Hollywood Hype and Audiences

Selling and Watching Popular Film in the 1990's

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by Thomas Austin

Manchester University Press

Due/Published May 2002, 272 pages, paper

ISBN 0719057752

This book traces the circulation in Britain of three Hollywood films--Basic Instinct, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Natural Born Killers--from marketing and critical reception to consumption in cinemas and on video. It draws on economic discursive contexts and original audience research to trace how meanings, pleasures, and uses are derived from popular film. A significant intervention into methodological debates in film studies and a timely investigation of film culture, it focuses on key questions about genre, taste, sexual pleasure and screen violence.

Contents

Introduction: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Popular Film
Texts in context
Basic Instinct: "Woman on Top"?
Bram Stoker's Dracula: "Gone with the Wind Plus Fangs
Natural Born Killers: A Film For Hooligans?