Series Editor
2009-2011 “American Indies” a book series on recent American independent films (post1995) co-edited with Gary Needham (Nottingham University Press)
Tzioumakis, Yannis (2009) The Spanish Prisoner, EUP, Edinburgh (ISBN: 0748633693)
The Spanish Prisoner is David Mamet's most celebrated film. With a nod to Hitchcock's North by Northwest,
The Spanish Prisoner is a deeply idiosyncratic film with origins outside of the Hollywood mainstream. The film
is built on a heavily convoluted narrative that is the product of an unreliable narration; maintains an excessive,
often anti-classical, visual style that draws attention to itself; and actively challenges the spectator to
comprehend the narrative. In doing so, the work bridges genre filmmaking with personal visual style,
independent film production with niche distribution, and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic
techniques. The book examines The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent
cinema, exploring several ideas in film studies. It takes a rare look at specialty film product distributor Sony
Pictures Classics; assesses the position of David Mamet within American cinema, especially within the
independent sector; describes the "con artist" and "con game" film genres, with The Spanish Prisoner as an
example of the latter; and examines the deviation of narrative, narration, and visual style from the
mainstream/classical aesthetic.
Needham, Gary (2010) Brokeback Mountain, EUP, Edinburgh (ISBN: 0748633839)
Upon its release in 2005, Brokeback Mountain became a major cultural event and a milestone in independent
American filmmaking. Based on the short story by Annie Proulx and directed by Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
situated a love story between two closeted cowboys at the heart of American mythology, film spectatorship and
genre. Brokeback Mountain offered an independent and queer revision of the conventions and cliches of the
western and the melodrama through a studied exploration of homophobia and the closet. This book examines
Brokeback Mountain in relation to indie cinema, genre, spectatorship, editing, and homosexuality. In doing so it
brings film studies and queer theory into dialogue with one another and explains the importance of Brokeback
Mountain as both a contemporary independent and queer film.
Molloy, Claire (2010) Memento, EUP, Edinburgh (ISBN: 0748637729)
Ambiguous, complex and innovative, Christopher Nolan's Memento has intrigued audiences and critics since the
day of its release. Memento is the archetypal 'puzzle film', a noir thriller about a man with short-term memory
loss seemingly seeking revenge for the death of his wife but finding it increasingly difficult to navigate through
the facts. Truth, memory and identity are all questioned in a film that refuses to give easy answers or to adhere
to some of the fundamental rules of classical filmmaking as the film makes use of some audacious stylistic and
narrative choices, including a unique (for American cinema) editing pattern that produces a dizzying and highly
disorienting effect for the spectator. The book introduces Memento as an important independent film and uses it
to explore relationships between indie, arthouse and commercial mainstream cinema while also examining
independent film marketing practices, especially those associated with Newmarket, the film's producer and
distributor. Finally, the book also locates Memento within debates around key film studies concepts such as
genre, narrative and reception.
Geoff King (2010) Lost in Translation, EUP, Edinburgh (ISBN: 074863746X)
Elusive, subtle and atmospheric, Lost in Translation was one of the indie hits of 2004, earning widespread
critical praise, awards and success at the box office. But what was the basis of its appeal and how exactly is the
film marked as a distinctly independent work? This book, by a leading authority on contemporary American
indie cinema, provides an in-depth analysis of the balance of more and less mainstream qualities offered by the
film at all levels, from industrial factors such as funding, marketing and release strategy to formal qualities such
as its low-key narrative structure and the impressionistic use of imagery and music. Other issues examined in
detail include the role of stardom, particularly the role of Bill Murray, the distinctive 'auteur' contribution made
by writer-director Sofia Coppola and the film's ambiguous relationship with the romantic comedy genre. Textual
and industrial analysis is also supplemented by consideration of online responses to the film that offer insights
into the various ways in which it was either appreciated or rejected by viewers.
