Page 15 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

I N T R O D U C T I O N
M A K I N G S E N S E O F E X T R E M E C O N F U S I O N :
E U R O P E A N E X P L O I T A T I O N A N D U N D E R G R O U N D C I N E M A

Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik

ALTERNATIVE EUROPEAN CINEMA: TWO PERSPECTIVES AND A CHALLENGE

Recent years have seen a small but significant global surge of activity in the study of alternative
cinema. Conferences, research projects and various publications around the meaning of cult and the
appeal of horror and trash, added to plans for new specific courses around cult and alternative cinema,
have raised questions as to how alternative cinema has been dealt with on an academic level. These
lines of enquiry have undoubtedly introduced fresh new perspectives in the study of what constitutes
'the alternative' in media arts studies. This volume aims to contribute to this discussion by focusing
on European alternative cinema.
There is hardly a more difficult object of media study than European cinema. Although seemingly
evident by its geographical boundaries, from the Atlantic to the Urals, from the Arctic Circle to the
Mediterranean, its cultural, aesthetic, economical, political and ideological demarcations are far from

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