Published Articles by Adam O'Brien
Regarding Things in 'Nashville' and 'The Exterminating Angel': Another Path for Eco-Film Criticism
ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, 2013
Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, 2013
When a Film Remembers its Filming: The New Hollywood Zoom
Journal of Media Practice, 2012
Book Reviews by Adam O'Brien
Combined review of 'Cinema of the Swimming Pool' (eds Brown and Hirsch) and 'Cinema as Weather' (Kristi McKim)
Review of 'Mise en Scène and Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art' (Adrian Martin)
Review of 'Ecocinema Theory and Practice' (eds. Rust, Monani, Cubitt)
Senses of Cinema, Jul 2013
Scope: An Online Journal of Film and TV Studies, 2012
Film International, Oct 2012
Conference papers by Adam O'Brien
When a film remembers its filming: The New Hollywood zoom
Journal of Media Practice, Sep 2012
There is nothing false about the materials -Siegfried Kracauer, reporting on his visit to the UFA... more There is nothing false about the materials -Siegfried Kracauer, reporting on his visit to the UFA film studios in
Genre and nature; incompatible languages?
Language is often posited as a quintessentially human capacity, as something which sets ‘us’ apar... more Language is often posited as a quintessentially human capacity, as something which sets ‘us’ apart from the rest of the planet as a special case. Ann Whiston Spirn, however, has argued convincingly that we must try harder to school ourselves in ‘the language of landscape’, by which she does not mean the words we use to evoke our environments, but instead the way in which natural surroundings can actually communicate messages. Awarding the natural environment this kind of expressive agency has fascinating consequences for film study, where we normally think of settings and locations as components which are appropriated to enhance stories, themes, and characters; what if, following Spirn, we try to acknowledge that nature sometimes has its own things to say?
This friction comes into particular focus, I argue, with the case of New Hollywood – more specifically, New Hollywood’s penchant for genre revisionism. In films such as Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975) and McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971), the artificiality and relative arbitrariness of generic formulae – what we might call the language of genre – sits awkwardly with the permanence and indifference of the physical surroundings; the environment is allowed to problematize genre, rather than simply be expected to serve it. Robin Wood (amongst others) wrote of the incoherence which permeated New Hollywood; might we partly explain this as a clashing of two linguistic registers, the generic and the environmental?
How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying About Other Worlds and Love This One: New Hollywood, Location Shooting and the Conundrum of Worldhood
One of the most prominent fault lines running through the history of film studies has been the qu... more One of the most prominent fault lines running through the history of film studies has been the question of whether cinema, as a medium, records or creates. We associate the era of Classical Hollywood with a style characterised by consummate spatial control. Sets could be constructed, as an act of creation, to enhance and complement the story as fully, and as clearly, as possible. And they could be re-constructed, and manipulated, for the sake of cameras, lights and actors etc. On location, one might argue, the balance shifts from creation to reception; directing becomes less about generating a coherent sense of ‘worldhood’, as V.F Perkins terms it, than responding to the existent world. The late 1960s and early 1970s era of ‘New Hollywood’, which was partly characterised by a move away from studio confines, thus emerges as a fascinating turning (or tipping?) point in American cinema’s on-going struggle to decide which world to show us.
This paper is positioned within the emerging field of ecocritical film studies, and suggests that questions of ecocritical interest aren’t only to be found at the level of text or genre, but also within historical-industrial factors. Rather than deny the potential profundity and ambiguity of individual works, however, this approach works from the assumption that industrial factors are not blandly determinant, and can also be understood as profound and ambiguous – and worthy of ecocritical interest.
Books by Adam O'Brien
Environmental themes are present in cinema more than ever before. But the relationship between fi... more Environmental themes are present in cinema more than ever before. But the relationship between film and the natural world is a long and complex one, not reducible to issues such as climate change and pollution. This volume demonstrates how an awareness of natural features and dynamics can enhance our understanding of three key film-studies topics—narrative, genre, and national cinema. It does so by drawing on examples from a broad historical and geographical spectrum, including 'Sunrise', 'Local Hero', and 'Profound Desires of the Gods'. The first introductory text on a topic which has long been overlooked in the discipline, Film and the Natural Environment argues that the nonhuman world can be understood not just as a theme but as a creative resource available to all filmmakers. It invites readers to consider some of the particular strengths and weaknesses of cinema as communicator of environmental phenomena, and collates ideas and passages from a range of critics and theorists who have contributed to our understanding of moving images and the natural world.
In their bold experimentation and bracing engagement with culture and politics, the “New Hollywoo... more In their bold experimentation and bracing engagement with culture and politics, the “New Hollywood” films of the late 1960s and early 1970s are justly celebrated contributions to American cinematic history. Relatively unexplored, however, has been the profound environmental sensibility that characterized movies such as The Wild Bunch, Chinatown, and Nashville. This brisk and engaging study explores how many hallmarks of New Hollywood filmmaking, such as the increased reliance on location shooting and the rejection of American self-mythologizing, made the era such a vividly “grounded” cinematic moment. Synthesizing a range of narrative, aesthetic, and ecocritical theories, it offers a genuinely fresh perspective on one of the most studied periods in film history.
Drafts by Adam O'Brien
Building on Timothy Morton's notion of 'hyperobjects', this paper considers the complexity of wat... more Building on Timothy Morton's notion of 'hyperobjects', this paper considers the complexity of water as a subject for film, and explores the particular case of Barry Levinson's so-called eco-horror film, The Bay. The film's use of (apparent) found and mixed media proves to be a fitting and eloquent means for coming to terms with water's elusiveness. The Bay recognises the mediated and infrastructural character of water, and in doing so allows us to consider the uncomfortable fit between narrative and hyperobjecthood.
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Published Articles by Adam O'Brien
Book Reviews by Adam O'Brien
Conference papers by Adam O'Brien
This friction comes into particular focus, I argue, with the case of New Hollywood – more specifically, New Hollywood’s penchant for genre revisionism. In films such as Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975) and McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971), the artificiality and relative arbitrariness of generic formulae – what we might call the language of genre – sits awkwardly with the permanence and indifference of the physical surroundings; the environment is allowed to problematize genre, rather than simply be expected to serve it. Robin Wood (amongst others) wrote of the incoherence which permeated New Hollywood; might we partly explain this as a clashing of two linguistic registers, the generic and the environmental?
This paper is positioned within the emerging field of ecocritical film studies, and suggests that questions of ecocritical interest aren’t only to be found at the level of text or genre, but also within historical-industrial factors. Rather than deny the potential profundity and ambiguity of individual works, however, this approach works from the assumption that industrial factors are not blandly determinant, and can also be understood as profound and ambiguous – and worthy of ecocritical interest.
Books by Adam O'Brien
Drafts by Adam O'Brien