Realism and the Audiovisual Media

LOUIS BAYMAN is a PhD candidate at King's College London, UKMARY ANN DOANE is George Hazard Crooker Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, USA THOMAS ELSAESSER is Professor of Film and Visual Culture at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands ARMIDA DE LA GARZA is Associate Professor in International Communication at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo Campus, China LEIGHTON GRIST is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at the University of Winchester, UK BETH JOHNSON is a Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at Liverpool Hope University, UK JACOB LEIGH teaches at Royal Holloway, University of London, UKDIANE MYERS leads the BA Broadcasting programme within the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds, UKDAVINA QUINLIVAN is a PhD candidate in the Film Studies department at King's College London, UK MING-YEH T. RAWNSLEY lectures on Chinese-language films at the University of Leeds, UK ANNA ROGERS is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, UKJOAO MOREIRA SALLES is a documentary filmmaker MARC SILBERMAN is Professor of German and Director of the Centre for German and European Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USAVLAD STRUKOV is Lecturer in Russian and World Cinemas at the University of Leeds, UK ISMAIL XAVIER is Professor of Film at the University of São Paulo, Brazil

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction PART I: THEORIZING REALISM World Cinema: Realism, Evidence, Presence; T.Elsaesser Whither Realism? Bazin Reconsidered; L.Grist On Brecht, Realism and the Media; M.Silberman Melodrama as Realism in Italian Neorealism; L.Bayman Scale and the Negotiation of 'Real' and 'Unreal' Space in the Cinema; M.A.Doane PART II: WORLD CINEMA AND NEW REALISMS Realism and Gus Van Sant's Elephant ; A.Rogers Observational Realism in Taiwan New Cinema; M-Y.T.Rawnsley Realism and National Identity in Y Tu Mamá También : An Audience Perspective; A.De La Garza A Journey through Time: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark and Theories of Mimesis; V.Strukov PART III: THE REALISM OF THE MEDIUM Realism, Real Sex and Experimental Cinema: Mediating Eroticism in Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye ; B.Johnson Breath Control: The Sound and Sight of Respiration as Hyper-Realist Corporeality in Breaking the Waves ; D.Quinlivan Ontology, Film and the Case of Eric Rohmer; J.Leigh Up the Junction : Ken Loach and TV Realism; C.Mello PART IV: DOCUMENTARY, TV AND THE ETHICS OF REPRESENTATION Filmmaking as the Production of Reality – A Study of Hara and Kobayashi's Documentaries; L.Nagib Character Construction in Brazilian Documentary Films: Modern Cinema, Classical Narrative and Micro-Realism; I.Xavier The Difficulty with Documentary; J.M.Salles Losing Grip on Reality – A Reflection on British Factual Television; D.Myers Notes Bibliography Index

'The issue of realism is a fundamental conceptual question for film as well as for audiovisual media in general, and this collection is a very major and timely contribution that re-assesses the impetus to realism in cinema and the form and style of realism in contemporary film in the context of the digital, of multi-platform viewing, and world cinema. The wide-ranging essays draw on classical film theory while developing new insights into and understanding of current cinema. I have no doubt that it will be required reading on many courses.'Elizabeth Cowie, University of Kent, UK'Realism and the Audiovisual Media is an extremely topical collection of essays, one that will be most valuable to students and researchers in the field of media studies.'Martine Beugnet, University of Paris 7 Diderot, France