Nikolaj Lübecker is Professor of French and Film Studies at the University of Oxford. His research interests include contemporary American and European cinema, French literature and critical theory. He is the co-editor (w. Daniele Rugo) of James Benning’s Environments: Politics, Ecology, Duration (Edinburgh UP, 2018). His most recent monograph, The Feel-Bad Film (Edinburgh UP, 2015), investigates a number of contemporary filmmakers — Bruno Dumont, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Harmony Korine, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier among others — who have all made films that place the spectator in a position of intense discomfort: “feel-bad films.” It asks: What do the directors believe they can achieve via the “feel-bad” experience? And (why) should we watch and study feel-bad films?