Davis, Glyn (2011) Far from Heaven, EUP, Edinburgh (ISBN: 0748637796)
Nominated for four Oscars, Far from Heaven earned rave reviews and won widespread cultural and critical
recognition. A knowing and emotionally involving homage to the films of Douglas Sirk, this film is a key text in
the canon of American independent cinema. This book offers a detailed and perceptive study of Haynes' film,
with each chapter centred on a topic crucial for understanding Far from Heaven's richness and seductive
pleasures (authorship, genre, melodrama, queerness). The film is also positioned in relation to the rest of Todd
Haynes' work, the New Queer Cinema movement, and the history of US independent cinema.
Holmlund, Chris (2012) Being John Malkovich, EUP, Edinburgh (forthcoming)
Monographs
2011 Hollywood’s Indies: Classics Divisions, Specialty Labels and the American Film
Market, EUP, Edinburgh (contracted in 2009; scheduled for submission in June 2011;
anticipated publication in March 2012)
For almost three decades the big Hollywood studios have operated classics divisions or specialty labels,
subsidiaries that originally focused on the foreign art house film market, while more recently (and
controversially) moving on the American “indie” film market. Hollywood’s Indies is the first book to offer an in
depth examination of the phenomenon of the classics divisions by tracing its history since the establishment the
first specialty label in 1980, United Artists Classics, to more contemporary outfits like Focus Features, Warner
Independent and Picturehouse. The book provides a detailed account of all classics divisions, examines their
business practices, their position within the often labyrinthine structure of contemporary entertainment
conglomerates and their relationship to their parent companies. Additionally, the book examines the impact of
those companies on American “indie” cinema and argues that it was companies such as Fox Searchlight and
Paramount Classics (later Paramount Vantage) that turned independent filmmaking to an industrial category
endorsed by the Hollywood majors as opposed to a mode of filmmaking practiced outside the conglomerated
major players and posed as a sustained alternative to mainstream Hollywood cinema. Finally, the book also
includes a number of case studies that examine films that such companies produced and/or distributed, including
such celebrated films as Lianna, Mystery Train, Purple Haze, Barcelona, The Fog of War and many others.
2009 The Spanish Prisoner, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh (the first volume in
“American Indies”)
The Spanish Prisoner is David Mamet's most celebrated film. With a nod to Hitchcock's North by Northwest,
The Spanish Prisoner is a deeply idiosyncratic film with origins outside of the Hollywood mainstream. The film
is built on a heavily convoluted narrative that is the product of an unreliable narration; maintains an excessive,
often anti-classical, visual style that draws attention to itself; and actively challenges the spectator to
comprehend the narrative. In doing so, the work bridges genre filmmaking with personal visual style,
independent film production with niche distribution, and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic
techniques. The book examines The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent
cinema, exploring several ideas in film studies. It takes a rare look at specialty film product distributor Sony
Pictures Classics; assesses the position of David Mamet within American cinema, especially within the
independent sector; describes the "con artist" and "con game" film genres, with The Spanish Prisoner as an
example of the latter; and examines the deviation of narrative, narration, and visual style from the
mainstream/classical aesthetic.
2006 American Independent Cinema: An Introduction, Edinburgh University Press,
Edinburgh (in the UK) and Rutgers University Press, New Jersey (in the US) (ISBN:
0748618678)
This comprehensive introduction draws on key films, filmmakers, and film companies from the early twentieth
century to the present to examine the factors that shaped this vital and evolving mode of filmmaking.
Specifically, it explores the complex and dynamic relations between independent and mainstream Hollywood
cinema, showing how institutional, industrial, and economic changes in the latter have shaped and informed the
former. Ordered chronologically, the book begins with Independent Filmmaking in the Studio Era (examining
both top-rank and low-end film production), moves to the 1950s and 1960s (discussing both the adoption of
independent filmmaking as the main method of production as well as exploitation filmmaking), and finishes
with contemporary American independent cinema (exploring areas such as the New Hollywood, the rise of
mini-major and major independent companies and the institutionalization of independent cinema in the 1990s).
Each chapter includes case studies which focus on specific films, filmmakers, and production and distribution
companies.
