Refocus: The Films of Susanne Bier

ReFocus: The International Directors Series Series editors: Robert Singer and Gary D. Rhodes This series aims to produce new critical volumes from an interdisciplinary perspective which bring influential, yet neglected, international directors to the attention of a new audience of scholars and students in Film Studies. 'At long last - a book dedicated to one of Scandinavia's most significant directors of the twenty-first century: Susanne Bier. Addressing key works and developments of Bier's career at home and abroad, Refocus: The Films of Susanne Bier is a significant milestone with contributions by some of the most inspiring and insightful scholars of Nordic cinema today. ' Anna Westerståhl Stenport, Georgia Institute of Technology 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 when 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 recognised 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. Missy Molloy is a Lecturer in Film Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Mimi Nielsen is a PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle. Meryl Shriver-Rice is the Director of Environmental Media at the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy at the University of Miami, where she directs and teaches for the Abess Center's Master's program in Environment, Culture and Media. Cover image: Mads Mikkelsen in After the Wedding, directed by Susanne Bier, 2007. Photography by Morten Søborg (c) Zentropa Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-2872-9 Barcode

Missy Molloy is a Lecturer in the Film Programme at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). Mimi Nielsen is a Ph. D. Candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle. Meryl Shriver-Rice is the Director of Environmental Media at the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy at the University of Miami, where she directs and teaches for the Abess Center's Master's in Environment, Culture, & Media.

Foreword Andrew Nestingen Introduction Missy Molloy, Mimi Nielsen and Meryl Shriver-Rice PART 1: GENERIC & INDUSTRIAL FLUIDITY 1. Birger Langkjær - Storytelling Schemes, Realism, and Ambiguity: Susanne Bier's Danish Dramas
2. Gunhild Agger - Negotiating Special Relationships: Susanne Bier's Comedies
3. Missy Molloy - Susanne Bier's Hollywood Experiments: Things We Lost in the Fire and Serena
PART II: NEGOTIATING IDENTITY 4. Maureen Turim - Beginning with Jewish Survival: Freud's Leaving Home 5. Anders Marklund - Stories with Queer Identities 6. Pétur Valsson - The Case of Lars von Trier vs. Susanne Bier 7. Mette Hjort - Gender Equity in Screen Culture: On Susanne Bier, the Celluloid Ceiling, and the Growing Appeal of TV Production PART III: AUTHORSHIP & AESTHETICS 8. Mimi Nielsen - Tracing Affect in Susanne Bier's Dramas 9. Danica Van De Velde - Vision and Ethics in A Second Chance (En chance til) 10. Eva Novrup Redvall - The Truth is in the Eyes: Bringing Art Cinema Glimpses to the High-end Television Drama Series The Night Manager PART IV: TRANSNATIONAL REACH 11. Belinda Smaill - Cinema of the World and Women's Film Culture: Susanne Bier's Transnational Cinema
12. Cath Moore - From Local to Global: The Bier-Jensen Screenwriting Collaboration 13. Meryl Shriver-Rice - First World Guilt, Danish Privilege and Responsibility in the Work of Susanne Bier POSTSCRIPT: A CONVERSATION WITH SUSANNE BIER Interview with Susanne Bier conducted by volume editors, Missy Molloy, Mimi Nielsen and Meryl Shriver-Rice Filmography