Catherine Fowler – författare

This survey of Sally Potter’s work explores her cinematic development from the feminist reworking of La BohÈme in Thriller to the provocative contemplation of romantic relationships after 9/11 in Yes. Catherine Fowler traces a clear trajectory of developing themes and preoccupations and shows how Potter uses song, dance, performance, and poetry to expand our experience of cinema beyond the audiovisual. Potter has relentlessly struggled against predictability and safe options. Again and again, her works grapple with the complexities of being a woman in charge. Instead of the quest to find a romantic partner that drives mainstream cinema, Potter’s films feature characters seeking answers to questions about their sexual, gendered, social, cultural, and ethnic identities. They find answers by retelling stories, investigating mysteries, and traveling and interacting with people. At the heart of Potter’s work is a concern with the ways narrative circumscribes women's ability to act, speak, look, desire, and think for themselves. Her first two films, Thriller and The Gold Diggers, largely deconstruct found stories, clichÉs, and images. By contrast, later films like Orlando and The Tango Lesson create new and original narratives that place female acts, voices, looks, desires, and thoughts at their center. Fowler’s analysis is supplemented by a detailed filmography, bibliography, and an extensive interview with the director.

This survey of Sally Potter’s work explores her cinematic development from the feminist reworking of La Bohème in Thriller to the provocative contemplation of romantic relationships after 9/11 in Yes. Catherine Fowler traces a clear trajectory of developing themes and preoccupations and shows how Potter uses song, dance, performance, and poetry to expand our experience of cinema beyond the audiovisual. 

Potter has relentlessly struggled against predictability and safe options. Again and again, her works grapple with the complexities of being a woman in charge. Instead of the quest to find a romantic partner that drives mainstream cinema, Potter’s films feature characters seeking answers to questions about their sexual, gendered, social, cultural, and ethnic identities. They find answers by retelling stories, investigating mysteries, and traveling and interacting with people. At the heart of Potter’s work is a concern with the ways narrative circumscribes women''s ability to act, speak, look, desire, and think for themselves. Her first two films, Thriller and The Gold Diggers, largely deconstruct found stories, clichés, and images. By contrast, later films like Orlando and The Tango Lesson create new and original narratives that place female acts, voices, looks, desires, and thoughts at their center. 

Fowler’s analysis is supplemented by a detailed filmography, bibliography, and an extensive interview with the director.

The European Cinema Reader is a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of national cinemas in Europe, bringing together classic writings by key filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, Luis Buñuel and John Grierson, and critics from Andre Bazin to Peter Wollen. Contributors explore attempts to define European film culture and examine key issues of auteurism and the art house film, national cinemas, the relationship between European film and Hollywood, and issues of funding and distribution. Each section features an editor's introduction setting debates in their context, and the volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.

The European Cinema Reader is a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of national cinemas in Europe, bringing together classic writings by key filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, Luis Buñuel and John Grierson, and critics from Andre Bazin to Peter Wollen. Contributors explore attempts to define European film culture and examine key issues of auteurism and the art house film, national cinemas, the relationship between European film and Hollywood, and issues of funding and distribution. Each section features an editor's introduction setting debates in their context, and the volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.

This book explores contemporary artists' filmmaking within the context of film theory and practice. Remembering Cinema focuses on artists' filmmaking exhibited in gallery spaces since 1990; or 'gallery films'. It argues that although they have chosen a different space for experiment, gallery films should not be expelled from film theory's critical frame, since they explore and expand our understanding of what cinema has been, is now and could be. Therefore, while the auditorium has increasingly been seen as the space for the death of cinema, in the art gallery the cinematic is revived, renewed and remembered. Through a comprehensive assemblage, discussion and analysis of the proliferating field, this book is the first to fully comprehend gallery films' unique explorations of narrative, spectatorship, time, space, film history and identity. In investigating the gallery as the preferred space for experiment in contemporary cinema, Remembering Cinema also questions the actual and theoretical spaces within which cinema practice and cinema studies have circulated and been constructed.This is the first fully comprehensive study of the growing field of films made for the gallery space since 1990. It is the only exploration of contemporary artists' filmmaking that seriously interrogates the work in relation to film theory and film practice. It is an important consideration of 'the cinematic' that considers other spaces in which cinema practice and cinema studies have circulated and been constructed.

