„Skepticism Films“ now available

At last! Apparently, some books take their time before peeking out into the world, in a Wittgensteinian fashion. This is certainly true for my Skepticism Films. Knowing and Doubting the World in Contemporary Cinema: almost ten years after I drafted my first ideas about the way in which mainstream cinema plays around with ideas of a rather philosophical provenance, the book is finally available in print and in ebook format, published by Bloomsbury. I am very happy about that – and about the wonderful design and haptics of the book. You can find more information about the book here, the link to the publisher’s homepage with additional online material is here.

Cover of "Skepticism Films"

Book review: Michael Ballhaus, Bilder im Kopf

I reviewed the autobiography of Michael Ballhaus, the eminent cinematographer behind many of Martin Scorsese and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films, for literaturkritik.de. The review also works as a short overview of Ballhaus‘ life and work. Again, it is in German, but whoever’s up to it: Here you go.

Article on the art and success of Disney’s „Frozen“

Frozen is the major mainstream animation musical film of the decade, not only because it busted almost all box office records but also because it has become a veritable cultural phenomenon in its own right, particularly among children. There are many reasons for it, with the academic debate just beginning: At bottom line, it is simply a good film that manages to evolve Disney’s classical narrato-aesthetic formula in surprisingly intelligent ways. And it is perhaps the first major Disney film to really hone in to the needs of its mainly female audience without falling into the oh-so worn princess clichés fairy tale films such as Snow White, Cinderella or Enchanted are notorious for. (Yes, it’s the first: Kiss the Frog tanked at the box office, and Tangled is, for all its merits, still based on a classical „True Love’s First Kiss“ formula.)

I have written an analysis-based article on the production history, style and cultural success of Frozen for the (German-language) Lexikon des Kinder- und Jugendfilms, a cornerstone of the German children’s film research landscape. Thankfully, I have been allowed to re-publish it for KinderundJugendmedien.de, making it accessible online for everyone who wants to know more about the movie whose songs dominated the musical repertoire of kids all over the world (and, accordingly, tortured the ears of the adults who had to suffer the endless song loops of „Let it Go“ and „Do you want to build a snowman?“). You can find the article here. (It’s written in German, though.)

Review on „Bild ist Text ist Bild. Narration und Ästhetik in der Graphic Novel“

Comics and grapic novels are becoming a major focus of German intermedia research, and children’s media scholars are no exception. I published a small review on the academic anthology Bild ist Text ist Bild. Narration und Ästhetik in der Graphic Novel on KinderundJugendmedien.de. The volume, edited by Susanne Hochreiter and Ursula Klingenböck, collects a number of inspiring articles on various aspects in which narration and aesthetics figure in comics and graphic novels. Some scholars, such as Dietrich Grünewald or Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff, provide theoretical-historical reflections of the matter, while others attempt a more hands-on, analytic approach – some with a gender perspective. Very nice are the meta-comics of a number of comic book artists on the intricacies of thinking about comics academically. Fans of Scott McCloud’s marvelous Understanding Comics will be delighted. (The review is written in German language.)

Neue Webseite für Buchreihe „Kinder- und Jugendliteratur Intermedial“

Für die von uns herausgegebene wissenschaftliche Buchreihe „Kinder- und Jugendliteratur Intermedial“ haben Tobias Kurwinkel, Annika Sevi und ich nun eine eigene Überblicksseite erstellt. Auf www.kinderundjugendliteraturintermedial.de finden Sie die wichtigsten Informationen zu den Bänden. Die Publikationen beschäftigen sich mit der Umsetzung von Klassikern der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur im Film. Bisher sind Bände zu Astrid Lindgren, Harry Potter und zum Motiv der Zeitreise erschienen. Bände zu Michael Ende und Otfried Preußler sind in Vorbereitung.


Tobias Kurwinkel, Annika Sevi and I have built a website for our (German-language) academic book series „Kinder- und Jugendliteratur Intermedial“. On www.kinderundjugendliteraturintermedial.de we give an overview of the volumes published so far. All of them deal with the adaptation of classical children’s book in film. So far, we have edited or supervised volumes on Astrid Lindgren, Harry Potter, and the motif of time travel. Fortchoming volumes are devoted to the work of Michael Ende and Otfried Preußler.

Entries for „Lexikon der Filmbegriffe“

I have written a couple of short entries for the wonderful „Lexikon der Filmbegriffe“, a German-language online encyclopedia edited by Hans J. Wulff that features entries on a vast range of film studies concepts that have troubled and are still troubling film scholars across the globe. You can access the entries on Filmphilosophie, multiple-draft narrative and Auralität if you follow the hyperlinks. More entries to follow.

Article „Zwischen Skeptizismus und Fantastik“

In 2012, I was a guest at the conference „Übergänge und Entgrenzungen in der Fantastik“, hosted by the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung (Association for Research in the Fantastic). In the meantime, the conference proceedings have been published (Übergänge und Entgrenzungen in der Fantastik. Proceedings der Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung 2012. Edited by Ingrid Tomkowiak, Christine Lötscher, Petra Schrackmann und Aleta-Amirée von Holzen. LIT Verlag). Among the many fine articles you can also find my own contribution „Zwischen Skeptizismus und Fantastik. Übergänge und Entgrenzungen im zeitgenössischen Kino“, in which I analyse the way in which contemporary cinema explores the boundaries between fantastic worlds and worlds which can be more accurately described as non-real or fake environments of which their inhabitants are aware to a rather less than higher degree. Such films trigger different narrative trajectories as compared to standard fantastic films.