Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
What seems like closure might be something more, as Catherine Russell illustrates in this book about death in narrative cinema since the 1950s. Analyzing the structural importance of death in narrative endings, as well as the thematics of loss and redemption, Russell identifies mortality as a valuable critical tool for understanding the cinema of the second half of the twentieth century. Her work includes close textual readings of films by Fritz-Lang, Wim Wenders, Oshima Nagisa, Jean-Luc Godard, and Robert Altman, among others.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Narrative Mortality (1)
Beyond Pleasure: Lang and Mortificatiion (31)
Wim Wenders: Film as Death at Work (67)
Oshima Nagisa: The Limits of Nationhood (105)
Jean-Luc Godard: Allegory of the Body (137)
American Apocalpticism: The Sight of the Crisis (173)
Conclusion: The Senselessness of Ending (209)