Edited Collections
2013 American Independent Cinema: Indie, Indiewood and beyond, Routledge, London (in
collaboration with Prof Geoff King [Brunel University] and Dr Claire Molloy [University of
Brighton]; contracted in January 2011; anticipated publication in mid-2013)
Structured under 4 carefully designed sections (Approaching Independence; Indie Manifestations; Independents
and Hollywood and Alternative Voices) this collection features 16 essays on the subject of American
independent cinema. Specifically, the collection: explore new definitions of independent cinema and new
conceptual frameworks for thinking about what constitutes independent filmmaking practice in the United
States; revisits and reexamines particular junctures in the history of American cinema through the prism of
independence; Reassesses the relationship between commercial mainstream producers and independent
producers and explore their co-dependency at particular historical moments; explores the various manifestations
of independence under particular institutional circumstances; discusses recent developments in the sector such
as reception practices that originate on the web or the establishment of specialty arms for the production and
distribution of genre films; and brings together a dynamic group of leading scholars who are active researchers
in the field
2013 The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture, Wayne State University
Press, Pittsburgh (in collaboration with Dr Siân Lincoln [Liverpool John Moores University];
contracted in November 2010; anticipated publication in March 2013)
This collection brings together a number of leading scholars from the areas of film, media, music, cultural,
theater, dance studies and sociology in order to examine for the first time the cultural phenomenon that is Dirty
Dancing. A low budget independent film made by a now defunct video company of the 1980s, the film struck a
particular chord with a huge, primarily young, audience upon its release. Almost 25 years later, the film has not
only managed to retain its popularity but has been discovered by younger generations and has claimed an
extremely prominent space within global popular culture. The collection examines the film from a number of
perspectives structured under four sections: Dirty Dancing in context; Questions of Reception; The Production
of Nostalgia; and Beyond the Film.
2011 Greek Cinema: Texts, Histories, Identities, Intellect Publishing, Bristol (with Dr Lydia
Papadimitriou [Liverpool John Moores University], contracted in 2009; anticipated
publication in Summer 2011)
Covering the silent era to the present, this wide-ranging collection of essays examines Greek cinema as an
aesthetic, cultural, and political phenomenon with the potential to appeal to a diverse range of audiences. Using
a range of methodological tools, the authors investigate the ever-shifting forms and meanings at work within
Greece’s national cinema and locate it within the booming interdisciplinary study of European cinema at large.
Designed for undergraduate courses in film studies, this well-researched volume fills a substantial gap in the
market for critical works on Greek cinema in English.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
2011 “Academic Discourses and American Independent Cinema: In Search of A Field of
Studies, Part 2 – The 1990s and beyond” in The New Review of Film and Television Studies,
Vol. 9, No 3 October (forthcoming)
This paper examines the ways academic discourses shaped the field of American independent cinema. Through
a discussion of a large number of works that examined the question of independent filmmaking in the USA and
were published from the 1940s onwards, the paper provides a number of distinctions between particular
approaches to what constitutes American independent cinema, and in effect offers a history of film criticism on
the subject. More specifically, it groups work on the field under five different categories, each driven by
agendas and objectives that were often conflicting. This conflict can be seen most clearly during the 1980s when
a particular group of scholars examined American independent cinema as intricately linked to the Hollywood
film industry and the studios while a second cluster of academic researchers located independent film
completely outside the mainstream and as part of alternative media. In this respect, independent film production
in the USA has come to represent a different set of characteristics for different groups of scholars, which to
some extent explains why a consensual definition of the label ‘independent film’ has remained elusive.
2011 “Academic Discourses and American Independent Cinema: In Search of A Field of
Studies, Part 1 – From the Beginnings to the 1980s” in The New Review of Film and
Television Studies, Vol. 9, No 2 July, pp 105-131 (forthcoming)
This paper examines the ways academic discourses shaped the field of American independent cinema. Through
a discussion of a large number of works that examined the question of independent filmmaking in the USA and
were published from the 1940s onwards, the paper provides a number of distinctions between particular
approaches to what constitutes American independent cinema, and in effect offers a history of film criticism on
the subject. More specifically, it groups work on the field under five different categories, each driven by
agendas and objectives that were often conflicting. This conflict can be seen most clearly during the 1980s when
a particular group of scholars examined American independent cinema as intricately linked to the Hollywood
film industry and the studios while a second cluster of academic researchers located independent film
completely outside the mainstream and as part of alternative media. In this respect, independent film production
in the USA has come to represent a different set of characteristics for different groups of scholars, which to
some extent explains why a consensual definition of the label ‘independent film’ has remained elusive.
