Description
Book SynopsisA bold and original study, this is the first book to examine in detail a new genre which evolved since the 1980s in tandem with shifts in the culture of sexuality and the rise of video - the erotic thriller.
Trade ReviewShe intersperses her wryly provocative analyses of 'suspense in suspenders' or 'cops and copulation' pictures with to-the-point interviews. Williams has graced us with a witty, discerning, elegant, exhaustive study of a byzantine and meaningful genre that is, as she declares in closing, "not'just for the boys'". Much as the release of Fatal Attraction became a cultural event in 1987, the publication of this remarkable book should become an academic event in the fields of cultural studies, film studies and porn studies. The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema makes groundbreaking contributions to the study of popular film genres and to the study of pornography... Williams has demonstrated that the erotic thriller's sex-is-dangerous ehtos had ramifications beyond the frame for industry figures seduced by a risky but lucrative genre and for a culture coping with AIDS and riven by gender wars and porn debates. In the process, she has graced us with an elegant, exhaustive study of a Byzantine "genre certainly not 'just for the boys'" In this comprehensive survey of one of contemporary cinema's most popular genres, Linda Ruth Williams describes Hollywood's coupling of softcore pornography with the narratives of film noir, arguing that an analysis of these hybrid fantasies of the rich and uninhibited can provide us with a history of the desires, excitements and paranoias of the last two decades. From Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction to Naked Obsession and Victim of Desire, Williams provides a roadmap to the exploitation cinema of the video age that is as lively as the movies it describes. -- Richard Maltby, Flinders University, Australia 'She intersperses her wryly provocative analyses of 'suspense in suspenders' or 'cops and copulation' pictures with to-the-point interviews.' - Sight and Sound Book of the Month She intersperses her wryly provocative analyses of 'suspense in suspenders' or 'cops and copulation' pictures with to-the-point interviews. Williams has graced us with a witty, discerning, elegant, exhaustive study of a byzantine and meaningful genre that is, as she declares in closing, "not'just for the boys'". Much as the release of Fatal Attraction became a cultural event in 1987, the publication of this remarkable book should become an academic event in the fields of cultural studies, film studies and porn studies. The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema makes groundbreaking contributions to the study of popular film genres and to the study of pornography... Williams has demonstrated that the erotic thriller's sex-is-dangerous ehtos had ramifications beyond the frame for industry figures seduced by a risky but lucrative genre and for a culture coping with AIDS and riven by gender wars and porn debates. In the process, she has graced us with an elegant, exhaustive study of a Byzantine "genre certainly not 'just for the boys'" In this comprehensive survey of one of contemporary cinema's most popular genres, Linda Ruth Williams describes Hollywood's coupling of softcore pornography with the narratives of film noir, arguing that an analysis of these hybrid fantasies of the rich and uninhibited can provide us with a history of the desires, excitements and paranoias of the last two decades. From Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction to Naked Obsession and Victim of Desire, Williams provides a roadmap to the exploitation cinema of the video age that is as lively as the movies it describes. 'She intersperses her wryly provocative analyses of 'suspense in suspenders' or 'cops and copulation' pictures with to-the-point interviews.' - Sight and Sound Book of the Month
Table of ContentsPreface; 1. Introduction; PART ONE: BLOCKBUSTER THRILLS: EROTIC NOIR IN THE MAINSTREAM; 2. Femmes Fatales, Fall Guys and Paranoid Women: Sexual and Narrative Blueprints; 3. 'Meisters of Porno-Noir': Key Players in the Cinematic Erotic Thriller; PART TWO: SUSPENSE IN SUSPENDERS: THE DIRECT-TO-VIDEO EROTIC THRILLER; 4. Softcore on the Sofa; 5. The Bad and the Beautiful: Key Players in the Direct-to-Video Erotic Thriller; 6. Uncovered and Undercover: Issues in the Direct-to-Video Thriller; Conclusion: The Erotic Thriller's Hybrid Children; Afterword; Bibliography; Filmography.
