“These exciting and varied essays probe the relations between cinematic realism and representations of the body-above all the body as a guarantor (or not) of a link between images and the real. As in the best collections, the essays present distinctive points-of-view, yet they cohere around a compelling through-line, offering illumination and insight beyond just the sum of their parts.”-Leo Charney, author of Empty Moments: Cinema, Modernity, and Drift "Ivone Margulies's Rites of Realism is a stunning reconsideration of one of the most important and often underestimated issues in film studies-the complex nature of cinematic realism. Orchestrating a wide range of critical debates, this collection ranges brilliantly across decades, cultures, and individual films to remind us that realism at the movies has never been a more interesting and demanding topic. I highly recommend it for any serious student of film."-Timothy Corrigan, author of A Cinema without Walls: Movies and Culture after Vietnam