2006 “The Poetics of Performance in the Cinema of David Mamet: Against Embellishment”
in The Journal of Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 39, No 1, Spring 2006, pp
88-99.
Since the publication of his first volume of collected essays under the title Writing in Restaurants (1987),
playwright/filmmaker David Mamet has gone at great length to articulate the philosophy that lies behind, and to
a certain extent justifies, the seemingly rigid structures of his work in American theatre and cinema. The basic
principles of that philosophy were based on Mamet’s readings and revisions of work by philosophers, film
theorists, and, in particular, theatre practitioners. The mixing of all those influences allowed Mamet to develop a
distinct practice equally applicable to the fields of theatre and film (with some permutations in the latter). This
practice, which encompasses such areas as performance, set-designing, mise-en-scène (in both theatre and film)
and narrative structure, narration and editing (in film) has been the end result of Mamet’s persistent endeavours
to stress the significance of the script, be it a play or a screenplay, as the central agent in the process of artistic
creation, as the source from which everything else emanates. This essay focuses on the relationship between the
screenplay and the actors’ performance in Mamet’s filmmaking practice. Specifically, it examines the ways in
which the text determines the actors’ approach to performance and argues that Mamet’s screenplays shape
performance to an extreme extent, for mainstream American cinema. This is because the filmmaker allows the
text to “assert itself” over the actors, while at the same time attempting to eliminate all the elements of
performance that do not arise from the given circumstances of the text. Within the context of contemporary
American cinema – a type of cinema largely built on star performers whose personae endow the characters they
portray with a network of meanings that are alien to the text – this type of performance stands out as stylised
and even pretentious. As part of Mamet’s approach to filmmaking, which is located outside the dominant mode
of film practice, however, this type of performance becomes part and parcel of an alternative aesthetic that
needs to be examined on its own merits and not only as different to mainstream.
2006 “Marketing David Mamet: Institutionally Assigned Film Authorship and Contemporary
American Cinema” in The Velvet Light Trap, No 57, Spring 2006, pp 60-75.
This essay addresses questions of authorship in David Mamet's cinema as these arise in the textual organization
of promotional material that accompanies the release of a feature film in contemporary American cinema. The
main focal point is the film trailer as a representative sample of an increasingly large number of marketing
strategies that also include film posters, television and radio spots, publicity stills, press kits, cast and crew
interviews, behind-the-scenes documentaries, "making of" featurettes, and, more recently, web pages devoted to
individual films. Specifically, this essay discusses Mamet as an auteur by examining trailers for the films he has
scripted and directed. This approach commences from the position that distribution companies use film
authorship as an industrial category to increase the market value of individual filmmakers in a largely
undifferentiated media marketplace. In this light, promotional material and marketing strategies become
extremely significant texts in the production of the author. Consequently, this means that authorship here is not
sought in the film text; instead, it is negotiated through intertext.
2004 “Major Status – Independent Spirit: The History of Orion Pictures (1978-1992)” in The
New Review of Film and Television Studies, Vol. 2, No 1, May 2004, pp 87-135.
This paper attempts to construct a comprehensive history of Orion Pictures, a film production and distribution
company that left an indelible mark on the 1980s before being driven out of business in 1992. It is my intention
to focus primarily on the conduct of business and the financial organisation of the company in order to
demonstrate how a series of decisions within the context of contemporary Hollywood (the 'New Hollywood' as
it is often called) first created and then destroyed a major company that had once been hailed by critics 'a
sanctuary for creative filmmakers' and journalists alike. The increasingly vast literature focusing on the New
Hollywood has largely overlooked a company such as Orion Pictures. Studies of American cinema have
examined all the major and several smaller studios at various times in their history and from different
perspectives to such an extent that the absence of research interest in Orion Pictures suggests a considerable
void in our understanding of the Hollywood industry, especially during the 1980s.1 For that reason, this paper
attempts to construct that history, or at least the first 14 years (1978-92), when the company was an active
producer and distributor of motion pictures, before it went bankrupt in December 1991 and its status changed in
fundamental ways.
