Attitudes Towards Experiment in British Cinema: The Amateur Art Films of Enrico Cocozza
- Submitting institution
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Ravensbourne University London
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- RS04
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- British Art Cinema: Creativity, Experimentation and Innovation
- Publisher
- Manchester University Press
- ISBN
- 978-1-5261-0087-0
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This chapter developed from an abstract proposal, submitted to a call for chapters, which was circulated by the book editors in 2014.
The research question was: what can the divergence in audience and critical reception for surrealist films reveal about attitudes towards experimental films within amateur festival cultures of the 1950s?
This book chapter was based on research conducted for my PhD thesis. The thesis chapter was largely biographical and structured around exploring the main thematic tendencies in Enrico Cocozza filmmaking; which included amateur dramas, comedies, documentaries and avant-garde works.
I revisited this material during a public lecture at the Stills Gallery, Edinburgh in 2010, focusing on Cocozza’s artistic film practices and sourcing a number of still images. I significantly developed this research during 2016, by reading contemporary scholarly theories of art cinema and surrealism, and scheduling additional archival viewing sessions to closely review the three films, selected for their use of experimental techniques.
The book chapter focused on the divergence between the audience and critical reception of these surrealist films, as reported in newspapers and magazines published in the 1950s. It argues that Cocozza incorporated influences both from experimental and horror films in his narratives, resulting in a hybrid artistic practice that was critically embraced but controversial among his amateur peers. This version also includes new material on Cocozza’s final film festival entry, which pushed the artistic qualities of his earlier films into a new abstract direction. This book chapter was written in late 2016 and following feedback from the editors it was revised in early 2017.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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