Artists have been interested in the human brain’s anatomy and physiology since at least the Renaissance, while in the twentieth century, the technological revolution enabled them to include in their practices methods adopted from the sciences and engineering, like Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs). The use of BCIs originates in the 1960s, with musicians, performers and artists being amongst the pioneers in the design of BCI applications. In recent years, after a period of little progress in the field, the introduction of new commercial-grade Electroencephalography (EEG)-based BCIs has led to a phenomenal development of applications across health, entertainment and the arts. At the same time, in the fields of neuroscience and experimental psychology, has emerged a new increasing interest in the mechanisms and processes of the interaction between multiple subjects and their brain-activity, referred to as multi-brain interaction. Although the vast majority of the applications in the arts and entertainment use the brain-activity of a single participant, there are earlier as well as an increasing number of recent examples that involve the simultaneous interaction of more than one participants, mainly in the context of installations, computer games and music performances. This dissertation investigates the use of multi-brain EEG-based BCIs in the context of live cinema and mixed-media performances, which is a rather new field bearing distinct characteristics. Using an interdisciplinary approach, a critical overview of the development of the main BCI hardware, software and modes of interaction is presented and relevant works are examined. The aim is to identify the neuroscientific, computational, creative, performative and experimental challenges of the design and implementation of multi-brain BCIs in mixed-media performances, which leads to the main research question: What might be an effective model for the simultaneous multi-brain interaction of performers and audiences using EEG-based BCIs in the context of live cinema and mixed-media performances? In order to address the main research enquiry, scientific and practice-based methodologies were combined and a new passive multi-brain EEG-based BCI system was developed. The system was further implemented in the context of the research case study, Enheduanna – A Manifesto of Falling, the first demonstration of a live brain-computer cinema performance (CCA Glasgow 29-31 July 2015). This new work enabled for the first time the simultaneous real-time interaction with the use of EEG-based BCIs of more than two participants, including both a performer as well as members of the audience in the context of a mixed-media performance. The analysis of the participants’ data has most interestingly revealed a correlation between the elements of the performance, which they identified as most special, and their indicators of attention and emotional engagement that were increased during the last two scenes, when their brain-activity was interacting with the live visuals, proving the efficiency of the interaction design, the importance of the directing strategy, dramaturgy and narrative structure. Accordingly, the original contributions of the research include the new passive multi-brain EEG-based BCI system, the live brain-computer cinema performance as a new format of performative work and as a complete combination of creative and scientific solutions. This dissertation also presents the new trends in the field, such as hybrid BCIs, the combination with virtual and mixed reality systems, together with future work.

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Rape-revenge is one of cinema studies' neglected genres, even in spite of the plethora of examples globally over the past decade. This thesis redresses the lack of critical attention with an account of the contemporary genre that analyses the politics, ethics, and affects at play in the filmic construction of rape and its reponse. Each chapter examines a significant trend or aspect of the contemporary genre through in-depth case studies, expanding the study of rape-revenge from socio-political or psychoanalytic perspectives to also include embodied, phenomenological perspectives and ethical issues. The case studies - including 'The Last House on the Left' (Wes Craven, 1972/Dennis Iliadis, 2009), 'I Spit on Your Grave' (Meir Zarchi, 1978/Steven R. Monroe, 2010), 'Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2' (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/2004), 'Sympathy for Lady Vengeance' (Park Chan-Wook, 2005), 'Teeth' (Mitchell Lichtenstein, 2007), 'Hard Candy' (David Slade, 2005), 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' ('Män som hatar kvinnor') (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009), 'Descent' (Talia Lugacy, 2007), 'Katalin Varga' (Peter Strickland, 2009), and 'Twilight Portrait' ('Portret v sumerkakh') (Angelina Nikonova, 2011) - are framed in terms of rape-revenge's temporal, cross-media, and cross-cultural shifts, and also placed within the broader cultural myths and media narratives about rape. The contemporary genre reinscribes dominant, conservative cultural myths about rape and the appropriate response (eye for an eye revenge), while at the same time presenting interesting explorations of rape trauma and ethics and self-reflexive challenges to spectating violence. Ambivalence also manifests in these films in that they both attest to the ongoing cultural relevance and popularity of rape-revenge narratives, and yet push the genre's limits and explore the possibility of responses to rape other than revenge. This research finds the rape-revenge genre to be a flexible format with certain limitations but also great potential for political, affective, and ethical exploration of rape and responses to rape.