Book Chapters
2011 “Style Developing and Product Upgrading: Monogram Pictures, the Ambitious B Film
and Joseph H. Lewis’s Three Contributions to the East Side Kids Film Series” in Rhodes,
Gary (ed) The Films of Joseph H. Lewis, Wayne State University Press, Detroit (forthcoming)
This essay examines Joseph Lewis’s three contributions to the East Side Kids film series: Boys of the City, That
Gang of Mine, and The Pride of the Bowery (all released in 1940) and his brief association with Monogram
Pictures (for which he made only one more film after the above three). First, it discusses the films within the
institutional framework of B filmmaking at Poverty Row. This discussion includes: an examination of film
series as a formula for success at the low end side of the American film industry; a concise historical account of
Monogram Pictures, the company that financed and distributed the films; and Sam Katzman (producer of all
three films), arguably the most prolific independent producer of cheap films and father of exploitation
filmmaking. Within this context, the essay then moves to discuss Lewis’s three films as examples of low end
independent filmmaking, focusing on the particular stylistic and narrative choices Lewis made for the films.
The combination of cheap aesthetic and exploitation narrative techniques (heavy on action and melodrama)
created a relatively distinct and identifiable film product for Monogram who was able to sustain it for 6 years
(1940-5) and 22 films in total. However, it was the Lewis-directed three films in 1940 that became the blueprint
for the series and are discussed in detail.
2011 “Love, Truth and the Medium: Character Transformation and the Legitimation of SelfKnowledge in sex, lies, and videotape” in Palmer, P. Barton and Steven Sanders (eds) The
Philosophy of Steven Soderbergh, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, pp 33-59 (ISBN:
0813126622)
This essay examines sex, lies and videotape under the prism of Jean-Francois Lyotard’s philosophical thinking
as this was elaborated in The Postmodern Condition (1979; 1986). Specifically, it focuses on the mediated form
through which the four main characters of the film acquire knowledge (about themselves and about life),
through the narratives they create with the help of Graham’s videocamera. The essay then explores the nature of
this “indirect” knowledge by asking particular questions influenced by Lyotard’s philosophical propositions
such as: why is such an “indirect” type of knowledge the only avenue for the characters to discover the truth
about themselves? How is this knowledge legitimated? Is it incorporated “into a metanarrative of a subject that
guarantees its legitimacy” as indirect knowledge always is, according to Lyotard? And what happens when the
videotapes are destroyed? Is this an example of the revival of a cognitive relation of the human being with the
world? In answering these questions, the essay engages with cornerstones of Lyotard’s thinking, including the
problem of “emancipation,” the loss of social bond and its replacement by a society which is a sum of people
lacking both contact with each other and a collective objective. Such a society has transformed significantly its
relationship to knowledge and a film like sex, lies and videotape represents a strong reflection on the shifting
relationship between individuals and knowledge.
2010 "Apo tin viomihania tou kinimaografou sti viomihania tis psyhagogias: To Hollywood
stin epohi tis psyfiakis tehnologias” [“From the Business of Film to the Business of
Entertainment: Hollywood in the Age of Digital Technology”] in Bantimaroudis, Philemon,
Mihalis Kokonis and Gregory Pashalidis (eds) Ta Psifiaka mesa enimerosis ston 21 aiona
[Digital Media in the 21st Century, Kritiki, Athens, pp 47-81 (in Greek)
Το παρόν δοκίμιο χαρτογραφει τη μετεξέλιξη του Χόλιγουντ από βιομηχανία του κινηματογράφου σε
βιομηχανία της ψυχαγωγίας κάνοντας μια ανασκόπηση στις συνεργιστικές τάσεις και τις συνεταιρικές
