Film as a Subversive Art : Charlotte Troy

Film as a Subversive Art

I think it must be the most exciting and
comprehensive book I’ve seen on avant-garde,
underground and exceptional commercial film.
— Norman Mailer

A classic returns.

The original edition of Amos Vogel’s seminal book, Film as a Subversive Art
was first published in 1974, and has been out of print since 1987. According
to Vogel — founder of Cinema 16, North America’s legendary film society —
the book details the “accelerating worldwide trend toward a more liberated
cinema, in which subjects and forms hitherto considered unthinkable or
forbidden are boldly explored.” So ahead of his time was Vogel that the ideas
that he penned some 30 years ago are still relevant today, and readily
accessible in this classic volume. Accompanied by over 300 rare film stills,
Film as a Subversive Art analyses how aesthetic, sexual, and ideological
subversives use one of the most powerful art forms of our day to exchange
or manipulate our conscious and unconscious, demystify visual taboos,
destroy dated cinematic forms, and undermine existing value systems and
institutions. This subversion of form, as well as of content, is placed within
the context of the contemporary world view of science, philosophy, and modern
art, and is illuminated by a detailed examination of over 500 films, including
many banned, rarely seen, or never released works.