Justus Nieland
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036934
- eISBN:
- 9780252094057
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036934.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
A key figure in the ongoing legacy of modern cinema, David Lynch designs environments for spectators, transporting them to inner worlds built by mood, texture, and uneasy artifice. We enter these ...
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A key figure in the ongoing legacy of modern cinema, David Lynch designs environments for spectators, transporting them to inner worlds built by mood, texture, and uneasy artifice. We enter these famously cinematic interiors to be wrapped in plastic, the fundamental substance of Lynch's work. This volume revels in the weird dynamism of Lynch's plastic worlds. Exploring the range of modern design idioms that inform Lynch's films and signature mise-en-scène, the book argues that plastic is at once a key architectural and interior design dynamic in Lynch's films, an uncertain way of feeling essential to Lynch's art, and the prime matter of Lynch's strange picture of the human organism. The book offers striking new readings of Lynch's major works (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire) and his early experimental films, placing Lynch's experimentalism within the aesthetic traditions of modernism and the avant-garde; the genres of melodrama, film noir, and art cinema; architecture and design history; and contemporary debates about cinematic ontology in the wake of the digital. This inventive study argues that Lynch's plastic concept of life—supplemented by technology, media, and sensuous networks of an electric world—is more alive today than ever.Less
A key figure in the ongoing legacy of modern cinema, David Lynch designs environments for spectators, transporting them to inner worlds built by mood, texture, and uneasy artifice. We enter these famously cinematic interiors to be wrapped in plastic, the fundamental substance of Lynch's work. This volume revels in the weird dynamism of Lynch's plastic worlds. Exploring the range of modern design idioms that inform Lynch's films and signature mise-en-scène, the book argues that plastic is at once a key architectural and interior design dynamic in Lynch's films, an uncertain way of feeling essential to Lynch's art, and the prime matter of Lynch's strange picture of the human organism. The book offers striking new readings of Lynch's major works (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire) and his early experimental films, placing Lynch's experimentalism within the aesthetic traditions of modernism and the avant-garde; the genres of melodrama, film noir, and art cinema; architecture and design history; and contemporary debates about cinematic ontology in the wake of the digital. This inventive study argues that Lynch's plastic concept of life—supplemented by technology, media, and sensuous networks of an electric world—is more alive today than ever.
Ian Bogost
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816699117
- eISBN:
- 9781452952406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816699117.003.0012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter talks about how the game Heavy Rain shows why games must overturn the conventions of film if they hope to realize the dream of interactive cinema. It argues that the most important ...
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This chapter talks about how the game Heavy Rain shows why games must overturn the conventions of film if they hope to realize the dream of interactive cinema. It argues that the most important feature of Heavy Rain, the design choice that makes it more important than any other game in separating from rather than drawing games toward film, is its rejection of editing in favor of prolonging. It also examines the impact of mise-en-scène in the game. It argues that Heavy Rain does not embracefilmmaking but rebuffs it by inviting the player to do what Hollywood cinema can never offer: to linger on the mundane instead of cutting to the consequential.Less
This chapter talks about how the game Heavy Rain shows why games must overturn the conventions of film if they hope to realize the dream of interactive cinema. It argues that the most important feature of Heavy Rain, the design choice that makes it more important than any other game in separating from rather than drawing games toward film, is its rejection of editing in favor of prolonging. It also examines the impact of mise-en-scène in the game. It argues that Heavy Rain does not embracefilmmaking but rebuffs it by inviting the player to do what Hollywood cinema can never offer: to linger on the mundane instead of cutting to the consequential.
Michael Ingham
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099197
- eISBN:
- 9789882207103
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099197.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter analyzes the film's narrative in detailed sharp focus. It explores the film's plot and story as well as its mise-en-scène and the aesthetic principles underlying its composition. As To ...
