Radical Auteur
The Cinema of Ari Aster
Radical Auteur
The Cinema of Ari Aster
Description
The first full-length auteur study of one of the most original and provocative filmmakers of the contemporary American cinema, focusing on the interconnection of genre and independent film aesthetics.
In a stunning public statement in late 2023, Martin Scorsese described Ari Aster as “one of the most extraordinary new voices in world cinema.” In less than a decade, Aster has written and directed some of the most provocative films, including Hereditary (2018), his first feature and a work hailed as a modern horror classic. Midsommar (2019) staggered audiences with the originality of its folkloric horror that was both familiar and strikingly original. It was also a controversial work that brought Aster to the forefront of independent auteur American filmmaking. His most recent film, Beau is Afraid (2023), demonstrated Aster's ambition, and can only be described as one of the most challenging surreal films in recent American filmmaking.
Radical Auteur: The Cinema of Ari Aster brings together world-renowned scholars, researchers, and practitioners to study the cinema of Aster in its entirety. It includes chapters on Aster's short films and his early construction of voice and style; it also draws on multiple viewpoints, and analytical and philosophical perspectives, to analyze each of his feature films. The book concludes with an interview with Ari Aster in which he discusses his artistic vision and approach to screenwriting and direction.
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Table of Contents
Bruce Isaacs (University of Sydney, Australia) and Kim Wilkins (University of Oslo, Norway)
Part 1: POETICS
Section Introduction
Bruce Isaacs (University of Sydney, Australia) and Kim Wilkins (University of Oslo, Norway)
1. The Frame, Capture, and Audience Address: A Director's Sequence Analysis
Peter Markham (Head of Direction, American Film Institute, USA)
2. Narrative Form and Scenography: Intersections in the Films of Ari Aster and Peter Greenaway
Jack Pocaluypo (University of Oslo, Norway)
3. Tonal Shifts: Basically (2014)
Kim Wilkins (University of Oslo, Norway)
4. Atmospherics and Sensation in Hereditary and Midsommar
Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University, Sydney)
Part 2: POLITICS
Section Introduction
Bruce Isaacs (University of Sydney, Australia) and Kim Wilkins (University of Oslo, Norway)
5. What is a Critical Auteur?: The Strange Case of Aster's Beau is Afraid and A24
Bruce Isaacs (University of Sydney, Australia)
6. Fear and the Feminine in the Films of Ari Aster
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (Independent scholar, critic, and cultural commentator)
7. The Trauma of Mothers and Motherhood
Tiffany Basili (University of Sydney, Australia) and Bruce Isaacs (University of Sydney, Australia)
8. The Object of Glamour and Image in Aster's Early Films
Jane Mills (University of NSW, Australia)
Part 3: CASE STUDY: MIDSOMMAR
Section Introduction
Bruce Isaacs (University of Sydney, Australia) and Kim Wilkins (University of Oslo, Norway)
9. ”The Queen Must Die”: A Sartrean Reading of Midsommar as Horrific Freedom
Kaitlin Lake (University of Sydney, Australia)
10. Midsommar, Folk Horror, and the Relativity of Knowledge
Louis Bayman (University of Southampton, UK)
11. The Whiteness of Midsommar: Race and Representation
Sean Redmond (RMIT University, Australia)
12. The Queen Must Die Alone: Stylizing Art, Death, and Depression in Midsommar
Saige Walton (University of South Australia, Australia)
Conclusion: In Conversation with Ari Aster
Bruce Isaacs (University of Sydney, Australia) and Kim Wilkins (University of Oslo, Norway)
Index
Product details
| Published | 18 Mar 2027 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 9798216444749 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 24 bw illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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