Beyond realism : naturalist film in theory and practice / Robert Singer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Singer, Robert, 1953 May 30- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Naturalism in motion pictures.

Realism in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 267 pages) : illustrations (black and white), digital, PDF file(s)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Often mistaken for realist film, international naturalist cinema has a unique cultural and critical history. From its earliest representation in silent films, such as Walsh's Regeneration (1915), and Eisenstein's Stachka/Strike (1925), to recent productions, such as Chukwu's Clemency (2019), and Aronofsky's The Whale (2022), the naturalist film narrative encompasses the whole of film history, traversing language, movement, and genre. The naturalist film is predicated on two foundational, intersecting paradigms that configure as one ideological system in an overarching scientific and social experimental narrative. Either the scientific or social paradigm may be dominant in the film narrative or they may simply co-exist, but a naturalist film reveals both templates and, most significantly, suggests an implicit cinematic anthropology that renders the body as an observed spectacle.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

1. INTRODUCTION

2. NATURALIST TROPES

3. OPERATIVE SPACES

4. THE BODY POLITIC

5. FLESHY IMAGERY

6. DARWINIAN DISCONNECTIONS

7. MOREAU NARRATIVES

8. NATURALIST COMEDY

9. A JOKER’S WORLD

INDEX

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on March 25, 2026).

ISBN:

9781474426350

OCLC:

1423354612