The award-winning Danish director Susanne Bier has become increasingly known for her generic innovations and industrial fluidity, moving confidently between cinema and television at a time where the scarcity of women directors has become a subject of major critical and popular attention. Refocus: The Films of Susanne Bier is a dynamic, scholarly engagement with Bier’s work, and a timely consideration of her impressive authorial achievements. Featuring essays from both recognized and up-and-coming scholars in Scandinavian, transnational and feminist film and media studies, this book also includes an original interview with Bier, addressing some of the provocative readings of her films advanced by the volume’s contributors.
Author(s): Missy Molloy (editor), Meryl Shriver-Rice (editor), Mimi Nielsen (editor)
Series: ReFocus: The International Directors Series
Edition: 1
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 304
Tags: Film Criticism, Cinema
Title page
Copyright
Contents
Figures
Notes on Contributors
Foreword by Andrew Nestingen
Introduction: Susanne Bier’s Boundary-crossing Screen Authorship
PART 1 Generic and Industrial Fluidity
Part 1 Introduction
Chapter 1 Storytelling Schemes, Realism, and Ambiguity: Susanne Bier’s Danish Dramas
Chapter 2 Negotiating Special Relationships: Susanne Bier’s Comedies
Chapter 3 Susanne Bier’s Hollywood Experiments: Things We Lost in the Fire and Serena
PART 2 Negotiating Identity
Part 2 Introduction
Chapter 4 Beginning with Jewish Survival: Freud’s Leaving Home
Chapter 5 Stories with Queer Identities
Chapter 6 Judaism and Danish Directors: The Case of Lars von Trier vs. Susanne Bier
Chapter 7 Gender Equity in Screen Culture: On Susanne Bier, the Celluloid Ceiling, and the Growing Appeal of TV Production
PART 3 Authorship and Aesthetics
Part 3 Introduction
Chapter 8 Tracing Affect in Susanne Bier’s Dramas
Chapter 9 Vision and Ethics in A Second Chance (En chance til)
Chapter 10 The Truth is in the Eyes: Susanne Bier’s Use of Close-ups in The Night Manager
PART 4 Transnational Reach
Part 4 Introduction
Chapter 11 Cinema of the World and Women’s Film Culture: Susanne Bier’s Transnational Cinema
Chapter 12 From Local to Global: The Bier/Jensen Screenwriting Collaboration
Chapter 13 Danish Privilege and Responsibility in the Work of Susanne Bier
Postscript A Conversation with Susanne Bier
Filmography of Susanne Bier
Acknowledgments
Index
