Work by Laura Marks and Vivian Sobchack has triggered a rethinking of the way film evokes sensory experience, and existing models of the spectator have been shattered in favour of a responsive, bodily, film viewer, for whom sensation is overwhelmingly affective. This thesis seeks to balance this work with an appraisal of how relationship between and among senses colour the spectator’s engagement with the narrative dimension of cinema. This exploration is conducted in the light of audio-visual film’s status as the first synaesthetic mass-medium. Consequently, the analysis looks beyond film studies and film theory, extending particularly into cognitive psychology, cultural studies, art, literature, and film history. Cinema’s consistently audio-visual nature suggests the peculiar strengths of this pairing and their interrelation is the focus of the first half of the thesis. As well as the mutually reinforcing quality foreseen in early visions of a synaesthesia machine, the tension produced by combining these two ‘distance senses’ is seen to lend depth and piquancy to the scenarios they describe. The second half of the thesis considers the ways sensations beyond the audio-visual can be invoked, arguing that smell and touch are significant strands in inter-personal relationships, which demand a role in meaningful human narrative. These questions are advanced through close study of six post-1990 films: Krzysztof Kieślowski’s <i>Trois Couleurs </i>trilogy, <i>Bleu, Blanc </i>and <i>Rouge, </i>and Claire Denis’ <i>Nénette et Boni, Trouble Every Day</i> and <i>L’Intrus</i>. While the two directors might be considered to be quite different in their approach to film-making, they share a mutual concern with highly crafted narrative, characterised by extreme sensitivity to questions of humanity and by economy of dialogue.

This thesis examines literary adaptation in Spanish cinema as a site for the interaction of formal questions central to the study of film and literature and ideological concerns crucial to late twentieth-century Spain. While cinematic adaptations of literary texts have previously been neglected as they seemingly dilute 'pure' cinema, or have been subjected to analyses which seek to prove the artistic superiority of literature, this study demonstrates that the literary adaptation genre can be creatively energetic and conceptually challenging by drawing examples from Spanish cinema and television of the late dictatorship, transitional and democratic periods. Given the propaganda exercise mounted through cinema under Franco, in chapter one I argue firstly that ideological issues are particularly significant in Spanish film - even though a contradictory appeal to a historical Structuralist models is prevalent in Spanish film scholarship. I contend secondly that because literary adaptation constitutes a dialogue between two media, formal issues are also inevitably raised. In chapters two, three and four I foreground ideological questions by examining three themes of particular importance to late twentieth-century Spain - the recuperation of history, the negotiation of the rural and the urban, and the representation of gender - and consider the related stylistic issues of the supposed affinities between cinematic expression and nostalgia, the city and phallocentrism. In chapter five I place the formal question of the narrator centre stage by assessing Buñuel's previously unacknowledged stylistic debt to Galdós as manifested in his adaptations of <I>Nazarín </I>and <I>Tristana, </I>and examine the ideological implications of the two artists' shared subversion of realism. Questions of history and form are therefore inseparable, and every cinematic adaptation holds in tension its influence by, or its inflection of, the ideology and form of the literary text on which it is based.

My research explores the contingency of key discourses of masculinity, race and violence as they are filtered through particular film genres in which it is the very masculinist dimension of their cultural narratives which is emphasized. To that end the two genres which I focus upon are the 'spaghetti' western and the 'gangster' film. I explore the formative role of cultural production in the circulation and critique of masculinist, or in the case of the screen 'outlaw' or 'gangster', hypermasculinist discourses, particularly as they intersect with issues of racial or ethnic difference. This in tum raises important questions about the transnational component of the urban political economy which is the favoured stomping ground of both the screen, and reallife, gangster. Subsequently the research tests the notion of a global register against which the iconographic figure of the male outlaw is constructed and the implications of this for broader cultural mythologies of race, nation and frontier, for instance as a prototypical narrative of American, English or Indian modernity. My argument is that film, as a culturally promiscuous yet tactical resource, is both the instance and the critique of 'the public enemy' or of the violence of our own self-constitution. It (film) produces and sustains the media gangster as a solipsistic medium through which burgeoning, and increasingly violent, neuroses about the role of masculinity are filtered. By engaging the psychotic underbelly of both visual culture and the foundational myths it indexes, my research synthesises otherwise discrete anxieties around race, desire and violence. It makes the case for how the outsider art of gangster films or spaghetti westerns recalibrates the level of violence we are prepared to live with. It ultimately reveals how it is outlaws in the guise of a domestic citizenry who convert life into myth and image by projecting society's fears back to it as style. Weare the frontier and psychosis is our signature.

