Death in Classic and Contemporary Film: Fade to Black

277 Pages·2013·1.842 MB·English

by  Daniel Sullivan, Jeff Greenberg

DEATH IN CLASSIC AND
CONTEMPORARY FILM
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DEATH IN CLASSIC AND
CONTEMPORARY FILM
FADE TO BLACK
Edited by
Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg
DEATH IN CLASSIC AND CONTEMPORARY FILM
Copyright © Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg, 2013.
All rights reserved.
Cover illustration from Vampyr (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1932), courtesy of the
Danish Film Institute.
Please visit the Carl Th. Dreyer website: Carl Th. Dreyer- The man and his
work at http://english.carlthdreyer.dk/
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–27688–9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Death in classic and contemporary fi lm : fade to black / edited by
Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–1–137–27688–9 (alk. paper)
1. Death in motion pictures. 2. Mortality in motion pictures. I. Sullivan,
Daniel, editor of compilation. II. Greenberg, Jeff, 1954– editor of
compilation.
PN1995.9.D37D45 2013
791.43(cid:2)6823—dc23 2013014606
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: October 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
I dedicate my efforts on this book to Leah. And to my family, as well
as Kyle, Johannes, and Jeff. Finally, many thanks to all our excellent
contributors.
—Daniel S.
To my parents Murray and Edie, whose love and effort got me to
Penn, where I developed a love of both Hollywood classics and foreign
films.
—Jeff G.
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
1 Introduction: When the Lights Go Down 1
Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg
Part I Terror Management Theory and Film
2 A Terror Management Analysis of Films from Four Genres:
The Matrix , Life is Beautiful , Iron Man 2 , and Ikiru 1 9
Jeff Greenberg and Alisabeth Ayars
3 The End Is Near: Mortality Salience in Apocalyptic Films 37
Joel D. Lieberman and Mark Fergus
Part II Aspects of Death Denial in
Individual Films and Genres
4 Little Murders : Cultural Animals in an Existential Age 55
Sheldon Solomon and Mark J. Landau
5 Icons of Stone and Steel: Death, Cinema, and the
Future of Emotion 73
Jennifer L. McMahon
6 Consumed in the Act: Grizzly Man and Frankenstein 9 1
Kirby Farrell
7 Black Swan/White Swan: On Female Objectification,
Creatureliness, and Death Denial 105
Jamie L. Goldenberg
8 Death, Wealth, and Guilt: An Analysis of
There Will Be Blood 119
Daniel Sullivan
viii CONTENTS
9 The Birth and Death of the Superhero Film 135
Sander L. Koole, Daniel Fockenberg, Mattie Tops,
and Iris K. Schneider
Part III Directors Engaging with Death
10 Bergman and the Switching off of Lights 153
Peter Cowie
11 Kubrick and Death 167
Susan White
12 Haneke’s Amour and the Ethics of Dying 185
Asbj ø rn Gr ø nstad
Part IV The Prospect of Transcendence
13 Visions of Death: Native American Cinema and the
Transformative Power of Death 199
Jennifer L. McMahon
14 From Despair and Fanaticism to Awe: A Posttraumatic
Growth Perspective on Cinematic Horror 217
Kirk J. Schneider
15 Conclusion: Cinematic Death Benefits 2 31
Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg
Notes on Contributors 2 47
Film Title Index 251
Subject Index 261
ILLUSTRATIONS
2.1 Watanabe faces his mortality in Kurosawa’s I kiru (1952) 33
3.1 Kee’s baby in the postapocalyptic world
of Children of Men (2006) 42
7.1 Mirrors permeate Aronofsky’s B lack Swan (2010) 114
8.1 The passage of time in There Will Be Blood (2007) 128
10.1 Borg’s dream in Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957) 1 59
14.1 Justine, Claire, and Leo in von Trier’s Melancholia (2011) 227
15.1 Rocky Sullivan faces death in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) 234