Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Traditions in World Cinema
- Introduction: What are Arctic Cinemas?
- PART I GLOBAL INDIGENEITY
- PART II HOLLYWOOD HEGEMONY
- 8 Fact and Fiction in ‘Northerns’ and Early ‘Arctic Films’
- 9 California's Yukon as Comic Space
- 10 ‘See the Crashing Masses of White Death…’: Greenland, Germany and the Sublime in the ‘Bergfilm’ SOS Eisberg
- 11 The Threat of the Thaw: The Cold War on the Screen
- 12 Hollywood Does Iceland: Authenticity, Genericity and the Picturesque
- 13 White on White: Twenty-First-Century Norwegian Horror Films Negotiate Masculinist Arctic Imaginaries
- PART III ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE DOCUMENTARY DILEMMA
- PART IV MYTHS AND MODES OF EXPLORATION
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
12 - Hollywood Does Iceland: Authenticity, Genericity and the Picturesque
from PART II - HOLLYWOOD HEGEMONY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Traditions in World Cinema
- Introduction: What are Arctic Cinemas?
- PART I GLOBAL INDIGENEITY
- PART II HOLLYWOOD HEGEMONY
- 8 Fact and Fiction in ‘Northerns’ and Early ‘Arctic Films’
- 9 California's Yukon as Comic Space
- 10 ‘See the Crashing Masses of White Death…’: Greenland, Germany and the Sublime in the ‘Bergfilm’ SOS Eisberg
- 11 The Threat of the Thaw: The Cold War on the Screen
- 12 Hollywood Does Iceland: Authenticity, Genericity and the Picturesque
- 13 White on White: Twenty-First-Century Norwegian Horror Films Negotiate Masculinist Arctic Imaginaries
- PART III ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE DOCUMENTARY DILEMMA
- PART IV MYTHS AND MODES OF EXPLORATION
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
PROLOGUE
We approach Iceland from above, glimpsing it through the clouds. Steam rises from the barren landscape, draped mostly in black and grey, if not altogether devoid of green. Perpendicular overhead shots form abstract patterns out of the landscape, and the introduction of ice prompts new colour combinations. As we travel over the land through smooth camera movements, lakes and rivers enhance the spectacle before we finally arrive at the powerful and majestic waterfall Dettifoss. One might be inclined to believe that one was watching a tourist promotion of Iceland – albeit an unusually expansive and breathtaking one. But as we travel upstream towards the waterfall from below – lo and behold, a spaceship hovers over it. And walking towards the cliff's edge is an alien in the form of a mythical creature about to give life to humanity.
Most viewers of Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012) do not see Iceland in the film's prologue, but prehistoric Earth, a landscape signifying universality rather than a specific place. The film's opening exemplifies a particular quality of Icelandic landscape that allows it to stand in for other places, imaginary or real. Nonetheless, Prometheus has much in common with a long tradition of depicting Iceland as an alien and wild location. Steaming geysers, harrowing mountains and icy glaciers prevail over culture and habitat, as few travel to Iceland in search of buildings or other monuments. This otherworldliness helps explain the smooth transition of the Icelandic landscape to Hollywood's fan tastical mise-en-sc ène, in not only Prometheus but numerous recent runaway productions (using offshore location filming for economic and/or scenic reasons).
Although the role of Iceland can vary considerably, it is typically limited to a specific part or scenes in the completed films, and most often stands in for other places. Its nature as a stand-in complicates assumptions of, for example, landscape theory and criticism, in which a picture (painted, photographed or filmed) is usually understood to be a representation of the particular model/ landscape painted or captured. Ecocriticism makes comparable assumptions regarding the relations of location or environment to their filmic representation, although environmental issues are certainly central to runaway productions.
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- Information
- Films on IceCinemas of the Arctic, pp. 176 - 186Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2014