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This chapter analyzes the film's narrative in detailed sharp focus. It explores the film's plot and story as well as its mise-en-scène and the aesthetic principles underlying its composition. As To has indicated, the relationship between stasis and movement in film is for him an ideal property of his chosen field of creative work. In the case of PTU, this crucial balance between the two is achieved with great flair. To a considerable extent, of course, it is greatly facilitated by the natural rhythm of the subject matter. In other words, the film's narrative and aesthetic concept, its movement images and action images are predicated on the tempo of the police street patrol's progress through the “perilous night” of Tsim Sha Tsui. The chapter delineates the film's seven contiguous plot strands, which are theatrically interlinked in a way that is very unusual for contemporary cinema.Less
This chapter analyzes the film's narrative in detailed sharp focus. It explores the film's plot and story as well as its mise-en-scène and the aesthetic principles underlying its composition. As To has indicated, the relationship between stasis and movement in film is for him an ideal property of his chosen field of creative work. In the case of PTU, this crucial balance between the two is achieved with great flair. To a considerable extent, of course, it is greatly facilitated by the natural rhythm of the subject matter. In other words, the film's narrative and aesthetic concept, its movement images and action images are predicated on the tempo of the police street patrol's progress through the “perilous night” of Tsim Sha Tsui. The chapter delineates the film's seven contiguous plot strands, which are theatrically interlinked in a way that is very unusual for contemporary cinema.
Lisa Odham Stokes
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099708
- eISBN:
- 9789882207257
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099708.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter attempts to look into the film's artistry, as this is usually concealed by comedy. As observed through Chan's partnership in the United Filmmakers Organization (UFO), Chan had always ...
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This chapter attempts to look into the film's artistry, as this is usually concealed by comedy. As observed through Chan's partnership in the United Filmmakers Organization (UFO), Chan had always recognized that collaborations play no small part in the filmmaking industry. The story, which was visualized by Chan and two of his UFO partners, was rooted in the paparazzi, the entertainment industry, and fandom. Mise en scène and editing generally determine the outcome of the film's visual language, and these prove to be important, since film is fundamentally a visual medium. Important elements include not only photography and camerawork lighting—depth of field, type of shot, angle, and perspective—but costumes, set dressing, time of day, and blocking and movement, as all these set the film's mood.Less
This chapter attempts to look into the film's artistry, as this is usually concealed by comedy. As observed through Chan's partnership in the United Filmmakers Organization (UFO), Chan had always recognized that collaborations play no small part in the filmmaking industry. The story, which was visualized by Chan and two of his UFO partners, was rooted in the paparazzi, the entertainment industry, and fandom. Mise en scène and editing generally determine the outcome of the film's visual language, and these prove to be important, since film is fundamentally a visual medium. Important elements include not only photography and camerawork lighting—depth of field, type of shot, angle, and perspective—but costumes, set dressing, time of day, and blocking and movement, as all these set the film's mood.
James Tweedie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199858286
- eISBN:
- 9780199367665
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858286.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The Age of New Waves examines the origins of the concept of the “new wave” in 1950s France and the proliferation of new waves in world cinema over the past three decades. The book ...
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The Age of New Waves examines the origins of the concept of the “new wave” in 1950s France and the proliferation of new waves in world cinema over the past three decades. The book suggests that youth, cities, and the construction of a global market have been the catalysts for the cinematic new waves of the past half century. It begins by describing the enthusiastic engagement between French nouvelle vague filmmakers and American culture during the modernization of France after World War II. It then charts the growing and ultimately explosive disenchantment with the aftermath of that massive social, economic, and spatial transformation in the late 1960s. Subsequent chapters focus on films from Taiwan and mainland China during the 1980s and 1990s, and they link the propagation of new waves on the international film festival circuit to the “economic miracles” and consumer revolutions accompanying the process of globalization. While it travels from France to East Asia, the book follows the transnational movement of a particular model of cinema organized around mise en scène—or the interaction of bodies, objects, and spaces within the frame—rather than montage or narrative. The “master shot” style has become a key strategy for representing the changing relationship between people and the material world during the rise of a global market. The final chapter considers the interchange between two of the most global phenomena in recent film history—the transnational art cinema and Hollywood—and it searches for traces of an American new wave.Less
The Age of New Waves examines the origins of the concept of the “new wave” in 1950s France and the proliferation of new waves in world cinema over the past three decades. The book suggests that youth, cities, and the construction of a global market have been the catalysts for the cinematic new waves of the past half century. It begins by describing the enthusiastic engagement between French nouvelle vague filmmakers and American culture during the modernization of France after World War II. It then charts the growing and ultimately explosive disenchantment with the aftermath of that massive social, economic, and spatial transformation in the late 1960s. Subsequent chapters focus on films from Taiwan and mainland China during the 1980s and 1990s, and they link the propagation of new waves on the international film festival circuit to the “economic miracles” and consumer revolutions accompanying the process of globalization. While it travels from France to East Asia, the book follows the transnational movement of a particular model of cinema organized around mise en scène—or the interaction of bodies, objects, and spaces within the frame—rather than montage or narrative. The “master shot” style has become a key strategy for representing the changing relationship between people and the material world during the rise of a global market. The final chapter considers the interchange between two of the most global phenomena in recent film history—the transnational art cinema and Hollywood—and it searches for traces of an American new wave.
