Description
Book Synopsis''He wanted to move in and out of the various signature styles of all these genres_Western, melodrama, thriller, horror,'' said cinematographer Robert Richardson of Quentin Tarantino''s goals in making Kill Bill: Vols. 1 & 2. Through close readings of work by major U.S. filmmakers such as Tarantino, David Lynch, Errol Morris, Todd Haynes, and Joel and Ethan Coen, Hollywood Hybrids studies provocative, disorienting strategies of genre mixing in contemporary cinema. The book also investigates foreign parallels to U.S. hybrid cinema in films by such directors as Pedro Almod-var (Spain) and Stephen Chow (Hong Kong). Rather than explore genre primarily from the standpoint of movie critics, producers, marketers, and spectators, Hollywood Hybrids focuses on genre mixing as a key creative interest motivating celebrated filmmakers. The book thus relates genre to auteur theory. Hollywood Hybrids also links recent hybrid cinema to earlier instances of hybrid form in film and other arts, including painting, music, literature, and architecture. The book concludes that hybrid films allude not only to multiple films and genres, but also to hybrid features of consciousness and identity that increasingly heighten as well as complicate human experience.
Trade ReviewJaffe looks at film with scrupulous intelligence and provides revelatory frame-by-frame formal analyses. At the same time, he places these films and their directors in the broadest social, historical, and aesthetic contexts. . . . After reading this book, you'll view all films with greater clarity, and with deeper appreciation of the art and magic of filmmaking. -- Peter Walch, University of New Mexico
Anyone who wants to understand . . . more about the cutting edge of contemporary artistic creativity will find that Jaffe gives definition to what we are living through in some of our most dynamic cinematic moments. -- Allan Casebier, Emeritus Faculty, University of Southern California
Jaffe demonstrates the 'both/and' nature of our cultural reality and . . . the importance of dialogue—in this case dialogue between the interdisciplinary nature of the past century's avant-garde practices and how they have played out . . . in Hollywood films that are not only popular, but artistically important as well. -- Christopher Shultis, University of New Mexico
An engaging, adventurous study that seeks to break down the boundaries of genre—precisely, in short, as Hollywood is doing today. This interesting book could also serve as a text for a survey course on film genre. Recommended. * CHOICE *
Jaffe's prose is elegant and easily accessible, recapturing the delicate art of film analysis at its finest. -- Eric Patrick, Northwestern University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 1 Fact and Fiction Chapter 3 2 Gangster and Warrior Chapter 4 3 Melodrama and Teen Romance Chapter 5 4 Tragicomic Accidents Chapter 6 5 Global Parallels Chapter 7 Bibliography Chapter 8 Selected Filmography
