The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor (Directors' Cuts)

Description

Kathryn Bigelow has undoubtedly been one of Hollywood's most significant female filmmakers, well known in popular terms for films such as "Point Break" and "Blue Steel", yet she remains relatively unexplored in academia. Soundbites about women and guns and speculation about the role of ex-husband James Cameron ("Aliens", "Titanic") in her career have often helped obscure rather than elucidate an understanding of her work and reputation. This collection explores how Bigelow can be seen to provide a point of intersection across a whole range of issues at the forefront of contemporary film studies and the transformation of Hollywood into a post-classical cinema machine, with a particular emphasis on her most ambitious and controversial picture to date, "Strange Days". Her place within New Hollywood is as a filmmaker who blurs genre conventions, reinscribes gender identites and produces a breathless cinema of attractions. This important new study is therefore a timely appraisal of this most significant film director.