The aim of this project has been to explore the possibility of applying Phenomenology and Classical Indian Theories to cinema with the hope that their systematic application would generate new insights in a deeper understanding of cinema. This need has been felt in the context of the existing film discourse having reached a stage of stagnation, even a “crisis”, in recent times. The reason for this moribund state of contemporary film discourse has been analyzed in my thesis as due to the failure of the existing film theories to incorporate film audiences‟ ordinary experiences of cinema, viz. the romance, the thrills, and the emotions which motivate them to come to the cinema halls all over the world. The film theories have failed to acknowledge the importance of this phenomenon which is built on the audiences‟ embodied experiences of the world and their socio-cultural practices that have grown on top of them which together form, at the very basic level, what constitutes the audiences‟ ordinary response to cinema. It has been argued in this thesis that, while this very basic response of the audiences to cinema has been entirely by-passed by the existing film theories, they have concentrated instead on how the audiences should ideally respond to cinema. As a result, the film theories present a sanitized version of the audience experiences that entirely miss the „gut-feelings‟ that cinema generates among them. It is unfortunate that film theorization has progressively moved away from this experience. Thus, while the schools of realism and montage, which together constitute the two contrary branches of classical film theory, deal with the nature of reality underlying the surface reality of cinema, contemporary film theory, based on the notion of disembodied vision, render the audiences into passive viewers manipulated by a subversive ideology operated by a schemeing bourgeoisie and cognitive film theory considers the audiences to be transparently intelligent entities, who, like an ideal buyer, infer the film narrative by optimally using the clues provided by the film and respond appropriately. It has been argued in this work that none of these theories acknowledge the film audiences‟ normal response to cinema, thereby missing the very starting point from where theorizations should have started in the first place. When phenomenology and classical Indian theories are applied to cinema, they do not assign extraordinary powers 11 of perception to the audiences who, by dint of it, should tear asunder the „fake‟ reality presented on screen; rather, they help to understand how normal processes of perception operate producing identifications and their corresponding affective states among the audiences that keep them glued to cinema all over the world. Merleau-Ponty‟s phenomenology and Nyāya theory are similar in revealing how the audiences‟ perception generates meanings and emotions on the basis of their embodied experiences of the world and the socio-cultural practices built up around them. In this connection, both Nyāya and Merleau-Ponty‟s notion of synaesthetic experiences make the audio-visual images to be so much richer than has been acknowledged so far. Further, Nyāya, by positing that the perception of things is a product of their mode of appearance and mode of presentation, offers a rare insight into how the perceptual process works under normal circumstances. Nyāya offers a further insight into the perceptual process by holding that, at the most basic level, the perceiver constructs an integrated whole of the elements occurring within view in order to ensure that the organism offers an unique response to whatever is confronting it essential for the survival of the organism. Since this integration occurs in terms of the organism‟s embodied and socio-cultural practices of life, it represents a process of narrative integration of a scene which remains in-built in the human psyche. This aspect assumes crucial importance in case of cinema. Bharata‟s theory of aesthetic pleasure or rasa delineates how various levels of identification develop between an artwork and its audiences which, in turn, evoke their corresponding affective states among them that enable them to relive a scene portrayed in the work. A question which had defied a satisfactory solution for a long time, why do the audiences enjoy tragedies, Abhinavagupta offers the solution that this happens because the audiences identify with the fictional mode of the artwork even before they have set their foot in the auditorium. By removing the audiences from their practical life, it has the effect of generalizing the audiences‟ future experiences in relation to the artwork. In this state, aesthetic experiences produce what has been called “ownerless” emotions among the audiences which are “tasted” from outside rather than personally “suffered” by them. Bharata‟s theory also anticipates Merleau-Ponty‟s notion of the chiasm involving 12 subjective-objective alterations between subjects and objects in an artwork generating a much more enriching experience among the audiences. Ānadavardhana‟s theory of dhvani or suggestion conveys to the audiences the sense of a scene to the audiences that inheres beyond the meaning that occurs on the surface. Thus, the expression “The village is on the river Ganges” not only conveys a sense of „coolness‟ and „serenity‟ associated with a river, but also connotes „piety‟ and „holiness‟ to a section of people for whom Ganges happens to be a holy river. In a larger sense, this process, dhvani theory gives voice to certain experiences by human beings which they cannot express normally due to reaons such as social repression, existential crisis, or erasure of memory all of which keep influencing their actions on the surface. By helping human beings to confront what remains supressed within them, dhvani seeks to restore full subjectivity to human beings. In this sense, dhvani becomes one of the most potent instruments of understanding the deeper relevance that cinema has for the audiences.

