Violence in Extreme Cinema and the Ethics of Spectatorship (original) (raw)
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'The Dialectics of Cruelty: Rethinking Artaudian Cinema', in Cinema Journal 55:3 (2016), pp.65-89.
Antonin Artaud’s concept of a theater of cruelty and his scarce writings on cinema have profoundly infl uenced fi lm scholarship, especially in view of the large number of contemporary European fi lms that employ images of extreme violence and utilize an aesthetics of visual unpleasure. But is the politics of the Artaudian aesthetic to be reduced to the reproduction of gory images of revolting violence? This article explores the politics of Artaudian cinema by going back to Artaud’s writings on the medium and comparing them to Brecht’s writings on fi lm. The focus of this article is twofold: the fi rst part goes back to Artaud’s writings and investigates the politics of the cinema of cruelty, while the second uses as case studies Jonas Mekas’s The Brig (1964) and Costas Zapas’s The Rebellion of Red Maria (2011). The fi rst fi lm is a screen adaptation of a performance renowned for reconciling the theater of cruelty with a political context, while the second is a contemporary paradigm of a fi lm that draws on the Artaudian and Brechtian traditions with a view to responding to the political concerns of the present.
Violence and Mediation: The Ethics of Spectatorship in the Twenty-First Century Horror Film (2013)
Violence and the Limits of Representation, ed. by Graham Matthews and Sam Goodman, 2013
This chapter examines the ways in which horror film has become preoccupied with the part it plays within representational systems of violence. Firstly, it analyses the significance of post-millennial horror cinema in the context of new digital cultures and considers the implications of its development in relation to the increasing presence of violence in the media, particularly after 9/11. Secondly, it proposes that a number of contemporary horror films foreground the pejorative consequences of the mediated consumption of violence and thus problematise spectators’ ethical responsibilities. The chapter presents three illustrative case studies, FeardotCom (2002), The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), and Untraceable (2008), and focuses on the contradictory viewing experiences these films propose, one of self-reflexive exploration through uneasy spectatorial complicity.
The Voyeur Effect: Pleasure and Violence in Film and Fiction
Netaji Nagar Journal of English Literature and Language, 2014
The postmodern, poststructuralist world did away with the idea of one incontrovertible truth almost five decades ago, effectively breaking down moral and sociocultural binaries. In the post-Derridean age, critical and cultural theories have devoted primary attention to exploring the historically 'other-ed' and gendered subliminal spaces and bringing to the forefront these murky subcultures of repressed otherness. In the recent years, steady efforts have been made to integrate and institutionalise these countercultures into the mainstream through various art forms. Certain efforts and the results are undoubtedly praiseworthy, especially the sociopolitical movements for gender and queer rights. However, in this context, the issue, or rather the non-issue, of cultural sanction to glamourised criminality and eroticised representations of violence has become a disturbingly widespread and deeply ingrained motif in popular media. In this paper, my goal is to examine this conjunction between eroticism, pleasure and violence with special reference to the fictions of Mario Vargas Llosa (The Bad Girl and The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto), film adaptations of the Hannibal Lecter series, The Girl with the Dragon
Scratching the Surface: For a reappraisal of Violence in Contemporary French Cinema
The Palgrave Handbook of Violence in Film and Media, 2022
Introduction: Understanding the Violent Image When Julia Ducournau's film Raw premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016, paramedics were called to the theater to respond to reports of fainting, nausea, and malaise among some viewers during the screening. "Cannibal horror film too Raw for viewers as paramedics are called" 1 and "Moviegoers fall ill while watching cannibalism film, Raw" 2 are just a couple of the headlines that appeared in the press at that time. The reason invoked for this urgent reaction was the film's realistic representation of cannibalism, with its numerous close-ups of human flesh being cut, bitten, or mutilated. Adam Gabbat, in his review of the film, deemed it "a blood and guts offering" (Gabbat 2016, para. 2). Notwithstanding their provocative and catchy phrasing, these reviews constitute a good starting point for the analysis of cinematic violence I seek to chart out in this essay. Indeed, the choice of words brings to light two essential aspects of the violent image this analysis hinges upon, namely the excess that characterizes the representation of extreme acts of violence, and the immediacy that defines the viewer's relationship to such representations. My intention is to bring about a renewed understanding of film violence that enables us to move past the initial shock of perception to analyze the mechanisms at work in the relationship that is established between the viewer
Corporeal violence in art house cinema Cannes 2009
Taking 2009 Cannes Film Festival as a case study this article explores the narrative limits and possibilities of a global movement in art-house cinema: the portrayal of extreme corporeal violence – a movement that ranges from new French extreme to Asian extreme cinema. This study, on the one hand, explores how films that display extreme bodily violence as an eruptive force seek memorability in the competitive art-house film market. On the other hand, it suggests that on the eve of the 2009 global financial crisis, showing corporeal affect alludes to the disposability of bodies under a neoliberal economy obsessed with efficiency and adaptability.