Anna Powell
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748617470
- eISBN:
- 9780748651061
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748617470.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book analyses the horror film from a Deleuzian perspective, arguing that although dominant psychoanalytic approaches to horror films neglect the aesthetics of horror, such cinematic devices as ...
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This book analyses the horror film from a Deleuzian perspective, arguing that although dominant psychoanalytic approaches to horror films neglect the aesthetics of horror, such cinematic devices as mise en scène, editing and sound are central to the viewer's visceral fear and arousal. Using Deleuze's work on art and film, it argues that film viewing is a form of ‘altered consciousness’, and the experience of viewing a horror film an ‘embodied event’. The book begins with a critical introduction to the key terms in Deleuzian philosophy and aesthetics, which include: subjectivity/becoming, the body without organs, molecularity, time/duration, affect, movement/rhythm, space, anomaly and schizoanalysis. These concepts are then applied to horror films. Themes such as insanity, sensory response to film, the subject/object, fractured time, the body and cinematography are explored in horror films such as Jacob's Ladder,Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, The Fly, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien Resurrection, The Others, The Shining, Interview with the Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Nosferatu.Less
This book analyses the horror film from a Deleuzian perspective, arguing that although dominant psychoanalytic approaches to horror films neglect the aesthetics of horror, such cinematic devices as mise en scène, editing and sound are central to the viewer's visceral fear and arousal. Using Deleuze's work on art and film, it argues that film viewing is a form of ‘altered consciousness’, and the experience of viewing a horror film an ‘embodied event’. The book begins with a critical introduction to the key terms in Deleuzian philosophy and aesthetics, which include: subjectivity/becoming, the body without organs, molecularity, time/duration, affect, movement/rhythm, space, anomaly and schizoanalysis. These concepts are then applied to horror films. Themes such as insanity, sensory response to film, the subject/object, fractured time, the body and cinematography are explored in horror films such as Jacob's Ladder,Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, The Fly, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien Resurrection, The Others, The Shining, Interview with the Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Nosferatu.
James Tweedie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199858286
- eISBN:
- 9780199367665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858286.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The Introduction situates the transnational new waves of the past half century within the context of economic and cultural globalization. It suggests that a particular mode of art cinema—one ...
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The Introduction situates the transnational new waves of the past half century within the context of economic and cultural globalization. It suggests that a particular mode of art cinema—one organized around mise en scène or the staged interaction of bodies, objects, and space—has become an important mechanism for documenting the material consequences of the expanding global market. That new wave mise en scène concentrates primarily on the visual culture of youth and cities, on an emerging cosmopolitan environment and its prototypical inhabitants. Finally, the Introduction establishes the relationship between this theoretical frame and the specific case studies at the core of the book: the French new wave of the 1950s and 1960s and the new cinemas from Taiwan and mainland China in the 1980s and 1990s.Less
The Introduction situates the transnational new waves of the past half century within the context of economic and cultural globalization. It suggests that a particular mode of art cinema—one organized around mise en scène or the staged interaction of bodies, objects, and space—has become an important mechanism for documenting the material consequences of the expanding global market. That new wave mise en scène concentrates primarily on the visual culture of youth and cities, on an emerging cosmopolitan environment and its prototypical inhabitants. Finally, the Introduction establishes the relationship between this theoretical frame and the specific case studies at the core of the book: the French new wave of the 1950s and 1960s and the new cinemas from Taiwan and mainland China in the 1980s and 1990s.
