An examination of the relationship between narrative style and sexual politics. Looking at contemporary films from the USA, Europe and Japan, the book examines the ways in which films relate to sexual politics and the organization within our culture of gender and sexuality.

Film and Sexual Politics: A Critical Reader features a variety of noteworthy critical essays that explore the evolution, representation, and social construction of sex, gender, and sexual orientation from the early days of cinema to the early twenty-first century. This collection investigates the complex relations between film form/style and sexual politics (past and present), as well as the ideological and social ramifications of those relations for the lived realities of individuals in the United States over the course of the twentieth century and beyond. Contrary to popular perceptions of films as relatively simplistic forms of “entertainment,” the essays in this collection demonstrate clearly how the act of producing meaning through the use of cinematic verbal and visual signs is far from a simple process with negligible historical consequences. This book offers insightful and satisfying reading to established and emerging scholars who explore film history, theory, and criticism, as well as to all readers with a general interest in film history and the effects of cinema on individuals and popular culture. The range of films analyzed includes Being John Malkovich, Citizen Kane, Elizabeth, Female Perversions, From Here to Eternity, Gidget, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Jackass the Movie, The Matrix, Maurice, My Own Private Idaho, Porcile, The Road to Ruin, and Wilde.

Forty years after Roe v. Wade, it is evident that the ideologies of "choices" and "rights," which have publicly framed reproductive politics in North America since the landmark legal decision, have been inadequate in making sense of the topic's complexities. In Reproductive Acts, Heather Latimer investigates what contemporary fiction and film can tell us about the divisive nature of these politics, and demonstrates how fictional representations of reproduction allow for readings of reproductive politics that are critical of the terms of the debate itself. In an innovative argument about the power of fiction to engage and shape politics, Latimer analyzes works by authors such as Margaret Atwood, Kathy Acker, Toni Morrison, Larissa Lai, and director Alfonso Cuarón, among others, to claim that the unease surrounding reproduction, particularly the abortion debate, has increased both inside and outside the US over the last forty years. Fictional representation, Latimer argues, reveals reproductive politics to be deeply connected to cultural anxieties about gender, race, citizenship, and sexuality - anxieties that cannot be contained under the rules of individual rights or choices. Striking a balance between fictional, historical, and political analysis, Reproductive Acts makes a compelling argument for the vital role narrative plays in how we make sense of North American reproductive politics.

Almost wherever we look, depictions of sexuality, both subtle and not-so-subtle, are omnipresent. Whatever the medium, popular culture representations tell us something about ourselves and about the ideologies of which they are symptomatic. These essays examine the strategies of power implicit in popular representations of sexuality. The authors--scholars in fields such as sociology, philosophy, biology, political science, history, and English literature-- eschew rigid disciplinary boundaries.

Headline: A study of how Italian films re-envisage male identity in response to sexual liberationBlurb: Italian cinema has traditionally used the trope of an inadequate man in crisis to reflect on the country's many social and political upheavals. Masculinity and Italian Cinema examines how this preoccupation with male identity becomes especially acute in the 1970s when a set of more diverse and inclusive images of men emerge in response to the rise of feminism and gay liberation. Through an analysis of the way Italian films explore anxieties about male sexuality and femininity, the book shows how such anxieties also intersect with particular preoccupations about national identity and political engagement. This is an essential study-tool to understand the multiple constructions of masculinity in Italian cinema, helping students and researchers to understand the work of some of Italy's most provocative filmmakers.Key Features* Re-examines key Italian films, including Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist, Ettore Scola's A Special Day, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Theorem and Lina Wertmuller's The Seduction of Mimi, in the light of gender and queer theory.* Covers the major thematic concerns, genres and stylistic traits of 1970s Italian political cinema* Analyses the broader cultural context of 1970s Italy, including sections on Italian feminism, Gay liberation and the post-'68 social movements.Key Words: Gender; Queer; Body; Gay; Feminism; Pier Paolo Pasolini; Bernardo Bertolucci; Lina Wertmuller; Nanni Moretti; Federico Fellini; Ettore Scola; Marco Ferreri.

In this cross-cultural history of narrative cinema and media from the 1910s to the 1930s, leading and emergent scholars explore the transnational crossings and exchanges that occurred in early cinema between the two world wars. Drawing on film archives from around the world, this volume advances the premise that silent cinema freely crossed national borders and linguistic thresholds in ways that became far less possible after the emergence of sound. These essays address important questions about the uneven forces–geographic, economic, political, psychological, textual, and experiential–that underscore a non-linear approach to film history. The "messiness" of film history, as demonstrated here, opens a new realm of inquiry into unexpected political, social, and aesthetic crossings of silent cinema.

Collecting together some of the best thinking about the relationship between movies and politics, this book, originally published in 1993, encourages an awareness of the political dimension of film, both for film scholars and those entering the film industry. Eight essays are grouped into four parts addressing political ideology and movie narrative, political myth in the movies, political history and movie culture, and political communication and the movies. An introductory essay, as well as prefatory remarks to each of the four parts, brings additional insight and perspective and puts the essays into context.