Spaces of the Cinematic Home

This book examines the ways in which the house appears in films and the modes by which it moves beyond being merely a backdrop for action. Specifically, it explores the ways that domestic spaces carry inherent connotations that filmmakers exploit to enhance meanings and pleasures within film. Rather than simply examining the representation of the house as national symbol, auteur trait, or in terms of genre, contributors study various rooms in the domestic sphere from an assortment of time periods and from a diversity of national cinemas-from interior spaces in ancient Rome to the Chinese kitchen, from the animated house to the metaphor of the armchair in film noir.

Eleanor Andrews is Senior Lecturer in Italian and Course Leader for Film Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. Stella Hockenhull is Reader in Film and Television Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. Fran Pheasant-Kelly is MA Course Leader and Reader in Film and Television Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.

Introduction Eleanor Andrews, Stella Hockenhull, Fran Pheasant-Kelly 1. Carl's Moving Castle: 'Animated' Houses and the Renovation of Child's Play in Up (2009) Christopher Holliday 2. Peas, Parsnips and Patriotism: Images of the Garden in the Second World War Stella Hockenhull 3. "King for a Day": Performance and Expression in the Cinematic Space of the Basement Scott Martin 4. Kim in the Sitting Room: The Function of Domestic Space in the Construction of Star Image Phil Davey 5. At Home with the Caesars: The Emperor Tiberius and the Ambiguity of Place in Historical and Epic Films Paul Brighton 6. The Dining Room: Authenticity, Immersion and Reproduction? Ann Eatwell 7. A Drama of Solitude: The Library as Cocoon in LuchinoVisconti's Conversation Piece Pasquale Iannone 8. Reframing the Material and Imaginative Geographies of the Home: Chinese filmmaker Liu Jiayin's Oxhide II (2009) Jean Amato 9. Furnishing the Living Room in Film Noir: Disillusion and the Armchair Hollie Price 10. Whither Shall I Wander? Up and Down the Staircase in Film Eleanor Andrews 11. Intimate Spaces, Extimate Subjects: The Bedroom in Horror Films Andrew Hock Soon Ng 12. A Room Going Spare: Lodgers, Nannies, and Strangers in the House Mark Jones 13. Monstrous Men and Bathroom Mirrors: The Bathroom as Revelatory Space in American Cinema Glen Donnar 14. Secrets, Memory and Imagination: The Psychic Space of the Cinematic Attic Fran Pheasant-Kelly