The period of the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, falling at a crux between the influences of modernity and postmodernity, was an era undergoing vast paradigmatic shifts. Defined by cultural historians as The Final Phase of Modernism, A Rage against Order, The New Sensibility, an era of Getting Loose, or The Culture of Narcissism, this decade was increasingly fracturing along conservative-liberal fault lines. Presumably, as a result of this socio-political dichotomisation, debates were being forwarded about the need for and efficacy of grand narratives including historical imperatives, familial connectivity, and traditional spiritual affiliation elicited across this cultural spectrum: from orthodox institutions, such as the Catholic Church to more left-wing establishments such as the Civil Rights and Counter Culture movements. Given prevalence of these conundrums, this thesis will explore how these concerns were discussed and disseminated within the United States through the popular media and, more specifically, works of horror. Indeed, at least since the Gothic literary period, and its qualified revival in the New Hollywood Alternative Religion Horror cinema this discursive thread has, arguably, articulated concerns surrounding the legacy and effects of modernity, traditionalism, the supernatural and affiliations of faith overall. In focusing upon American and British/American co-productions such as Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, and The Wicker Man, their shared concern in addressing spiritual questions will be taken seriously not merely as metaphors but instead as viable contemporaneous debates. This reading thus offers up an alternative to those currently presented by academia wherein religion is regarded as a mere metaphor for restrictive socio-political mechanisms, or as symbols of plenitude and power.

This thesis consists of an original composition portfolio and a commentary. There are ostensibly two works here, both re-scores of early Chinese films: a re-scoring of the seventy four minutes long Chinese silent film The Goddess (1934) and a re-scoring of the Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first Chinese full-length animated film which is seventy three minutes long. My research has centred on the question: is there another viable approach to re-scoring a silent film besides what Kevin Donnelly1 sets out as either ‘purist’ (i.e. historically informed) or ‘novel’ (radically different to the film)? I place my own method between these two extremes, formulating what I call a ‘mixed model approach’ and through it I can explore and develop my own musical identity drawing on an eclectic and diverse range of musical styles, using a leitmotivic strategy within the architecture of both scores.

Over the past half century, theorists have grappled with the issue that spectators engage with, and are emotionally affected by, fiction. In particular, film fiction has aroused interest because of the strength of emotional response. Traditional thinking about film accepted that illusion was a component of a spectator’s experience of film. However, contemporary theory has veered significantly from this and assumed that the spectator is always aware of the fictional nature of the content. In this thesis I argue that certain horror movies do, in fact, lead to an experience that is best characterized and understood in terms of illusion. Analysing key theories that attempt to explain an audience’s emotional responses to fiction, I aim to demonstrate that popular non-illusionistic theories fail to acknowledge both sides of the filmatic relationship (the spectator and the film) and have mistakenly attempted to provide an explanation for all emotional responses across media. A more refined approach is needed, both to emotion and the medium through which it is evoked. Thus, I incorporate an empirical analytical method in my philosophical project, analysing a number of paradigm horror movies and drivers of film spectatorship, to demonstrate how conditions for illusion are present. I also place emphasis on the phenomenological account of the spectator. My thesis offers an account of a type of horror movie experience that considers both the causal and conceptual issues of emotionally responding to film fiction. This explanation also offers a solution to the paradox of fiction but one that is not required to accord with those that attempt to explain other emotions evoked by works of art.

