Northern Constellations

What happens when a camera gets trapped in a Swedish elevator, or when the body of the tourist meets the snow of an Icelandic winter? How is Lars von Trier re-working Carl Th. Dreyer's images of flesh and spirit for a digital age? How can filmic space re-negotiate local, national, and global forms of belonging? This edited volume features interventions from leading cinema studies scholars and Scandinavian specialists from the UK, the US and the Nordic world. Engaging with contemporary film and cultural theory - particularly on affect, embodiment, memory, place, interculturality, and realism - the essays explore the potential of cinema to map space, body, and community. Older Nordic classics by Carl Th. Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman and Victor Sjostrom are re-interpreted in constellation with the themes and concerns of established and emerging contemporary filmmakers, including Lars von Trier, Aki Kaurismaki, Liv Ullmann, Friethrik Thornor Friethriksson, Suzanne Taslimi and Max Kestner. As the seventh art forges on towards its second century, "Northern Constellations" bears witness to the fertile interdisciplinarity and maturity of the discipline of film studies, and celebrates the diversity and dynamism of film-making in the Nordic world. It should appeal to the general cinema-goer as well as to film scholars and students. The volume includes black-and-white illustrations, and each chapter is supported by bibliographical references.