Thriller

The application of new media to 21st-century novels is the trigger of emerging narrative genres, which revolutionize the narrative panorama and leave space for innovative conceptual approaches. The influence of popular new media creates original circumstances for the development of new kinds of interaction between the storytelling and the reader/spectator, accentuating the rising need for social, multimedia engagements. The newest concepts and approaches of the emerging, wide fields of transmediality and intermediality in transmedial narratives are objects of the handbook ‘Fictions of the Internet’. From Intermediality to Transmedia Storytelling in 21st-Century Novels (2018) by Anna Weigel-Heller.

The New Korean Cinema has a direct translation into the programming and structure of the Sitges Film Festival since its emergence in the late nineties. The figures show how in a very short period of time Korean cinematography acquires a progressive visibility until reaching unsuspected levels. For its part, the Sitges Film Festival finds in Korean cinematography unclassifiable images that allow it to explore some of the tropes characteristic of its identity: the taste for cinematographic genrr, the representation of violence from heterodox perspectives and, finally, the black humor as a distancing mechanism. Our starting hypothesis is that all these elements condition the reception process of the New Korean Cinema, building a certain paratext that will have a strong influence on the reception process of this cinematography. To make our argument, we first address what and how the evolution of the contest has been since the beginning of the movement; second, we take as a corpus of analysis the most relevant South Korean thrillers that have been part of the program of the contest in order to determine and define its thematic and aesthetic axes; and in the third and last place, we compare these results with the reception of the films both by the critics and with those tropes from which the identity that defines the Sitges Film Festival has been sedimented.

This essay considers the aesthetic and cultural importance of the slow, contemplative thriller in contemporary world cinema. While the thriller genre tends to be associated completely with the mainstream—and thus with action-oriented rhythms and Hitchcockian paradigms of suspense—there are alternative tendencies in global art cinema that relish more dilatory time schemes, more minimalist mise en scène, and more meditative atmospheres. Surveying multiple national and transnational contexts, this essay explores how the slow thriller functions as key manifestation of global art cinema’s evolving hybridity and impurity. Looking at films such as Bruno Dumont’s L’humanité (1999) and Lee Chang-dong’s Burning (2018), this essay shows how the slow arthouse thriller stages a dialogue with popular cinema while practicing suspense by other, more pensive means. The fate of the slow thriller in today’s shifting media landscape, in which digital streaming has become the primary locus of film viewing, is also considered. David Lynch’s television series Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) is discussed as a slow, contemplative thriller that renegotiates the place and function of the arthouse theater.

This article provides a stylistic examination of Sidney Lumet's thriller Deathtrap (1982), analyzing how its strategies of staging and performance generate narrational effects of suspense and surprise. It argues that Lumet anchors these performative strategies to a broad authorial program grounded in expressive subtlety; as such, Lumet's film reminds us of a waning tradition of US filmmaking in which stylistic ingenuity resides at the denotative and expressive (rather than the decorative or parametric) levels of stylistic discourse. The article treats Lumet's stylistic choices as creative solutions to a distinctive set of aesthetic problems. It canvasses-and identifies the functions of-the motivic staging schemas patterned throughout Deathtrap; and it illuminates how these schemas, actuated by star players, shape the viewer's cognitive uptake in substantive ways.

This paper will address Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta’s The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) together with Walter Benjamin’s “Critique of Violence” – and its interpretation by Slavoj Žižek in Violence – in order to explore the concepts of mythic and divine violence within the film. First, I will explore the “law-preserving” and “law-making” powers of the state exerted by both the police and, more importantly, the press in the film as forms of mythic violence, which suggest a rapport between Benjamin’s text and Althusser’s well-known concepts of repressive and ideological state apparatus. I will furthermore attempt to approach this question at the level of genre: in the melodramatic excesses of Schlöndorff and Trotta’s film, I will suggest – via Thomas Elsaesser’s genealogy of melodrama in “Tales of Sound and Fury” – that it is possible to discern the functioning of mythic violence as the sudden reversals of fortune and egregious suffering that are fundamental to the genre. I will then ask whether, through Katharina’s acts of resistance and final, murderous outburst, the film could open up a potential space for divine violence. If – as Benjamin and Žižek suggest – it cannot be objectively defined, then can Katharina Blum at least point to the possibility for divine violence as, in Žižek’s terms, the counter violence to the excess of state power? By offering us, as spectators, a moment where we sympathise with – if not actively urge – the murder of Katharina’s tormentor, the tabloid hack and agent of institutional oppression, Werner Tötges, might the film place us in a position (as we could speculate did Katharina) to “wrestle with [the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”] in solitude and (…) to take upon [ourselves] the responsibility of ignoring it”?

