the year of the BBC’s centenary, the Book Reviews section has commissioned a special ‘article’. In this issue, we wanted to publish a number of short reviews by critics and academics of their favourite books about the BBC. We asked some authors, writing from different places and at different stages in their careers, to choose and write about a favourite book about the BBC. We

This issue marks the final of our special volume commemorating the centenary of the BBC. It takes as its theme the ‘BBC in the World’, drawing on one of the institution’s five public purposes as laid out in its charter: ‘to reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world’ (BBC, 2022). From an early stage in the BBC’s development, it has understood itself in global terms: by defining

This provocation gives an overview of the BBC in India in terms of television news. It discusses the BBC's sensibilities in relation to the interests and perceptions of Indian audiences through two methods: one, a review of available secondary literature; and two, brief conversations with media professionals who have previously or currently work with the BBC in India. It briefly comments on the conflicting

ABSTRACT Scholars of French cinema have paid little attention to early non-fiction films, particularly those shot in colonised spaces. Yet cameramen sponsored by major French cinema companies appeared in North Africa in the last years of the nineteenth century and south of the Sahara as early as 1906, eager to record images of newly conquered lands. This essay examines the first French films shot in

In the context of constantly changing media communication and the behavior of different actors engaging it, our paper seeks to map current transformations and adaptations to changes within Czech au...

Although the dominant narrative among Africans is that Western media portray Africa in a one-sided and negative way, this belief is being challenged as a result of the intervention of the BBC’s Afr...

This article examines the CBC/Netflix co-production Anne with an E (2017–19), a leading example of cross-platform co-production whose legacy is disrupted by the drama’s unexpected cancellation. Theories of cultural and media imperialism are discussed to contextualise this circumstance, along with an overview of the Canadian media policy context. The relationship between the CBC’s public service model

This essay examines how society and culture constructs differing responses to memory and remembrance in producing documentary series that look back at the American War in Indochina. Drawing upon studies of memory, nostalgia, and remembrance, the primary focus is on the recent documentary series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, The Vietnam War. That series can be seen as a remembrance rather than

This article outlines and examines the role comedy and entertainment have played at the BBC in constructing a sense of national identity both in the UK and overseas. It demonstrates the ways in which UK national identities are intertwined with ideas of a sense of humour, and the extent to which this is a performative act. Beginning with a historical approach, the article shows how the BBC, over time

ABSTRACT Subscription video-on-demand services have been increasingly moving away from licencing content to producing their own content. The ‘original’ label is applied to different types of productions for which streaming platforms own exclusive rights, usually worldwide and for specific periods. This has also been part of Netflix’s global strategy to attract new and existing subscribers. Research

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, film scholarship has experienced a renewed interest in the theory of André Bazin. This French film critic is most commonly quoted regarding the ontological basis of realism, prompting some highly varied – and sometimes unexpected – readings of his most renowned essay, ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’. Of course, it is no mere accident that he chose this ontological

ABSTRACT This article explores the ontological subversiveness of psychedelic sequences in Ken Russell’s Altered States (1980). Exposing the viewer to a mode of experiencing the world that radically deviates from his/her standard mode of experiencing, these sequences call into question the foundations of the viewer’s ‘folk ontology’. Distinguishing between two levels of subversion, the article’s first

Published in Studies in Documentary Film (Ahead of Print, 2022)

Published in New Review of Film and Television Studies (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Studies in Documentary Film (Ahead of Print, 2022)

ABSTRACT This article examines the potential of the art-installation as a space for experiential and sensory mediation of non-fiction film. Using the installation Commensal (2017) by Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor as a case study, I discuss the contribution of contemporary art to discourses on spectatorship and audience experience in non-fiction film. Taking Commensal as a starting point

Published in New Review of Film and Television Studies (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

The article examines formal innovation, authorship and representation within Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s television series Fleabag (2016–2019). Through close examination of the developed use of direct address within the programme, in particular two key moments of trans-diegetic address, the analysis considers how, contrary to ontological assumptions, the adaptation of the theatrical ‘aside’, when converted

ABSTRACT TV mini-series and international hit Normal People (2020) introduced the character of Connell Waldron to the world. Connell’s character was not only well-received but he also created a following of his own. From his clothes, to his looks, to his character, Connell became an obsession for many. An analysis of the character of Connell with regard to the portrayal of his masculinity is presented

Abstract At first glance, the Netflix series Stranger Things places itself within the category of monstrous feminine narratives by introducing preteen Eleven as the series’ human monster. The show pits her against literal monsters which, like adolescents, exist in a physically transformative and liminal space. However, while the series initially appears to reinforce the stereotype of young females