James Tweedie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199858286
- eISBN:
- 9780199367665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858286.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter introduces the concept of as it developed in the film criticism of the early French new wave, especially in the pages of Cahiers du cinéma. Critics like Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, and ...
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This chapter introduces the concept of as it developed in the film criticism of the early French new wave, especially in the pages of Cahiers du cinéma. Critics like Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, and Rohmer highlighted the central role of the director as the author of a film, and “auteur theory” had a profound influence on the subsequent history of cinema and film studies. But this emphasis on authorship has obscured the key function of mise en scène for Cahiers critics who rediscovered the vision of the film artist only through assiduous attention to the staging of bodies, objects, and the environment within the frame. The auteur and mise en scène were imbricated concepts for these critics, and this chapter revisits the early careers of the key figures of the French new wave in order to rediscover the theoretical and aesthetic value of cinematic staging.Less
This chapter introduces the concept of as it developed in the film criticism of the early French new wave, especially in the pages of Cahiers du cinéma. Critics like Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, and Rohmer highlighted the central role of the director as the author of a film, and “auteur theory” had a profound influence on the subsequent history of cinema and film studies. But this emphasis on authorship has obscured the key function of mise en scène for Cahiers critics who rediscovered the vision of the film artist only through assiduous attention to the staging of bodies, objects, and the environment within the frame. The auteur and mise en scène were imbricated concepts for these critics, and this chapter revisits the early careers of the key figures of the French new wave in order to rediscover the theoretical and aesthetic value of cinematic staging.
James Tweedie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199858286
- eISBN:
- 9780199367665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858286.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The “city film” has been a prominent genre in recent world cinema. This chapter examines that series as a global phenomenon and views Taiwan’s city films within both an international and a domestic ...
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The “city film” has been a prominent genre in recent world cinema. This chapter examines that series as a global phenomenon and views Taiwan’s city films within both an international and a domestic context. It begins by asking what the city film was in the first half of the twentieth century and how the pressures of globalization have transformed both urban space and its representation in cinema. It then considers the specific circumstances of Taiwan’s new wave, with particular emphasis on films located in Taipei. The chapter concludes with the work of Edward Yang, especially Taipei Story, a film that features scenes of interior design and meditations on modern urban architecture. Yang’s films accentuate acts of design, and they suggest that many of the traits habitually associated with cinema, especially its artificiality and staginess, its constant destruction and reinvention of reality, are also the defining qualities of the global megacity.Less
The “city film” has been a prominent genre in recent world cinema. This chapter examines that series as a global phenomenon and views Taiwan’s city films within both an international and a domestic context. It begins by asking what the city film was in the first half of the twentieth century and how the pressures of globalization have transformed both urban space and its representation in cinema. It then considers the specific circumstances of Taiwan’s new wave, with particular emphasis on films located in Taipei. The chapter concludes with the work of Edward Yang, especially Taipei Story, a film that features scenes of interior design and meditations on modern urban architecture. Yang’s films accentuate acts of design, and they suggest that many of the traits habitually associated with cinema, especially its artificiality and staginess, its constant destruction and reinvention of reality, are also the defining qualities of the global megacity.
Anna Powell
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748617470
- eISBN:
- 9780748651061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748617470.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter deals with mise-en-scène and various kinds of movement in horror cinema. The film theory shaped by psychoanalysis and semiology treats images as static, symbolic components of underlying ...
