When I wrote my book on William Klein's Mr. Freedom (1969), I was mostly interested in the way it related to the American cinematic tradition. Although I did try to show how the film arose from a broader narrative history – including literature and poetry – my focus was on how it helps us understand … Continue reading
‘We all died more times than I can count.’ Reincarnation, Social Mobility and the Multiverse in the Netflix Originals Series The OA
David Sweeney discusses the Netflix Originals Series, The OA, in the context of reincarnation, social mobility and the multiverse, as well as questions that arose following the series. Death is not the end for Prairie Johnson in the Netflix Originals TV series The OA (2016-19); rather it creates the opportunity for her to travel to … Continue reading
John Frankenheimer’s Seconds (1966)
New to Auteur's Constellations series, Seconds explores John Frankenheimer's criminally overlooked monolith of paranoia, part science fiction, part body horror, part noir thriller cum black comedy. In this blog post authors Jez Conolly and Emma Westwood reflect on their study of the 1966 film. Writing a book about John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, arguably Hollywood’s bleakest ever film, was always going … Continue reading
“Children of Men” Come True: U.S. Immigration Crackdown is Straight out of Cuarón’s Science Fiction Dystopia
By Dan Dinello As I began work on a monograph about Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 film Children of Men — anadaptation of the P.D. James’ novel, its critique of racism, nationalism, and xenophobia echoed the rise of an anti-immigrant, right wing in America that culminated in the election of a xenophobic president Donald J. Trump as … Continue reading
Pandemic Movies: What Terry Gilliam’s ’12 Monkeys’ Tells Us About the Future
by Susanne Kord A virus wipes out a substantial part of humanity and drives the rest indoors. Time, no longer neatly divided into work-, play- and sleepy time, becomes erratic and unstable: interminable boredom for many, a crazed race against time for scientists in search of a cure. How the story ends is as yet … Continue reading
Liverpool University Press Blog 