A Companion to American Indie Film (eBook)

Geoff King (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2016
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-118-75801-4 (ISBN)

Infos

A Companion to American Indie Film features a comprehensive collection of newly commissioned essays that represent a state-of-the-art resource for understanding key aspects of the field of indie films produced in the United States.

• Takes a comprehensive and fresh new look at the topic of American indie film
• Features newly commissioned essays from top film experts and emerging scholars that represent the state-of-the-art reference to the indie film field
• Topics covered include: indie film culture; key historical moments and movements in indie film history; relationships between indie film and other indie media; and issues including class, gender, regional identity and stardom in in the indie field
• Includes studies of many types of indie films and film genres, along with various filmmakers and performers that have come to define the field

Geoff King is Professor of Film Studies at Brunel University London, UK. He is the author of numerous books on American film topics, including American Independent Cinema (2005), Indiewood, USA: Where Hollywood Meets Independent Cinema (2009), Indie 2.0: Change and Continuity in Contemporary American Indie Film (2014) and Quality Hollywood: Markers of Distinction in Contemporary Studio Film (2016).

Inhalt

Title Page 5
Copyright Page 6
Contents 7
Contributors 10
Acknowledgements 14
Introduction What Indie Isn’t… Mapping the Indie Field 15
Part One Indie Culture 37
Chapter 1 Indie Film as Indie Culture 39
Autonomy and Authenticity 41
Slanted and Enchanted and Indie Game 47
Conclusion 53
References 54
Chapter 2 The Making of the Indie Scene: The Cultural Production of a Field of Cultural Production 56
Fields, Scenes, and Movements 58
The Work of Culture in Fields/Scenes/Movements 60
The Cultural Production of the Field of Cultural Production 61
The Artist, the Community, and the Movement 67
Notes 69
References 70
Chapter 3 Indie as Organic: Tracing Discursive Roots 72
Roots 74
Substance 77
Handling 79
Effects 83
Discursive Roots and Rhetorical Oppositions 86
References 92
Part Two Indie and Other Media 95
Chapter 4 Quirky Culture: Tone, Sensibility, and Structure of Feeling 97
Quirky and Indie 98
Quirky, Tone, and Structure of Feeling 100
The Quirky Sensibility and “Innocence” 103
Quirky Culture: Music, Comedy, and Radio 106
Conclusion 113
Notes 116
References 117
Chapter 5 Independent Intersections: Indie Music Cultures and American Indie Cinema 120
Punk and the Beginnings of a New Independent Cinema 121
The Historical Emergence of Indie 124
The Growth of Indie 126
Into the New Millennium 131
Conclusion 138
Notes 140
References 141
Chapter 6 Post-Cinema Soderbergh 143
To Recap: Post-Cinema Soderbergh 144
The Twittering Soderbergh 146
Unglued? Glue and Short Fiction Online and Offline 149
The Soderbergh Web 153
Soderbergh TV, Round 2 159
Social Media and the Less-Small Screen 160
Notes 163
References 164
Part Three Criticism, Marketing, and Positioning Indie 167
Chapter 7 Structuring Indie and Beasts of the Southern Wild: The Role of Review Journalism 169
Evaluating Authenticity and Originality 172
Shaping a Preferred Indie Aesthetic 177
The Stakes for Writers 182
The Politics of Awarding Distinction 186
Conclusion: A Permanent Conflict 190
Note 192
References 192
Chapter 8 Marketing American Indie in the Shadow of Hollywood 195
Introduction 195
Understanding the Indie in Independent 196
Film Selection 200
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013) 203
Blue Jasmine (2013) 207
Frances Ha (2013) 211
12 Years a Slave (2013) 213
Marketing Indie 216
Notes 217
References 218
Part Four Movements/Moments 221
Chapter 9 Proto-Indie 1960s “Half-Way” Cinema 223
The Second and Third Waves of Indie Cinema 224
The Historical Establishment of the First Wave of Indie Cinema 227
Conventions and Viewing of First-Wave Indie Cinema 233
Conclusion 240
Selected Filmography of First-Wave Indie Cinema 241
Notes 242
References 243
Chapter 10 From Independent to Indie: The Independent Feature Project and the Complex Relationship between American Independent Cinema and Hollywood in the 1980s 247
Introduction. Contemporary American Independent Cinema and Institutional Infrastructure 247
The Beginnings of the IFP: Marshaling Resources 250
Layers of Independence: Navigating between Art and Commerce 255
Taking American Independent Cinema to the Next “Level” 261
Conclusion – IFP: An (Ultra-) Successful Failure? 265
Note 267
Notes 267
References 268
