Extreme Cinema: Arthouse Ethics, Exoticism and the Desire for the Real

Shocking, explicitly violent and sexual "art films" have in recent years led to heated debate in the popular press and among cultural critics, who praise the works as "challenging art" or dismiss them as "torture porn." Hardly a season goes by when there is no news about a controversial new art film, whether the next incarnation in the "Asia Extreme" DVD series or the latest provocation by Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, or Gaspar Noé. Premiering at glamorous film festivals among cultural sophisticates, playing at upmarket cinemas, and featuring in the "world cinema" or "arthouse" sections at video stores and online DVD and download services, these productions shock with graphic depictions of violence, rape, genital mutilation, incest, bestiality, paedophilia, or purport to capture "real" sex.

At the heart of these films lies a paradox: why do these productions attain the status of "art" despite (or, even, because of) the use of the very tools of the lowbrow: the "gratuitous" or disturbing sex and violence of pornography, snuff films, horror, and action movies?

In the interest of cultural commentators, parents, censors, and cinephile audiences, we need to know the means by which Extreme Cinema partakes of the institutional discourses of art cinema, and--on account of violent, sexual, or other graphic content--simultaneously engineers critical and popular controversy.

In particular, this project explores:

1. the way that Extreme filmmakers use formal and stylistic strategies, but also ethical claims to position their work as "art" and to differentiate their work from "conventional" representations of sex and violence;

2. how international distribution channels add (exotic) cultural value to these productions and thus changes the way that domestic censors and audiences respond to them;

3. how blurred boundaries between documentary and fiction function as major components in their controversy and appeal.


METHODS
My research method synthesizes (1) textual analysis, (2) scrutiny of critical and institutional discourse, (3) analysis of popular discourse and qualitative audience reception reports and (4) the critical analysis of the above methods with cultural theory. Specifically, I look not only at the films as texts but also to the discourses in the marketing and reception of these films. This includes:

(1. Textual Analysis) - close narrative and formal analysis of case studies such as Funny Games, Irreversible, Oldboy and 9 Songs

(2. Analysis of critical and institutional discourse) - scrutiny of publicity material; critical reviews; published interviews with Extreme filmmakers; and interviews I will conduct with Christoph Terhechte (Berlin Film Festival programmer of EC), Hamish McAlpine (producer and distributor of EC) and Nick Jones (television programmer of EC)

(3. Analysis of popular discourse and reception) - scrutiny of online forums, attendance figures and qualitative audience reception reports

(4. Critical analysis of material above via cultural theory) - this includes assimilation of:

--theories and histories of taste, in general, and function of taste in the distribution of art cinema, in particular

--accounts of the "exotic," in general, and the history of the reception of "foreign" filmmaking, in particular

--broader theoretical conceptions of cinematic realism and of the cultural and ethical problems of screening sex


DISSEMINATION
The research will be presented in THREE CONFERENCE PAPERS at three major, important, and international conferences (Society for Cinema and Media Studies; European Network for Cinema and Media Studies; Screen); it will be written up in a scholarly MONOGRAPH. Linking with key educational institutions (British Film Institute, Gulbenkian Cinema, Austrian Cultural Forum, Institut Francais, Korean Cultural Centre), the media (Sight and Sound, the BBC) and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will insure its pathway to impact.

The COMPREHENSIVE METHODOLOGY of this project generates two potential sites of impact. The first is academic beneficiaries in Film and Media Studies, Area Studies, and Cultural Studies. The second is a wider network of cultural and educational institutions: these groups have consistently voiced their pressing concern with this issue.

1. The dissemination of my results to academic beneficiaries will occur in the form of THREE CONFERENCE PAPERS presented to international scholars at the SCMS, NECS, and Screen conferences and via one MONOGRAPH, as detailed in my impact plan

2. As detailed in my Pathways to Impact and Workplan, I will be in contact with educational bodies, national-cultural institutions and the media at every stage of the project. This includes:

--outreach events via the Education Department at the BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE (BFI);

--introductory comments to screenings of new Extreme films at the NATIONAL FILM THEATRE and at the GULBENKIAN CINEMA (University of Kent Cinema);

--linking with national-cultural institutions AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM LONDON, INSTITUT FRANCAIS DU ROYAUME-UNI, and KOREAN CULTURAL CENTRE UK to provide programming consultation, introduce films and moderate discussions on key Extreme Cinema from their respective cultures

--an accessible article for the mainstream periodical SIGHT AND SOUND, which has shown interest in this issue;

--proposing a factual television programme on this subject to the BBC and CHANNEL FOUR

--Finally, the monograph engages the cultural sector, the government, and the wider public sector by offering policy suggestions on the classification and censorship of Extreme Cinema. This is of urgent interest to the national film censor, the BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CLASSIFICATION (BBFC), which has highlighted Extreme Cinema as an acute area that needs to be researched. My work will help the BBFC to be able to make more informed decisions.