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The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema
 
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The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema [Paperback]

Linda Ruth Williams (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

September 8, 2005

This bold and original book examines in detail a relatively new genre of film—the erotic thriller. Linda Ruth Williams traces the genre's exploitation of pornography and noir, discusses mainstream stars (including Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone) as well as genre-branded direct-to-video stars, charts the work of key producers and directors, and considers home videos as a distinct form of viewing pleasure. She maps the history of the genre, analyzing hundreds of movies from blockbusters such as Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, and In the Cut to straight-to-video film titles such as Carnal Crimes, Sins of Desire, and Night Eyes.

Williams's witty and illuminating readings tell the story of this sensational genre and contribute to the analysis of mainstream screen sex—and its censorship—at the beginning of the 21st century. She shows that as the erotic thriller plays out the sexual fantasies of contemporary America, it also provides a vehicle for marketing those fantasies globally.



Editorial Reviews

Review

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. -- 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 '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.' - Journal of Film and Video, 59.1, Spring 2007, David Andrews '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 ethos 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'"' - The Journal of Popular Culture David Andrews, Independent Scholar, vol 39, no 4, 2006 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 '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.' - Journal of Film and Video, 59.1, Spring 2007, David Andrews '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 ethos 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'"' - The Journal of Popular Culture David Andrews, Independent Scholar, vol 39, no 4, 2006 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Linda Ruth Williams is Senior Lecturer in Film at the University of Southampton. She is author of Sex in the Head: Visions of Femininity and Film in D. H. Lawrence and Critical Desire: Psychoanalysis and the Literary Subject.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Indiana University Press (September 8, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0253218365
  • ISBN-13: 978-0253218360
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,232,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Useful and Highly Entertaining Genre Study, July 17, 2006
This review is from: The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema (Paperback)
A year after its release, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema is as useful and as readable as ever. Linda Ruth Williams's wide-ranging genre study may strike first-time readers--especially those interested in the overlapping fields of Hollywood cinema, cult cinema, and pornographic cinema--as an unprecedented resource. Combining textual and contextual analysis, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema covers the erotic thriller's most important moments, styles, and subgenres, integrating the whole with original industrial research that includes eight filmmaker interviews and a rich array of insider anecdotes. Though her history of the genre is rooted in Hollywood noir and neo-noir, Williams offers a precise account of how this genre has moved from peek-a-boo stylization to full-blown pornography and from high-concept excess to direct-to-video thrift. Williams also offers an account of how the erotic thriller has moved across national borders. As a result, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema is not only a valuable look at Hollywood cinema but one of the best studies of international porn available. Indeed, Williams's book is adept at illustrating how in the erotic thriller the "problem" of pornography intertwines with issues of gender, reception, technology, financing, and cultural status. I was most taken by the details Williams supplied regarding genre-branded celebrities like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, and Joe Eszterhas--and was impressed that she paid equal attention to cult icons like Gregory Dark and Katt Shea. I should also note the grace, clarity, and humor Williams's prose. Williams has written a book that scholars in film studies, sex-and-gender studies, and cultural studies will find indispensable--as well as one that readers with a more leisurely interest in film will find entertaining and accessible.
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