The supernatural in neo-Baroque Hollywood
Cubitt, Sean (2009) The supernatural in neo-Baroque Hollywood. In, Buckland, Warren (ed.) Film Theory & Contemporary Hollywood Movies. Abingdon, GB, Routledge, 47-65. (American Film Institute Film Readers).
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Description/Abstract
Stylistic traits of the neo-baroque: fluid navigational rather than decoupage; multi-layered soundtracks; composition in depth, frequently achieved through multi-plate compositing; visual spaces veering towards the indecipherable; characters gifted with a kind of spatial omnivoyance; semantic structures raised on themes of narcissism; all suggesting that the neo-baroque uses allegories of immersion as a response to a real or felt crisis of power and its symbolic systems, notably of cause and effect. These result in a pattern-making aesthetic characterised by the modularisation and spatialisation of narrative, voiced in themes of eternity and predestination. The chapter will open with a comparison between the Freund Mummy of 1931 and Sommers' versions The Mummy and The Mummy Returns of 1999 and 2001 respectively. The chapter will go on to test its theses against other films including Sommers' Van Helsing, Hellboy, Batman Begins, the Blade and Pirates of the Caribbean cycles and other popular action films voicing supernatural themes.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| ISBNs: | 9780415962629 (paperback) 9780415962612 (hardback) 9780203030769 (electronic) |
| Related URLs: | |
| Subjects: | N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures |
| Divisions: | University Structure - Pre August 2011 > School of Art |
| Item ID: | 179937 |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Apr 2011 10:40 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Mar 2012 11:36 |
| Contributors: | Cubitt, Sean (Author) Buckland, Warren (Editor) |
| Date: | 26 May 2009 |
| Status: | Published |
| Publisher: | Routledge |
| URI: | http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/179937 |
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