Drawing on a wide range of critical and theoretical material, this thesis explores the representation of subjective phenomena, such as dream, memory and fantasy, in the films of Ingmar Bergman, Alain Resnais and Stanley Kubrick. My introduction outlines my argument concerning how film represents or communicates non-verbal thought processes, before examining theories and depictions of cinematic thought in the silent era. Subsequently, the thesis is divided into three sections, each consisting of two chapters and focussing on the work of a single director. In the first section, I explore Bergman's representation of SUbjective processes. Chapter 2 offers a Close formal analysis of the dream sequences in Wild Strawberries, while chapter 3 examines the stylistic properties and thematic concerns of Bergman's later, experimental work of the 1960s and '70s. In chapter 4 I analyze Resnais' work, emphasizing in particular his early innovations in representing imagination, memory and streams of consciousness. Chapter 5 extends this analysis by examining the concept of collective memory (or imagination) in relation to Resnais' interrogation of France's recent history (the Occupation and the Algerian War). In the final section, I focus on Kubrick's work. Chapter 6 explores Kubrick's 1962 adaptation of Lolita and the notion of 'first-person' cinematic narration. My formal analysis of the film is contextualized through a .discussion of its production history, and examines the relationship between cinematic thought, censorship and the values and norms of Hollywood. Chapter 7 builds upon this analysis, exploring different forms of SUbjective narration and 'uncanny' thought in Kubrick's later work. In conclusion, I summarize the key ideas developed in my thesis in orderú to support my central' argument that cinema has a unique capacity for representing specific aspects of nonverbal thought.

This thesis shall examine the development of a contemporary Irish animation industry, and in doing so, shall demonstrate how representations of Irish culture in animated film can be effectively assessed using postcolonial models of cultural production. The application of postcolonial theory not only acts as a method of describing the historical circumstances that have determined the emergence of a contemporary Irish animation industry, but also illustrates how the social, historical and educational aspects of animation production in Ireland reflect the postcolonial conditions of Irish society itself. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the presence of a large American animation studio in Ireland, under the stewardship of ex-Disney animation director Don Bluth, played a pivotal role in the development of the indigenous Irish industry, and constituted a colonial moment in Irish animation history. Whilst assessing the long-term effects of the Don Bluth studio on the education of Irish artists and the aesthetic tradition adopted by the contemporary industry in Ireland, this study also recognises the existence of an Irish animation history that pre-dates the arrival of the American studio. It shall consider the pioneers of indigenous animation production in Ireland, working at the forefront of cinema in the early 20th Century, and the experimental application of animation aesthetics in a social and economic climate not conducive to filmmaking practices. This investigation engages multiple analytical tools to generate a portrayal of the past, present and potential future of the Irish industry, involving debates over animation aesthetics and authorship, resistant forms of cinema, and its analysis in Irish news media. But most importantly, this study generates primary evidence in the form of interviews with producers, directors, artists, and educators working in the contemporary Irish industry, thereby complimenting conceptual theory with first-hand experience of the economic and social realities underpinning indigenous animation production. It is these oral accounts that offer useful insights into models of production, aesthetic expression and processes of cultural transmission, in the increasingly commercialised and globalised animation industry of the 21st Century.

This thesis identifies a connection in Hong Kong cinema with classical Hollywood film noir and examines what it will call a 'reinvestment' in film noir in recent films. It will show that this reinvestment is a discursive strategy that both engages the spectator-subject in the cinematic practice and disengages him or her from the hegemony of the discourse by decentring the narrative. The thesis argues that a cinematic practice has occurred in the recent reinvestment of film noir in Hong Kong, which restages the intertextual relay of the historical genre that gives rise to an expectation of ideas about social instability. The noir vision that is seen as related to the fixed categories of film narratives, characterizations and visual styles is reassessed in the course of the thesis using Derridian theory. The focus of analysis is the way in which the constitution of meanings is dependent on generic characteristics that are different. Key to the phenomenon is a film strategy that destabilizes, differs and defers the interpretation of crises-personal, social, political and/or cultural-by soliciting self-conscious re-reading of suffering, evil, fate, chance and fortune. It will be argued that such a strategy evokes the genre expectation as the film invokes a network of ideas regarding a world perceived by the audience in association with the noirish moods of claustrophobia, paranoia, despair and nihilism. The noir vision is thus mutated and transformed when the film device differs and defers the conception of the crises as tragic in nature by exposing the workings of the genre amalgamation and the ideological function of the cinematic discourse. Thus, noirishness becomes both an affect and an agent that contrives a self-reflexive re-reading of the tragic vision and of the conventional comprehension of reality within the discursive practice. The film strategy, as an agent that problematizes the film form and narrative, gives rise to what I call a politics of difference, which may also be understood as the Lyotardian 'language game' or a practice of 'pastiche' in Jameson's terminology. Under the influence of the film strategy, the spectator is enabled to negotiate his or her understanding of recent Hong Kong cinema diegetically and extra-diegetically by traversing different positions of cinematic identification. When the practice of genre amalgamation adopts the visual impact of the noirish film form, the film turns itself into a playing field of 'fatal' misrecognition or a site of question. Through cinematic identification and alienation from the identification, the spectator-subject is enabled to experience the misrecognition as the film slowly foregrounds the way in which the viewer's presence is implicated in the narrative. This thesis demonstrates that certain contemporary Hong Kong films introduce this selfconscious mode of explication and interpretation, which solicits the spectator to negotiate his or her subject-position in the course of viewing. The notions of identity and subjectivity under scrutiny will thus be reread. With reference to The Private Eye Blue, Swordsman II, City a/Glass and Happy Together, the thesis shall explore the ways in which the Hong Kong films enable and facilitate a negotiation of cultural identity.

