Stella Hockenhull – författare

This book examines the ways in which the house appears in films and the modes by which it moves beyond being merely a backdrop for action. Specifically, it explores the ways that domestic spaces carry inherent connotations that filmmakers exploit to enhance meanings and pleasures within film. Rather than simply examining the representation of the house as national symbol, auteur trait, or in terms of genre, contributors study various rooms in the domestic sphere from an assortment of time periods and from a diversity of national cinemas—from interior spaces in ancient Rome to the Chinese kitchen, from the animated house to the metaphor of the armchair in film noir.

This book focuses on the output of women film directors in the period post Millennium when the number of female directors working within the film industry rose substantially. Despite the fact that nationally and internationally women film directors are underrepresented within the industry, there is a wealth of talent currently working in Britain. During the early part of the 2000s, the UKFC instigated policies and strategies for gender equality and since then the British Film Institute has continued to encourage diversity. British Women Directors in the New Millennium therefore examines the production, distribution and exhibition of female directors’ work in light of policy. The book is divided into two sections: part one includes a historical background of women directors working in the twentieth century before discussing the various diversity funding opportunities available since 2000. The second part of the book examines the innovation, creativity and resourcefulness of British female film directors, as well as the considerable variety of films that they produce, selecting specific examples for analysis in the process.

This book focuses on the output of women film directors in the period post Millennium when the number of female directors working within the film industry rose substantially. Despite the fact that nationally and internationally women film directors are underrepresented within the industry, there is a wealth of talent currently working in Britain. During the early part of the 2000s, the UKFC instigated policies and strategies for gender equality and since then the British Film Institute has continued to encourage diversity. British Women Directors in the New Millennium therefore examines the production, distribution and exhibition of female directors’ work in light of policy. The book is divided into two sections: part one includes a historical background of women directors working in the twentieth century before discussing the various diversity funding opportunities available since 2000. The second part of the book examines the innovation, creativity and resourcefulness of British female film directors, as well as the considerable variety of films that they produce, selecting specific examples for analysis in the process.

This book examines the ways in which the house appears in films and the modes by which it moves beyond being merely a backdrop for action. Specifically, it explores the ways that domestic spaces carry inherent connotations that filmmakers exploit to enhance meanings and pleasures within film. Rather than simply examining the representation of the house as national symbol, auteur trait, or in terms of genre, contributors study various rooms in the domestic sphere from an assortment of time periods and from a diversity of national cinemas—from interior spaces in ancient Rome to the Chinese kitchen, from the animated house to the metaphor of the armchair in film noir.

Tim Burton is an internationally celebrated director, critically acclaimed for his fantasy horror films and the macabre ghosts, animated corpses and grotesques that inhabit them. This innovative study centres on the body as a centripetal force in Burton’s work and considers the array of anomalous, extraordinary and transgressive beings that pervade his canon. It broadens the focus of living forms to include animated, creaturely, corporeal and Gothic bodies, exploring the way that Burton celebrates the body – whether human, animal, animated or anthropomorphised. In prioritising the somatic aspects of characters, Tim Burton’s Bodies spotlights actual physical attributes and behaviour, and considers what meanings these may impart in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, humanimality and disability.

Offers a novel, body-centric approach to Burton's films that provides a distinctive way to consider his filmmakingExplores unique technical personnel perspectives into creative processes of Corpse Bride that enhances knowledge about Burton as a filmmaker, and provides previously undocumented facts about the filmIncludes a range of theoretical approaches, drawn from psychoanalysis, philosophy, animal studies, aesthetics, feminism and representationProvides a multidisciplinary approach with inclusion of animal studies' expertise that illuminates different strategies for analysing characters/bodiesExamines works including The Jar that are little explored and which will extend knowledge of Burton's canonProvides up-to-date research including Burton's most recent film Dumbo (2019)Tim Burton is an internationally celebrated director, critically acclaimed for his fantasy horror films and the macabre ghosts, animated corpses and grotesques that inhabit them. This innovative study centres on the body as a centripetal force in Burton's work and considers the array of anomalous, extraordinary and transgressive beings that pervade his canon. It broadens the focus of living forms to include animated, creaturely, corporeal and Gothic bodies, exploring the way that Burton celebrates the body - whether human, animal, animated or anthropomorphised.In prioritising the somatic aspects of characters, Tim Burton's Bodies spotlights actual physical attributes and behaviour, and considers what meanings these may impart in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, humanimality and disability.

The contemporary study of film is dominated by narrative theory - yet films include scenes and images which do not perform a narrative task but nevertheless provoke an emotional response. Stella Hockenhull looks at the painterly dimensions inherent in the medium of film, arguing that an aesthetic analysis enables a fuller appreciation of the visual 'spectacle' of cinema. In a reading of the formal aspects in film imagery in contemporary British films spanning social realist, melodrama and horror genres, Hockenhull demonstrates how the spiritual aspects of landscape and nature mobilise a Neo-Romantic effect. She traces the influence of Romanticism and notions of the Sublime in key British films including Sweet Sixteen, The Queen, Ratcatcher, Eden Lake, 28 Days Later, My Summer of Love and The Last Great Wilderness. Operating at the intersection between film theory, art theory and aesthetics, this is a vital contribution which enables a fuller, multidimensional understanding of cinematic experience.