Radicalization to Revenge: Exploring the Relationship Between Blaxploitation and the L.A. Rebellion Through Bush Mama and Coffy Nyla Guilford Coffy (Pam Grier) exacts violent revenge upon the criminals responsible for her sister’s addiction in Coffy. Black people and … Read more
“Tender is the Ghost”: (In)visible, Reciprocal Breath, and the Realm of Memory in Aftersun Sean Sabye Calum (Paul Mescal) and Sophie (Frankie Corio) embrace in a window’s reflection in Aftersun. In The Place of Breath in Cinema, Davina … Read more
Reclaiming Black Autonomy in In the Heat of the Night Samantha Thompson Police officers arrest Tibbs (Sidney Portier) upon his arrival in Sparta, Mississippi in In the Heat of the Night. The 1960s saw rapid and radical change … Read more
The Wandering Eye: Slow Cinema, Spectatorship, and Surrealism in Memoria and 2001: A Space Odyssey Alyssa Ho Jessica (Tilda Swinton) and Old Hernan (Elkin Diaz) share an extended moment together in Memoria. Walking into a theater midway through a … Read more
Exposing the Interior Through Sound in Uncut Gems and Punch-Drunk Love Melissa Luna In both Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems, the interior of the character is expressed through sound design and score. In Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Adam … Read more
Christiane, Liberated Doll: Surrealism and the Female Gothic in Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face Cassidy Englund Christiane’s mask reflects the surrealist exploration of the “uncanny” and the animate/inanimate binary in Eyes Without a Face. Until the final five … Read more
Eclipsing the Visual: Sonic Immersion, Suggestion, and Blurring in Blade Runner Peter Snyder Landscape shot of the smoggy Los Angeles skyline. “The brilliance of Blade Runner, like Alien before it, is located in its visual density.” This assertion, … Read more
Metal, Fire, and Flesh: Surrealist Body Horror in Julia Ducournau’s Titane Charlie Brownlee Bodily binaries between (wo)man and machine are rendered frighteningly unclear in Titane. Filmmakers have used the disfiguration of the human body to disturb and shock … Read more
“See You in My Dreams”: The Oneiric in Twin Peaks Noemi Walton Agent Cooper’s “deductive reasoning” scene is an example of Twin Peak‘s dreamlike red herrings, misdirecting the audience. In his 1924 “Manifesto of Surrealism,” André Breton “once and … Read more
Cinematic Attunement in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival Rebecca Kelley The heptapod chamber as an atmospheric locus in Arrival. Cinema has the ability to stitch together different formal and aesthetic elements in order to create an experiential connection between the … Read more
