Sean Redmond

In this book the different manifestations, meanings, and processes of the star and celebrity confessional will be explored. The confessional is taken to be any moment in which a star, celebrity, or fan engages in revelatory acts that are considered to be authentic, heart-felt, and honest. These confessional encounters can take place in an interview, through performance and presentation events, online, and in ‘unscripted’ encounters. A star may break down in tears, or reveal a previously unknown truth about their private life. However, this authenticity is often found to have been manufactured, or is timed to occur against a new release or product launch. Alternatively, the desire to confess may be seen to draw attention to the centrality of pseudo forms of emotion in contemporary culture and the obsessional behaviour it produces. In this book authors consider acts of confession by celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, Jade Goody, Britney Spears, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tracey Emin, and Russell Crowe.

The Star and Celebrity Confessional

Su Holmes

'...an often engaging and often insightful book... Among the best pieces in the 29 chapter collection are those by Australian academics Graeme Turner, whose clear and concise chapter "The Economy of Celebrity" illustrates the industrial imperatives of stardom, and Catherine Lumby, who brings the experience of contemporary teen girl fandom to life in "Doing It For Themselves? Teenage Girls, Sexuality and Fame". And Richard de Cordova's chapter on the emergence of the American star system delivers a fascinating analysis of the construction of the celebrity system in movies' - Media International Australia This book brings together some of the seminal interventions which have structured the development of star/celebrity studies, while crucially combining and situating these within the context of new essays which address the contemporary, cross-media and international landscape of today's fame culture. At the core of the collection is a desire to map out a unique historical trajectory - both in terms of the development of fame, as well as the historical development of star/celebrity studies.

A Reader

Stardom and Celebrity

Leon Marvell

Endangering Science Fiction Film explores the ways in which science fiction film is a dangerous and endangering genre. The collection argues that science fiction's cinematic power rests in its ability to imagine ‘Other’ worlds that challenge and disturb the lived conditions of the ‘real’ world, as it is presently known to us. From classic films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris to modern blockbusters including World War Z and Gravity, and directors from David Cronenberg to Alfonso Cuarón, contributors comment on the way science fiction film engages with dangerous encounters, liminal experiences, sublime aesthetics, and untethers space and time to question the very nature of human existence. With the analysis of a diverse range of films from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Endangering Science Fiction Film offers a uniquely interdisciplinary view of the evolving and dangerous sentiments and sensibility of this genre.

Endangering Science Fiction Film

In this remarkable and original book, Sean Redmond examines the issues and themes that are repeatedly found across a range of contemporary science fiction films and television programmes. He argues that they reveal the profound effects the digital age has had on our social lives. Through narratives that feature the 'post-human', genetic engineering and cloning, surveillance and data mining, space and time travel, artificial intelligence, online dating cultures and visions of catastrophe, they portray a world in which the material, and the stable, are being lost to the ever-more volatile and ephemeral idea of 'liquid space'. Redmond examines a wide selection of popular films and TV series such as Gravity, Under the Skin, The Lobster, Children of Men and Doctor Who, to locate how traditional values are being erased in favour of a new liquid modernity. Drawing on an eclectic range of approaches from phenomenology to critical race theory, and from close textual analysis to the revelations of eye-tracking technology, this book is an illuminating account of the digital age through the lens of science fiction.

Science Fiction Film and Television in the Digital Age

Liquid Space

Celebrity introduces the key terms and concepts, dilemmas and issues that are central to the study and critical understanding of celebrity. Drawing on two dynamic models from two different modes of enquiry – the circuit of celebrity culture and the circuit of celebrity affect – this book explores the multi-layered, multi-faceted contexts and concepts that sit within and surround the study of celebrity. Through building a critical story about celebrity, Sean Redmond discusses key topics such as identity and representation; the celebrity body; the consumption of celebrity and celebrity culture; and the sensory connection between fans and celebrities, gender, activism, gossip and toxicity. Including case studies on Miley Cyrus, David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet, Celebrity is a dynamic and topical volume ideal for students and academics in celebrity and cultural studies.

