(2021). Roland-François Lack (1960–2021). French Screen Studies. Ahead of Print.

ABSTRACT Expanding upon Faure’s and Epstein’s writings on the plasticity of the cinematic image, this article updates this concept for the post-cinematic image of the internet era via an analysis of Olivier Assayas’s Demonlover (2002). In doing this, it connects plasticity to Deleuze’s work on the cinema and his assertion that ‘the brain is the screen’. Rather than a continuation of the optimistic

This article discusses online media’s contribution to the youthification of television through the case study of DRUCK (tr. Pressure, 2018–), the German format adaptation of SKAM (tr. Shame, 2015–17). Youthification is understood as the television industry’s attempts to reach and win back teen and tween viewers with strategies in production, representations, aesthetics and distribution. In DRUCK, online

ABSTRACT Previous scholarship focusing on Chris Marker’s involvement with social movements tends to overlook the inextricability of social and environmental concerns and to position the 1980s as a return for Marker to personal filmmaking. This article seeks to recontextualise Marker’s work from Japan during this period to reveal the continuity of earlier preoccupations with social movements and planetary

This article investigates how Turkish audiences conceptualize authenticity in their engagement with foreign television (TV) productions in the case of Danish TV dramas. The theoretical notion of authenticity is juxtaposed with empirical material from fieldwork interactions, focus group interviews, and one-on-one interviews conducted with Turkish audiences between 2016 and 2018. By employing a semiotic

Interviews with industry workers and decision-makers are a critical method in television studies. Yet, one group of informants proves particularly hard to access – representatives from global media platforms. Why is it so hard to get interviews with global platform representatives, and what does the lack of access do to our research and scholarly debate?

TV formats provide an excellent lens to study the transnationalisation of television, but actual format production has rarely been examined. This article discusses three interrelated limitations of current format scholarship: (1) a gap between industrial and textual studies; (2) a selective focus on localisation; and (3) a lack of insight into daily practices of format production. Using the Flemish

This article explores the tension that lies in the construction of resilience, which is at once, hopeful and inspiring and yet also in danger of positioning the individual as responsible for the lack of welfare and support that is available. In articulating these contradictory readings, I treat The Handmaid’s Tale as a ‘site where the meaning of feminism(s) is produced and contested’ (Ferreday and

The European audiovisual market has unique contextual characteristics that constrain the sustainability and development of audiovisual content. Among other shifts, the rise of global subscription video-on-demand players like Netflix have been reshaping this market. Although Netflix has been investing in Europe, little is known about their actual investment strategies. This study’s goal is to analyse

This article argues that while reliant on Latinx stereotypes in character construction, Breaking Bad (2008–2013) ultimately uses them to problematise American racial categories and conquest mythology. Comparing stereotyped Latinx criminals to the main white character, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who claims difference, reveals that they share traits. In its use of Latinx stereotypes to transfer focus

Video-on-demand (VOD) interfaces have become a ubiquitous feature of contemporary screen culture. But despite their prevalence and the significant amount of time we spend in these liminal spaces, these interfaces are – within the field of TV studies at least – relatively under-theorised and rarely the subject of focused critical interrogation. Indeed, it has been noted that there are simply ‘no established

After D.N. Rodowick, Ronald Bogue, Paola Marrati, David Deamer, David Martin-Jones and Pierre Montebello, it might have been imagined that there was no need for a further monograph on Gilles Deleuze's Cinema books. Deleuze, Cinema and the Thought of the World proves any such supposition wrong. Indeed, it forced me to think and rethink at every turn.