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This chapter deals with mise-en-scène and various kinds of movement in horror cinema. The film theory shaped by psychoanalysis and semiology treats images as static, symbolic components of underlying representational structures. It abstracts them from their moving, changing medium. Gilles Deleuze, on the other hand, endorses Henri Bergson's ‘vitalism’, or the ubiquitous presence of dynamic forces in his work, with singularities of style and expression. The ‘movement-image’ in process replaces language-like symbolic representation at the crux of the filmic event. Beauty is located not in formal balance but in the kinesthetics of perpetual motion. Horror film foregrounds the dynamics of movement. In Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, for example, stasis is spectacularly defied. Even though a film's locale may be spatially constricted, as in a haunted house, movement still occurs. As well as its material force on the sensorium, horror film also opens up to the metaphysical elements of duration, via the special usage of light, spatial and temporal overlay, and other techniques.Less
This chapter deals with mise-en-scène and various kinds of movement in horror cinema. The film theory shaped by psychoanalysis and semiology treats images as static, symbolic components of underlying representational structures. It abstracts them from their moving, changing medium. Gilles Deleuze, on the other hand, endorses Henri Bergson's ‘vitalism’, or the ubiquitous presence of dynamic forces in his work, with singularities of style and expression. The ‘movement-image’ in process replaces language-like symbolic representation at the crux of the filmic event. Beauty is located not in formal balance but in the kinesthetics of perpetual motion. Horror film foregrounds the dynamics of movement. In Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, for example, stasis is spectacularly defied. Even though a film's locale may be spatially constricted, as in a haunted house, movement still occurs. As well as its material force on the sensorium, horror film also opens up to the metaphysical elements of duration, via the special usage of light, spatial and temporal overlay, and other techniques.
Anna Powell
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748617470
- eISBN:
- 9780748651061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748617470.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Horror film fandom revels in the genre's special effects, but a corresponding theoretical exploration of horror aesthetics is scarce. The genre has showcased a strongly affective style from its ...
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Horror film fandom revels in the genre's special effects, but a corresponding theoretical exploration of horror aesthetics is scarce. The genre has showcased a strongly affective style from its outset. Excessive forms of cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound are the pivotal tools of horror, used to arouse visceral sensations and to ‘horrify’ the viewer. The psychophysiology of cinematic experience and the ways in which vision and sound directly stimulate the nervous system are still under-researched. We can, however, usefully deploy Gilles Deleuze's philosophical speculations on the affective phenomena of mise-en-scène and movement. Deleuze's work does not focus on the genre of horror per se, but on some popular or sensationalist horror films. This book deals with the relationship of horror film and Deleuzian theory, focusing on the themes of madness and monstrous transformations, discussed via schizoanalysis and becoming, and horror film aesthetics, and also explores the value of Deleuzian work for horror film studies and suggests its future potential.Less
Horror film fandom revels in the genre's special effects, but a corresponding theoretical exploration of horror aesthetics is scarce. The genre has showcased a strongly affective style from its outset. Excessive forms of cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound are the pivotal tools of horror, used to arouse visceral sensations and to ‘horrify’ the viewer. The psychophysiology of cinematic experience and the ways in which vision and sound directly stimulate the nervous system are still under-researched. We can, however, usefully deploy Gilles Deleuze's philosophical speculations on the affective phenomena of mise-en-scène and movement. Deleuze's work does not focus on the genre of horror per se, but on some popular or sensationalist horror films. This book deals with the relationship of horror film and Deleuzian theory, focusing on the themes of madness and monstrous transformations, discussed via schizoanalysis and becoming, and horror film aesthetics, and also explores the value of Deleuzian work for horror film studies and suggests its future potential.
Anna Powell
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748617470
- eISBN:
- 9780748651061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748617470.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Deleuzian horror films threaten the stability of body and mind, transforming the embodied mind of the spectator as well as the bodies on screen. The horror movie, as its name suggests, is essentially ...
