vol. 2, issue 3: party! Archives - cléo

vol. 2, issue 3: party!

cléo journal — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 22:49:59 +0000

To fête, to celebrate, to assemble with the purpose of fun — it’s time to party. We have dedicated this next issue of cléoto the party in film. From cocktail parties, to house parties, to tailgate parties, to frat parties, we want to look closer and rub elbows with the most infamous and the overlooked. […]

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Editor’s Note: Party!

kiva reardon — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:35:28 +0000

Can feminists party? The short answer is: yes, of course. No one but a Men’s Rights troll on Reddit would assume that the broad swath of women (and men) who adhere to the modern feminist movement don’t indulge in the deep-seated human need to have fun. But the longer answer is more complex, because the […]

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“Sharing something closer to paradise”: An Interview with Sally Potter

tim hayes — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:34:10 +0000

Sally Potter arrived at filmmaking after a full decade spent working as a dancer, musician, and choreographer; a background that can be detected—hidden in plain sight—in almost all of her films. The change in career path was motivated by a feeling that cinema was the best instrument available for questioning some of the prevalent social […]

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Dream On: An Interview with Julie Taymor

kiva reardon — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:29:55 +0000

“I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream Julie Taymor deals in dreams. Her directorial works—which include the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of The Lion King (1997), her critically acclaimed feature film debut Titus (1999), and the Oscar-winning Frida (2002)—aren’t tied to […]

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Party For One: Election’s Powerful Pariah

eleni deacon — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:28:13 +0000

Pick Flick. She’s got the smarts. She’s got the tenacity. And she’s got the sweater vests. Alexander Payne’s Election (1999) charts the gloves-off race for student body president at Carver High in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s a vicious and corrupt campaign, marred by personal vendettas, shameless electoral fraud, and even more shameless hissy fits. Leading the […]

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“What Are You Afraid Of, A Fate Worse Than Death?”: How Funny Women Survive Clue’s Anti-Party

ké kampeas-rittenhouse — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:26:28 +0000

A party, according to Clue (1985), is a sinister exercise in social engineering and surveillance. Set in 1954 in a remote, gloomy mansion and laced with references to McCarthyism—“Communism was just a red herring!” is a famous quote—the film chronicles a soirée where the guests are held captive and must conceal their true identities. As […]

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Stalled Beat: Mia Hansen-Løve’s Eden

lindsay jensen — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:24:21 +0000

Midway through Mia Hansen-Løve’s sprawling, electronic dance music–themed Eden, French DJ Paul (the perpetually doe-eyed Félix de Givry) meets a Chicago DJ with whom he has been corresponding. “Man, you look young,” the man states bluntly. “Yeah, I get that a lot,” Paul bashfully replies. The exchange feels like a playful nod on Hansen-Løve’s part, […]

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Killer Waves: Beach Girls and the Monster

manisha aggarwal-schifellite — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:21:47 +0000

In his review of Muscle Beach Party in the New York Times on May 28, 1964, Bosley Crowther, the granddaddy of mid-century film criticism, succinctly describes one of the central features of the new genre of “beach party film”: “a tangle of vigorous young people with beautiful bodies and empty heads.” In the era of […]

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Bloody Fun: The Menstrual Horror of Ginger Snaps

justine smith — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:20:06 +0000

Brian de Palma’s 1976 film Carrie has become a seminal text in female horror for its blending of the trials of adolescence with a dash of the supernatural. The film opens with Carrie’s first menstruation, a mysterious and shameful event for the sheltered outcast. After the initial shock of the onset of womanhood, Carrie’s new […]

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’90s Teen Party Movies and the Golden Age™ of Feminist Film?

cléo journal — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:16:11 +0000

There ain’t no party like a parents-out-of-town, geek-gets-drunk, Seth-Green-gets-laid nineties teen movie party. Even if you weren’t old enough—or cool enough—to attend any such rager yourself, you could still party vicariously through revelrous classics like Clueless, Can’t Hardly Wait, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Craft, Empire Records, and oh-so-many more. Far from fluff, […]

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