στρατηγικές των μεγάλων παικτών του Χόλιγουντ. Πρωταρχικός στόχος είναι να φανερωθούν οι παράγοντες
εκείνοι που επηρέασαν την κατάρτιση των επιδιώξεων των μεγάλων του Χόλιγουντ στην «ψηφιακή εποχή»,
παράγοντες που έκαναν τις εταιρείες να υιοθετούν, συχνά, ανόμοιες, ακόμα και συγκρουόμενες συμπεριφορές
αναφορικά με τη μελλοντική κατεύθυνση της βιομηχανίας του κινηματογράφου/ της ψυχαγωγίας. Για να γίνει
εμφανές αυτό, το παρόν δοκίμιο εστιάζει κυρίως στις συγχωνεύσεις ανάμεσα σε πρώην κινηματογραφικά
στούντιο και εταιρείες αναλώσιμων ηλεκτρονικών που είχαν σκοπό τη διευκόλυνση της προώθησης της
τεχνολογίας των DVD. Εκτός από το να υπογραμμίσει για μια ακόμη φορά τον κεντρικό ρόλο των μεγάλων του
Χόλιγουντ στο ρόλο των παραγωγών και εκδοτών software για τη διαμόρφωση της ψηφιακής εποχής, το
δοκίμιο δείχνει ότι η μετεξέλιξη του Χόλιγουντ σε βιομηχανία της ψυχαγωγίας είχε ήδη ξεκινήσει να
προδιαγράφεται πριν γίνουν εμφανή τα πλεονεκτήματα της ψηφιακής τεχνολογίας στην προώθηση της οικιακής
ψυχαγωγίας. Υπ’ αυτή την έννοια, η ψηφιακή τεχνολογία γενικά και το DVD ειδικότερα, αποτέλεσαν τα
οχήματα για την εκτέλεση ενός συνεταιρικού σχεδίου αναδόμησης στο Χόλιγουντ, οι ρίζες του οποίου
βρίσκονται στην «αναλογική εποχή» (analogue era). Αυτή η συνεταιρική αναδόμηση μεταμόρφωσε το
Χόλιγουντ συνθέμελα καθώς δημιούργησε μια αγορά που ήταν απείρως μεγαλύτερη σε μέγεθος και κλίμακα
απ’ ό,τι θα μπορούσε ποτέ να γίνει η κινηματογραφική αγορά∙ δημιούργησε επίσης και εταιρείες απείρως
μεγαλύτερες και ισχυρότερες από τα πρώην κινηματογραφικά στούντιο. Επιπλέον, επηρέασε αναπόφευκτα το
είδος των ταινιών που γυρίζονταν για λογαριασμό τους ή από τους ίδιους τους μεγάλους παραγωγούς του
Χόλιγουντ, ενώ παράλληλα δημιούργησε έναν σεβαστό χώρο για μικρότερες, ανεξάρτητες (indie) παραγωγές.
Αυτή καθ’ αυτή, λοιπόν, η εκτέλεση της διαδικασίας αναδόμησης έφτασε στο σημείο να είναι σχεδόν απόλυτα
εξαρτώμενη από τα πλεονεκτήματα της ψηφιακής τεχνολογίας.
2010 “From the Business of Cinema to the Business of Entertainment: Hollywood Cinema at
the Age of Digital Technology” in Sickels, Robert C. (ed) American Cinema in the Digital
Age, Greenwood Press, New Haven, pp 11-32 (ISBN: 0-275-99862-2)
This essay charts the evolution of Hollywood from a film business into an entertainment business by reviewing
the synergistic trends and corporate strategies of the major Hollywood players. Its main aim is to reveal the
factors that have influenced the setting of the majors’ agenda in the “digital era,” factors that often made those
same companies adopt disparate, even conflicting attitudes regarding the future direction of the
film/entertainment business. To illustrate this, the essay focuses primarily on the corporate marriages between
the ex-studios and the consumer electronics companies that facilitated the introduction of DVD technology.
Besides highlighting once again the centrality of the Hollywood majors as producers and publishers of software
in the shaping of the digital era, the essay argues that the evolution of Hollywood into an entertainment business
had been well underway before the benefits of digital technology for the consumption of entertainment in the
home had become obvious. In this respect, digital technology in general and the Digital Video Disc in particular,
became vehicles for the execution of a corporate restructuring plan in Hollywood, the origins of which are
located back in the “analogue era.” This corporate restructuring transformed Hollywood in fundamental ways as
it created a market that was infinitely larger in size and scale than the film market could ever be and companies
infinitely larger and more powerful than the ex-studios. It also necessarily affected the types of films made by or
for the Hollywood majors, while it also created a sizable niche for smaller, “indie” productions. It is the actual
execution of this restructuring process that came to depend heavily on the benefits of digital technology.
