Roy Grundmann

Associate Professor of Film Studies

Co-founder, Cinema and Media Studies Major (CIMS)

Associate Faculty, American and New England Studies Program (AMNESP)

Contact Information:

Department of Film and Television
Boston University
640 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston MA 02215
(617) 353-6185
roygr@bu.edu

Education

Ph.D., New York University, 1998, Cinema Studies
M.A., New York University, 1992, Cinema Studies

Professional Affiliations:

Contributing Editor, Cineaste Magazine (www.cineaste.com)
Member, Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)(www.cmstudies.org)

Research Interests/Areas of Specialization:

I am interested in film and media in various modernist and postmodernist contexts and across a spectrum of modes of production ranging from mainstream narrative cinema and art cinema to avant-garde film and experimental media. My work focuses on the distinctive and intersecting histories of these media forms and their political, cultural, and philosophical implications. I teach and I write on the history of avant-garde film and experimental media, on American cinema history from World War II to the present, on select European cinemas, as well as on film and media theory and minority representation (for details on teaching, see section on course offerings).

Because of my interest in aesthetics, intertextuality, and the relation between film and the other arts, I strongly encourage interdisciplinarity in the humanities and, indeed, between the humanities and the natural sciences. I believe that film and media studies must continue its dual approach of theory and criticism, renewing its commitment to theoretical rigor and philosophical complexity, while also remaining invested in its venerable tradition of intellectually informed, sophisticated film criticism that preceded academic film studies and continues to exert its vital influence within and without the academy. My own work seeks to partake in both these directions. I have a continued interest in intervening in academic debates on film and media theory and their relation to culture and society. At the same time, my writings regularly appear in a non-academic film quarterly, Cineaste magazine (cineaste@cineaste.com), for which I served as an Editor for ten years and for which I am now a Contributing Editor.

Curatorial and Conference Projects:

"Labour in a Single Shot"

• A Three-Day International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Harun Farocki and Antje Ehmann's Global Workshop Project" Boston University, November 13-15, 2014.
  (http://www.bu.edu/com/labor-films/)

"Cinema/Opera/Art: The Passion of Werner Schroeter"

• Organizer of International Interdisciplinary Conference, Boston University, Fall 2012
  (www.bu.edu/com/special/schroeter/)

"Ulrike Ottinger: A Critical Symposium"

• Organizer of Critical Symposium on and with Ulrike Ottinger, Boston University, Thursday, October 15, 2009
  (www.bu.edu/com/special/ottinger)

"Michael Haneke's Cinema of Provocation"

• Chief Curator of the first comprehensive North American retrospective of the films of Michael Haneke, New York (MoMA) and Boston (HFA, MFA), October 2007.
• Conference Director of a three-day international interdisciplinary conference on the films of Michael Haneke, Boston University, October 25-27
  (www.bu.edu/com/special/haneke)
• Initiator of Michael Haneke Masterclass, Boston University Department of Film and Television, October 2007

"Matthias Müller: Multimedia Poet"

• Curator/Conference Director of a two-day international interdisciplinary conference and retrospective, Boston University, Sept. 29-30, 2006
  (www.bu.edu/com/special/multimediapoet)

"Andy Warhol's Homoerotic Cinema"

• Guest curator of 10-film retrospective of Warhol's queer-themed cinema for Mix Brasil 2002: The 10th São Paolo International Film Festival of Sexual Diversity, São; Paolo, November 10-23, 2002

Publications:

Books:

• Floating Signifiers: Ocean Liners in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture.
  Albany: SUNY University Press. Anticipated Publication date: 2025.
  Interdisciplinary Study (200,000 words) of Ocean Liners as Emblems of Modernity
• Refugees at Sea: The MS St. Louis in History and Popular Memory.
  Albany: SUNY University Press. Anticipated publication date: 2023.
  Interdisciplinary Study (70,000 words) of MS St. Louis
• Andy Warhol's Blow Job
  Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003.
  Interdisciplinary Study of Warhol’s Art and Films Read through Gay History, Queer Theory, Film Theory, Art Theory, and Cultural Studies

Edited Collections:

• Labour in a Single Shot: Critical Perspectives on Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki’s Global Video Project
  Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021 (Series Editor: Thomas Elsaesser)
  Co-edited with Gregory H. Williams and Peter J. Schwartz
• Michael Haneke: Interviews
  Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2020
  Collection of American and International Interviews with Michael Haneke
  Co-edited with Fatima Naqvi and Colin Root
• Werner Schroeter. Vienna: Synema, 2018. Edited Collection/Conference Proceedings.
• The Wiley-Blackwell History of American Film, 4 Volumes Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2012
  Co-edited with Cynthia Lucia and Art Simon
  Volume I: Origins to 1928. 532 pp.
  Volume II: 1929-1945. 566 pp.
  Volume III: 1946-1975. 652 pp.
  Volume IV: 1976-present. 612 pp.
  