Celebrity

The Cinema of Takeshi Kitano: Flowering Blood is a detailed aesthetic, Deleuzian, and phenomenological exploration of Japan’s finest currently-working film director, performer, and celebrity. The volume uniquely explores Kitano’s oeuvre through the tropes of stillness and movement, becoming animal, melancholy and loss, intensity, schizophrenia, and radical alterity; and through the aesthetic temperatures of color, light, camera movement, performance and urban and oceanic space. In this highly original monograph, all of Kitano’s films are given due consideration, including A Scene at the Sea (1991), Sonatine (1993), Dolls (2002), and Outrage (2010).

Flowering Blood

The Cinema of Takeshi Kitano

"Breaking Down Joker offers a compelling, multi-disciplinary examination of a landmark film and media event that was simultaneously both celebrated and derided, and which arrived at a time of unprecedented social malaise. The collection breaks down Joker to explore its aesthetic and ideological representations within the social and cultural context in which it was released. An international team of authors explore Joker's sightlines and subtexts, the affective relationships, corrosive ideologies and damning if ambivalent messages of this film. The chapters address such themes as white masculinity, identity and perversion, social class and mobility, urban loneliness, movement and music, and questions of reception and activism. With contributions from scholars from screen studies, theatre and performance studies, psychology and psychoanalysis, geography, cultural studies, and sociology, this fully interdisciplinary collection offers a uniquely multiple operational cross-examination of this pivotal film text, and will be of great importance to scholars, students and researchers in these areas"--

Violence, Loneliness, Tragedy

Breaking Down Joker

Breaking Down Joker offers a compelling, multi-disciplinary examination of a landmark film and media event that was simultaneously both celebrated and derided, and which arrived at a time of unprecedented social malaise. The collection breaks down Joker to explore its aesthetic and ideological representations within the social and cultural context in which it was released. An international team of authors explore Joker’s sightlines and subtexts, the affective relationships, corrosive ideologies and damning if ambivalent messages of this film. The chapters address such themes as white masculinity, identity and perversion, social class and mobility, urban loneliness, movement and music, and questions of reception and activism. With contributions from scholars from screen studies, theatre and performance studies, psychology and psychoanalysis, geography, cultural studies and sociology, this fully interdisciplinary collection offers a uniquely multiple operational cross-examination of this pivotal film text, and will be of great importance to scholars, students and researchers in these areas.

Interdisciplinary star study of one of the most iconic Hollywood celebrities of the last thirty-five years.

Starring Tom Cruise

Successful Change Is Always about People

Who Built the Bridge?

Wong Kar-wai's 1994 Chungking Express has quickly been recognised as one of the most important examples of 'World Cinema' in the last two decades. It explores time and desire and, on an allegorical level, the perceived loss of independence that many felt would take place post-1997. Studying Chungking Express considers these historical details but also the key issues of film form, author-ship, representation and identity. Required reading for all those studying contemporary World Cinema or Asian Studies, Studying Chungking Express considers these historical details but also the key issues of film form, author-ship, representation, and identity. In particular: Its central place within the Hong Kong New Wave film movement; its radical film form - notably the cut-and mix play with editing techniques; the signature of Wong Kar-wai as an auteur; the film's representation of the postmodern city; the film's relationship to both Hollywood cinema and European art film.

Studying Chungking Express

Celebrity culture has a pervasive presence in our everyday lives – perhaps more so than ever before. It shapes not simply the production and consumption of media content but also the social values through which we experience the world. This collection analyses this phenomenon, bringing together essays which explore celebrity across a range of media, cultural and political contexts. The authors investigate topics such as the intimacy of fame, political celebrity, stardom in American ‘quality’ television (Sarah Jessica Parker), celebrity 'reality' TV (I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!), the circulation of the porn star, the gallery film (David/David Beckham), the concept of cartoon celebrity (The Simpsons), fandom and celebrity (k.d. lang, *NSYNC), celebrity in the tabloid press, celebrity magazines (heat, Celebrity Skins), the fame of the serial killer and narratives of mental illness in celebrity culture. The collection is organized into four themed sections: Fame Now broadly examines the contemporary contours of fame as they course through new media sites (such as 'reality' TV and the internet) and different social, cultural and political spaces. Fame Body attempts to situate the star or celebrity body at the centre of the production, circulation and consumption of contemporary fame. Fame Simulation considers the increasingly strained relationship between celebrity and artifice and ‘authenticity’. Fame Damage looks at the way the representation of fame is bound up with auto-destructive tendencies or dissolution.

