Realism and the Audiovisual Media

This collection examines two recent phenomena: the return of realist tendencies and practices in world cinema and television, and the 'rehabilitation' of realism in film and media theory. The contributors investigate these two phenomena in detail, querying their origins, relations, divergences and intersections from a variety of perspectives.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction PART I: THEORIZING REALISM World Cinema: Realism, Evidence, Presence; T. Elsaesser Whither Realism? Bazin Reconsidered; L. Grist On Brecht, Realism and the Media; M. Silberman Melodrama as Realism in Italian Neorealism; L. Bayman Scale and the Negotiation of 'Real' and 'Unreal' Space in the Cinema; M. A. Doane PART II: WORLD CINEMA AND NEW REALISMS Realism and Gus Van Sant's Elephant ; A. Rogers Observational Realism in Taiwan New Cinema; M-Y. T. Rawnsley Realism and National Identity in Y Tu Mamá También : An Audience Perspective; A. De La Garza A Journey through Time: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark and Theories of Mimesis; V. Strukov PART III: THE REALISM OF THE MEDIUM Realism, Real Sex and Experimental Cinema: Mediating Eroticism in Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye ; B. Johnson Breath Control: The Sound and Sight of Respiration as Hyper-Realist Corporeality in Breaking the Waves ; D. Quinlivan Ontology, Film and the Case of Eric Rohmer; J. Leigh Up the Junction : Ken Loach and TV Realism; C. Mello PART IV: DOCUMENTARY, TV AND THE ETHICS OF REPRESENTATION Filmmaking as the Production of Reality A Study of Hara and Kobayashi's Documentaries; L. Nagib Character Construction in Brazilian Documentary Films: Modern Cinema, Classical Narrative and Micro-Realism; I. Xavier The Difficulty with Documentary; J. M. Salles Losing Grip on Reality A Reflection on British Factual Television; D. Myers Notes Bibliography Index