In her introduction to Contemporary Cinema and the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch, Lucy Bolton begins her dialogue with the philosopher through one precious and impressive resource: an unearthed essay written by Murdoch on the art of the cinema, resurrected from the British Vogue archive, first published in 1956. This act in itself is emblematic of Bolton's tenacity as a researcher whose investment in

In this intricately argued and elegantly written book, Michelle Devereaux offers an inventive, original take on American independent film, arguing that works by Wes Anderson, Charlie Kaufman, Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze exemplify “neoromanticism”. Drawing on Romantic philosophy and literature, as well as contemporary film theory, Devereaux engages in sophisticated analyses of seven films, namely

If film-philosophy often discovers fresh and forgotten films, filmmakers, philosophers, and theories, it is just as important that it re-explores what has been written about many times before. And of course, these things are not mutually exclusive, as Barry Nevin shows with Cracking Gilles Deleuze's Crystal: Narrative Space-time in the Films of Jean Renoir. There are dozens of books on Renoir, and

During his near half-century of sporadic output (nine feature films and one documentary), Terrence Malick has provoked both awe and ridicule. His early films Badlands (USA, 1973) and Days of Heaven (USA, 1978) sit comfortably in the New Hollywood canon and, following his prodigal return to filmmaking following a two-decade absence, both The Thin Red Line (USA, 1998) and The Tree of Life (USA, 2011)

When cinema visualises memory, it introduces a key problem in the effect its depictions can have on public understanding of the reliability of recollection. Science fiction films, for example, often position memories as discrete and bounded audio-visual instances that can be isolated and extracted from the brain, from Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997) to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel

The recent engagement with eco-criticism typically foregrounds art cinema's thoughtful exploration of temporality (Ivakhiv, 2013; Macdonald, 2013). Yet, narrative, when discussed, is considered to adversely effect film's environmental awareness-raising capability (Ingram, 2000; Macdonald, 2013; Willoquet-Maricondi, 2010). To what extent can narrative progressively raise environmental-consciousness

Mind-game and puzzle films bring together elements of video games with complex storytelling, weaving together narratives that rely on unreliable narrators, spatiotemporal discontinuities, time loops, and characters with fractured identities in order to generate a puzzle for the viewer to solve. These elements have a long history in art house and avant-garde films, but mind-game films and puzzle films

“Like a camera, the silent patient sees, hears, records, and retains everything, but does not respond verbally.”– Subak, West, & Carlin (1982, p. 335)

I only reserve to myself the private opinion that no love affair should last more than six months at most, and that every relationship is over as soon as one has tasted the final enjoyment. – Johannes, one of Søren Kierkegaard's pseudonyms (Either/Or, 1843/2004, p. 306)

“Indeed, does all life that emerges and goes its separate way remain contained in an accompanying breath?” Peter Sloterdijk (1998/2011, p. 19)

ABSTRACT The ground-breaking director Céline Sciamma observes that her films are often obsessed with the circulation of objects. This article analyses the forms this circulation takes across Sciamma’s first four films (Naissance des pieuvres, Tomboy, Bande de filles and Portrait de la jeune fille en feu), as well as the significance of the objects themselves. Building on insights offered by scholars

(2021). Innovating the frame: Kathryn Bigelow in close-up. New Review of Film and Television Studies: Vol. 19, Kathryn Bigelow: A Visionary Director, pp. 249-255.

ABSTRACT The work of Kathryn Bigelow is often discussed in terms of her technical and stylistic achievements. Relatively little has been written about her characterisation, perhaps because her protagonists tend to be less than sympathetic – enigmatic to the point of illegibility and driven in ways which can be hard to fathom. In this article, I will argue that what Bigelow’s protagonists have in common

ABSTRACT Kathryn Bigelow prioritises spatial relationships in narratives featuring groups of men in high-pressure, threatening situations. Bigelow foregrounds the inner, individual experiences of characters within ensembles and institutions, ‘the lonely walk’ affording a useful way to visualise the action of isolated characters in danger. Bigelow’s use of spatial relationships to convey the inner lives

ABSTRACT This article expands on the condemnatory Leni Riefenstahl/Kathryn Bigelow association made by Naomi Wolf in 2013, through a consideration of aesthetics, landscapes and ecology, and potential parallels between Bigelow‘s work and Riefenstahl‘s earlier ‘Mountain Films’ period. Bigelow reaches for a feminised, New Age mysticism through which her characters are momentarily lifted out of their mundane

ABSTRACT Zero Dark Thirty depicts its female protagonist as a leading strategic character in the fictionalised account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Yet, as this study argues, she is paradoxically framed in terms of her capacity to disrupt the status quo. Kathryn Bigelow’s Maya (Jessica Chastain) is often marginalised by the male-dominated culture within which she works. This is a recurrent theme

