Extreme cinema: the transgressive rhetoric of today's art film culture

Description

Transgression and distinction: filmmaker discourses -- The aesthetic embrace and the cynicism criticism: reception discourses -- The rhetoric and role of film festivals -- Discourses and modes of distribution -- The interpretations of regulation -- The added value of international distribution -- Sex, violence, and self-exoticization -- Aesthetic innovation and the real: academic debate over sexually graphic art films -- A discursive approach to hardcore art cinema -- Afterword.;From Shortbus to Shame and from Oldboy to Irreversible, film festival premieres regularly make international headlines for their shockingly graphic depictions of sex and violence. Extreme Cinema draws from interviews with film festival programmers, distributors, critics, and directors to demonstrate how these seemingly transgressive films actually operate within a strict set of codes and conventions, translating global notoriety into success within a competitive marketplace, and perpetuating a system that runs on provocation.