ABSTRACT The twenty-first century TV landscape is dominated by high-gloss quality dramas, experimental single-camera comedies, and auteur dramedies. These shows use nihilism and irony to signify their inclusion in the newest pantheon of sociopolitical relevance: Woke TV. A textual analysis of One Day at a Time (Netflix/Pop, 2017–2020) and The Baby-Sitters Club (Netflix, 2020–), however, challenges

Abstract The article studies Dante’s Commedia and its influence on American televisual culture. In addition to exploring how the poem has shaped the audience’s perception of the afterlife, it observes how the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) interweaves, appropriates, and adapts the medieval text into its series arc. Throughout its production, Buffy the Vampire Slayer received

Published in Journal of Popular Film and Television (Vol. 50, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Journal of Popular Film and Television (Vol. 50, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Journal of Popular Film and Television (Vol. 50, No. 2, 2022)

Published in New Review of Film and Television Studies (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

Published in French Screen Studies (Vol. 22, No. 2-3, 2022)

ABSTRACT This article analyses Michèle Morgan’s rapid rise to stardom between 1937 and 1939 through the prism of her media coverage and her reception in popular magazines and their readers’ letters. From a perspective combining cultural history with star and gender studies, the article is based on an analysis of three specialised film magazines (Cinémonde, Ciné-Miroir, Pour Vous) while exploring the

RÉSUMÉ Michèle Morgan, après un exil de six ans à Hollywood pendant la guerre, retrouve la faveur du public français en 1946 avec le film de Jean Delannoy, La Symphonie pastorale et devient la star féminine n°1 en France pendant une décennie. En tête au box-office et couverte de récompenses, en couple à la ville avec Henri Vidal et associée à l’écran aux stars masculines les plus populaires, Jean Marais

ABSTRACT Both on and off screen, the Michèle Morgan–Henri Vidal star couple was a pair of opposites. Morgan personified an ethereal femininity on screen, but she chose as her partner the most athletic and virile actor in France, and they became one of the most glamorous French couples of the time. The quintessence of ‘quality’ cinema, Morgan accumulated successes, while Vidal was often consigned to

RÉSUMÉ Au milieu des années 1950, lors de ses premiers films en couleurs, Michèle Morgan, alors au sommet de sa carrière, doit confronter sa « cinégénie » à la couleur et adapter ses personnages à son âge réel, 35 ans. Les trois films qu’elle tourne alors, Obsession de Jean Delannoy, Les Grandes manœuvres de René Clair et Marguerite de la nuit de Claude Autant-Lara, apportent des réponses convergentes

ABSTRACT Michèle Morgan starred twice alongside Bourvil, in 1958 in Le Miroir à deux faces (André Cayatte) and in 1960 in Fortunat (Alex Joffé). These films present the pairing of Morgan and Bourvil as an anomaly, casting them as a mismatched couple who could only have come together under exceptional circumstances. The contrast between the two characters, and between the two stars, provides the main

ABSTRACT This article examines Michèle Morgan’s films of the 1960s, the last phase in her long career, and one hitherto ignored by film history, largely on account of the dearth of auteur films in the star’s late filmography. Morgan’s 1960s films are explored against three contexts: the impact of the New Wave on popular cinema (in particular the arrival of youth culture); the changing social context

ABSTRACT Through three archival case studies, this article explores problematic aspects of Stanley Kubrick’s relations of production and the power underlying his role as a film producer by the 1960s and 1970s. The case studies explore Kubrick’s practices in the casting of women, his attitude toward trade union regulation and labor relations, and his interactions with politicians in the UK in the 1970s

ABSTRACT The encounter between the cinema image, originally created to be seen on a large screen, and the mobile phone used as screening device, stands as one of the most striking instances of what Erkki Huhtamo calls the ‘Gulliverisation’ of our contemporary environments: “a two-directional optical-cultural ‘mechanism’” that works “against the idea of a common anthropomorphic scale”. In what follows

This article discusses the important role the BBC played in advancing the careers of ABC women in the post-war era. Adopting an integrated, transnational approach, it revisualises the British broadcasting empire from a dominion perspective, a gendered perspective. This research follows ABC television producers as they undertook transformative, transnational excursions and recognises the necessary mobility

This study explores the transformation of production spaces from empty sound stages to standing sets, drawing on the findings from fieldwork involving 14 key players; studio owners and managers, screenwriters and art directors. The sets containing standing decors of hospital rooms, police stations, jails and courtrooms, transformed from abandoned factories, warehouses and administrative buildings in

This article explores historical representations of Liverpool in two television dramas: ITV’s Cilla (2014) and the BBC’s Boys from the Blackstuff (1982). It is concerned with the ways that television drama can both record and recreate places from the past. Focussing on two dramas set in Liverpool at formative moments in the city’s past, it considers the centrality of an evocation of place and specifically