Category Archives: Films

Proposal: Space is the Place

By Steen | May 1, 2007

The Journal of American Studies of Turkey had a call for papers for a special theme issue on African American Studies. I sent them a proposal for an article on Sun Ra’s Space is the Place. The description of the proposal follows.
“You don’t exist in this society”: Sun Ra’s Space is the Place
I’m not real, [...]

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Sergio Martino, Torso

By Steen | April 29, 2007

Martino’s Torso is really a perfect example of the giallo genre. Plenty of naked girls, an insane killer, suspense and slashings. The only real weakness it has is its insistence on showing poorly executed gore sequences. As a low-budget film, it works extremely well, but in these gore sequences it is difficult not to lose [...]

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Ruggero Deodato, Cannibal Holocaust

By Steen | March 21, 2007

Deodato’s much-maligned Cannibal Holocaust is in many ways the ultimate exploitation film, and yet also much more. While the acting is at times rather stilted, and the violence seems gratuitous like most other exploitation films, this film rather enacts the desire of the spectator to see the unseen.
Cannibal Holocaust thus enacts and stages itself - [...]

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Abstract: Critical Rapes

By Steen | March 19, 2007

I have submitted the following abstract for a collection on rape in art cinema. We’ll see if it is accepted.
Cinematic representations of rape have been far more ambivalent than the social condemnations of the actual practice. Rather than fully rejecting and ignoring rape, there have been many different cinematic responses, often employing the depiction of [...]

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Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men

By Steen | February 7, 2007

I can’t help feeling disappointed about Children of Men. I’d heard plenty of good things about it before I saw it. Not hype, but by people I know and whose taste is pretty similar to mine. Yet, the film just didn’t work for me.

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