ABSTRACT This article argues that Kathryn Bigelow is an auteur of new action realism, a distinct sub-genre within contemporary action cinema. Bigelow’s films entail unresolved narratives and an aesthetic characterised by claustrophobic immediacy and obscuration. Through discussion of theory, genre, narrative and style in The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, I argue that Bigelow problematises notions

ABSTRACT Scholarship on Kathryn Bigelow contends that auteurist thinking struggles to accommodate her eclectic career. Though her work displays recurring characteristics, contradictions are also evident that mean she is challenging to situate theoretically. In addition, an ironic component to the discourse about Bigelow is that disproportionate focus on her appearance serves to bolster her position

ABSTRACT The critical and popular reception of Bigelow’s work has long pivoted on her gaze: what constitutes the ‘Bigelow look’?; how is it distinctive, unsettling, or otherwise surprising? This curiosity, frequently centred on her command of action and violence, is key also to her unusually heightened visibility as a woman filmmaker who can claim membership of what Deborah M. Sims terms the ‘celebrity

(2021). New blood in contemporary cinema: women directors and the poetics of horror. New Review of Film and Television Studies: Vol. 19, Kathryn Bigelow: A Visionary Director, pp. 383-386.

(2021). Music in action film: sounds like action! New Review of Film and Television Studies: Vol. 19, Kathryn Bigelow: A Visionary Director, pp. 386-390.

(2021). Martial culture, silver screen: war movies and the construction of American identity. New Review of Film and Television Studies: Vol. 19, Kathryn Bigelow: A Visionary Director, pp. 390-394.

(2021). Documentary in Wales: cultures and practices. Studies in Documentary Film. Ahead of Print.

ABSTRACT Amid technological convergence and the proliferation of new digital distribution methods, at-home fitness devices and fitness media have entered the cultural mainstream. However, fitness media companies like Peloton, Mirror, and Tonal, as quasi-television producers and distributors, have yet to be contextualized within critical media and cultural studies. Leveraging press coverage, interface

Arts & Humanities Research CouncilAH/N009487/1Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge

There is a curious sequence towards the end of the first episode of Babylon Berlin (Sky1, Das Erste, 2017– ), when Detective Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) exits his office at the Police Headquarters, Rote Burg, Alexanderplatz.11 On the street, the low chatter of pedestrians and thrum of traffic reflect Berlin’s vibrant nightlife. Employing film noir’s iconography, street lamps partially illuminate the

One of the key factors behind the critical and commercial success of Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–19) has been the ability of show runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss to popularize the alternative secondary fantasy world in which the show’s narrative takes place. Adapted from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice novels, Game of Thrones sits alongside other franchises such as Star Wars (1977–

‘Whatever your ancestry results, don’t get too attached to them. They could change.’11 Is it possible to feel genetic attachment? A number of television programmes suggest that DNA is central to a core sense of self. Long Lost Family (in the USA) and television commercials for Ancestry.com advance the idea that genes are key to identity and affiliative feeling. In the process they mobilize what I call

Rachel Berryman is a PhD student in Internet Studies at Curtin University, Perth, studying virtual influencers and their role in the visual social media landscape. An independent scholar, Rachel has presented conference papers internationally, and has co-authored, with Misha Kavka, research on intimacy, affect and celebrity on YouTube for the Journal of Gender Studies and Convergence. She previously

On a late afternoon in May, the crew rushed to get the last shot of the day done before the sun set.11 The shabby square in the popular neighbourhood of La Kalsa, Palermo, had been filled with props and cordoned off by the production team, assigned to keep the gathered onlookers away from the set. The scene being recorded is a flashback, set in the early 1980s, depicting a slaughter committed by future

TimBergfelderEricaCarterDenizGöktürkandClaudiaSandberg, The German Cinema Book: Second Edition. London: British Film Institute, 2020, 624pp.