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Deleuzian horror films threaten the stability of body and mind, transforming the embodied mind of the spectator as well as the bodies on screen. The horror movie, as its name suggests, is essentially movement. Instead of drawing representational equations, the image of the film moves in the human living image as part of the universal flux of matter. We are moved by, and move with, lighting, montage and the camera's motion in space and time. We are physically aroused by cinematography, editing and mise-en-scène. The images of viewer and film interlock in a machinic assemblage of movement-image. Horror films work the vibrations of sensory affect on our jarred and confused optic and aural nerves. The cinema books are part of Gilles Deleuze's wider philosophical project to assert that ‘the brain is the screen’ and to validate his interpretation of Henri Bergson's view of the universe as metacinema. Many horror films overtly present severely dysfunctional families and perverse sexuality. Psychoanalysis has provided substantial psycho-sexual templates to fit the fears and desires of horror, and has suggested their primal components.Less
Deleuzian horror films threaten the stability of body and mind, transforming the embodied mind of the spectator as well as the bodies on screen. The horror movie, as its name suggests, is essentially movement. Instead of drawing representational equations, the image of the film moves in the human living image as part of the universal flux of matter. We are moved by, and move with, lighting, montage and the camera's motion in space and time. We are physically aroused by cinematography, editing and mise-en-scène. The images of viewer and film interlock in a machinic assemblage of movement-image. Horror films work the vibrations of sensory affect on our jarred and confused optic and aural nerves. The cinema books are part of Gilles Deleuze's wider philosophical project to assert that ‘the brain is the screen’ and to validate his interpretation of Henri Bergson's view of the universe as metacinema. Many horror films overtly present severely dysfunctional families and perverse sexuality. Psychoanalysis has provided substantial psycho-sexual templates to fit the fears and desires of horror, and has suggested their primal components.
Sally Faulkner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748621606
- eISBN:
- 9780748651078
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748621606.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
La ciudad no es para mí (The City's Not For Me, 1965) was directed by Pedro Lazaga and starred theatre actor Paco Martínez Soria. This chapter analyses the ways La ciudad civilises the city of Madrid ...
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La ciudad no es para mí (The City's Not For Me, 1965) was directed by Pedro Lazaga and starred theatre actor Paco Martínez Soria. This chapter analyses the ways La ciudad civilises the city of Madrid through its nostalgic appeal to the country. It pays particular attention to the way mise en scène, in particular the use of paintings and costume, is deployed to underscore the film's act of persuasion. If this short portrayal of a Swinging Sixties Madrid is insufficient to sabotage the ruralism otherwise promoted, its location at the opening of the film nonetheless announces a possible alternative reading from the very beginning. Furthermore, in terms of plot, La ciudad repeats a tired comedy formula (which popular film inherited from the popular theatre) of the trials and tribulations of a likeable paleto (country bumpkin) in a hostile city. The chapter argues that the ostensible aim of the film to civilise the city is projected onto an attempt to civilise women through the characterisation of the female protagonist.Less
La ciudad no es para mí (The City's Not For Me, 1965) was directed by Pedro Lazaga and starred theatre actor Paco Martínez Soria. This chapter analyses the ways La ciudad civilises the city of Madrid through its nostalgic appeal to the country. It pays particular attention to the way mise en scène, in particular the use of paintings and costume, is deployed to underscore the film's act of persuasion. If this short portrayal of a Swinging Sixties Madrid is insufficient to sabotage the ruralism otherwise promoted, its location at the opening of the film nonetheless announces a possible alternative reading from the very beginning. Furthermore, in terms of plot, La ciudad repeats a tired comedy formula (which popular film inherited from the popular theatre) of the trials and tribulations of a likeable paleto (country bumpkin) in a hostile city. The chapter argues that the ostensible aim of the film to civilise the city is projected onto an attempt to civilise women through the characterisation of the female protagonist.
Ben McCann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719091148
- eISBN:
- 9781526124111
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719091148.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This opening chapter will contextualise the ‘Duvivier style’. It will look at his chief formative influence, André Antoine, whose influential theories on cinematic naturalism, location shooting, and ...
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This opening chapter will contextualise the ‘Duvivier style’. It will look at his chief formative influence, André Antoine, whose influential theories on cinematic naturalism, location shooting, and performance authenticity was cultivated and developed by Duvivier throughout his career.
The chapter will examine what makes a Duvivier film. Historians often make reference to Duvivier’s love of ‘work well done’ as his signature legacy and enduring film-making ethos. The chapter will introduce the key recognisable Duvivier traits: an expressive mise en scène, fluid camera movement and a complex negotiation of décor, strong central performances by stars and new actors, pessimistic narratives, incorporation of melodramatic elements (music, production design), and a film-by-film reliability. This analysis of Duvivier, beyond its historical range, also proposes to engage with key debates in film studies: notably auteurism, stardom and audience reception.
