Cinema of Simulation: Hyperreal Hollywood in the Long 1990s

Cinema of Simulation: Hyperreal Hollywood in the Long 1990s PDF Author: Randy Laist
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501320033
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Hyperreality is an Alice-in-Wonderland dimension where copies have no originals, simulation is more real than reality, and living dreams undermine the barriers between imagination and objective experience. The most prominent philosopher of the hyperreal, Jean Baudrillard, formulated his concept of hyperreality throughout the 1980s, but it was not until the 1990s that the end of the Cold War, along with the proliferation of new reality-bending technologies, made hyperreality seem to come true. In the ?lost decade? between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, the nature of reality itself became a source of uncertainty, a psychic condition that has been recognizably recorded by that seismograph of American consciousness, Hollywood cinema. The auteur cinema of the 1970s aimed for gritty realism, and the most prominent feature of Reagan-era cinema was its fantastic unrealism. Clinton-era cinema, however, is characterized by a prevailing mood of hyperrealism, communicated in various ways by such benchmark films as JFK, Pulp Fiction, and The Matrix. The hyperreal cinema of the 1990s conceives of the movie screen as neither a window on a preexisting social reality (realism), nor as a wormhole into a fantastic dream-dimension (escapism), but as an arena in which images and reality exchange masks, blend into one another, and challenge the philosophical premises which differentiate them from one another. Cinema of Simulation: Hyperreal Hollywood in the Long 1990s provides a guided tour through the anxieties and fantasies, reciprocally social and cinematic, which characterize the surreal territory of the hyperreal.

Cinema of Simulation: Hyperreal Hollywood in the Long 1990s

Cinema of Simulation: Hyperreal Hollywood in the Long 1990s PDF Author: Randy Laist
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1628920815
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Get Book Here

Book Description
Hyperreality is an Alice-in-Wonderland dimension where copies have no originals, simulation is more real than reality, and living dreams undermine the barriers between imagination and objective experience. The most prominent philosopher of the hyperreal, Jean Baudrillard, formulated his concept of hyperreality throughout the 1980s, but it was not until the 1990s that the end of the Cold War, along with the proliferation of new reality-bending technologies, made hyperreality seem to come true. In the “lost decade” between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, the nature of reality itself became a source of uncertainty, a psychic condition that has been recognizably recorded by that seismograph of American consciousness, Hollywood cinema. The auteur cinema of the 1970s aimed for gritty realism, and the most prominent feature of Reagan-era cinema was its fantastic unrealism. Clinton-era cinema, however, is characterized by a prevailing mood of hyperrealism, communicated in various ways by such benchmark films as JFK, Pulp Fiction, and The Matrix. The hyperreal cinema of the 1990s conceives of the movie screen as neither a window on a preexisting social reality (realism), nor as a wormhole into a fantastic dream-dimension (escapism), but as an arena in which images and reality exchange masks, blend into one another, and challenge the philosophical premises which differentiate them from one another. Cinema of Simulation: Hyperreal Hollywood in the Long 1990s provides a guided tour through the anxieties and fantasies, reciprocally social and cinematic, which characterize the surreal territory of the hyperreal.

The Jurassic Park Book

The Jurassic Park Book PDF Author: Matthew Melia
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501384856
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The definitive 1990s blockbuster, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park met with almost universal critical and popular acclaim, broke new ground with its CGI recreation of dinosaurs, and started one of the most profitable of all movie franchises. To mark the film's 30th anniversary, this exciting illustrated collection of new essays interrogates the Jurassic Park phenomenon from a diverse range of critical, historical, and theoretical angles. The primary focus is on Jurassic Park itself but there is also discussion of the franchise and its numerous spin-offs. As well as leading international scholars of film studies and history, contributors include experts in special effects, science on screen, fan studies, and palaeontology. Comprehensive, up to date, and accessible, The Jurassic Park Book appeals not only to students and scholars of Hollywood and contemporary culture, but also to the global audience of fans of the greatest of all dinosaur movies.

What's Eating You?

What's Eating You? PDF Author: Cynthia J. Miller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501322389
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Explores the horrific side of consumption, as it is portrayed in film and television—from what (and whom) we eat to food that “bites back.”

Screening American Nostalgia

Screening American Nostalgia PDF Author: Susan Flynn
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 147664246X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
This book examines American screen culture and its power to create and sustain values. Looking specifically at the ways in which nostalgia colors the visions of American life, essays explore contemporary American ideology as it is created and sustained by the screen. Nostalgia is omnipresent, selling a version of America that arguably never existed. Current socio-cultural challenges are played out onscreen and placed within the historical milieu through a nostalgic lens which is tempered by contemporary conservatism. Essays reveal not only the visual catalog of recognizable motifs but also how these are used to temper the uncertainty of contemporary crises. Media covered spans from 1939's Gone with the Wind, to Stranger Things, The Americans, Twin Peaks, the Fallout franchise and more.

