Velvet Light Trap articles from September 2003

Velvet Light Trap archives from September 2003

Introduction.
September 22, 2003... Science fiction and fantasy explore the liminal spaces of being, the space between the imagined and the real, between what we are and what we might become. As genres they inhabit an uneasy space, sometimes dismissed as adolescent fare to be...

David Cronenberg's Crash and performing cyborgs.
September 22, 2003... Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, the cyborg has emerged as a dominant figure in science fiction cinema. Images of this figuration have entered the popular imagination, and the celluloid cyborg has become synonymous with an understanding of...

"Still in the game": cybertransformations of the "new flesh" in David Cronenberg's eXistenZ.
September 22, 2003... Cyberspace is more than a breakthrough in electronic media or in computer interface design. With its virtual environments and simulated worlds, cyberspace is a metaphysical laboratory, a tool for examining our very sense of reality. ...

Like a monstrous jigsaw puzzle: genetics and race in horror films of the 1950s.(Critical Essay)
September 22, 2003... In The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), Kurt (Leslie Daniels) is a lab assistant for the film's resident mad scientist, Dr. Cortner (Jason Evers). He is Igor to Dr. Cortner's Frankenstein, and, following this dynamic of toady and master, Kurt's...

Fantasy, franchises, and Frodo Baggins: The Lord of the Rings and modern Hollywood.(Critical Essay)
September 22, 2003... Get ready to write a sequel. --Gandalf to Bilbo in J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring Wizards Enchant Hollywood Three of the seven films that have grossed over $800,000,000 worldwide were released within a five-month...

Hollywood Musicals: The Film Reader.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... edited by Steven Cohan The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001) and Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002) has generated discussion of the returning relevance of the musical, together with a renewed attention toward...

Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... by Timothy Shary Timothy Shary describes Generation Multiplex as "a work of film criticism" (11) that examines the social representation of youth in films of the last two decades. He discusses a vast array of youth-oriented movies in order...

Ambient Television: Visual Culture and Public Space.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... by Anna McCarthy It is undeniable that television has become a fixture in public space. The pervasiveness of the television in "routine locations" outside of the home has become part of the familiar ambience of grocery stores, shopping...