Academic Conferences
Plenaries
“Author Meets Critics,” plenary session on two new books on film aesthetics, featuring my own Hollywood Aesthetic: Pleasure in American Cinema (Oxford UP, 2017) and Murray Smith’s Film, Art and the Third Culture (Oxford UP, 2017). Respondents: Paisley Livingston and Jeff Smith. Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. University of Helsinki, 13 June 2017.
“The Sounds of Silence: Songs in Hollywood Films Since the 1960s.” Plenary speaker on the theme, “Trends in American Culture in the Post-1960s Period.” Hungarian Association for American Studies Conference. Eszterházy Károly College of Eger, Hungary, 12 May 2012.
Papers
“Expect the Unexpected: Psycho and Types of Planting and Payoff, ” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Universität Hamburg, Germany, June 2019.
“Expect the Expected: Planting and Payoff in Cinema,” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Montana State University, 16 June 2018.
“On the Centrality of Aesthetics to Understanding Cinema,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Toronto, 15 March 2018.“
Bursting into Song in the Hollywood Musical” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. University of Helsinki, Finland, June 2017.
“The Non-Narrative Functions of Style in Hollywood Cinema,” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, June 2016.
“The Aesthetics of Ideology in Hollywood Cinema,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Atlanta, 2 April 2016.
“Genre Expertise and Aesthetic Pleasure, or Why Film Scholars Don’t Like Star Wars,” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. London, England, 18 June 2015.
“Ideology and Aesthetic Pleasure in Commercial Cinema,” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Lancaster, PA, 12 June 2014.
“Finding the Fit in Hollywood Storytelling: Shifting Story Logic in Red River and Other Classical Cinema.” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Berlin, Germany, 14 June 2013.
“The Hollywood Aesthetic: Pleasure in Entertainment Cinema.” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Bronxville and New York, NY, 15 June, 2012.
“On the Perception of Continuity in Mainstream Cinema.” Sensation, Perception, Mediation Conference. Szeged, Hungary, 9 June 2012. Invited.
“On the Value of Disunity in Hollywood Narratives.” International Society for the Study of Narrative Conference. Washington University in St. Louis, MO, 8 Apr 2011.
“The Illusion of Continuity: Active Perception and the Classical Editing System.” Co-presentation with Dr. Dale J. Cohen. Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Roanoke, VA, 5 June 2010.
“Narration in Hollywood Cinema of the 1970s.” International Society for the Study of Narrative Conference. Case Western Reserve University. Cleveland, OH, 10 Apr 2010.
“Stylistic Eccentricity in Seventies Hollywood and Marketing Directorial Style.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Los Angeles, 20 Mar 2010.
“On the Value of ‘Plot Holes’ in Hollywood Cinema.” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark, 26 June 2009.
“Nashville and Narration in Seventies Cinema.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Philadelphia, 7 Mar 2008.
“The Construction of Film Space.” Presentation and co-chair of panel discussion—consisting of two cognitive psychologists and two film scholars—on “Cognition of Cinema.” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. London, England, 2 Apr 2005.
“The Pleasures of Disappointment: Sequels and The Godfather, Part II.” Film and Literature Conference. Florida State University, Tallahassee, 31 Jan 2004.
“Aesthetic Perversity in Hollywood Cinema: Narrative Nonsense in The Philadelphia Story and Raging Bull’s Visual Chaos.” Society for Cinema Studies Conference. Denver, 23 May 2002.
“The Godfather and the Sequel.” University Film and Video Association Conference. Emerson College, Boston, 6 Aug 1999.
“The Exorcist’s Non-Shock Value.” University Film and Video Association Conference. North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, N.C, 7 Aug 1998
“Seventies Genre Films, The French Connection, and the Police Thriller.” University Film and Video Association Conference. University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 8 Aug 1997.
“Movie Dialogue, Cassavetes Films, and ‘Real Realism.’” Society for Cinema Studies Conference. Ottawa, Canada, 16 May 1997.