Noel Calefs  Kriminalroman "L’Ascenseur pour l’échafaud" (1956) hat sich durch die gleichnamige Verfilmung von Louis Malle  (1958) sowie die im Auftrag des SWR produzierte Hörspieladaption von Walter Adler (1999) zu einem Medienverbund entwickelt.
Dieser Medienverbund bildet den Gegenstand der folgenden Untersuchung. Hierbei stehen für das Noir-Genre typische Elemente, Motive und Figurenzeichnungen im Zentrum der Überlegungen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern Motive des Noirs wie Entfremdung, Einsamkeit und Angst sowie menschliche Abgründe wie Mord, Eifersucht und Egoismus in den Literaturunterricht integriert werden können.

The process of spectator’s engagement with the character is one of the most multidimensional studies in film theory. In his study on the character engagement, Murray Smith states that: ‘Characters are salient elements of narrative structure, but we should never lose sight of the fact that characters are, nevertheless, parts of larger structures’. (Smith, 1995, 74) By using the example of We Need to Talk About Kevin, an adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s (2003) famous homonymous novel, this essay will closely study the phenomenon of perverse allegiance through the prism of the ‘structure of sympathy’ theory, and discuss, to what extent perverse allegiance can be regarded as an aspect of character engagement and ‘identification’.

Основной вопрос, на который отвечает автор статьи: возможно ли существование постмодернистского детектива в ситуации жанрового и стилевого плюрализма? Какие основные различия постмодернистского детектива от классических образцов жанра, возникших в эпистемологическом поле модернистской культуры? На примере функции "переписывания" (réécriture) показаны пути жанровой трансформации от классического детектива к постмодернистскому в разных национальных литературах.

Der Beitrag untersucht die visuelle Tiefenstruktur von Jonathan Demmes Film Das Schweigen der Lämmer. Er analysiert die subtile Kameraarbeit des Thrillers und deutet sie als Reflektion über die Möglichkeiten des Blickens. Die verschiedenen Modi des Sehens sind nicht Selbstzweck, sondern zielen auf Spannungssteigerung wie auf Verunsicherung des Betrachters. Dabei bedient sich der Film einer surrealen Bildsprache, die er gleichermaßen durch den Rückgriff auf berühmte Vorbilder der Bildenden Kunst, als auch durch die spezifisch filmischen Möglichkeiten der Montage erzielt. So wird es ihm möglich, die Abgründe des "Normalen" spürbar werden zu lassen.

This paper examines the visual depth structure of Jonathan Demme's film The Silence of the Lambs. It analyzes the subtle camera work of the thriller and interprets it as a reflection on the possibilities of looking. The different modes of seeing are not an end in themselves, but aim to increase tension as well as to unsettle the viewer. In doing so, the film uses a surreal visual language, which it achieves both through recourse to famous models of the visual arts and through the specifically cinematic possibilities of montage. This enables him to make the abysses of the "normal" tangible.

The following essay considers some of the consequences of Sebeok and Eco’s The Sign of Three (1983) for the broad history of the thriller, for the theory of genre, and in terms of an investigation of the relations between genre and subjectivity. It is not a fully worked-out history of the thriller and fictional detection in light of the scholarship concerned with abduction. Rather, it is a mere sketch of how such a history might look. It attempts to cast some light on the process of generic canon-building. It also poses a relation between the growth of ‘social paranoia’ in the history and cultural growth of the thriller and the general phenomenon of ‘anxiety’ which is pivotal to the biosemiotic foundations of what has been called by Sebeok (1979) and others (e.g. Wiley 1994) the ‘semiotic self’.

El giallo es un subgénero cinematográfico nacido en Italia a principios de los años sesenta. Aunque el cuerpo principal de películas que lo componen se desarrolló durante esa década y la siguiente, su influencia permanece vigente en muchas realizaciones contemporáneas. Originalmente tributario de la literatura pulp italiana, publicada desde 1923 por la editorial Mondadori, a través de novelas baratas de cubierta amarilla (de ahí giallo: amarillo en italiano), el giallo integró tradiciones del terror, el misterio y el policial, creando nuevos rumbos estéticos para el cine a través de una concepción principalmente estilística, fuertemente atravesada por las claves culturales de la época: la revolución sexual, la youth culture, el exploitation, el fenómeno fashion, la psicodelia, el pop y op art. Con la edición de este libro, se procura realizar un aporte al conocimiento, la difusión y el análisis del giallo, corriente de gran prestigio cinéfilo e interés de culto, que hasta el momento cuenta con escasa bibliografía en castellano. Los textos que componen el volumen exploran sus distintos antecedentes, su vínculo con la literatura policial, su particular abordaje de la violencia y la sexualidad, su retrato de los estados alterados de conciencia y el universo onírico, sus diferentes etapas y proyecciones, su impacto en el cine norteamericano de género, y los recursos fotográficos y de montaje que han sido centrales para su desarrollo estilístico.

