Gothic film
A Gothic film is a film that is based on
In The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction, Misha Kavka says Gothic film is not an established genre, rather contributing Gothic images, plots, characters, and styles to films. These elements are often found in "the broader category of horror". Kavka quotes William Patrick Day's definition of the Gothic: "[it] tantalizes us with fear, both as its subject and its effect; it does so, however, not primarily through characters or plots or even language, but through spectacle". Cinema suits the Gothic definition in creating images that establish the spectacle.[4]
History
“It’s something that obsesses me: the idea of where, how we approach, and where we finally reach our personal death scenes. Nowadays, when people talk of the Gothic cinema, they’re really talking about
Nicholas Roeg, quoted by film critic Manny Farber in “Gothic Lives!” from City, September 9, 1975.[5]
Gothic films were part of early cinema, adapting Gothic fiction on screen like stage
According to New Directions in 21st-Century Gothic: The Gothic Compass, scholars consider the Gothic films Frankenstein (1931) by James Whale, Dracula (1931) by Tod Browning, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) by Rouben Mamoulian "a foundational triptych, from which they in turn look back to earlier Gothic films and forward to later ones".[8]
In Australia, the first modern Gothic film is considered to be Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).[9]
Notable films
When the British Film Institute in 2013 launched a program celebrating films and TV shows with Gothic themes, The Guardian identified the following as the ten best Gothic films (ordered by year):[10]
- Nosferatu (1922)
- Dracula (1931)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- Rebecca (1940)
- Dracula (1958)
- The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
- Rosemary's Baby (1968)
- Suspiria (1977)
- Near Dark (1987)
- The Orphanage (2007)
See also
References
- ^ a b Kaye 2015, p. 239
- ^ a b Kaye 2015, p. 240
- ^ Hughes, Punter & Smith 2015, p. 239
- ^ Kavka 2002, p. 209
- ^ Farber, 2009 p. 731: See epigraph, Roeg passage quoted. And: p. 787: See Sources and Acknowledgments
- ^ Kaye 2015, p. 241
- ^ Hughes, Punter & Smith 2015, p. 238
- ^ Rall & Jernigan 2015, p. 43
- ^ Hughes, Punter & Smith 2015, p. 58
- ^ Kermode, Mark (October 25, 2013). "The 10 best gothic films". The Guardian. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
Sources
- ISBN 978-1-59853-050-6
Bibliography
- Hughes, William; Punter, David; Smith, Andrew, eds. (2015). The Encyclopedia of the Gothic. ISBN 978-1-119-21041-2.
- Kavka, Misha (2002). "The Gothic on screen". In Hogle, Jerrold E. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge Companions to Literature. ISBN 978-0-521-79466-4.
- Kaye, Heidi (2015). "Gothic Film". In Punter, David (ed.). A New Companion to The Gothic. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture. ISBN 978-1-119-06250-9.
- Rall, Hannes; Jernigan, Daniel (2015). "Adapting Gothic Literature for Animation". In ISBN 978-1-317-60902-5.
Further reading
- Bell, James, ed. (2013). Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film. ISBN 978-1-84457-682-1.
- Hand, Richard J.; McRoy, Jay, eds. (2020). Gothic Film: An Edinburgh Companion. ISBN 978-1-4744-4804-8.
- Punter, David; Byron, Glennis (2004). "Gothic Film". The Gothic. ISBN 978-0-631-22063-3.
- Reyes, Xavier Aldana (2020). Gothic Cinema. Routledge Film Guidebooks. ISBN 978-1-138-22756-9.
External links
- Gothic Film in the ‘40s: Doomed Romance and Murderous Melodrama at Diabolique Magazine