2009 “Adapting Oleanna for the Screen: Film Adaptation and the Institutional Apparatus of
American Independent Cinema” in Callens, Johan (ed) Crossings: David Mamet’s Work in
Different Genres and Media, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp 139-163. (ISBN: 1443813559)
This essay explores the institutional parameters that influenced the screen adaptation of David Mamet’s
controversial, critically acclaimed, and commercially successful play, Oleanna (1992). The film, which was
released by independent distributor, the Samuel Goldwyn Company (1994), was a major financial
disappointment as it recorded a meagre gross of $125,000 in the US box office. Commencing from the position
that institutional parameters exert an enormous influence on the overall process of adaptation, the essay gives an
overview of some of those parameters, focusing, mainly, on shifting views of what constitutes a commercially
potent project in American Cinema. In particular, it argues that whilst for a long period (1930 – 1970) screen
adaptations of plays by canonical American playwrights (O’Neill, Miller, Hellman etc) were considered
commercially potent – and therefore financed and distributed by the major studios – such a perception changed
dramatically since the 1970s. As a result, the number of such adaptations decreased rapidly and their finance and
distribution became the task of independent distribution companies. The advent of independent distributors in
the adaptation market has influenced immensely the adaptation process as the practices involved in the
production, distribution and exhibition of the films present many differences from the practices of the majors (a
key one is that independent companies tend to allow the playwright a considerably more visible – and influential
– role in the adaptation process). Within the above context, the essay examines the specific institutional
determinants in the adaptation of Oleanna for the screen, before concluding that the commercial failure of
Oleanna can be explained within a larger context of recent adaptations of plays that have failed to secure an
audience as well as because of the independent status of the film.
2008 “I Ypokritiki ston Anexartito Amerikaniko Kinimatografo: I “Praktiki Aesthitiki” tou
David Mamet stin Praxi” [“Performance in American Independent Cinema: David Mamet’s
“Practical Aesthetics” in Action”] in Adamou, Christina (ed) O Ithopoios Anamesa sti Skini
kai stin Othoni [The Actor from Stage to Screen], Kastaniotis, Athens (in Greek), pp 111-123
(ISBN. 960-03-4843-Χ)
One of the most common complaints that critics of David Mamet’s films have consistently articulated is the
flatness of the actors’ performances, a complaint that, to a great extent, involves a rather strong dissatisfaction
with the mode of delivery of the lines of his scripts. Adjectives such as clinical, dry, flat, mannered, rigid,
austere and stylised have been used abundantly in order to describe such a mode of dialogue delivery, which
becomes the key signifier and primary determinant for criticising the actors’ performance, often at the expense
of other contributing (more cinematic) features such as editing and mise en scène. The essay discusses the
distinct approach to acting that playwright/filmmaker David Mamet developed in collaboration with actor
William H. Macy which has been called “Practical Aesthetics,” and which, according to Mamet, is equally
applicable to the fields of theatre and film. “Practical Aesthetics” has been the end result of Mamet’s persistent
endeavours to stress the significance of the script, be it a play or a screenplay, as the central agent in the process
of artistic creation. Specifically, the essay traces the origins of such an approach (Mamet’s readings and
revisions of work by philosophers [Aristotle], film theorists [Sergei Eisenstein], and, in particular, theatre
practitioners [Constantin Stanislavsky, Yevgeni Vakhtangov, Georgi Tovstonogov, Richard Boleslavsky and
Sanford Meisner]). Secondly, it contextualises “Practical Aesthetics” within the framework of American
independent cinema, a mode of filmmaking that historically has allowed the articulation of alternative
approaches to film acting (a key example here is John Cassavetes’ improvisation experiments that gave birth to
Shadows [1959], a film that is widely regarded as the predecessor of contemporary American independent
cinema). Finally, the paper illustrates Mamet’s approach by looking in some detail to a scene from his third
feature as a writer-director, Homicide (1991).
