An introduction to Hollywood cinema which explains how it influences and in turn is influenced by alternative cinema traditions.
As the paradigm by which most other cinemas define themselves and are judged, Hollywood is thought to determine the shape of all national and local cinemas. But is Hollywood really such a homogenous and homogenising monolith?
Jane Mills challenges the widespread notion of a Hollywood bounded and fixed at the centre of a stable cultural landscape, to propose a new way of understanding inter-cinematic relationships. Placing her close readings of films within the framework of globalising processes she shows the cultural flows between cinemas are more fluid and their borders are more porous than commonly assumed.
Loving and Hating Hollywood puts globalisation firmly on the agenda for cinema studies. It challenges filmmakers, critics and audiences to see the film world afresh and to recognise the power of dissident imagination wherever its geographical homeland may be.
'A fiercely argued and provocative contribution to debates about the role and status of Hollywood in world cinema. Jane Mills seeks to unravel the complex and multi-lateral process whereby meanings are made, fused and transferred in the new transnational language of cinema.' - Professor Sylvia Harvey, University of Lincoln
'Blending a cinephile's close attention to cannily chosen films with her international experience in film culture and a restless, cosmopolitan intellect, Jane Mills tells an imaginative story about the fluidity of 'Hollywood' and its constant reinvention through a process of negotiation with its protean others.' - Professor James Donald, University of New South Wales
About Jane Mills
Jane Mills is Associate Professor of Communications at Charles Sturt University.