We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
One of the most rooted beliefs about Robert Bresson’s works is that what the French director shows on the screen are only fragments, scraps of reality, to which he does not attempt to give an overall form. Therefore, the director seems to conceal the most significant events in the plot, or to visualize the adjacent spaces in relation to those in which something important is just taking place. This is the reason why he is considered to use frequently the narrational ellipses and metonymies. On the contrary, the author of the article tries to prove that the category of ellipsis and metonymy does not apply to the most mysterious places of the last work by Bresson, "L’Argent" (1983), and – to some extent – to his earlier films as well. Better results in explaining these places are to be found in the Lacanian philosophy of the Absent. When used with care, the tools of the Lacanian psychoanalysis (filtered through some filmic ideas by Slavoj Žižek) lead to unexpected conclusions which clash with previous conclusions concerning Bresson’s materialism and transcendentalism.
More...
The purpose of this article is not so much the identification and description of any similarities between the New German Cinema and the latest German films, as it is to show these two film phenomena in relation to each other, where the latest films allude (in various ways) to the older school, enter a polemic with it and develop proposed meanings, becoming its medium. The phenomenon of the New German Cinema is here understood as the centre and canon, which is taken into the consideration when describing and interpreting the latest films. As proposed by the author, presenting interferences of chosen aspects of both phenomena demonstrates the dynamics and self updating relation between them as well as the diversity of German cinema after 1989. This presentation is made by the author with regard to literature in which areas considered to be well understood are analysed anew and which propose the analysis of the latest German cinema in strict relation to the New German Cinema.
More...
Juraj Herz’s "Morgiana" (1972) is considered to be the last film of the Czech New Wave. Piotrowski points to the ambiguity of this attribution: although Herz’s film is the fruit of a certain “school” and its aesthetic consequence, it was made under the conditions of standardisation, introduced by the communist government of Czechoslovakia after the crushing of the Prague Spring (it meant the end of artistic freedom, the fall of cinema and the return to the aesthetics of socialist realism). This is evidenced by the critical reception of "Morgiana", depreciated as – merely – “a poetic horror” and “romantic parable” about the victory of ideal good over blatantly perfect, hideous evil. In Herz’s film nothing is clear: the film, in part due to the double role of Iva Janžurová, appears as a palimpsest, suggesting that the film world is a metaphor, and remains in opposition to the reality outside of film. Piotrowski shows that the masterfully put together, multilevel stylisation is in "Morgiana" a medium of cinéma d’auteur, a source of distance and bitter irony and a mask concealing a political and ethical message.
More...
The article is devoted to the analysis of the Left Bank Group, a contingent of French filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s, whose work is usually considered in the wider context of the New Wave. Film historians from the 1960s to the present date are in dispute as to the status and character of this phenomenon, and the justifiability of granting it an identity of its own. The author refers to the most important stances of film historians and critics dealing with the Left Bank Group and identifies two broad strategies of practising film history: an inclusive one (aiming to include the analysed phenomenon into the New Wave) and the exclusive one (which argues for a completely separate identity of the Left Bank Group both in the aesthetic and problem areas). In film studies practice these two strategies rarely appear in pure form, rather they determine a certain direction for film history research – therefore it is worth considering whether other strategies are possible that would help to critically redefine the canon of cinema.
More...
The "Story of Sin" is the first Polish movie extending beyond one act. The author focuses on the contexts in which the film was made: the one linked with the media transformation (which in Warsaw was started by the films "Den hvide Slavehandel" and "Afgrunden") and the emancipatory and modernising ones, referring to the work of Esther Sabelus, Kaspar Maase and Heide Satchlüpmann. The analysis of local press indicates that it was the most popular film in Warsaw in 1911, which might be linked to its subject matter connected to the theme of the “fallen woman” and the visual layer, revealing Warsaw scenery close to the viewers’ hearts. Yet analysis of the press suggests that the film was considered a threat to the “moral development of society”, as it portrayed the tensions associated with modernity and the evolution of the media society.
More...
The author analyses the “Springtime in a Small Town” (2002) by Tian Zhuangzhuang as a reinterpretation of a version made by Fei Mu (“Spring in a Small Town”) in 1948. This latter film which was rejected by the authorities, remained hidden and forgotten for decades. In 2002 it was declared to be the best Chinese film of the century. The author explains the differences between the films by the fact that Fei Mu made a film that was contemporary to himself, while Tian made a historical film, aiming to maintain the effect of distance. Both artists used the “detour” strategy and relied on similar formal solutions, integrating the aesthetics of old Chinese painting with camera work.
