Category Archives: popular

Key texts of paracinema

Key texts of paracinema: Hard Core (1989) – Linda Williams – Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992) – Carol J. Clover – The Monstrous-Feminine – Barbara Creed (1993) – Trashing the Academy (1995) – Jeffrey Sconce – Sleaze Mania (1999) – Joan Hawkins – Cutting Edge (2000) – Joan Hawkins – Porn Studies (2004) – Linda Williams

 

Paracinema is an academic term to refer to a wide variety of film genres out of the mainstream, bearing the same relationship to ‘legitimate’ film as paraliterature like comic books and pulp fiction bears to literature.

The term was coined in the early seventies by Ken Jacobs to denote countercultural and underground films of the sixties but re-coined in 1995 by Jeffrey Sconce, an American media scholar, to denote ‘an extremely elastic textual category’ which includes entries from seemingly disparate genres of the non-mainstream fuelled by oppositional taste strategies (see The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste (2003)). Major theorists of the 1990s and 2000s paracinematic variety include Linda Williams, Joan Hawkins, Carol J. Clover and Barbara Creed (1993). [Aug 2006]

Off topic: Yesterday was my brother’s birthday party; of the music he played I especially enjoyed a recent album by British psych folk singer Vashti Bunyan and French singer Benjamin Biolay’s 2003 album Négatif.

When the paratext is more interesting than the text

Exploitation Poster Art (2005) – Dave Kehr, Tony Nourmand, Graham Marsh [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Horror Poster Art (2004) – Tony Nourmand, Graham Marsh [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Science Fiction Poster Art (2004) – Christopher Frayling, Tony Nourmand, Graham Marsh [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

In Europe, publisher Taschen have teamed up with Nourmand/Marsh, to publish a series of film poster books. Available in Belgium at a price of 13 Euros, they are a bargain. Some of the accompanying text of these lovingly produced coffee table books was written by American film critic Dave Kehr (Exploitation poster art) and British art historian Christopher Frayling (Science-fiction poster art). The posters are masterpieces of visual innuendo, offering, in most cases, far more that the films actually delivered. And that is what I meant in my title about the paratext being more interesting than the text.

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) – Rowland V. Lee [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]


In the 2006 film, V for Vendetta, characters V and Evey Hammond watch the 1934 version of The Count of Monte Cristo based a story by Alexandre Dumas which was serialized in the Journal des Débats in eighteen parts. Publication ran from August 28, 1844 through January, 1846. V cites it as his favorite film. [Aug 2006]

Useful violence?

Just saw V for Vendetta.


It seemed as if nobody smoked cigarettes in the film, but this review says otherwise.

I enjoyed the film a lot. It reminded me of Complicity (1993) by Iain Banks.

The most memorable line was “Violence can be used for good” uttered by master kriminal V. It struck me in its Dutch translation “Geweld kan ook zinvol zijn.” Currently Flemish media are full of news on zinloos geweld (gratuitous violence). So I am always wondering about its opposite: zinvol geweld (necessary or useful violence). V says violence can be good for justice.

Most memorable songs are Cry me a river and Street Fighting Man.

Rating: psychological realism 3/10, cult value 6/10, feelgood factor 9/10

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Features Tchaikovsky’s piece the 1812 Overture.

For full analyses of the film see K-punk and Steven Shaviro.