Velvet Light Trap articles from September 1993

Velvet Light Trap archives from September 1993

Spectacle and excess.(introduces issue that explores spectacle and excess in film and television)
September 22, 1993... THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF ACADEMIC film and television studies (indeed, since the projection of the very first film images), theorists, critics, and interested observers have sought to locate photographic media on a continuum between "realism"...

"Now you it, now you don't": the temporality of the cinema of attractions.(this article explores excess in the cinema)
September 22, 1993... THE REVISION OF EARLY FILM HISTORY THAT began in the late seventies was only partly a process of correcting the scholarship of previous generations of scholars (who had not had easy access to film archives) through more careful film analysis...

One bad movie too many: Sam Shepard's visions of excess.
September 22, 1993... "The vision of a celluloid tape": The Excess of Spectacle Near the beginning of Sam Shepard's Angel City (1976), Rabbit Brown, the pseudo-shaman called upon to "doctor" a failing film project, delivers a speech on the cinematic spectacle,...

The male body within the excesses of exploitation and art: Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45, Cat Chaser, and Bad Lieutenant.
September 22, 1993... THE ENTRY FOR MS. 45 (ABEL FERRARA, 1981) in Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide describes the film. as follows: "Tamerlis is raped twice, gets her `revenge' by murdering every male in sight. Well-made, violent role-reversal formula film...

Excess and ecstasy: constructing female pleasure in porn movies.
September 22, 1993... IN THE PAST DECADE, DISCUSSIONS ABOUT pornography have become increasingly relevant across various communities, including feminist academics interested in revisionist perspectives on pornography, artists seeking to reclaim explicit imagery, and...

Reach out and touch someone: technology and sexuality in broadcast ads for phone sex.
September 22, 1993... THE WORD "DETRITUS" PERHAPS BEST DESCRIBES the character of late night advertising on television's UHF and cable channels. Most of us, I imagine, are somewhat familiar with this flotsam and jetsam of the airwaves: a motley assortment of...

The politics of morphing: Michael Jackson as science fiction border text.
September 22, 1993... AFTER ACCEPTING THE GRAMMY LEGEND Award in March, Michael Jackson remarked that 1993 had seen the public go from asking "where is he?" to commenting here he is again." Jackson then stated that during his absence from public view after releasing...

Melo talk: on the meaning and use of the term "melodrama" in the American trade press.
September 22, 1993... THIS PAPER IS CONCERNED WITH THE WAY the term "melodrama" (or its shortened and slangier form, "meller") was used in the American trade press to describe and to categorize films. To that extent, it is concerned with melodrama as a generic...