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C. Claire Thomson, ed.: Northern Constellations: New Readings in Nordic Cinema.

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C. Claire Thomson, ed. Northern Constellations: New Readings in Nordic Cinema. Norwich: Norvik Press, 2006. Pp. 245.

In her introduction to Northern Constellations: New Readings in Nordic Cinema, editor Claire Thomson writes that the collection of twelve essays is self-consciously multifaceted and not intended to form a systematic history or background of the national cinemas of Scandinavia. The essays, written by a mix of established as well as emerging scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, do not take any single approach to film criticism or history and deal with a range of topics and films dating from the silent era down to works made in last few years. This diversity is one of the collection's real strengths as the essays collectively provide a cross section of the field by presenting some of the most relevant issues and discussions facings scholars studying Nordic cinema at the beginning of a new century.

This is not to say that in this collection of "new" readings the influence of "older" readings is entirely absent. Despite critiques of auteurist or nationalist approaches to the study of film, the lasting influence of these older approaches continues to shape our vision of film as can still be plainly seen in college courses like "The Films of Ingmar Bergman" or "The History of Scandinavian Cinema." However, the claim that these essays present new readings is indeed justified for at least two reasons. To begin with, a predominance of the essays collected here focus on questions related to recently produced films and media made in the Nordic...

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