Pam Cook (born 6 January 1943) is
Professor Emerita
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
in Film at the
University of Southampton. She was educated at
Sir William Perkins's School
Sir William Perkins's School is an independent day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Chertsey, Surrey, England. It is situated on 49,000 m2 of greenbelt land on the outskirts of Chertsey. The school was founded in 1725 and the ''Good Schools Gu ...
, Chertsey, Surrey and
Birmingham University, where she was taught by
Stuart Hall,
Richard Hoggart,
Malcolm Bradbury, and
David Lodge. Along with
Laura Mulvey and
Claire Johnston, she was a pioneer of 1970s Anglo-American
feminist film theory. Her collaboration with
Claire Johnston on the work of Hollywood film director
Dorothy Arzner provoked debate among feminist film scholars over the following decades.
In the mid-1980s, Cook co-authored and edited the leading
film studies textbook ''
The Cinema Book'' for the
British Film Institute (BFI). From 1985 to 1994, she was Associate Editor and contributor to the BFI magazines ''
Monthly Film Bulletin'' and ''
Sight and Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'', before becoming a lecturer at the
University of East Anglia. In 1998, she was appointed the first Professor of European Film and Media at the
University of Southampton.
Since her retirement in 2006, she continues to publish books and articles on moving image history and culture. In 2007, she set up the independent campaigning blog bfiwatch to monitor developments at the BFI,
[See bfiiwatch blog, external link below.] and she has extended her work to scholarly videography.
Publications
Books
*''Dancing with Pixels: Undoing Representation'', London: Open Book, 2019.
*''Nicole Kidman'', London: BFI Publishing/Palgrave, 2012.
Nicole Kidman
*''Baz Luhrmann'', London: BFI Publishing/Palgrave, 2010.
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962), known professionally as Baz Luhrmann, is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries, he is re ...
*''The Cinema Book, Third Edition'', London: British Film Institute, 2007.
*''Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema'', Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2005.
*''I Know Where I'm Going!'', BFI Film Classics, London: British Film Institute, 2002. (on ''
I Know Where I'm Going!'')
*''The Cinema Book, Second Edition'', London: British Film Institute, 1999. With Mieke Bernink.
*''Gainsborough Pictures'', London and Washington: Cassell, 1997.
Gainsborough Pictures
*''Fashioning the Nation: Costume and Identity in British Cinema'', London: British Film Institute, 1996.
*''Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader'', London: Scarlet Press/Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. With Philip Dodd.
*''The Cinema Book'', London: British Film Institute, 1985.
The Cinema Book
Selected articles
* 'Revisiting Performance: Nicole Kidman's Enactment of Stardom', in Sabrina Qiong Yu and Guy Austin (eds). ''Revisiting Star Studies: Cultures, Themes and Methods'', Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
Nicole Kidman
'Because She's Worth It: The Natural Blonde from Grace Kelly to Nicole Kidman' ''Celebrity Studies'' 2015, special dossier on Blondes in Cinema.
Grace Kelly;
Nicole Kidman;
Grace of Monaco
Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956.
Kelly ...
'Picturing Natacha Rambova: Design and Celebrity Performance in the 1920s' ''Screening the Past'' 40, September 2015, special dossier on Women and the Silent Screen.
Natacha Rambova;
Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...
;
Salome
Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...
;
Alla Nazimova
'Text, Paratext and Subtext: Reading ''Mildred Pierce'' as Maternal Melodrama' ''SEQUENCE: Serial Studies in Media, Film and Music'', 2.2, 2015.
Mildred Pierce (miniseries)
''Mildred Pierce'' is an American drama television miniseries that aired on HBO from March 27 to April 10, 2011, consisting of five episodes. Adapted from James M. Cain's 1941 novel of the same name, it was directed by Todd Haynes, and starr ...
;
Mildred Pierce
''Mildred Pierce'' is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941.
A story of “social inequity and opportunity in America" set during the Great Depression, ''Mildred Pierce'' follows the trajectory of a lower- ...
;
Mildred Pierce
''Mildred Pierce'' is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941.
A story of “social inequity and opportunity in America" set during the Great Depression, ''Mildred Pierce'' follows the trajectory of a lower- ...
;
Todd Haynes;
Videography
'Dancing with Pixels: Digital Artefacts, Memory and the Beauty of Loss' ''The Cine-Files'' 7, Fall 2014.
In the Mood for Love
''In the Mood for Love'' is a 2000 romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Wong Kar-wai. A co-production between Hong Kong and France, it portrays a man ( Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) whose spouses have an affair toget ...
;
Videography
* Sweetie''′, ''Metro''
ustralia181, Winter 2014.
Sweetie (film);
Jane Campion;
Cinema of Australia
The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...
* 'History in the Making: Sofia Coppola's ''Marie Antoinette'' and the New Auteurism', in Tom Brown and Belen Vidal (eds). ''The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture'' (AFI Readers), New York: Routledge, 2013.
Sofia Coppola;
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
;
Biopics
* 'Beyond Adaptation: Mirrors, Memory and Melodrama in Todd Haynes's ''Mildred Pierce'', ''Mildred Pierce'' dossier, ''Screen'' 54:3, Autumn 2013.
Mildred Pierce (miniseries)
''Mildred Pierce'' is an American drama television miniseries that aired on HBO from March 27 to April 10, 2011, consisting of five episodes. Adapted from James M. Cain's 1941 novel of the same name, it was directed by Todd Haynes, and starr ...
;
Mildred Pierce
''Mildred Pierce'' is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941.
