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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.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Genre Trouble and Extreme Cinema.- 2. Carlos Reygadas, the Avant-Garde, and the Senses.- 3. !Que Viva Mexico!: Reygadas as Documentarian.- 4. I Don't Know It When I See it: Catherine Breillat's Pornography.- 5. Horrible Pornography: Fat Girl (À ma soeur!, 2001).- 6. Onscreen and Off-screen Flesh and Blood: Performance, Pornography, Ethics.- 7. Reframing Spectatorship Theory with Extreme Cinema.- 8. Conclusion: Know Genre, No Trouble.
About the author
Troy Bordun is a contract instructor in Sociology and Cultural Studies at Trent University in Ontario, Canada.
Summary
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.
