Mysteries of Cinema

Adrian Martin is a film and arts critic. He is Adjunct Associate Professor in Film Culture and Theory at Monash University (Australia) and teacher at Elías Querejeta Zine-Eskola (Spain). Author of eight books, his work has appeared in many magazines, journals and newspapers around the world, and has been translated into over twenty languages.

"The book consistently and rewardingly demonstrates Martin’s rare gift for understanding (and savoring) ambiguities of cinematic expression." - Rick Warner, New Review of Film and Television Studies, March 2019 "A collection of lively, original and highly personal essays, Martin’s book is a masterful act of synthesis which weaves together disparate writings from over a thirty-year period [...] Mysteries of Cinema is an ambitious and erudite collection that compels re-readings to appreciate the abundance of ideas. At once complex and accessible, it is also a book about surprise and discovery: ideas and arguments gradually unfold and culminate in a revelatory denouement." - Felicity Chaplin, Senses of Cinema March 2019. Read the full review here. "At the very least, Adrian Martin’s Mysteries of Cinema makes the reader want to watch more movies [...] In this collection of essays, a thorough compendium published as part of the Film Culture in Transition series at Amsterdam University Press, Martin covers "34 years of a writing life, so far" (13) [...] There is never any dryness in his prose and there is never any doubt that a considerate, versatile individual is behind the ideas presented." - Jeremy Carr, Film International February 2019. Read the full review online: A Cinephile’s Cinephile. "Mysteries of Cinema is a toolkit for the cinephile and film critic. Incorporating chance, dreams, and anecdotes, his writing is always surprising and unexpected. When generating film theories, he anchors them to close analysis of particular films. A quote that appears a few times in the book applies to Martin: challenging Pauline Kael's criticism, one that's performatively judgmental and general, Godard said, "I want the evidence." With careful, lovingly descriptive writing, Martin brings it. Reading an Adrian Martin essay is a way of seeing cinema as a supple, materialistic medium transmitting energy and intensity." - Tanner Tafelski, Cineaste, Vol. XLIV 2018.

• PART I LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION 1. Retying the Threads 2. The Path and the Passeur 3. That Summer Feeling PART II SCENOGRAPHIES 4. Scenes 5. Wishful Thinking 6. Entities and Energies 7. Entranced PART III A CINEPHILE IN AUSTRALIA 8. No Flowers for the Cinephile: The Fates of Cultural Populism PART IV THE LYRICAL IMPULSE 9. Refractory Characters, Shards of Time and Space 10. The Trouble with Fiction 11. Ball of Fire: The Mysteries 12. The Ever-Tested Limit: Cinematic Apparitions 13. Delirious Enchantment PART V GENRE GAMES 14. Mr Big: Gangsters and Power 15. Unlawful Entries: Anatomy of a Film Cycle 16. Lady, Beware: Paths of the Female Gothic 17. Live to Tell: Teen Movies Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 18. In the Mood for (Something Like) Love 19. Shivers, Surprise and Discomfort: Sadism and Sublimation in Contemporary Cinema PART VI INTERVENTIONS 20. Making a Bad Script Worse: The Curse of the Scriptwriting Manual 21. The Offended Critic: Film Reviewing and Social Commentary 22. Wild Psychoanalysis of a Precarious, Unstable Reality PART VII ENVOI 23. No Direction Home: Creative Criticism 24. Farewells, Full Circles and Ellipses 25. My Back Pages 26. The File We Accompany, with Cristina ‰lvarez López Notes Sources of Texts Index