Revolution in 35mm - Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1969-1990

Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 examines how political violence and resistance was represented in arthouse and cult films from 1960 to 1990.

This historical period spans the Algerian war of independence and the early wave of post-colonial struggles that reshaped the Global South, through the collapse of Soviet Communism in the late ‘80s. It focuses on films related to the rise of protest movements by students, workers, and leftist groups, as well as broader countercultural movements, Black Power, the rise of feminism, and so on. The book also includes films that explore the splinter groups that engaged in violent, urban guerrilla struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the promise of widespread radical social transformation failed to materialize: the Weathermen, the Black Liberation Army and the Symbionese Liberation Army in the United States, the Red Army Faction in West Germany and Japan, and Italy’s Red Brigades.

Many of these movements were deeply connected with and expressed their values through art, literature, popular culture, and, of course, cinema. Twelve authors, including academics and well know film critics, deliver a diverse examination of how filmmakers around the world reacted to the political violence and resistance movements of the period and how this was expressed on screen. This includes looking at the financing, distribution, and screening of these films, audience and critical reaction, the attempted censorship or suppression of much of this work, and how directors and producers eluded these restrictions.

Including over two hundred illustrations, the book examines filmmaking movements like the French, Japanese, German, and Yugoslavian New Waves; subgenres like spaghetti westerns, Italian poliziotteschi, Blaxploitation, and mondo movies; and films that reflect the values of specific movements like feminists, Vietnam War protesters, and Black militants. The work of influential and well-known political filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Glauber Rocha is examined side by side with grindhouse cinema and lessor known titles by a host of all-but forgotten filmmakers, including many from the Global South, that are deserving of rediscovery.

List of contents

Introduction: A Cinema of Resistance on the Margins
Chapter 1: Gillo Pontecorvo’s Battle of Ideas
Outtake: Youssef Chahine and Egyptian Neo-Realism
Outtake: Ousmane Sembène and the Birth of African Cinema
Outtake: Sarah Maldoror’s Pan-African Cinema of Liberation
Outtake: Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s
Chapter 2: Ghosts and Weeds: What Is and Isn’t in Costa-Gavras’s Z
Chapter 3: “Don’t buy bread… Buy dynamite!”: Franco Solinas and the Zapata Spaghetti Westerns
Outtake: The Films of Elio Petri and Gian Maria Volonté
Chapter 4: “Are You Asking Us to Investigate or Overthrow the Government?” Political Conspiracy and Violence in Italian Poliziotteschi Cinema
Outtake: Nada (The Nada Gang, 1974), Claude Chabrol, France/Italy
Outtake: 7 días de enero (Seven Days in January, 1979), Juan Antonio Bardem, Spain
Chapter 5: The Red Army Faction: Radical Violence in West German Cinema in the 1970s
Chapter 6: Plastic Jesus in the Land of the Partisans: The Black Wave and the Subversion of the Socialist Yugoslavian National Mythos
Outtake: Diabeł (The Devil, 1972), Andrzej Żuławski, Poland
Outtake: Idi i smotri (Come and See, 1985), Elem Klimov, Soviet Union
Chapter 7: Cruel Stories of Youth: Japanese Leftist Politics from the New Wave to the Pink Film
Outtake: Di yi lei xing wei xian (Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind, 1981), Tsui Hark, Hong Kong
Chapter 8: The Reluctant Gangster in Hindi Cinema
Outtake: The Revolutionary Melodrama of Lino Brocka
Chapter 9: Two Sides of Cinema Novo: Glauber Rocha and Jose Mojica Marins
Outtake: Yawa Malku (Blood of the Condor, 1969), Jorge Sanjinés, Bolivia
Outtake: Argentina: New Cinema and Dirty War
Outtake: Latino (1985), Haskell Wexler, United States
Chapter 10: Bread and Circuses: Peter Watkins and Hunting Humans on Screen
Outtake: Revolution as a Creative Act in the Films of Lindsay Anderson
Chapter 11: The Whole World is Watching: Campus Revolt on Screen
Outtake: Ice (1970), Robert Kramer, United States
Chapter 12: Louder Than a Bomb: On The Spook Who Sat by the Door
Outtake: Occupation “Urban Guerrilla”—The Cinema of Patty Hearst
Chapter 13: America the Beautiful, America the Violent: Documenting America’s Decline in the Mondo Film
Chapter 14: Thrill-Seeking Females: The SCUM Manifesto Ideology of the ‘Girl Gang’ Rape-Revenge Film
Chapter 15: “Look Where You’re Going, Cunt”: Political Violence in Feminist Cinema of the Late Second Wave
Outtake: Maeve (1981), Pat Murphy, Northern Ireland
Outtake: On Guard (1984), Susan Lambert, Australia
Index

About the author

Andrew Nette is an author of fiction and non-fiction. He is co-editor of three previous books for PM Press, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950–1980; Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950—1980; and Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950–1985. His writing on film, books and culture has appeared in a variety of print and on-line publications. He has also contributed video and print essays and commentaries to a number of DVD/Blu-ray releases. You can find him via his website www.pulpcurry.com.
Samm Deighan is a film historian and writer and editor of several books, including of The Legacy of WWII in European Art House Cinema (2021) and a monograph on Fritz Lang’s M (2019). She's a special features producer for Vinegar Syndrome and co-hosts the Twitch of the Death Nerve podcast.

Summary

Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 examines how political violence and resistance was represented in arthouse and cult films from 1960 to 1990.

This historical period spans the Algerian war of independence and the early wave of post-colonial struggles that reshaped the Global South, through the collapse of Soviet Communism in the late ‘80s. It focuses on films related to the rise of protest movements by students, workers, and leftist groups, as well as broader countercultural movements, Black Power, the rise of feminism, and so on. The book also includes films that explore the splinter groups that engaged in violent, urban guerrilla struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as the promise of widespread radical social transformation failed to materialize: the Weathermen, the Black Liberation Army and the Symbionese Liberation Army in the United States, the Red Army Faction in West Germany and Japan, and Italy’s Red Brigades.

Many of these movements were deeply connected with and expressed their values through art, literature, popular culture, and, of course, cinema. Twelve authors, including academics and well know film critics, deliver a diverse examination of how filmmakers around the world reacted to the political violence and resistance movements of the period and how this was expressed on screen. This includes looking at the financing, distribution, and screening of these films, audience and critical reaction, the attempted censorship or suppression of much of this work, and how directors and producers eluded these restrictions.

Including over two hundred illustrations, the book examines filmmaking movements like the French, Japanese, German, and Yugoslavian New Waves; subgenres like spaghetti westerns, Italian poliziotteschi, Blaxploitation, and mondo movies; and films that reflect the values of specific movements like feminists, Vietnam War protesters, and Black militants. The work of influential and well-known political filmmakers such as Costa-Gavras, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Glauber Rocha is examined side by side with grindhouse cinema and lessor known titles by a host of all-but forgotten filmmakers, including many from the Global South, that are deserving of rediscovery.

Product details

• Assisted by: Samm Deighan (Editor), Andrew Nette (Editor)
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 17.10.2024
• EAN: 9798887440606
• ISBN: 979-8-88744-060-6
• Illustrations: 200 Illustrations, unspecified
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; PERFORMING ARTS / Film / History & Criticism, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Direction & Production