Troubled Everyday

Investigates the framing of the ordinary and the everyday in extreme European art film

Extreme violence in contemporary European art cinema is generally interpreted for its affective potential, but what about the significance of the everyday that so often frames and forms the majority of these films? Why do the sudden moments of violence that punctuate films like Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl (2001), Gaspar Noé's Irreversible (2002) and Markus Schleinzer's Michael (2011) seem so reliant on everyday routines and settings for their impact? Addressing these questions through a series of case-studies, and considering notorious films in their historical and philosophical context, Troubled Everyday offers the first detailed examination of the relationship between violence and the everyday in European art cinema. It calls for a re-evaluation of what gives these films such affective force, and such a prolonged grip on our imagination.

Case Studies

• Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pasolini 1975)
• Money (Bresson 1983)
• Come and See (Klimov 1985)
• The Seventh Continent (Haneke 1989)
• I Stand Alone (Noé 1998)
• Fat Girl (Breillat 2001)
• Irreversible (Noé 2002)
• Twentynine Palms (Dumont 2003)
• Michael (Schleinzer 2011)