Aesthetization of violence and contemporary cinema: death meets sensuality
Ghrebh, 2012
This article discusses the aesthetization of violence in the contemporary scene and its reflection in cinema. Analyzing some similarities and differences on the way violence is shown in movies such as 300 (USA, 2006), Kill Bill (USA, 2003), Lady Vengeance (Korea, 2005) and Sin City (USA, 2005) , it studies the implications of media and its social mediations on the processes of violence aesthetization. It is important to stress that the term “aesthetization” is not used with a negative connotation, as something related to “falsehood”– as opposed to what would supposedly be “real”. Considering that representation is, by its own definition, that which is different from “reality”, the article treats “realism” as something utterly dependent on “interpretation contracts”. From this perspective, aesthetization does not corrupt reality, not even “objective” reference to reality. What it does corrupt, or at least transform, are specific socio-cultural “contracts” based on the “reliability” of certain modes of representation. The “contract ” under which movies such as 300 are watched, for instance, are based much more on sensibility than on credibility. Violence, in 300, Kill Bill and Lady Vengeance, is valued by its aesthetic qualities– the vividness of the blood spilling on white snow, the texture of flesh freshly cut, the rhythm of falling bodies. And, through aesthetization, violence is made somewhat erotic, a blend that take us back to Bataille and the intimate connection he proposes between death and sensuality.
Ars Aeterna Vol.8/ No.1, 2016
The article discusses Nicolas Winding Refn’s film Only God Forgives (2013), and focuses on questions of artistic representation and reception in relation to such cinematic elements as genre film, style, mise-en-scène, graphic violence and art experience. The arguments for the analyses are supported by John Dewey’s theory of art as experience where he claims that aesthetic experience is essentially infused with emotions that provide for a unifying quality cementing diverse constituent parts of the artwork. The article also takes into consideration Refn’s standpoint on the use of violence in art. While violence is a way of externalizing emotions, as Refn claims, it may not necessarily be the real experience viewers want to entertain; however, through an art experience, which is integral and complete as Dewey asserts, they are able to perceive and detect meanings that were “scattered and weakened in the material of other experiences”.
Aesthetics and Ethics of Cinema
An Interdisciplinary study on the Influence of Theatre and Theology in Cinema, 2024
Westerns build tension through stand-offs and duels, while Battleship Potemkin creates tension through the escalating conflict between the sailors and their oppressors, leading to moments of intense drama and emotional impact. While Battleship Potemkin and spaghetti Westerns differ greatly in their settings and political contexts, both genres depict a struggle between good and evil, with heroic figures standing up against manichaean oppressive forces. Beyond such representations, the hierarchy of tragedy resisted the attacks of affirmative action. It was Thomas De Quincey, with his short essay "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth," who opened my understanding to the third ethical narrative: compassion for the wicked, the damned, and the criminals. The writings of Joseph Campbell reinforced my understanding of the ethical value of the myth. While the comic hero suffers mockery and ridicule without remedy because we understand they are inadequate, the mythical hero confronts such mockery and ridicule with hope, as they deeply understand that their societies are the inadequate ones. Socrates, Jesus, and Saint Joan are submissive mythical characters for reasons that highlight them as figures of peaceful resistance against injustice and oppression. Socrates accepted his fate with dignity and wisdom, despite the injustice of his condemnation. Accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and impiety, instead of fleeing or rebelling, he chose to defend his principles to the end. Socrates understood that his mission was to question and challenge the norms and beliefs of his society to seek truth and justice. His submission was not passive acceptance but a form of intellectual and moral resistance that inspired future generations. Jesus, for his part, confronted mockery and ridicule with hope and faith in his divine mission. Throughout his life, he preached a message of love, compassion, and justice in a society that often rejected and ridiculed him. Despite facing persecution, torture, and finally crucifixion, he accepted his fate with serenity, convinced that his sacrifice had a greater purpose. His submission to divine will and his willingness to suffer for humanity gained him universal recognition as The Messiah. Saint Joan of Arc is another example of a submissive mythical hero who faced mockery and persecution with courage and unwavering faith. Though a young peasant girl, she firmly believed that God had entrusted her with the mission of liberating France from English occupation during the Hundred Years' War. Despite the mockery, betrayal, and ultimately the trial and execution for heresy, Joan remained faithful to her vision and convictions. Her submission was not surrender but a demonstration of her commitment to her faith and country. Socrates, Jesus, and Saint Joan faced injustice, mockery, and ridicule not with violent rebellion but with dignified acceptance and unwavering commitment to their principles and missions. These heroes deeply understood that their societies were wrong, and through their submission and sacrifice, they sought to transform and redeem the world around them. Their hope and peaceful resistance make them eternal figures of inspiration and ethical example. Cinema is the crown of the arts, for it gathers them all, as Wagner once dreamed of. Any film is the result of 16,000 years of dramatic writing, so we, as filmmakers, stand on the shoulders of giants, as George Bernard Shaw used to say. In this book, I unmask the revengeful ethical discourse of many action films, but also of many so-called "auteur cinema" films that, under the populist facade of communism, socialism, progressivism, or any other "ism," seek to demonize "the other," now called "the middle reactionary class," in the same way that the Spanish Inquisition and the National Socialists demonized the Jews.