Extensively Revised Two-Volume Paperback:

• American Film History: Selected Readings, Origins to 1960 (568pp.)
  Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2015
  Co-edited with Cynthia Lucia and Art Simon
  
• American Film History: Selected Readings, 1960 to the Present (520pp.)
  Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2015
  Co-edited with Cynthia Lucia and Art Simon
• A Companion to Michael Haneke.
  Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2010.
  625pp.

Articles and Reviews (Selection):

• “One Shot, Two Mediums, Three Centuries,” in Grundmann, Williams, Schwartz eds., Labour in a Single Shot: Critical Perspectives on Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki’s Global Video Project. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Forthcoming 2021.
• “A Cinema that Breathes,” in Scott MacDonald and Patricia Zimmerman eds., Flaherty Stories: Voices from the Robert Flaherty Seminar. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2021.
• With Fatima Naqvi and Colin Root, "Introduction," in Michael Haneke Interviews. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2020.
• “The Passions of Werner Schroeter. An Introduction.” in Werner Schroeter. Vienna: Synema, 2018, pp. 7-57.
• “‘A Quivering Tremor, A Vibration in Space’: Voicing Utopia in Poussieres d’amour—Abfallprodukte der Liebe (1996).” in Werner Schroeter. Vienna: Synema, 2018, pp. 159-177.
• “The Discreet Harm of the Bourgeoisie,” Los Angeles Review of Books, February 2, 2018. Review essay of Michael Haneke’s Happy End (2017). https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-discreet-harm-of-the-bourgeoisie/
• “Mehr als nur eine Geschmacksfrage. Über die widersprüchliche Valenz der Valente.” In Montage AV—Zeitschrift für Theorie und Geschichte audiovisueller Kommunikation. Vol. 26, No. 2 (2018), pp. 206-227.
• "Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno." Cineaste Vol. XXXIX, No. 3 Summer 2014. pp. 74-76.
• "Experimental Cinema and the Crystals of Time: Matthias Müller's Visual Poems," Millenium Film Journal, No. 58, Summer 2013, pp. 118-123.
• "The Tenderness of Scissors in Haircut
  (No. 1)." Warhol in Ten Takes. Gary Needham and Glyn Davis eds. London: Palgrave MacMillan/BFI Publishing, 2013, pp. 67-83.
• "Esthétiser l'injustice, dramatiser l'irréconciliable: les éléments lyotardiens chez Haneke. Fragments Du Monde: retour sur l'oeuvre de Michael Haneke. Valérie Carré ed. Paris: Le Bord De L'Eau, 2012, pp. 141-162.
• "Gender, Genre, and Hollywood Labor in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers." The Wiley-Blackwell History of American Film. Cynthia Lucia, Roy Grundmann, Art Simon Co-editors. Malden, Mass., and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Pp. 595-629.
• "Querelle's Finality." The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Brigitte Peucker ed. Malden, Mass., and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
• "Der Dampfer im Film." Motive im Film: Ein Kasuistischer Fischzug. Christine Noll Brinckmann and Britta Hartmann eds. Marburg: Schueren, 2011. Pp. 62-70.
• "Painting Pointing Past Itself: Heterogeneity and Contingency in The Fulbright Triptych." The Suspension of Time: Reflections on Simon Dinnerstein and the Fulbright Triptych. Daniel Slager ed. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2011. Pp. 156-173.
• "Kunst und Schmuddel: Andy Warhols Porno Pop. Porno Pop II: Im Erregungs-dispositiv. Joerg Metelmann ed. Wuerzburg: Verlag Koenigshausen und Neumann, 2010. Pp. 273-290.
• "Introduction: Haneke's Anachronism," A Companion to Michael Haneke. Roy Grundmann ed. Malden, Mass. and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2010, pp. 1-50.
• "Between Adorno and Lyotard: Michael Haneke's Aesthetic of Fragmentation," A Companion to Michael Haneke. Roy Grundmann ed. Malden, Mass., and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2010, pp. 374-419.
• "Michael Haneke's Subversive Games," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 54, No. 25, February 29, 2008, pp.B14-15
• "Populist Motifs in John Ford's Films."John Ford in Focus: Essays on the Filmmaker's Life and Work. Kevin Stoehr and Michael C. Connolly eds. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2008. pp. 187—204.
• "Auteur de Force: "Michael Haneke's Cinema of Glaciation." Cineaste Vol. 33, no. 2 (Spring 2007), pp. 3-9.
• "Old Europe Shows New Media Art" Afterimage, Vol. 34, nos. 1-2 Special Issue on Media Arts Activism (Fall 2006), pp. 3-4.
• "Brokeback Mountain" Cineaste Vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2006), pp. 65-67.
• "Queer Media Pedagogy: A Roundtable Discussion," Terri Ginsberg ed. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies Vol. 12, no. 1 (Winter 2006), pp. 117-134. Written Contrib. To Roundtable Discussion.
• "Gay-Themed Films of the German Silent Era." Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 4 (Winter 2005), pp. 72-75
• "Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film," Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 3 (Fall 2005), 48-50.
• "Too Darn Hot: Kinsey and the Culture Wars." Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 2 (Spring 2005), pp. 4-10.
• "Masters of Ceremony: Media Demonstration as Performance in Three Instances of Expanded Cinema." The Velvet Light Trap no. 54 (Fall 2004), pp. 48-64.
• "Los Angeles Plays Itself." Cineaste Vol. 30, no. 1 (Winter 2004), p. 80.
• "White Man's Burden: Eminem's Movie Debut in 8 Mile,"in White Noise: The Eminem Collection. Hilton Als and Darryl F. Turner eds. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003. PP. 111-128. Reprinted from Cineaste 28:1 (Spring 2003).
• "Dual Screen Projection" Lexikon derFilmbegriffe des Bender Verlages (on line). Hans J. Wulff und Theo Bender eds. Mainz: Theo Bender Verlag, 2003.German 
Language Encyclopedia Entry on Dual Screen Projection.