In the public consumption of film adaptations of popular children’s literature, which is, particularly in relation to the popular press, influenced by the marketing communications of the filmmaking team, the discursive negotiation of author and audience constructs is pivotal in the endeavor to side-step or manage the seemingly unavoidable discourses of fidelity. In this, child audiences are imagined and constructed in a variety of ways; however, these constructions generally have very little to do with actual children and much more to do with how the filmmakers wish/need to manage and negotiate the significance of both book and film authors. This area is largely unexplored in adaptation studies, for whilst the topic of fidelity proliferates the discipline, its function as a marketing tool - as well as its links to how author(s) and audience(s) are imagined and constructed - needs further investigation. What is clear in the following case studies is that the representations of audience(s) vary depending on the culturally understood personas of the author(s) at hand, therefore as the representation of the various book and film authors shift from case study to case study, so does the representation of the audience. In Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling is deemed to be the primary authorial presence, and the audience are imagined as a cohesive, loyal group of avid readers. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton and Roald Dahl are equally significant (despite the lack of Dahl’s physical presence) because they are both deemed to be outsiders, much like the audience members are all (implicitly and paradoxically) also deemed to be. In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Andrew Adamson is unable to compete with the emotional attachment many adult journalists and critics have to the book, and the result of this is that the discursive presence of the child audience is largely absent. All of these films were within a few years of each other, yet the ‘child,’ childhood more generally, and the intended audience are all constructed in very di erent ways demonstrating that what is important to those promoting (and often those consuming) a film is a solid author construct, and any discussions of children or child audiences only serves to validate these author figures.

This thesis presents a business history of the London-based film production company, Working Title Films. The focus is on the creative and business structures and processes through which Working Title has operated and, in turn, the individual and collective agency of the key players responsible for developing and maintaining these institutional determinants. The same set of research questions are applied to the principal filmmaking institutions with which Working Title has collaborated, and, more particularly, examines how Working Title has negotiated creative and business relationships with various larger film businesses. By taking a chronological approach to Working Title’s evolution, a detailed account of the company’s years as an independent production company (1984-1990), a subsidiary of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (1990-1998) and a subsidiary of Universal Pictures (1998-present) is provided. The thesis also offers a historical and conceptual framework through which the business history of Working Title is analysed. In the first instance, this involves a reconsideration of the relationship between the film industries and cultures of Britain and Hollywood which combines the discourses of national cinema with more recent scholarship about transnational cinema. This conceptual reinterpretation is subsequently applied to three indicative business histories from the 1930s and 1940s: London Films, MGM-British and the Rank Organisation — and then to Working Title itself. The central concept of the thesis — ‘Transatlantic British Cinema’ — describes a type of cultural production that challenges orthodox accounts of British cinema as national cinema and indicates the ways in which representations of Britain and ‘Britishness’ function within transnational film culture.

This thesis examines questions of the continued significance of national cinemas and identities, focussing on the case of Scottish cinema. As a small, devolved nation with relative autonomy from the United Kingdom, Scotland presents an interesting case for how films are labelled with a national identity, as Scottish films can also often be understood in a British, European, and even global context. Rather than attempting to construct a working model of Scottish cinema based on representation or production context, I ask how films have been constructed as Scottish. I approach the concepts of Scotland and Scottish film as sets of meanings that are subject to change over time and in different contexts. This facilitates a perspective which asks in what ways Scotland and Scottishness is constructed in film. I examine how multiple identities are balanced in the filmic construction of Scotland first by considering how Scottish films—both those made in and which are about Scotland—from the early 1980s to the present construct Scottish identities. I will consider the way these films explored ‘traditional’ Scottish identities in the 1980s, Scottish masculinity in the 1990s, and Scottish identities based on ethnicity and gender in the 2000s and 2010s. Second, I look at how these films are received as Scottish by examining reviews and other press materials to determine how the Scottishness of the films considered is discursively constructed for potential audiences.