Valuing Films

STEVEN ALLEN Senior Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at the University of Winchester, UKADÁN AVALOS PhD candidate at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USA TOM BROWN Lecturer in film at the University of Reading, UK OLUYINKA ESAN Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of Winchester, UK OWEN EVANS Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities at Swansea University, UKLINCOLN GERAGHTY Principal Lecturer in Film Studies and Subject Leader for Media Studies in the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media at the University of Portsmouth, UKLEIGHTON GRIST Senior Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at the University of Winchester, UK SHAUN KIMBER Senior Lecturer in the Media School at Bournemouth University, UK JAMES WALTERS Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK MARY P WOOD Professor of European Cinema, and Head of the Department of Media and Cultural Studies, at Birkbeck, University of London, UK

'This special collection of essays is a valuable addition to a subject that has been neglected in film studies over the past few decades. Containing a diverse number of articles covering different films, by various critics from Britain and the United States, it provides insightful and new readings into an area that deserves further exploration, as the very important introduction and epilogue by its editor reveals. A worthy addition to the area of film studies.' - Tony Williams, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA 'Film studies has been slow to acknowledge how central debates about value must be to its concerns. This welcome collection opens up a wide range of value debates, many of which were foreclosed by cinema's need to achieve respectability as an art. Ranging from classic vs modern Hollywood, and European art cinema's problematic status, to the newer frontiers of Japanese anime, Mexican popular cinema and Nigeria's Nollywood, the authors display an encouraging appetite for new sources of data, new audience attitudes, and the self-evident fact that value motivates much of our media behaviour.' - Ian Christie, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

• Contents Acknowledgements List of Tables Notes on the Contributors Introduction: Valuing Films; L.Hubner PART I: POLITICS, CRITICISM AND THE CANON Use and Exchange: The Politics of Film Evaluation; L.Grist Sense and Sensibilities: The Value of Coherence in the Contemporary Twist Film; J.Walters Spectacle and Value in Classical Hollywood Cinema; T.Brown PART II: FANS, AUDIENCES AND SHIFTING CANONS Getting Animated – Valuing Anime; S.Allen Authenticity, Popular Aesthetics and the Sub-Cultural Politics of an Unwanted Blockbuster: The Case of Transformers; L.Geraghty ¡Que Naco! Mexican Popular Cinema, La Banda del Carro Rojo and the Audience; A.Avalos Audience Appreciation of Nigerian Films (Nollywood); O.Esan PART III: INSTITUTIONS OF TASTE, QUALITY AND VALUE Valuing Film Violence: Student Perceptions on the Inclusion of Violent Films and Film Violence Within the Undergraduate Learning Experience; S.Kimber 'The Many Ways of Looking at Cinema': Sight and Sound and the Value of Film; O.Evans Delivering the Quality Experience: Franco Zeffirelli; M.P.Wood A Vogue for Flesh and Blood? Shifting Classifications of Contemporary European Cinema; L.Hubner PART IV: AFTERTHOUGHTS Shifting Perceptions of Worth; L.Hubner Index