Cindy Sherman's Office Killer: Another kind of monster

One of the twentieth century’s most significant artists, Cindy Sherman has quietly uprooted conventional understandings of portraiture and art, questioning everything from identity to feminism. Critics around the world have taken Sherman’s photographs and extensively examined what lies underneath. However, little critical ink has been spilled on Sherman’s only film, Office Killer, a piece that plays a significant role both in Sherman’s body of work and in American art in the late twentieth century. Dahlia Schweitzer breaks the silence with her trenchant analysis of Office Killer and explores the film on a variety of levels, combating head-on the art world’s reluctance to discuss the movie and arguing instead that it is only through a close reading of the film that we can begin to appreciate the messages underlying all of Sherman’s work.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Another Kind of Introduction  Why Office Killer Deserves Your Attention (And How It First Grabbed Mine)  Character Reference Guide  Office Killer Plot Synopsis Part II: Another Kind of Art  Conception: In Art We Trust  Direction: Sherman’s March Production: The Big Picture  Part III: Another Kind of Entertainment  How to Look at Office Killer (And What I Missed the First Time)  Part IV: Another Kind of Commentary  Considerations: Cast, Costumes, and Characters  Conversations: Noir, Horror, and Comedy  Considerations: Disease, Technology, and the Workplace Comparisons: Working Girl, Basic Instinct, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  Part V: Another Kind of Conclusion  How Office Killer was Absolutely Right about Everything (Yet Still Managed To Fail So Miserably)  Study Guides 175 Office Killers: Character Crib Notes  Textual Insanity: Relationships to Other Movies  Horrific Experiences: Interviews with Christine Vachon, James Schamus, Todd Thomas, and Tom Kalin  Film Credits and Cast List

About the Author :
Dahlia Schweitzer is adjunct professor at the Art Institute in North Hollywood, California, as well as a critic, novelist and performer.

Review :
'An immersion in the world of 'Office Killer''  'Smart, sassy, and scholarly all at once, this is a wonderful book' 'Schweitzer succeeds in doing what she set out to do--valorizing 'Office Killer'— by dissecting it in such a vivid and compelling way that it can be seen in a new light. Even though I appeared in the film, I dismissed it, along with everyone else. But I now see its importance—and its connections to films like Mildred Pierce, which I just so happen to love. Reading the book, I felt like I was in my very own seminar with Professor Schweitzer, emerging from the experience with knowledge of Cindy Sherman, mass media, gender identity, and more. ' 'Constitutes an astute but always accessible guide through the film itself and the multiple relevant critical contexts she points to incisively as informing it.'