Although the urban setting in film has received much critical attention, little has been written about the use of land, or the rural, in the cinema - despite its equally prolific and consistent history as a backdrop to both fiction and documentary work. This collection demonstrates the viability of rural cinema as a benchmark of national identity by bringing into critical focus the space the rural occupies, both on cinema screens and in the national imagination. Whether rural space is figured as idyllic or troubled, mythological or historical, obsolete or perennial, this collection argues that it constitutes a rich medium through which to enunciate shifting concepts of identity and nationhood. Spanning time periods and world locations, the films discussed in this volume use the land as physical territory, living place, unspoken character, or mythic and symbolic presence. The book's twenty chapters fall into four thematic sections. In ""Land"" and ""Peasants,"" the focus is on films in which land is seen from the perspective of its inhabitants. Essays in ""Landscape"" and ""Rural and Nation"" examine films in which the landscape functions an index to national identity. Here, geography is taken to an ideological level, where the land is key to the social and national cohesion of its inhabitants and to their cultural survival. In all, the essays presented explore the inextricable link between the urban and the rural as points of tension rather than simple points of contrast. ""Representing the Rural"" attempts to formulate a template for rural cinema, set forth its most salient characteristics and provide a guideline for discussion and analysis. Students and film scholars will appreciate this unique volume.

A comprehensive and in-depth examination of the role of rural space in the cinema, contributing needed analysis to existing work on space, place, and identity in film.

This collection departs from the observation that online forms of communication—the email, blog, text message, tweet—are actually haunted by old epistolary forms: the letter and the diary. By examining the omnipresence of writing across a variety of media, the collection adds the category of Epistolary Screens to genres of self-expression, both literary (letters, diaries, auto-biographies) and screenic (romance dramas, intercultural cinema, essay films, artists’ videos and online media). The category Epistolary encapsulates an increasingly paradoxical relation between writing and the self: first, it describes selves that are written in graphic detail via letters, diaries, blogs, texts, emails and tweets; second, it acknowledges that absence complicates communication, bringing people together in an entangled rather than ordered way. The collection concerns itself with the changing visual/textual texture of screen media and examines what is at stake for our understanding of self-expression when it takes Epistolary forms. The collection Auto/graphic Screens: Epistolary Entanglements in Film, Media and Visual Culture Is the first to interrogate the presence of epistolary forms of writing on screen . It adds the new category of ''Auto/graphic screens'' to genres of self-expression and provides a broad perspective upon epistolary forms of writing on-screen, by studying romance dramas and intercultural cinema, essay films, artist''s filmmaking and online media.

This collection departs from the observation that online forms of communication—the email, blog, text message, tweet—are actually haunted by old epistolary forms: the letter and the diary. By examining the omnipresence of writing across a variety of media, the collection adds the category of Epistolary Screens to genres of self-expression, both literary (letters, diaries, auto-biographies) and screenic (romance dramas, intercultural cinema, essay films, artists’ videos and online media). The category Epistolary encapsulates an increasingly paradoxical relation between writing and the self: first, it describes selves that are written in graphic detail via letters, diaries, blogs, texts, emails and tweets; second, it acknowledges that absence complicates communication, bringing people together in an entangled rather than ordered way. The collection concerns itself with the changing visual/textual texture of screen media and examines what is at stake for our understanding of self-expression when it takes Epistolary forms. The collection Auto/graphic Screens: Epistolary Entanglements in Film, Media and Visual Culture Is the first to interrogate the presence of epistolary forms of writing on screen . It adds the new category of ''Auto/graphic screens'' to genres of self-expression and provides a broad perspective upon epistolary forms of writing on-screen, by studying romance dramas and intercultural cinema, essay films, artist''s filmmaking and online media.

This collection departs from the observation that online forms of communication—the email, blog, text message, tweet—are actually haunted by old epistolary forms: the letter and the diary. By examining the omnipresence of writing across a variety of media, the collection adds the category of Epistolary Screens to genres of self-expression, both literary (letters, diaries, auto-biographies) and screenic (romance dramas, intercultural cinema, essay films, artists’ videos and online media). The category Epistolary encapsulates an increasingly paradoxical relation between writing and the self: first, it describes selves that are written in graphic detail via letters, diaries, blogs, texts, emails and tweets; second, it acknowledges that absence complicates communication, bringing people together in an entangled rather than ordered way. The collection concerns itself with the changing visual/textual texture of screen media and examines what is at stake for our understanding of self-expression when it takes Epistolary forms. The collection Auto/graphic Screens: Epistolary Entanglements in Film, Media and Visual Culture Is the first to interrogate the presence of epistolary forms of writing on screen . It adds the new category of 'Auto/graphic screens' to genres of self-expression and provides a broad perspective upon epistolary forms of writing on-screen, by studying romance dramas and intercultural cinema, essay films, artist's filmmaking and online media.

