A Companion to Nordic Cinema Hardcover - 2016

From the rear cover

The Companion to Nordic Cinema encompasses original contributions by twenty-six Nordic and international film scholars, writing from the Nordic region as well as the United States, Canada, Scotland, and Hong Kong. The volume offers a transnational approach to one of the world's earliest and oldest film-producing regions. Focusing on issues that cut across the region--film policy, film education, cinephilia, innovation, global connections, and practitioner's agency--authors bring the creativity and contributions of the Nordic cinema's practitioners, films, and film cultures into sharp relief. The Companion provides a variety of paths through the complex history of Nordic cinematic traditions, tracing compelling links between well-known names and titles and the forms of personal and institutional creativity that facilitated their very emergence and success. Together, the chapters provide the distinctive historical, cultural, and political contexts that account for Nordic cinema's striking successes since the dawn of the medium. At the same time, they clearly show that the Nordic region's filmmaking milieus are deeply transnational and fully engaged with global cinematic flows.

• Offers a comprehensive, transnational and regional account of Nordic cinema from its origins to the present day
• Features original contributions from more than two dozen international film scholars based in the Nordic countries, the United States, Canada, Scotland, and Hong Kong
• Covers a wide range of topics on the distinctive evolution of Nordic cinema including the silent Golden Age, Nordic film policy models and their influence, audiences and cinephilia, Nordic film training, and indigenous Smi cinema.
• Considers Nordic cinema's engagement with global audiences through coverage of such topics as Dogme 95, the avant-garde filmmaking movement begun by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, and the global marketing and distribution of Nordic horror and Nordic noir
• Offers fresh investigations of the work of global auteurs such as Carl Th. Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Lars von Trier, Aki Kaurismki, and Roy Andersson.
• Includes essays on Danish and Swedish television dramas, Finland's eco-documentary film production, the emerging tradition of Icelandic cinema, the changing dynamics of Scandinavian porn, and many more