Hermeneutics of the Film World

Hermeneutics of the Film World PDF Author: Alberto Baracco
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319654004
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
This book identifies a new methodological strategy for the interpretation of film philosophizing. Many recent works in film philosophy, adopting the approach identified with the term film as philosophy, have considered film as capable of doing philosophy. Focused on the basic relationship between film and filmgoer, the proposed method is founded on the concept of the film world. Combining Merleau-Ponty’s and Ricœur’s philosophies, and reconsidering Goodman’s theory of worldmaking, the film world becomes the hermeneutic horizon from which film philosophical thought can emerge. The book shows how Ricœurian methodology has the potential to provide a valuable resource for film studies by inviting scholars to consider film interpretation in terms of film world hermeneutics.

The '80s Resurrected

The '80s Resurrected PDF Author: Randy Laist
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476686513
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
The 1980s is remembered as a time of big hair, synthetic music, and microwave cookery. It is also remembered as the heyday of conservative politics, socioeconomic inequality, and moral panics. It is dichotomously remembered as either a nostalgic age of innocence or a regressive moral wasteland, depending on who you ask, and when. But, most of all, it is remembered. In retro fashion trends, in '80s-based film and television narratives, and through countless rebooted movies, video games, superheroes, and even political slogans imploring us to Make America Great Again (Again). More than merely a historical period, "the '80s" has grown into a contested myth, ever-evolving through the critical and expressive lens of popular culture. This book explores the many shapes the '80s mythos has taken across a diverse array of media. Essays examine television series such as Stranger Things, Cobra Kai, and POSE, films such as Dallas Buyers Club, Summer of '84, and Chocolate Babies, as well as video games, pop music, and toys. Collectively, these essays explore how representations of the 1980s influence the way we think about our past, our present, and our future.

McLuhan’s Galaxies: Science Fiction Film Aesthetics in Light of Marshall McLuhan’s Thought

McLuhan’s Galaxies: Science Fiction Film Aesthetics in Light of Marshall McLuhan’s Thought PDF Author: Artur Skweres
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030041042
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
This groundbreaking book uses observations made by Marshall McLuhan to analyze the aesthetics of science fiction films, treating them as visual metaphors or probes into the new reality dominated by electronic media: - it considers the relations between the senses and sensuality in Blade Runner, the visually-tactile character of the film, and the status of replicants as humanity’s new clothes; - it analyzes the mixture of Eastern and Western aesthetics in Star Wars, analyzing Darth Vader as a combination of the literate and the tribal mindset; - it discusses the failure of visual society presented in the Terminator and Alien franchises, the rekindling of horror vacui, tribalism, and the desire to obliterate the past as a result of the simultaneity of the acoustic space; - finally, the book discusses the Matrix trilogy and Avatar as being deeply related in terms of the growing importance of tactility, easternization, tribalization, as well as connectivity and the implosion of human civilization.

Masculinity, War and Violence

Masculinity, War and Violence PDF Author: Ann-Dorte Christensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315406403
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Addressing the relationship between masculinity, war, and violence, this book covers these themes broadly and across different disciplines. These analyses are located at different levels: public policies at the macro level; resistance and independence movements at the meso level; and masculine subjectivities, processes of mobilization, and radicalization at the micro level. The ten contributions encompass four recurring themes: violent masculinities and how contemporary societies and regimes cope with traditional violent rituals and extreme violence against women; popular written and visual fiction about war and masculine rationalities; gender relations in social movements of rebellion and national transformation; and masculinity in civil society under conditions of war and post-war. Taking into account different geographical contexts, the book emphasizes the relationship between the local and the global as well as the importance of understanding gender and masculinity in their intersectional interrelations with religion, race, ethnicity, class, and locality. This book was originally published as a special issue of NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies.

Don DeLillo after the Millennium

Don DeLillo after the Millennium PDF Author: Jacqueline A. Zubeck
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498548679
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Don DeLillo after the Millennium: Currents and Currencies examines all the author’s work published in the 21st century: The Body Artist, Cosmopolis, Falling Man, Point Omega, and Zero K, the plays Love-Lies-Bleeding and The Word for Snow, and the short stories in The Angel Esmeralda. What topic doesn’t DeLillo tackle? Cyber-capital and currency markets, ontology and intelligence, global warming and cryogenics, Don DeLillo continues to ponder the significance of present cultural currents and to anticipate the waves of the future. Performance art and ethics, drama and euthanasia, space studies and the constrictions of time, DeLillo perspicaciously reads our culture, giving voice to the rhythms of our vernacular and diction. Rich and resonant, his work is so multifaceted in its attention that it accommodates a wide variety of critical approaches while its fine and filigreed prose commends him to a poetic appreciation as well. Don DeLillo after the Millennium brings together an international cast of scholars who examine DeLillo’s work from many critical perspectives, exploring the astonishing output of an author who continues to tell our stories and show us ourselves.