Synopses & Reviews
Bad Girls Go to Hell. Cannibal Holocaust.
Eve and the Handyman. Examining film cultureandrsquo;s ongoing fascination with the low, bad, and sleazy faces of cinema,
Sleaze Artists brings together film scholars with a shared interest in the questions posed by disreputable movies and suspect cinema. They explore the ineffable quality of andldquo;sleazeandrdquo; in relation to a range of issues, including the production realities of low-budget exploitation pictures and the ever-shifting terrain of reception and taste.
Writing about horror, exploitation, and sexploitation films, the contributors delve into topics ranging from the place of the andldquo;Aztec horror filmandrdquo; in debates about Mexican national identity to a cycle of 1960s films exploring homosexual desire in the military. One contributor charts the distribution saga of Mario Bavaandrsquo;s 1972 film Lisa and the Devil through the highs and lows of art cinema, fringe television, grindhouse circuits, and connoisseur DVD markets. Another offers a new perspective on the work of Doris Wishman, the New York housewife turned sexploitation director of the 1960s who has become a cult figure in bad-cinema circles over the past decade. Other contributors analyze the relation between image and sound in sexploitation films and Italian horror movies, the advertising strategies adopted by sexploitation producers during the early 1960s, the relationship between art and trash in Todd Haynesandrsquo;s oeuvre, and the ways that the Friday the 13th series complicates the distinction between andldquo;trashandrdquo; and andldquo;legitimateandrdquo; cinema. The volume closes with an essay on why cinephiles love to hate the movies.
Contributors. Harry M. Benshoff, Kay Dickinson, Chris Fujiwara, Colin Gunckel, Joan Hawkins, Kevin Heffernan, Matt Hills, Chuck Kleinhans, Tania Modleski, Eric Schaefer, Jeffrey Sconce, Greg Taylor
Review
andldquo;Aztec blood sacrifices! Knife-wielding psychos!! Libido-crazed military men!!! Martin Heidegger!!!! With verve and vigor, Sleaze Artists offers this . . . and more! The book boldly rips the lid off the wacky world of sleaze movies with subversive delight and intellectual insight!! Donandrsquo;t go into this volume alone!andmdash;unless you are ready for sharp scholarship, rigorous historiography, careful argument, and a deep commitment to an understanding of cinema in all its richness across a variety of taste cultures!!andrdquo;andmdash;Dana Polan, Cinema Studies, New York University
Review
andldquo;There is a certain thrill inherent in a scholarly anthology that wholly embraces those films usually deemed disreputable, disgusting, cheap, and perhaps even anti-intellectual. . . . A satisfyingly subversive addition to film studies and cultural studies. . . .andrdquo; - Adam Dodd, M/C Reviews
Review
andldquo;One of the most intriguing essayists in the book is Kay Dickinson, on how music figured in Britainandrsquo;s banning of five Italian films from videotape distribution.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Personally, I found the bookandrsquo;s first section, andlsquo;Sleazy Historyies,andrsquo; to be the most compelling . . . . The bookandrsquo;s second section, andlsquo;Sleazy Afterlives,andrsquo; contains some top-notch retrospective analyses of marginal films.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Sleaze Artists constitutes an honest attempt to trip the cultural rift. There's a becoming undercurrent of humility to most of the essays, which suggests that even the brightest minds in cultural studies are still refining their approach to what is generally a back-breaking endeavorandmdash;elevating the low into the rarefied (and suffocating) air of academic contemplation.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Sleaze Artists represents an articulate, accessible, and thoughtful adventure into the world of cinematic bad taste and low culture. . . . Sleaze Artists provides us with clear, thoughtful discussion about some great sleazy movies.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Sleaze Artists is an excellent collection, which covers a wide range of topics important to the understanding of sleaze cinema, and is a great addition to both cinema and cultural studies.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Collection of essays on the impact that non-mainstream and middlebrow film genres have had on popular culture--including sexploitation, horror, cult, XXX, and indie films.
About the Author
Jeffrey Sconce is Associate Professor in the Screen Cultures Program at Northwestern University. He is the author of Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television, also published by Duke University Press.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Part 1: Sleazy Histories
Pandering to the andldquo;Goon Tradeandrdquo;: Framing the Sexploitation Audience through Advertising / Eric Schaefer 19
Womenandrsquo;s Cinema as Counterphobic Cinema: Doris Wishman as the Last Auteur / Tania Modleski 47
Representing (Repressed) Homosexuality in the Pre-Stonewall Hollywood Homo-Military Film / Harry M. Benshoff 71
Pornography and Documentary: Narrating the Alibi / Chuck Kleinhans 96
El signo de la muerte and the Birth of a Genre: Origins and Anatomy of the Aztec Horror Film 121
Art House or House of Exorcism? The Changing Distribution and Reception Contexts of Mario Bavaandrsquo;s Lisa and the Devil / Kevin Heffernan 144
Part 2: Sleazy Afterlives
Troubling Synthesis: The Horrific Sights and Incompatible Sounds of Video Nasties / Kay Dickinson 167
The Sleazy Pedigree of Todd Haynes / Joan Hawkins 189
Para-Paracinema: The Friday the 13th Film Series as Other to Trash and Legitimate Film Cultures / Matt Hills 219
Boredom, Spasmo, and the Italian System / Chris Fujiwara 240
Pure Quidditas or Geek Chic? Cultism as Discernment / Greg Taylor 259
Movies: A Century of Failure / Jeffrey Sconce 273
Selected Bibliography 311
Contributors 321
Index 325