Course Offerings:

American Cinema History:

• “American Masterworks”
  Survey course on American cinema history, Beginnings to 1960
• “Contemporary American Cinema”
  Survey course on American cinema history, 1960 to the Present
• “The Hollywood Blacklist”
  HUAC in Hollywood, 1930s-1950s, and historical ramifications 1950s-present
• “Gender and the Modern Horror Film”
  The American horror film, 1968-present through theories of gender and sexuality
• “African-American Representation”
  Comparative survey, Hollywood Independent Film, Television
• “American Film in the Sixties”
  Overview of stratification of U.S. media landscape, 1960-1969
• “The Hollywood Blockbuster: Cultural Studies, Film Theory, Cinephilia”
  Select approaches to the Cinema of Spectacle, 1970s to the Present
• “The American Film Musical”
  Survey course on classical and contemporary musicals

National Cinemas/International Auteurs:

• History of Global Cinema, II: 1960 to the Present
  Undergraduate survey course on global cinema history.
• “The Concept of National Cinema”
  Comparative histories, paradigms, methods
• “The French New Wave”
  Historical Survey (French cinephilia, short films, 1959-1962, epigones, legacy)
• “The New German Cinema, 1962-1982”
  Survey of films, directors and approaches (national cinema, tv, authorship, history)
• “Comparative Directors: Bresson, Haneke, Dumont, Dardenne Brothers”
  Comparative approaches (film theory, authorship, national contexts)
• “Comparative Directors: Greenaway, von Trier, Jeunet”
  Comparative approaches (film theory, authorship, national contexts)
• "Michael Haneke: Multiple Critical Perspectives"
  Film and TV in Nat./Intl. Contexts, Film Theory and Philosophy, Spectatorship

Avant-garde and Experimental Cinema, Non-fiction Film:

• “History of Avant-garde: Film and Experimental Media: A Comprehensive Four Semester Curriculum”
  • Part 1: Intl. modernist avant-garde movements between the two world wars
  • Part 2: American avant-garde cinema from Maya Deren to Andy Warhol
  • Part 3: Media/movements ‘60s-‘80s (structuralism, video, third cinema, feminism)
  • Part 4: Cross-section of recent/contemporary film, video, DV, installation art (incl. identity politics, postcolonial media, globalization, cinephilia, new lyricism)
• “The Films of Andy Warhol”
  Survey course on Warhol’s cinema
• “The City in Film and Media”
  Survey course on the representation of the city in avant-garde film, experimental media, and non-fiction film
• “Intervening Images”
  Introductory course (BU Honors College) on contemporary non-fiction films

Film and Media Theory, Cultural Studies, LGBT Representation:

• “Film and Media Theory”
  Introductory survey to major film theories
• “The City in Film and Media”
  City representations in photography, literature, and avant-garde and narrative film
• “LGBT Representation”
  Comparative historical survey of Hollywood, art cinema, recent global examples
• “Independent Queer-Authored Representation”
  Cross-section of recent queer literature, media, and art, Queer Theory