Shocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the Modern Horror Film (Film and Culture Series)

273 Pages·2005·3.58 MB·English

by  Adam Lowenstein

SHOCKING REPRESENTATION
FILM AND CULTURE JOHN BELTON, GENERAL EDITOR
This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity in
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Taiwan Film Directors: A Treasure Island
Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh and Darrell William Davis
China on Screen: Cinema and Nation
Chris Berry and Mary Ann Farquhar
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ADAM LOWENSTEIN
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS / NEW YORK
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2005 Adam Lowenstein
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A complete CIP record is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 0–231–13246–8 (cloth)
ISBN 0–231–13247–6 (paper)
Columbia University Press books are printed on
permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Permission has been granted to reprint portions
of this book derived from earlier and shorter essay
versions, as follows:
“Allegorizing Hiroshima: Shindo Kaneto’s Onibaba as
Trauma Text,” in E. Ann Kaplan and Ban Wang, eds., Trau-
ma and Cinema: Cross-Cultural Explorations, 145–61. Hong
Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004.
“Cinema, Benjamin, and the Allegorical Representation
of September 11,” Critical Quarterly 45.1–2 (Spring/Sum-
mer 2003): 73–84. Special issue on September 11, edited by
Colin MacCabe and Nancy Condee.
“ ‘Under-the-Skin Horrors’: Social Realism and Class-
lessness in Peeping Tom and the British New Wave,” in Jus-
tine Ashby and Andrew Higson, eds., British Cinema, Past
and Present, 221–32. London: Routledge, 2000.
“Canadian Horror Made Flesh: Contextualizing David
Cronenberg,” Post Script 18.2 (Winter/Spring 1999): 37–51.
Special issue on Canadian cinema, edited by Barry Keith
Grant.
“Films Without a Face: Shock Horror in the Cinema
of Georges Franju,” Cinema Journal 37.4 (Summer 1998):
37-58.
For my family
and for Irina

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Allegorical Moment 1
CHAPTER 1 FRANCE
History Without a Face: Surrealism,
Modernity, and the Holocaust in the Cinema
of Georges Franju 17
CHAPTER 2 BRITAIN
“Direct Emotional Realism”: The People’s
War, Classlessness, and Michael Powell’s
Peeping Tom 55
CHAPTER 3 JAPAN
Unmasking Hiroshima: Demons, Human
Beings, and Shindo Kaneto’s Onibaba 83
CHAPTER 4 UNITED STATES
“Only a Movie”: Specters of Vietnam in
Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left 111
CHAPTER 5 CANADA
Trauma and Nation Made Flesh:
David Cronenberg and the Foundations of
the Allegorical Moment 145
Afterword: 9/11/01, 8/6/45, Ground Zero 177
Notes 185
Bibliography 221
Index 241

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig. A.1 Deathdream (Bob Clark, 1972) 3
Fig. 1.1 Blood of the Beasts (Georges Franju, 1949) 26
Fig. 1.2 The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959) 41
Fig. 1.3 Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960) 45
Fig. 1.4 Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960) 49
Fig. 2.1 Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960) 62
Fig. 2.2 Room at the Top (Jack Clayton, 1959) 71
Fig. 2.3 Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960) 81
Fig. 3.1 Onibaba (Shindo Kaneto, 1964) 87
Fig. 3.2 Onibaba (Shindo Kaneto, 1964) 90
Fig. 3.3 Record of a Living Being (Kurosawa Akira, 1955) 97
Fig. 3.4 Night and Fog in Japan (Oshima Nagisa, 1960) 106
Fig. 4.1 Advertisement for Last House on the Left
(Wes Craven, 1972) 112
Fig. 4.2 Kent State University (May 4, 1970) 115
Fig. 4.3 Joe (John G. Avildsen, 1970) 117
Fig. 4.4 Advertisement for Last House on the Left
(Wes Craven, 1972) and The Candidate
(Michael Ritchie, 1972) 119
Fig. 4.5 Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972) 121
Fig. 4.6 Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972) 121
Fig. 4.7 Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972) 132
Fig. 4.8 The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960) 138
Fig. 5.1 Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975) 159
Fig. 5.2 Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) 161
Fig. 5.3 On the set of Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996) 166
Fig. 5.4 Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996) 169
Fig. B.1 Cover of Newsweek magazine (March 18, 2002) 179
Fig. B.2 Makeshift 9/11 memorial (December 2001) 181
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