More...
Syska discusses the usefulness of the reflection on unmade films in the context of film studies. The author considers four possible reasons why the analysis of unmade films can be useful. Firstly, it permits a more in depth, than in the case of realised films, description of the mechanism of script writing, the creation of subsequent versions of scenes, the casting process, experiments with locations – in short the evolution of the film project. Secondly, it permits the analysis of the genesis of certain artistic solutions, which were not designed for films that were made, but for earlier works, that were not ultimately produced. Thirdly, it permits the creation of a wide net of citations and appropriations, as other films, often by other directors are inspired by the abandoned film projects. Fourthly, it permits the analysis of the film production process using the tools of the now popular production studies.
More...
The article is devoted to the analysis of Henryk Szaro’s film "The Strong Man" (1929) in the context of film expressionism. The author attempts to answer the question whether radical artistic experiments were possible in the inter-war period of cinema “focused on the viewer” (who in the collective consciousness was associated with Stefcia Rudecka, a tragic heroine of a kitsch, though extremely popular romantic novel and film, rather than Caligari). The obvious theme that had to appear in the author’s line of argument is the analysis of the impact of canonical works of the Weimar cinema of the period (particularly Fritz Lang’s Doctor Mabuse).
More...
The author considers the problem of watching a film again, the second time with a greater attention, which reveals certain surprising qualities of the film and its deeper meaning, which might be deliberately hidden by the filmmaker, or is an effect of an error on part of the cinematographer, or is completely unintended by the film director. According to Ciarka the key question is: what can works of art do to us, especially masterpieces of the cinema, if we, thanks to copying and digitalisation, watch them for too long? This question is the starting point of an anthropological and philosophical reflection of the author on selected scenes from four films: "Last Year at Marienbad" by Alain Resnais, Andrei Tarkovsky’s "Nostalghia", Akira Kurosawa’s "Throne of Blood", and Ingmar Bergman’s "The Seventh Seal".
More...
The article presents an analysis of Gillo Pontecorvo’s film “The Battle of Algiers” (“La battaglia di Algeri” /1966/) written from the post-colonial perspective. Starting from the historical context and circumstances of the creation of the script, the author aims to show the manner in which the Italian director wanted to make a film politically engaged, presenting the fall of colonialism and the creation of the Algerian state, but also a timeless masterpiece, widely regarded as the model of a modern revolutionary drama, combining the poetics of a quasi-documentary, subordinated to the “dictatorship of the truth”, with a tense storyline, and a thoughtfully composed narrative and visual dimension. On an ideological level Loska draws attention to the references to the writings of Frantz Fanon, in particular to his idea of colonial violence presented in “The Wretched of the Earth”. In the final parts of the text the author turns to the problem of the reception of the film and the debate between French film critics, who in their majority were opposed to the vision of the war for independence presented by the director.
More...
The article deals with the cyclical television programme The Constellation, which in the years of 1980-1982 was created and presented in the Polish National Television network by prof. Aleksander Jackiewicz (1915-1988), a film historian and critic, one of the doyens of film studies in Poland. Jackiewicz interpreted the phenomenon of stardom, personality of celebrities and their roles (the characters considered in his programmes included amongst others Charles Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe). The scholar was not afraid of synthetic approach to the history and nature of film: he was an anthropologist of the cinema – what interested him on screen was the human being in the wider context of culture and time.
More...
The article shows how postmodern works try to reinterpret classic film. One such method is the introduction by the artists (the Coen brothers) into the film text a category of historicity. It is understood as a form of reconstruction of the past, as well as a screen behind which the discourse on the problems of the modern era takes place. The author disagrees with the theses present in contemporary research that negate the possibility of the postmodern aesthetic generating meaning that extends beyond the sphere of the text. In his interpretation of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000) Skupień focuses on those aspects of experiencing historicity, which extend beyond the surface reading of meanings in a postmodern text. The author examines issues such as: the question of false adaptation, references to 1930s cinema, the role of music as a vehicle for our ideas regarding the past, and a direct reference to the matrix upon which the meaning of Coen brothers’ film is built: i.e. the classic film of Preston Sturges – "Sullivan’s Travels".
More...
