Elena Vanden Abeele investigates the functions, symbols and hidden meanings behind the parsol in the 19th century.
by Erica Tortolani and Martin Norden Silent-era film director Paul Leni was at the forefront of German filmmakers whose stylistically daring and narratively innovative productions garnered international acclaim and who found themselves heavily recruited by Hollywood studios during the 1920s.…
By Sharon Jane Mee and Bill Hunt [Content Note: This post contains shots from films depicting blood and gore] One of the things that became apparent to me as I was writing my book, The Pulse in Cinema: The Aesthetics…
by Patricia Pisters Watching horror movies Previously, I truly disliked horror films. In the late 1980s Brian de Palma’s Carrie (1976) was shown on television. I did not want to see it, but my friends and sister convinced me that…
Confusing films Watching narrative films can be one of the most engrossing aesthetic experiences possible. It can also be completely alienating – there are few things more boring than a boring film! But some films can be both engrossing and…
In the final part of this five-part series on African American film, Geetha Ramanathan discusses 2017 hit “Get Out” alongside Kathleen Collins’s “The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy” to consider different ways race relations are portrayed on screen. Click here…
In part four of this five-part series, Geetha Ramanathan uses two examples to consider how African American films of the 1970s and 1980s explored America’s relationship with race. Click here to read part one of the series. Over the course of African…
In part three of this five-part series, Geetha Ramanathan explores the use of American mythology and folklore in two African American films. Click here to read part one of the series. The great mythology of the US is written on…
In part two of this five-part series, Geetha Ramanathan considers the use of the “ancestral archive” to discuss gender models and sexuality in African American films. Click here to read part one of this series. Artists from the US, the…
In this five-part series, Geetha Ramanathan, author of Kathleen Collins: The Black Essai Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), explores over a century of African American films and what they tell us about African American history both on and off screen.…