On a cold, remote island, a huge colony of chinstrap penguins makes its home at the foot of an active volcano. As seen on television in Planet Earth II (BBC, 2016), the dramatic scenery appears treacherous and intimidating, but every day chinstrap parents must venture out into the surrounding water to gather food for their young. From over a million of these penguins, the television camera eventually

TomRice, Films for the Colonies: Cinema and the Preservation of the British Empire. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019, 343 pp.

Significant advancements to the production, speed and affordability of genomic sequencing technologies over the past two decades have engendered a booming industry of direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT). Originating with mail-order testing services in the late 1990s, this industry has evolved into an expansive digital enterprise valued at more than US$1 billion.11 Customers can purchase DTC-GT

YamamotoNaoki, Dialectics without Synthesis: Japanese Film Theory and Realism in a Global Frame. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2020, 248 pp.

AllysonNadia Field and MarshaGordon (eds),Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019, 430 pp.

‘Some money miss road guy.I doubt if I alone can drain hs wallet.need help urgently.’ So reads a text that Damisa sends to ask six of her college friends to come and join her on her date. A close-up of her BlackBerry fills the screen as we watch her cherry-red painted nails tap out the message and hit send. She continues to text for a minute, laughing now and then, before her bored date chides her

This article examines the discourses of streaming success within the television industry by focusing on Netflix and two of the service’s original series: Fauda and La Casa de Papel. Using publicly available secondary data through 2019, this analysis argues the transnational platform’s efforts to redefine successful television while maintaining a high level of data secrecy necessitate the discursive

Abstract: The influx of European émigré filmmakers into the US film industry during the mid-1930s led to an exilic critique in Hollywood films. This study analyzes Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936) to explore the relationships between exile and trauma, engaging with issues of displacement, memory, the victim/perpetrator duality, and the loss of “home.”

Abstract: This article analyzes the Cuban television production of police series between 1969 and 1981. It shows the relationship between the series, the cultural policy of the Cuban Revolution, and the primarily educational role of television after the 1959 revolutionary triumph. These series have been produced and developed, until today, under the strict supervision of MININT (Ministerio del Interior

ABSTRACT: This article explores the representation of the White Hunter as an archetypal figure across different periods and genres in Hollywood, mapping the legacy of this colonial icon in James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). In its redefinition of the safari film genre, Avatar embeds colonial tropes of wild Africa in an alien fantasy world of simulations, where the “eco-romantic” postcolonial production

Abstract: Black Mirror (2011–current), an anthology science-fiction television series, portrays how digital technologies reflect and shape our dreams and nightmares about the current media environment. The ways in which Black Mirror depicts the world where digital devices are strongly tied to human consciousness and bodies can be elaborated by focusing on three keywords: algorithmic intimacy, prosthetic

(2021). THE PROXIMITY OF OTHER SKINS: ETHICAL INTIMACY IN GLOBAL CINEMA By Celine Parreñas Shimizu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. 264 pp. $39.95 paper. Journal of Popular Film and Television: Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 119-120.

(2021). AMERICAN BLOCKBUSTER: MOVIES, TECHNOLOGY, AND WONDER By Charles R. Acland. Duke University Press, 2020. 400 pp. $29.95 paper. Journal of Popular Film and Television: Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 120-120.

(2021). EXPLORING STAR TREK: VOYAGER: CRITICAL ESSAYS Ed. Robert L. Lively. McFarland, 2020. 278 pp. $39.95 paper. Journal of Popular Film and Television: Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 121-122.

(2021). HOLLYWOOD AT THE RACES: FILM’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE TURF. By Alan Shuback. UP of Kentucky, 2019. 278pp. $34.36 softcover. Journal of Popular Film and Television: Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 122-123.

(2021). YOU’RE NICKED: INVESTIGATING BRITISH TELEVISION POLICE SERIES. By Ben Lamb. Manchester UP, 2020. 232 pp. $120 hardcover. Journal of Popular Film and Television: Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 124-124.

(2021). THE BIONIC WOMAN AND FEMINIST ETHICS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE 1970s TELEVISION SERIES By David Greven. McFarland, 2020. 178 pp. $39.95 softcover. Journal of Popular Film and Television: Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 125-126.