Cultivating extreme art cinema: text, paratext and home video culture

Extreme art films are hybridised cinematic texts which combine the aesthetic experimentation of art cinema with the sex and violence of exploitation film. Providing some of the most transgressive images in contemporary cinema, extreme art films erode longstanding dichotomies between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, and, as Tina Kendall and Tanya Horeck note, interrogate, challenge and destroy the notion of a passive or disinterested spectator (Horeck & Kendall 2011). Much of the existing literature on extreme art cinema has coded this hybridised approach as a hyperbolic marketing strategy (see, for example, Quandt 2004; Palmer 2006; Hagman 2007). This book, through paratextual examinations of extreme art cinema’s DVD presence (and, where appropriate, Blu-ray), offers new readings of these divisive films. Through in-depth analysis of cover art, sleeve designs, blurbs, and special features, the book approaches paratexts as bearers of meaning, with the potential to communicate, define and alter a film’s cultural identity. By adopting this paratextual methodology, Extreme Art Cinema: Text, Paratext and DVD Culture provides an original insight into how extreme art paratexts are presented to the consumer, examining the influence exploitation film traditions have on the commercial presentation and marketing of extreme cinema.