New directions in celebrity culture

Framing Celebrity

Christopher Moore

Toija Cinque

A longstanding, successful and frequently controversial career spanning more than four decades establishes David Bowie as charged with contemporary cultural relevance. That David Bowie has influenced many lives is undeniable to his fans. He requisitions and challenges his audiences, through frequently indirect lyrics and images, to critically question sanity, identity and essentially what it means to be 'us' and why we are here. Enchanting David Bowie explores David Bowie as an anti-temporal figure and argues that we need to understand him across the many media platforms and art spaces he intersects with including theatre, film, television, the web, exhibition, installation, music, lyrics, video, and fashion. This exciting collection is organized according to the key themes of space, time, body, and memory - themes that literally and metaphorically address the key questions and intensities of his output.

Space/Time/Body/Memory

Enchanting David Bowie

"Acts as a concise introduction to the study of both contemporary and historical stardom and celebrity. Collecting together in one source companion an easily accessible range of readings surrounding stardom and celebrity culture, this book is a worthwhile addition to any library." - Kerry Gough, Birmingham City University "Absolutely wonderful. The inclusion of seminal works and more recent works makes this a very valuable read." - Beschara Karam, University of South Africa "An engaging and often insightful book." - Media International Australia This book brings together some of the seminal interventions which have structured the development of stardom and celebrity studies, while crucially combining and situating these within the context of new essays which address the contemporary, cross-media and international landscape of today's fame culture. From Max Weber, Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes to Catherine Lumby, Chris Rojek and Graeme Turner. At the core of the collection is a desire to map out a unique historical trajectory - both in terms of the development of fame, as well as the historical development of the field.

Built from stories and memories shared by self-defined David Bowie fans, this book explores how Bowie existed as a figure of renewal and redemption, resonating in particular with those marginalized by culture and society. Sean Redmond and Toija Cinque draw on personal interviews, memorabilia, diaries, letters, communal gatherings and shared conversation to find out why Bowie mattered so much to the fans that idolized him. Contextualising the identification streams that have emerged around David Bowie, the book highlights his remarkable influence.

Everyone Says "Hi"

The Fandom of David Bowie

P. David Marshall

Companion to Celebrity presents a multi-disciplinary collection of original essays that explore myriad issues relating to the origins, evolution, and current trends in the field of celebrity studies. Offers a detailed, systematic, and clear presentation of all aspects of celebrity studies, with a structure that carefully build its enquiry Draws on the latest scholarly developments in celebrity analyses Presents new and provocative ways of exploring celebrity’s meanings and textures Considers the revolutionary ways in which new social media have impacted on the production and consumption of celebrity

A Companion to Celebrity

Sean Redmond excavates the many significances of Blade Runner (1982): its breakthrough use of special effects as a narrative tool; its revolutionary representation of the future city; its treatment of racial and sexual politics; and its unique status as a text whose meaning was fundamentally altered in its re-released forms.

Blade Runner

Deborah Jermyn

Kathryn Bigelow has undoubtedly been one of Hollywood's most significant female players, well known in popular terms for films such as Point Break and Blue Steel, yet relatively unexplored in academia. This collection explores how Bigelow can be seen to provide a point of intersection to a whole range of issues at the forefront of contemporary film studies and of the transformation of Hollywood into a post-classical cinema machine, with a particular emphasis on her most ambitious and controversial picture, Strange Days.

Sean Redmond

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