Joe Hill, one of King's three children, writes thrillers with a softly disquieting supernatural edge. In this case, it is not that soft because we are speaking of three boys becoming men who were and are, have been in one or two word(s) horny stiff lioke a triad or trinity of devils, and all of them three for the same girl. Fascinating, As You Like It, and yet Much Ado For Quite A Lot of Blood. But between th'ese three horny pricks a whole bunch or basket of snakes come up to disrupt the pleasure with hissing sizzling slithering.

Se hace un resumen y una crítica de las nuevas formas empresariales, totalmente, inhumanas, que acuden al acoso laboral para hacer dimitir a trabajadores fieles a la empresa; pero, que ya les resultan obsoletos, hasta llevarlos al suicidio una magnífica cinta de Nicolas Silhol, una nueva esperanza para la cinematografía francesa.

“Rape—real, threatened, or implied—has been a staple of American cinema more or less from the beginning.” This hard-to-swallow statement opens the section ‘Rape Revenge’ in Carol J. Clover’s ground-breaking book Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (1992). In the thirty years that have passed since its release much has happened, including the #MeToo movement and reckoning in Hollywood that has challenged and changed the ways women’s bodies and violence towards those bodies is portrayed.

Crimes, investigations, questions, surprises and emotions. Let’s dive into this world with Raymond Reddington (James Spader) who will take us on a journey full of mystery and excitement. The Blacklist, is a typical American crime thriller network series of the 21st century, premiered on NBC on September 23 in 2013. In this paper, I will be analyzing the narrative structure of Joen Bokenkamp’s creation, its progression and evolution throughout the first season only. Narrative complexity, dominant types and styles has changed by the time, so this series does not present an exception of its generation. However it offers plenty of interesting points to talk about and a rich structure to analyze.

Al giorno d’oggi vi sono nella cultura diversi “Uomini della sabbia” nati come riscritture del racconto del 1817 Der Sandmann di E.T.A. Hoffmann. Ognuno di essi presenta sia analogie con il testo originario dell’autore tedesco, sia differenze che rendono ogni riscrittura un’opera unica. Nel mio elaborato di tesi mi sono chiesta come la rappresentazione di questo personaggio si fosse trasformata attraverso le riscritture, in particolar modo in quelle di Neil Gaiman, Paul Berry e Lars Kepler. Ho prima di tutto analizzato la novella hoffmanniana soffermandomi sui temi più strettamente collegati a Sandmann che sono risultati essere il trauma, il motivo del doppio, la perdita degli occhi e l’automa. Più di tutti gli altri sono stati l’ambiguità e il senso del perturbante che Hoffmann ha legato a questo personaggio a costituire il motivo della nascita delle decine e decine di riscritture esistenti oggi.
Come prima cosa ho ricercato questi stessi elementi nelle riscritture, individuando così le principali analogie o differenze tra i testi. Ho inoltre analizzato criticamente e con particolare attenzione la rappresentazione fisica e psicologica dell’Uomo della sabbia. La prima riscrittura, The Sandman di Gaiman, è stata scelta per il successo che ha avuto negli anni ’90 e soprattutto poiché si tratta di una riscrittura letteraria di genere fumettistico che in quanto tale unisce due codici comunicativi: la parola e l’immagine. Qui l’Uomo della sabbia è Sogno, una divinità che governa il mondo onirico e che alla fine della vicenda sceglie di rinunciare alla propria immortalità per adottare la condizione umana mortale. The Sandman (1992) di Berry è invece una riscrittura di tipo transmediale poiché si tratta di un cortometraggio d’animazione in stop-motion che sfrutta le caratteristiche del mezzo audiovisivo per far conoscere l’omonimo personaggio a grandi e piccini. Il regista inglese mostra solo una breve porzione della novella hoffmanniana, quella ripresa dalla leggenda della tradizione orale nordeuropea, recuperando con la massima attenzione tutti i dettagli dell’autore tedesco. Ciononostante la riscrittura di Berry non manca di originalità: Sandmann è qui una creatura ibrida metà uomo e metà uccello.
L’ultima riscrittura scelta è invece il thriller psicologico Sandmannen dello svedese Lars Kepler dove l’intellektuelle Unsicherheit (Freud, 1919) del racconto di Hoffmann si risolve in un giallo sociale. In questo caso l’Uomo della sabbia è Jurek Walter, un criminale e paziente di un ospedale psichiatrico con un’infanzia segnata dall’immigrazione clandestina insieme al padre e al fratello gemello che si è conclusa drammaticamente.
In conclusione, ciò che emerge dalla mia analisi delle riscritture è quanto da una parte i temi presenti nel testo di Hoffmann siano talmente intrinsechi nel personaggio da non poter essere trascurati, dall’altra però ogni autore attribuisce nuovi messaggi al personaggio mantenendolo sempre attuale.