A story of “social inequity and opportunity in America" set during the Great Depression, ''Mildred Pierce'' follows the trajectory of a lower- ...
;
Mildred Pierce
''Mildred Pierce'' is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941.
A story of “social inequity and opportunity in America" set during the Great Depression, ''Mildred Pierce'' follows the trajectory of a lower- ...
;
Todd Haynes
'Labours of Love: In Praise of Fan Websites' ''Frames'' 1 (1), July 2012.
* 'Another Story: Myth and History in ''Bonnie and Clyde'' (1967)', in Tom Brown and James Walters (eds), ''Film Moments: Criticism, History, Theory'', London: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. ''
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut (Champion) Barrow (March 24, 1909May 23, 1934) were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. The co ...
''
* 'Sofia Coppola', in Yvonne Tasker (ed.), ''Fifty Contemporary Film Directors'', Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2010.
Sofia Coppola
* ‘Transnational Utopias: Baz Luhrmann and Australian Cinema’, ''Transnational Cinemas'' 1 (1), 2010.
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962), known professionally as Baz Luhrmann, is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries, he is re ...
;
Cinema of Australia
The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...
* ‘On Memorialising Gainsborough Studios’, ''Journal of British Cinema and Television'' 6 (2), 2009.
Gainsborough Pictures
* ‘Whatever Happened to BFI Publishing?’, ''Cinema Journal'' 47 (4), Summer 2008.
The Cinema Book
* ‘''An American in Paris''’, in Mandy Merck (ed.), ''America First: Naming the Nation in US Film'', Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2007. ''
An American in Paris''
*‘Portrait of a Lady: Sofia Coppola’, ''Sight and Sound'' vol. 16, no. 11, November 2006.
Sofia Coppola
*'Rethinking Nostalgia: ''In the Mood for Love'' and ''Far from Heaven, in ''Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema'', Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2005.
Wong Kar-wai;
Todd Haynes
*' "Sean Connery Is James Bond": Re-fashioning British Masculinity in the 1960s', in Rachel Moseley (ed.), ''Fashioning Film Stars: Dress, Culture, Identity'', London: British Film Institute, 2005. With Claire Hines.
Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...
*‘The Trouble with Sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde Bombshell Phenomenon’, in Bruce Babington (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to Sean Connery'', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001.
Diana Dors
*'No Fixed Address: The Women's Picture from ''Outrage'' to ''Blue Steel, in Steve Neale and Murray Smith (eds), ''Contemporary Hollywood Cinema'', London and New York: Routledge, 1998.
Ida Lupino;
Kathryn Bigelow
*'Neither Here Nor There: National Identity in Gainsborough Costume Drama', in Andrew Higson (ed.), ''Dissolving Views: Key Articles on British Cinema'', London and Washington: Cassell, 1996.
*Outrage'' (1950)', in
Annette Kuhn (ed.), ''Queen of the 'B's: Ida Lupino Behind the Camera'', Trowbridge: Flicks Books, 1995.
Ida Lupino;
Outrage
*'Border Crossings: Women and Film in Context', in Pam Cook and Philip Dodd (eds), ''Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader'', London: Scarlet Press/Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.
*'Women in the Western', in Edward Buscombe (ed.), ''The BFI Companion to the Western'', London: British Film Institute/André Deutsch, 1988. Reprinted in Jim Kitses and Gregg Rickman (eds), ''The Western Reader'', New York: Limelight, 1998.
*Mandy'': Daughter of Transition', in Charles Barr (ed.), ''All Our Yesterdays: 90 Years of British Cinema'', London: British Film Institute, 1986.
Mandy (film)
*'Melodrama and the Women's Picture', in Sue Aspinall and Robert Murphy (eds), ''BFI Dossier 18: Gainsborough Melodrama'', London: British Film Institute, 1983.
Gainsborough melodramas
*'Masculinity in Crisis? Tragedy and Identification in ''Raging Bull, ''Screen'' vol. 23, no. 3/4, Sept/Oct 1982.
Raging Bull;
Martin Scorsese
*'Duplicity in ''Mildred Pierce, in E. Ann Kaplan (ed.), ''Women in Film Noir'', London: British Film Institute, 1978. Revised edition 1998. ''
Mildred Pierce
''Mildred Pierce'' is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941.
A story of “social inequity and opportunity in America" set during the Great Depression, ''Mildred Pierce'' follows the trajectory of a lower- ...
''
*'Exploitation Films and Feminism', ''Screen'' vol.17, no. 2, Summer 1976.
Stephanie Rothman
*'Approaching the Work of Dorothy Arzner', in
Claire Johnston (ed.), ''Dorothy Arzner: Towards a Feminist Cinema'', London: British Film Institute, 1975.
Dorothy Arzner
*'The Place of Woman in the Cinema of Raoul Walsh', in Phil Hardy (ed.), ''Raoul Walsh'', Edinburgh: Edinburgh Film Festival, 1974. With
Claire Johnston. Reprinted in
Barry Keith Grant (ed.), ''Auteurs and Authorship: A Reader'', Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He w ...
;
The Revolt of Mamie Stover
References
External links
University of Southampton web page*
Pam Cook's personal websitePam Cook's bfiwatch blogPam Cook's fashion>film blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Pam
1943 births
Living people
Feminist studies scholars
Film theorists
Academics of the University of Southampton
Academics of the University of East Anglia
People from Farnborough, Hampshire
People educated at Sir William Perkins's School
Alumni of the University of Birmingham