In a world of medical dramas and increased heart disease, the very word “aneurysm” instils fear and trepidation. Aortic aneurysms, known as silent killers, account for almost 10 per cent of all sudden deaths. Your Aorta: An Owner’s Guide uses a creative question-and-answer format to give you the tools to fight back. This book provides a detailed illustrated guide to the aorta for every “owner,” in an informative and engaging new manner. Dr. John A. Elefteriades, named as the top thoracic aortic expert in the world with over 10,000 cardiac operations under his belt, and patient advocate Catherine Fowler explore the anatomy of the aorta, how to keep it healthy, and treatment advice for those impacted by aortic diseases. Your Aorta also provides a collection of personal experiences, some devastating and others inspiring, from patients, families, and doctors, sharing how aortic disease has impacted their lives and how they have responded to the challenges that it presents. Supplemented with elements such as a glossary of medical terms and QR codes linking to animated graphics, this book helps readers take charge of their medical journey. In addition to the medical and anatomical insights, this book explores the emotional, physical, and psychological impact that aortic disease has upon the lives it touches. Your Aorta is a must-read for those concerned with leading a healthy and fulsome life and is a vital source of hope for all individuals. It serves as a timely reminder that aortic aneurysm, albeit an intimidating foe, can be subdued.

“Lucid, lively and extremely knowledgeable.” Sight & SoundCatherine Fowler’s study positions Jeanne Dielman as a ‘contrary’ classic, its contrariness arising from director Chantal Akerman’s decision to frame an unliberated housewife through a kind of ‘slow looking’. By choosing to stay with Jeanne in the kitchen, the film both ‘differences’ the canon and diverges from Akerman’s liberated early films, which involved the rejection of domestic space, married life and the heterosexual script.Fowler draws on original footage, scripts, unmade and unseen projects, interviews and other documents to painstakingly piece together the making of the film, discovering an alternative origin story which centers upon female alliances, forged through a combination of shared film culture and lived sexism. Those viewers who take up Akerman’s invitation to spend time with Jeanne will find their expectations of cinema are changed. Because more than any other film before or since, it reminds us that we give our time to a film; and in making us look both harder and for longer it asks us to feel time slipping away, for ourselves as much as for its protagonist.

“Lucid, lively and extremely knowledgeable.” Sight & SoundCatherine Fowler''s study positions Jeanne Dielman as a ''contrary'' classic, its contrariness arising from director Chantal Akerman''s decision to frame an unliberated housewife through a kind of ''slow looking''. By choosing to stay with Jeanne in the kitchen, the film both ''differences'' the canon and diverges from Akerman''s liberated early films, which involved the rejection of domestic space, married life and the heterosexual script.Fowler draws on original footage, scripts, unmade and unseen projects, interviews and other documents to painstakingly piece together the making of the film, discovering an alternative origin story which centers upon female alliances, forged through a combination of shared film culture and lived sexism. Those viewers who take up Akerman''s invitation to spend time with Jeanne will find their expectations of cinema are changed. Because more than any other film before or since, it reminds us that we give our time to a film; and in making us look both harder and for longer it asks us to feel time slipping away, for ourselves as much as for its protagonist.

“Lucid, lively and extremely knowledgeable.” Sight & SoundCatherine Fowler''s study positions Jeanne Dielman as a ''contrary'' classic, its contrariness arising from director Chantal Akerman''s decision to frame an unliberated housewife through a kind of ''slow looking''. By choosing to stay with Jeanne in the kitchen, the film both ''differences'' the canon and diverges from Akerman''s liberated early films, which involved the rejection of domestic space, married life and the heterosexual script.Fowler draws on original footage, scripts, unmade and unseen projects, interviews and other documents to painstakingly piece together the making of the film, discovering an alternative origin story which centers upon female alliances, forged through a combination of shared film culture and lived sexism. Those viewers who take up Akerman''s invitation to spend time with Jeanne will find their expectations of cinema are changed. Because more than any other film before or since, it reminds us that we give our time to a film; and in making us look both harder and for longer it asks us to feel time slipping away, for ourselves as much as for its protagonist.