This paper contends that Junot Diaz's Pulitzer Prize-winning first novel, while thematising “SF” and other “nerd genres” plenty, is a complex work that mixes a playful, postmodern variation of magical realism with the narrative techniques of the thriller and of the family saga in a McOndoist setting. While often referring critically to Dominican Republic history and culture since the days of Trujillo's dictatorhip, the novel's foremost achievement and appeal is to offer a new language, a creolized Spanglish of the Dominican diaspora in the USA, and a new irreverent literary style that might be called "hip neo-baroque".

In his article "Into the cinema? Yuppie nights, innocent noirball and new classicism" Mariusz Koryciński describes several movements in 1980s cinema that are similar, yet differently named by various scholars. He emphasizes that many productions which are included into those movements – like, for instance, "Into the Night" by John Landis and "After Hours" by Martin Scorsese – are similar not only in terms of their main character, a yuppie, but also in terms of their references to the history of cinema and a plot which takes place at night. In this context, the author refers to two Polish works: "Ćma" ("The Moth") by Tomasz Zygadło and "Nocna korekta" ("Nighttime Prooffing"), an unfilmed novel by Jolanta Słobodzian and Marek Kreutz. Koryciński also wonders whether the movies that he describes reflect – as some commentators claim – the crises of the period in which they were made. For this purpose, he refers to productions from other decades of the 20th century ("La Strada", "Ewa chce spać", "La Notte", "Eyes Wide Shut"), comparing their reception with the reception of the movements from the 1980s which he analyzes. Next, by referring to the crime novel "Drugie Dno" ("Hidden Meaning") by Dominik Damian, he combines the basic motifs, proposing a new interpretation of cinema at that time in terms of the notion of film classicism.

Questo è un estratto della mia tesi di dottorato sulla rappresentazione estetica della violenza nel
cinema di Dario Argento. In questo paragrafo scrivo della rappresentazione del trauma nel film
Profondo Rosso. Il trauma e la sua rappresentazione sono due elementi chiavi nel discorso
estetico sulla rappresentazione della violenza, sia nel cinema di Dario Argento che in tutto il
cinema a seguire. Nell´estratto troverete alcuni richiami a dei paragrafi precedenti, che presto
metterò online.

L'articolo vuole, in modo breve e ricognitivo, mettere un po' di ordine sulla questione circa il cinema spagnolo contemporaneo, spesso bistrattato e maldestramente marginalizzato da critica e pubblico. Dagli anni novanta all'attualità (2017), l'articolo mette in rassegna titoli, registi, attori, generi, tendenze e forme estetiche per confermare la vivacità, la pluralità, la polifonia e il coraggio del cinem spagnolo.

Vertigo est étudié comme un avatar du film noir qui devient un woman's film et un thriller psychologique. Le rôle de la femme évolue en conséquence : de femme fatale, elle accède à la position de sujet de désir, mais c'est au final sa situation de victime qui domine.

Il saggio analizza le forme e le funzioni assunte dalle figure del fantastico all'interno della coming-of-age story, con particolare attenzione all'ambito italiano rappresentato da alcuni romanzi di Niccolò Ammaniti, Eraldo Baldini, Michele Mari, Pierpaolo Vettori.  /  This paper examines the forms and functions of the ‘Fantastic’ within the coming-of-age story, with special focus on the Italian context represented by the novels of Niccolò Ammaniti, Eraldo Baldini, Michele Mari and Pierpaolo Vettori.

Se hace un análisis de la película predecesora de "La seducción" de Sofía Coppola, de Don Siegel, con Clint Eastwood, en la que se estrena como actor de carácter y Geraldine Page, donde se muestra una tragedia a puerta cerrada, donde el infierno son los demás, en medio de una moral de la ambigüedad.