1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787587303321

Titolo

Underground U.S.A. : filmmaking beyond the Hollywood canon / / edited by Xavier Mendik & Steven Jay Schneider

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2002

©2002

ISBN

0-231-85002-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (257 pages)

Collana

AlterImage

Disciplina

791.43611

Soggetti

Experimental films - United States - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Acknowledgements; Notes on Contributors; Foreword; Introduction; 1. 'No Worse Than You Were Before': Theory, Economy and Power in Abel Ferrara's 'The Addiction'; 2. Radley Metzger's 'Elegant Arousal': Taste, Aesthetic Distinction and Sexploitation; 3. Curtis Harrington and the Underground Roots of the Modern Horror Film ; 4. 'Special Effects' in the Cutting Room; 5. Real(ist) Horror: From Execution Videos to Snuff Films; 6. A Report on Bruce Conner's 'Report'; 7. Voyeurism, Sadism and Transgression: Screen Notes and Observations on Warhol's 'Blow Job' and 'I, a Man'

8. 'You Bled My Mother, You Bled My Father, But You Won't Bleed Me': The Underground Trio of Melvin Van Peebles9. Doris Wishman Meets the Avant-Garde; 10. Full Throttle on the Highway to Hell: Mavericks, Machismo and Mayhem in the American Biker Movie; 11. The Ideal Cinema of Harry Smith; 12. What is the Neo-Underground and What Isn't: A First Consideration of Harmony Korine; 13. Underground America 1999; 14. Phantom Menace: Killer Fans, Consumer Activism and Digital Filmmakers; 15. Film Co-Ops: Old Soldiers from the Sixties Still Standing in Battle Against Hollywood Commercialism

16. 'Gouts of Blood': The Colourful Underground Universe of Herschell Gordon Lewis17. Theory of Xenomorphosis; 18. Visions of New York: Films from the 1960s Underground; 19. A Tasteless Art: Waters, Kaufman and the Pursuit of 'Pure' Gross-Out; Notes; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Whether defined by the carnivalesque excesses of Troma studios (The



Toxic Avenger), the arthouse erotica of Radley Metzger and Doris Wishman, or the narrative experimentations of Abel Ferrara, Melvin Van Peebles, Jack Smith, or Harmony Korine, underground cinema has achieved an important position within American film culture. Often defined as ""cult"" and ""exploitation"" or ""alternative"" and ""independent,"" the American underground retains separate strategies of production and exhibition from the cinematic mainstream, while its sexual and cinematic representations differ from the tradition