2008 "Entertainment in the Margins: Orion Pictures Presents a Filmhaus Production of A
David Mamet Film” in Sickels, Robert C. (ed) The Business of Entertainment: Vol 1 Cinema,
Greenwood Press, New Haven, pp 153-177 (ISBN: 027599838X)
This essay examines the business of entertainment at the vibrant independent sector of the American film
industry. Since the early 1980s, this formerly marginal sector of American cinema has been responsible for the
production of a large number of aesthetically and politically challenging films that have found considerable
commercial exposure, to the extent that several critics have talked of an “independent movement” within
Hollywood cinema. Specifically, this essay explores the intricate relations that link filmmakers, the production
companies that physically produce their films and the distribution companies that often finance the productions
and exploit the final product commercially in order to argue that the distinct aesthetic effects or alternative
political propositions a film might convey can be attributed to the film’s realisation with the structures of
contemporary American independent cinema. To illustrate this argument, the essay examines in detail the
production history of David Mamet’s debut feature as a writer-director, House of Games (1987). Produced by
Filmhaus Productions, an independent production outfit with a long and distinguished history in the independent
sector, and financed and distributed by Orion Pictures, arguably the quintessential independent distributor of the
1980s, House of Games can be seen as a characteristic example of an independent film, just before the huge
financial success of Sex, Lies and Videotape and the rise of Sundance Film Festival two years later (1989) brought
independent cinema closer to the mainstream. What makes House of Games an ideal example for such a
discussion is that the film is also characterised by a distinctive aesthetics, a product of an unusual mode of
narration and use of visual style, which complements emphatically its undisputed industrial credentials as a film
conceived, developed, produced and distributed away from the major entertainment conglomerates that by the late
1980s controlled American cinema.
2008 "Edgar G. Ulmer: The Low-end Independent Filmmaker par excellence" in Rhodes,
Gary (ed) Edgar G Ulmer: Detour on Poverty Row Lexington Books, Lanham, pp 3-23.
(ISBN: 0739125672)
This essay examines Ulmer as an independent filmmaker during the years of his association with Producers
Releasing Corporation. Working for a company that operated outside the established studio system, a low end
independent, necessitated a very specific approach to filmmaking that was markedly different from the
filmmaking practices of the major studios and the top rank independents (that distributed their films primarily
through United Artists). Specifically, low end independents often disposed of pillars of mainstream (often
referred to as classical) narrative such as cause-effect logic, psychological character motivation, unity and
clarity, privileging instead much more plot-centred, episodic and often incoherent storylines. Equally, the
transparent and unobtrusive visual style of mainstream films gave way to the sloppy, perceptible but very
immediate style of films made outside the studio system, under a different mode of film practice and for a
different audience (audiences for low end independent films were mostly immigrants, children and other
members of the lower social strata). It is within this framework of low end independence that the essay
approaches Ulmer’s work, taking Detour (1945), Ulmer’s and PRC’s most famous film, as a case study.
Through a rigorous and detailed discussion of the film’s aesthetics, I highlight the problems of narrative
coherence that permeate the film, bring to light the departures of the film’s visual style from the classical model
and put forward an argument that sees Edgar G. Ulmer as a low end independent filmmaker whose authorship is
intricately linked to the very specific system within which he worked.
2007 “Bridging Mainstream and Independent Cinema: The Question of Aesthetics in John
Sayles's Early Films” in Kontovrakis, Konstantinos and Despina Mouzaki (eds) John Sayles,
Ianos Publishers and Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Thessaloniki (bilingual edition
– my essay appeared in English and was translated into Greek), pp 26-33.
This essay will discuss the aesthetics of Sayles’s early independent, self-financed, films Return of the Secaucus
Seven, Lianna (1983) and Brother from Another Planet (1984). It will argue that the aesthetics of Sayles’s early
films is a product of a the use of a visual style that is an amalgam of influences from earlier incarnations of
American independent cinema, especially of the work of John Cassevetes, the New Hollywood (also known as
Hollywood Renaissance), as well as of the exploitation filmmaking associated with filmmakers like Roger
Corman and companies like New World Pictures, Dimension Pictures and Crown International that dominated
the low budget end of independent cinema in the 1970s and early 1980s.