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s work has always attracted controversy and divided the audience into die-hard supporters and those who categorically rejected his works. Lipowicz attempts to analyse and interpret Pasolini’s last film "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom" ("Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma" /1975/) from the philosophical and sociological point of view. He argues that Salò is an inconvenient and therefore proscribed masterpiece of cinema, and that it shows the transition of the Western culture from modernity to post-modernity in a critical and pessimistic manner. From the contemporary perspective this film is an important reminder that we should not forget that under the guise of social diversity, we, supposedly free citizens, are forced to live in and participate in consumer culture, which not only imposes on us its ideas, norms, values and customs, but also interferes with even the most intimate areas of our lives.
More...
The article is an attempt to define a specific variety of melodrama which was founded in the modernist cinema at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. The analysis of its distinctive features and naming conventions derived from them (existential melodrama, modern intellectual melodrama, anti-melodrama) points to the differences between this genre and a classic melodrama. Artists such as Michelangelo Antonioni or Jerzy Kawalerowicz, by negating its emotional expressiveness, storyline closure or faith in the strength and value of emotions, created a quasi-genre formulae that proved to be one of the most capacious narrative schemes serving modernist artists in the 1960s and 1970s. A large number of films that exemplify this subtype of melodrama are Polish, which shows strong links of Polish cinema with the trends of the world cinema at the time.
More...
Ladislav Grosman’s novel entitled “The Shop on the Main Street” is often mistakenly considered to be the literary prototype for Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos film of the same title. In fact it was the little known short story by the same author “The trap” that the film was based on. The film is usually interpreted as a warning against the illusory comfort of not reacting to evil. This story in turn obscures another story: one about a transformation, about a man abandoning his dysfunctional “Aryan” family, and establishing a new Jewish one, not literally, but figuratively. This theme was absent from the original story. In the first part of the text Sowińska analyses this in detail, in order to justify her thesis on the hidden perspective of the film in the second part of the article. She draws her arguments from the organisation and a sudden disruption of the visual and sound layers of the film that reveal the trauma of the genocide.
More...
The text is devoted to the interpretation of Luis Buñuel’s "Un Chien Andalou" in light of Heinrich Wölfflin’s ideas on the alternation of classical and baroque styles in the development of the fine arts. Nadgrodkiewicz argues that under certain conditions and on the basis of obvious clues contained in the visual layer, Buñuel’s film can be seen as a work bearing signs of baroque art, standing apart from classic conventions of presentation, breaking the canon. In this context it is also important that "Un Chien Andalou" is a flagship piece of surrealism in which one might also find elements of the baroque. This modernistic, avant-garde trend also breaks the canon and classicism as it is generally understood. And thus also fits Wölfflin’s model of alternating baroque and classical styles.
More...
In 2015 fifty years pass since the cult science fiction novel "Dune" by Frank Herbert was first published. Marcin Giżycki recalls the unusual fate of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film project based on the novel. The project prepared in 1974-1976 was never realised, but the director managed to put together a fantastic team for its making: the cartoonist Jean Giraud (known under the pseudonym Moebius), illustrators Cris Foss and H. R. Giger and special effects specialist and writer Dan O’Bannon (all of them worked later on Ridley Scott’s Alien). The planned cast included amongst others Orson Welles, David Carradine, Mick Jagger and Salvador Dalí. The ideas of Jodorovsky and his team were used later on in great Hollywood productions, amongst others (apart from "Alien"): "Star Wars", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and "Blade Runner". In this manner Jodorowsky’s "Dune" became the most influential film that never was.
More...
Možemo kriviti Židove za masonstvo, nehuman eksploatatorski odnos prema ženama od strane ortodoksnih Židova, svjetsku prljavu politiku, svjetske ratove, lihvarenje koje se prenijelo na bankarski sustav, egoizam do incesta, vjersku fanatičnost do čovjekomrsca, ali ne možemo kriviti Židove da su srušili zgrade blizance u New Yorku zato što su počinitelji i nalogodavci otkriveni, prokazani i dokazani i svoj gnusni teroristički čin priznali, ne možemo kriviti Židove za svu našu patnju, političku nemoć i korumpiranost, za svu svjetsku bijedu i zlo koje se čini iza kulisa drugih politika i pripadnika drugih naroda i religija. Također moramo sebi priznati da su kršćanstvo i islam naslijeđe judaizma kao nove monoteističke religije koje crpe moralno, duhovno i običajno vrelo judaizma, često i kroz nehumane, zle i patološke odnose i postupke. I pored tog zajedništva, religije kao i politike, a i religije su vrste politika, nisu spremne štititi jedna drugu u kriznim vremenima kao u vrijeme Drugog svjetskog rata kada je izvršena genocidna agresija na sve što je židovsko.
More...