d has been described by Gilles Deleuze as one of 'the greatest modern auteurs, whose work, alas, may well develop its effects only in the long term, endowing the cinema with powers that are as yet not well known.' Despite this kind of endorsement, Garrel has remained a relatively elusive figure, and his cinematic oeuvre has received limited attention amongst scholars of-and commentators on - French cinema. This thesis contends that the marginalization of Garrel's films is due to the formal and ideological irregularity of an oeuvre that embraces artisanal modes of production, shifts between the avant-garde and the mainstream, and, although connected with several schools and film groupings, is never fully affiliated with any. It contends that his work is especially relevant to any consideration of film language and political transformations within France since the events of May '68. Garrel, who took part in these events as a young man, has produced a challenging and provocative body of work, that continues to offer an important contribution debates about the relations between art and politics, cinema and engagement, even if that contribution has been neglected.

This study examines a distinct Hollywood production cycle from 1942 to 1946 in which women, for a brief moment, supplanted men in horror cinema's key role of the monster. Adopting a historical reception studies approach, this study analyses this industry strategy in relation to its wartime contexts of production, mediation and consumption. It summarily challenges established historical and theoretical understandings of the horror genre. It demonstrates that the success of Cat People (1942) inspired a cycle of more than twenty female monster films - ones with distinctive tropes, themes and stylistic traits - that were understood in relation to each other by industry and critics. Furthermore, analysis of the narrative and promotional strategies of these films demonstrates that they were targeted predominantly at female audiences, addressing their contextually specific desires, experiences and fears. This challenges dominant psychological approaches to horror that suggest that the genre is addressed almost exclusively towards male spectators. Having situated these films within their specific historical conditions of production and circulation, this study ultimately returns to the texts themselves. It suggests that these representations of corporeal conflict and contestation provided sites of confluence for diverse cultural concerns relating to wartime shifts in gender roles. As the aforementioned archival research suggests, these wider social dialogues and discursive struggles - ones that situated the female body as a key `transfer point' for debates about wartime nationhood - provided important and attractive `interpretative strategies' for female audiences. Therefore, through analysis of this unique horror cycle, this study challenges dominant assumptions about women's relationship to horror texts; it provides a compelling model for analysis of media production cycles; it reorients the understanding of production, reception and exhibition practices within this oft misunderstood period of Hollywood history; and it enlivens wider social histories addressing women's experiences of American home front life.

