Rites of Realism: Essays on Corporeal Cinema Book

Rites of Realism rethinks cinematic realism, shifting discussion away from the usual focus on the faithfulness of record or the illusory effects of verisimilitude toward a notion of "performative realism," a realism that does not simply represent a given reality but enacts actual social tensions. These essays by a range of film scholars propose stimulating new approaches to the critical evaluation of modern realist films and such referential genres as reenactment, historical film, adaptation, portrait films, documentary, and realist depictions of urban life. By providing close readings of classic and contemporary works, Rites of Realism signals the need to return to a focus on films as the main provocateurs and innovators of realist representation. The collection is inspired by André Bazin?s provocative thoughts on film?s unique ability to register contingency and on the medium?s inherent heterogeneity. It features two new translations: of Bazin?s seminal essay "Death Every Afternoon" and Serge Daney?s essay reinterpreting Bazin?s defense of the long shot as a way to set the stage for a clash, a risky confrontation between two natures, man and animal. These pieces evince key concerns?particularly the link between cinematic realism and contingency (the singular, once only event)?that the other essays explore further. Among the topics addressed are the provocative mimesis of Luis Buñuel?s Land Without Bread; the adaptation of trial documents in Carl Dreyer?s Passion of Joan of Arc; the use of the tableaux vivant by Wim Wenders and Peter Greenaway; Pasolini?s strategies of analogy in his transposition of The Gospel According to St. Matthew from Palestine to southern Italy; and the variables in urban representation in contemporary Chinese cinema. Contributors also look at the resistance to visibility posed by images of possession in Maya Deren?s work and the historical contingencies of identity representation in avant-garde and documentary films of the 1960s, as well as the social geography presented in Mike Leigh?s oeuvre and the exemplary dimension of reenactment in films by Antonioni, Cesare Zavattini, Zhang Yuan, and Abbas Kiarostami. Contributors: Paul Arthur, André Bazin, Mark A. Cohen, Serge Daney, Mary Ann Doane, James Lastra, Ivone Margulies, Abe Mark Normes, Brigitte Peucker, Richard Porton, Philip Rosen, Catherine Russell, James Schamus, Noa Steimatsky, Xiaobing TangRead More