Screening the unwatchable

Screening the Unwatchable traces the rise of extreme art cinema across a range of films from Lars von Trier's The Idiots to Michael Haneke's Cacȟ. Reviving the debate about the role of negation and aesthetics, the book argues that the recent turn in contemporary art cinema toward transgressive subjects provides a unique opportunity to reframe the concept of spectatorship in ethical terms. A key insight offered is that the gravitation toward previously taboo topics betrays an attempt to portray issues involving the body, sexuality and gender in a more truthful manner. At the same time, these films also seem to push the limits of representation to an unprecedented level, provoking feelings of discomfort and disorientation in the spectator. Asbj̜rn Gr̜nstad€ explains why such disturbing experiences may still convey values essential to our shared visual culture.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Mental Health, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.