This thesis focuses on the study of the unfolding causes and effects of the mechanisms of international film co-production, specifically those organised between Spain and Latin American countries since the 1980s. In doing so, it discusses the hegemonic position of Spain in these collaborations, and the neocolonial discourses embedded within those negotiations. Based on my fieldwork in Peru, this thesis centres predominantly on the Peruvian experience of co-production, examining parallels with similar practices of film production collaborations in other countries within the subcontinent. The thesis is accompanied by a practical component. The 46mns documentary Latin America in Co-production (dir. Libia Villazana UK/Peru, 2007) resulted from the fieldwork, and primarily organises, illustrates.and analyses my findings. Whilst both pieces of work are self contained and can· be understood independently of each other, this thesis contextualises and theorises those findings. The methodology used during the filming of my documentary was based on Participant Observation. This method offered me the possibility to participate in the everyday activities of a film co-production between a Latin American country and Spain, whilst observing the dynamics of the settings. Previous studies in this field have tended to concentrate on examining the .potentialloss of national and cultural identity within these collaborations. There are also some short essays delving into the political economy of these co-productions, albeit addressing the topic in a rather general manner. Whilst substantial, research into Spanish and Latin American co-production nevertheless fails to examine key factors such as the causes of the failure of many of these negotiations. This thesis endeavours, first, to contribute to the scarce literature in the practice of international film co-production invblving Latin American countries. Second, it proposes an analysis in an audiovisual format of the working dynamics of the leading IberoAmerican film organisation, Iberrnedia, and evaluates its aims to aid and promote the Thero-American cinema and within it, the film industry of Latin America. Third, this research hopes to contribute to the writing of the historiography of film production in Latin American countries. The thesis concludes by affirming that the creation of 'real alliances' is the way forward to overturn the current subaltern conditions of film production in Latin America. An example of a potential film industry alliance within Latin American countries, and subsequent alliances between them and Europe and Asia, is proposed in this thesis. This is the Mercosur Film Market (MFM), a project recently launched by the leading export bloc of the subcontinent, MERCOSUR.

This is an interview-based piece of psycho-social phenomenological audience research, based on eleven interviews and a series of letters with six working class participants using a psychoanalytically informed method: Free Association Narrative Interviewing. The research aimed to create an in-depth study of the emotional, affective and biographical relationships with 'favourite' film and television texts and also texts that have had an emotional 'impact' on the viewer. The research brings together and develops psychoanalytic film theory and sociological and cultural studies approaches to media audience research to explore this phenomenon. Filmtheory has traditionally utilised textual analysis as a method and the audience has been figured in response to the text. Media and Cultural Studies research into audiences has utilised 'textual' approaches and analysed reading and interpretation of texts. Another strand of empirical audience research exists which relegates the text in favour of an approach concerned with understanding the practices and politics of viewing. Film theory has traditionally found psychoanalysis a useful analytic tool, whilst empirical audience research, interested in both reception and uses, has preferred sociological and cultural interpretive paradigms. These differences of approach and focus have often prevented dialogue between various disciplines -film, media and cultural studies - with regard to audiences. This research attempts to bridge some of these divisions by focussing on both the reception of texts and also viewing practices. Iargue for a method retaining textual analysis as part of a multi-layered method, which includes interviews, and sociohistorical analysis. The research utilises and evaluates psychoanalytic concepts and ideas and begins from the historically contextualised position that audiences now view in a post-cinematic era. I use this term not to signify the end of cinema, but to point to the developments in home viewing, which mean films are not always viewed in the cinema. Also such developments suggest that film theories that are based heavily on the cinematic viewing situation may need to be re-evaluated. Theoretically, the research does not reject what have been hegemonic poststructural models but seeks to enhance established approaches by also utilising perspectives from a range of psychoanalytic perspectives including object relations. The sample of interviewees contains participants from across the age spectrum to explore the experience of technological and social change from different vantage points. The impact of developments such as time shift technology, video and DVD on the relationships with texts and the viewing practices of audiences are examined. Following this, a central research question concerns the ways in which personalising viewing technologies have their own subjective impact upon memory, identity and family relationships. Therefore the home, where most of this technology is located and used is explored as a unique viewing space. The research data provides rich accounts of viewing experiences and the uses of texts and viewing practices in everyday life. New light is shed on established and important concepts in media and film such as identification. The research found examples of forms of identification that have not been explored in previous media and film research for instance intergenerational, sibling, biographical, idiomatic and 'emotional' identification with texts. Other findings included the use of texts to address personal trauma and anxiety resulting from the lived experience of social mobility in what Ulrich Beck has called 'new modernity'. These findings add to the understanding of the experience of viewing and the way media texts are made meaningful and used by audiences. Alternative conceptual models are offered to enhance established approaches. Bion's work is used to understand how film and television visual 'moments' or moments from plot development are used in 'thought'. The work of Bollas and his concepts of idiom, and six forms of object 'use' help to explain the relationship between taste, trauma and the lived experience of social class. Repetition compulsion and afterwardsness explain the significance of memory and experience in viewing practices and favourite texts. The research evaluates some established post-positivist critiques of method and knowledge production and argues that psycho-social methods are effective and workable. The combination of case study and Free Association Narrative Interview Method used demonstrates that it is a viable and effective approach to interviewing for media and film research. It is shown to be particularly effective for generating narratives with biographical and emotional significance. The method is also shown to be an appropriate method for psychoanalytically informed audience research when combined with other methods such as textual analysis.