Chapter 11 Going Mainstream: The Indie Film Movement in 1999 271
Introduction 271
The Talented Mr. Ripley 273
The Sixth Sense and Fight Club 277
American Beauty 281
The Blair Witch Project 285
Aftermath: The Rise of Indiewood 288
References 290
Chapter 12 Looking through a Rearview Mirror: Mumblecore as Past Tense 293
Four Eyed Monsters 295
The Actor-Based Films of Andrew Bujalski 295
Word and Image: Aaron Katz’s Quiet City 298
Improvisation, Cassavetes, and Norman Mailer 299
Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg 300
Writing with Somebody’s Brain: Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland 303
Anecdotal Narrative: The Films of Frank V. Ross 305
The Ascendance of Mumblecore 307
The Decline and Death of Mumblecore 308
Conclusion 310
Notes 312
References 312
Part Five Indie as Regional 315
Chapter 13 The Pull of Place: Regional Indie Film Production 317
“Regional” Filmmaking: Historical Place in the Literature 318
What is Regional Filmmaking? 320
Increased Visibility of Regional Filmmaking 324
Rise of Regional: Tax Incentives 327
Rise of Regional: Locating Personal and Professional Networks 330
Rise of Regional: Thematic/Aesthetic Concerns 331
Conclusion 334
Note 335
References 335
Chapter 14 Rural Crimewave: Reconfiguring Regional Spaces through Genre in US Indie Cinema 339
Defining the Rural Crime Film 343
Frozen River 345
Winter’s Bone 348
A Single Shot 351
Casting the Rural Crime Film 354
Marketing and Distributing the Rural Crime Film 355
Conclusion 357
References 359
Part Six Aesthetics and Politics 361
Chapter 15 Life During Wartime: Emotionalism, Capitalist Realism, and Middle-Class Indie Identity 363
Class and Indie Cinema 364
Indie Emotionalism 367
Spectacular Dysfunction: Young Adult 370
Fearful Energy: Touchy Feely 375
Conclusion: Indie Class Consciousness 378
Notes 380
References 380
Chapter 16 Indie Cinema and the Neoliberal Commodification of Creative Labor: Rethinking the Indie Sensibility of Christopher Nolan 382
Neoliberalism and Independent Cinema 386
Indie Filmmakers and the Studio Sector 389
Christopher Nolan 394
Conclusion 399
Note 400
References 400
Chapter 17 “They Believe Every Fuckin’ Word Because You’re Super Cool”: Masculine Cool ’90s Style in Reservoir Dogs 403
“Stealing” and Those Suits 405
“Men’s Cinema” 407
Reservoir Dogs’ Two Beginnings 409
The Severed Ear 412
Mr Orange and the Performance(s) of Masculinity 415
The End 418
Note 420
References 420
Chapter 18 The Craft of Independent Filmmaking: Editing in John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus Seven and Baby It’s You 421
Knowing That and Knowing How 423
Evaluating John Sayles’ Editing 427
Conclusion: Jack Ryan’s Epithets 439
Notes 440
References 442
Part Seven Kickstarting Indie 445
Chapter 19 Crowdfunding, Independence, Authorship 447
Money 450
Authorship 453
Moral Economy 458
Conclusion 461
Notes 463
References 463
Chapter 20 Go Digital or Go Dark: Crowdfunding, Independent Financing, and Arthouse Exhibition on Kickstarter 466
Independent Cinema and Arthouse Exhibition 467
Transitioning to Digital Projection 469
Crowdfunding and Kickstarter 472
The Arthouse Experience: Building Community on Kickstarter 474
Kickstarter: Dilemmas and Possibilities 479
References 480
Part Eight Indie Acting and Stardom 483
Chapter 21 Casing Indie Acting 485
“Quality” Acting 485
John Cusack’s Lovers and Losers 487
Giancarlo Esposito’s Riffs on Race 490
Michelle Williams’ Working-Class Women 494
Lupe Ontiveros’s Servants, Solidarity, and Sabotage 497
Tapping Talent 500
Notes 502
References 503
Chapter 22 Flexible Stardom: Contemporary American Film and the Independent Mobility of Star Brands 507
Star Brands 508
Stars, Independence, Flexibility 510
Sindiependence and the Hyphenates 515
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Flexible Star 521
Flexible Stardom and the Space of Independence 531
Notes 532
References 533
Index 535
EULA 545

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.10.2016
• Reihe/Serie: WBCF - Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Film Directors
• Reihe/Serie: WBCF - Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Film Directors
• Reihe/Serie: Wiley Blackwell Companions to Film Directors
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: American film • american films • American independent films • American indie films • Amerikanische Filmkunst • Cultural Studies • Film • Filmforschung • Film Studies • Hollywood indies • Independent Cinema • independent films • indie films • Kino • Kulturwissenschaften • Spielberg, Steven
• ISBN-10: 1-118-75801-3 / 1118758013
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-75801-4 / 9781118758014