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List of contents
Introduction
1. Into the Discomfort Zone
2. ‘Uncomfortably Great’: Todd Solondz and Palindromes
3. Ulrich Seidl: Far from Paradise
4. Weirdly Discomforting: Dogtooth and the Greek New Wave
5. Roy Andersson and Ruben Östlund
6. A Very British Discomfort? Joanna Hogg
7. The Comedy of Discomfort
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Geoff King is Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at Brunel University London, UK, and author of numerous books, including The Cinema of Discomfort: Disquieting, Awkward and Uncomfortable Experiences in Contemporary Art and Indie Film (Bloomsbury, 2021), Positioning Art Cinema: Film and Cultural Value (Bloomsbury, 2019) and Quality Hollywood: Markers of Distinction in Contemporary Studio Film (Bloomsbury, 2015)
Summary
How do we understand types of cinema that offer experiences of discomfort, awkwardness or disquieting uncertainty? This book examines a number of examples of such work at the heart of contemporary art and indie film. While the commercial mainstream tends to offer comforting viewing experiences – or moments of discomfort that exist largely to be overcome – The Cinema of Discomfort analyses films in which discomfort is offered in a sustained manner. Cinema of this kind confronts us with material such as distinctly uncomfortable sexual encounters. It invites us into uncertain relationships with awkward and sometimes unlikable characters. It presents us with challenging behaviour or what are presented as uncomfortable realities. It often refuses information on which to base judgments. More discomfortingly, cinema of this kind tends to provoke uncertainty at the level of what emotional responses we are encouraged to have towards difficult, sometimes controversial, characters or events.
The Cinema of Discomfort examines a number of case-studies, including Palindromes by Todd Solondz (US) and Dogtooth from Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece), along with other examples from Austria, Sweden, the UK, the US and Germany. Offering close textual analysis of the manner in which discomfort is generated, it also asks how we should understand the appeal of such work to certain viewers and how the existence of films of this kind can be explained, as products of both their socio-cultural context and the more particular institutional realms of art and indie film.
