Genre Trouble and Extreme Cinema: Film Theory at the Fringes of Contemporary Art Cinema

Description

This volume re-evaluates theories of genre and spectatorship in light of a critic-defined tendency in recent art cinema, coined ‘extreme cinema’. In Genre Trouble and Extreme Cinema, Bordun argues that the films of Mexican director Carlos Reygadas and French director Catherine Breillat expand generic classifications. Bordun contends that their films make it apparent that genre is not established prior to the viewing of a work but is recollected and assembled by spectators in ways that matter for them in both personal and experiential terms. The author deploys contemporary film theories on the senses, both phenomenological and affect theory, and partakes in close readings of the films’ forms and narratives. The book thus adds to the present literature on extreme cinema and film theory, yet sets itself apart by fully deploying genre theory alongside the methodological and stylistic approaches of Stanley Cavell, Vivian Sobchack, Laura U. Marks, and Eugenie Brinkema. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction: Genre Trouble and Extreme Cinema (Troy Bordun)....Pages 1-28 Carlos Reygadas, the Avant-Garde, and the Senses (Troy Bordun)....Pages 29-65 !Que Viva México!: Reygadas as Documentarian (Troy Bordun)....Pages 67-98 I Don’t Know It When I See It: Catherine Breillat’s Pornography (Troy Bordun)....Pages 99-122 Horrible Pornography: Fat Girl (À Ma Soeur!, 2001) (Troy Bordun)....Pages 123-163 On-Screen and Off-Screen Flesh and Blood: Performance, Pornography, Spectatorship (Troy Bordun)....Pages 165-198 Reframing Spectatorship Theory with Extreme Cinema (Troy Bordun)....Pages 199-215 Conclusion: Know Genre, No Trouble (Troy Bordun)....Pages 217-229 Back Matter ....Pages 231-244