Volume XXXII:2

This article proposes that filmic colors be analysed in the context of the dialectical relationships they entertain with other colors. It argues that the color red constitutes a special case inasmuch as its self-foregrounding power often leads filmmakers to set up a dialectic not with another color but with one or more of the equally strong fundamental hues that are black and white. The article examines this 'monochrome-color' dialectic in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors: Red, Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert and Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers, arguing that it has implications for the cultural gendering of color. It concludes, for purposes of comparison, by examining the significant dialectic of red and a color, yellow, in Kieslowski's The Double Life of Véronique.

Mike Leigh's High Hopes has remained a litmus test to which many commentators return to assess Leigh’s controversial position as a social and political critic. This paper returns to High Hopes in an attempt to complicate previous critical responses and interrogate some of the categories that the film appears to take for granted. Thematically, High Hopes offers a conflicted critique of Thatcherite dogma, but it is precisely this ambivalence that ensures the film’s continued relevance. Vacillating between contempt and complicity in its critique of Thatcherite principles, High Hopes ultimately seeks resolution in uncertainty, a contradiction finally reflected in the cinematic apparatus itself, in the power of the camera simultaneously to reify the "real" and to insist on its artificiality.

This essay offers a taxonomy of 1980s-1990s Hollywood action films called the "hardbody genre." It focuses on the narrative importance of the hero's body, one that is fetishized for its hard and sculpted muscularity. After tracing the history of the genre, the essay offers a narrative framework within which to categorize the individual texts, using Kickboxer, First Blood, and Predator as examples of three primary subgenres. It concludes with an analysis of the genre's major conventions, themes, visual motifs, and evolution to the present day.

This essay investigates Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005), focusing on a
pivotal scene in which the director listens to the aural
evidence of Timothy Treadwell and Amy Hugenard's deaths. Never playing
the footage for us yet always alluding to its existence, Herzog
mingles two theoretical veins: realist-theory and
sound-theory. The scene fascinates because of the
complex interactions between these two modes of discourse
(and perhaps a third related discourse from psychoanalysis).

Home Current Issue Back Issues News & Notes Subscribe Contact Us Editorial Board Archives Links	Paul Coates On the Dialectics of Filmic Colors (in general) and Red (in particular): Three Colors: Red, Red Desert, Cries and Whispers, and The Double Life of Veronique Paul Coates is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Western Ontario. HIs publications include The Story of Lost Reflection (1985), The Double and the Other (1988), The Gorgon's Gaze (1991), Lucid Dreams: The Films of Krzysztof Kieslowski (ed.) (1999), Cinema, Religion, and the Romantic Legacy (2003) and The Red and The White: The Cinema of People's Poland (2005). He is currently working on a book on color. Miguel Mota Mike Leigh's High Hopes: Troubling Home in Thatcher's Britain Miguel Mota is Assitant Professor in the Department of English at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He has published The Cinema of Malcolm Lowry (with Paul Tiessen) as well as numerous articles on Lowry, Derek Jarman, Jeanette Winterson, John King, and others. He is currently finishing a book on the status of screenplays within print culture. Drew Ayers Bodies, Bullets, and Bad Guys: Elements of Hardbody Film Drew Ayers is pursuing a PhD in the Department of Communication (Moving Image Studies) at Georgia State University. His research interests include the theorization of emotions and genre, depictions of the body, and visual culture. David T. Johnson "You Must Never Listen to This": Lessons on Sound, Cinema, and Mortality from Herzog's Grizzly Man David T. Johnson is Assistant Professor of English at Salisbury University, where he teaches courses in film studies and adaptation. He is also the co-editor of Literature/Film Quarterly.	This article proposes that filmic colors be analysed in the context of the dialectical relationships they entertain with other colors. It argues that the color red constitutes a special case inasmuch as its self-foregrounding power often leads filmmakers to set up a dialectic not with another color but with one or more of the equally strong fundamental hues that are black and white. The article examines this 'monochrome-color' dialectic in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors: Red, Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert and Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers, arguing that it has implications for the cultural gendering of color. It concludes, for purposes of comparison, by examining the significant dialectic of red and a color, yellow, in Kieslowski's The Double Life of Véronique. Mike Leigh's High Hopes has remained a litmus test to which many commentators return to assess Leigh’s controversial position as a social and political critic. This paper returns to High Hopes in an attempt to complicate previous critical responses and interrogate some of the categories that the film appears to take for granted. Thematically, High Hopes offers a conflicted critique of Thatcherite dogma, but it is precisely this ambivalence that ensures the film’s continued relevance. Vacillating between contempt and complicity in its critique of Thatcherite principles, High Hopes ultimately seeks resolution in uncertainty, a contradiction finally reflected in the cinematic apparatus itself, in the power of the camera simultaneously to reify the "real" and to insist on its artificiality. This essay offers a taxonomy of 1980s-1990s Hollywood action films called the "hardbody genre." It focuses on the narrative importance of the hero's body, one that is fetishized for its hard and sculpted muscularity. After tracing the history of the genre, the essay offers a narrative framework within which to categorize the individual texts, using Kickboxer, First Blood, and Predator as examples of three primary subgenres. It concludes with an analysis of the genre's major conventions, themes, visual motifs, and evolution to the present day. This essay investigates Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005), focusing on a pivotal scene in which the director listens to the aural evidence of Timothy Treadwell and Amy Hugenard's deaths. Never playing the footage for us yet always alluding to its existence, Herzog mingles two theoretical veins: realist-theory and sound-theory. The scene fascinates because of the complex interactions between these two modes of discourse (and perhaps a third related discourse from psychoanalysis).


	Book Reviews Warren Buckland, Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster by Fred A. Holliday II Lester D. Friedman, Citizen Speilberg by Fred A. Holliday II Nigel Morris, The Cinema of Steven Speilberg: Empire of Light by Fred A. Holliday II Kenneth W. Harrow, Postcolonial African Cinema: From Political Engagement to Postmodernism by Gerd Bayer David Murphy and Patrick Williams Postcolonial African Cinema: Ten Directors by Gerd Bayer	Festivals The 58th Berlin Film Festival, 2008 by Gerd Gemünden


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