The chapter will also look at how Duvivier fits into a history of both French national cinema and international film production. Duvivier’s genre eclecticism and lack of a coherent corpus should not be seen as a negative; instead, it is necessary to read Duvivier’s wide-ranging approach to genre and subject matter as a response to and engagement with important development in French and international film praxis.Less
This opening chapter will contextualise the ‘Duvivier style’. It will look at his chief formative influence, André Antoine, whose influential theories on cinematic naturalism, location shooting, and performance authenticity was cultivated and developed by Duvivier throughout his career.
The chapter will examine what makes a Duvivier film. Historians often make reference to Duvivier’s love of ‘work well done’ as his signature legacy and enduring film-making ethos. The chapter will introduce the key recognisable Duvivier traits: an expressive mise en scène, fluid camera movement and a complex negotiation of décor, strong central performances by stars and new actors, pessimistic narratives, incorporation of melodramatic elements (music, production design), and a film-by-film reliability. This analysis of Duvivier, beyond its historical range, also proposes to engage with key debates in film studies: notably auteurism, stardom and audience reception.
The chapter will also look at how Duvivier fits into a history of both French national cinema and international film production. Duvivier’s genre eclecticism and lack of a coherent corpus should not be seen as a negative; instead, it is necessary to read Duvivier’s wide-ranging approach to genre and subject matter as a response to and engagement with important development in French and international film praxis.
Lisa Maurice (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474407847
- eISBN:
- 9781474430982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474407847.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter investigates how the world of ancient Rome is portrayed onscreen in the Spartacus series by assessing the physical sets—including the buildings and cities, interior design, and ...
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This chapter investigates how the world of ancient Rome is portrayed onscreen in the Spartacus series by assessing the physical sets—including the buildings and cities, interior design, and furniture—as well as the art direction in terms of color and costume design. With productions set in particular periods or places, the physical set and mise-en-scène provide vital clues as to when and where they are conceived as taking place. This chapter thus analyzes the distinctive look of the physical settings of the series, especially the villas and the cities (Capua, Sinuessa, and Rome), arguing that Spartacus offers a vision of a dark and turbulent new Rome that owes as much to contemporary thinking as to its past, both historical and cinematic.Less
This chapter investigates how the world of ancient Rome is portrayed onscreen in the Spartacus series by assessing the physical sets—including the buildings and cities, interior design, and furniture—as well as the art direction in terms of color and costume design. With productions set in particular periods or places, the physical set and mise-en-scène provide vital clues as to when and where they are conceived as taking place. This chapter thus analyzes the distinctive look of the physical settings of the series, especially the villas and the cities (Capua, Sinuessa, and Rome), arguing that Spartacus offers a vision of a dark and turbulent new Rome that owes as much to contemporary thinking as to its past, both historical and cinematic.
Felicity Chaplin
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526109538
- eISBN:
- 9781526128263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526109538.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Fashion is ubiquitous in the depiction of la Parisienne and demonstrates perhaps better than any other motif the variations within the type. These variations are reflected in the eclectic array of ...
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Fashion is ubiquitous in the depiction of la Parisienne and demonstrates perhaps better than any other motif the variations within the type. These variations are reflected in the eclectic array of film genres in which a fashionable Parisienne appears. The association of la Parisienne with fashion can be traced back to the nineteenth century, when the image of the chic Parisienne was first exported, both throughout France and abroad, as an ambassador for French luxury goods and style. The relationship between la Parisienne and fashion is perpetuated in cinema primarily through the way the type is costumed, but also includes extra-cinematic considerations such as the actress/couturier relationship and the way a certain look, designed or self-styled, was achieved and marketed. Costume forms an integral part of the mise en scène in Parisienne films and has three primary functions: it denotes the elegance of the Parisienne, aids in periodising a film, and provides meaning beyond denotation by referencing a pre-existing iconography.
The films examined in this chapter are: Jules Dassin’s Reunion in France, Stanley Donen’s Funny Face(1956), Vincente Minnelli’s Gigi, (1958), Roman Polanski’s Frantic (1988), François Ozon’s 8 femmes (2001) and Jean-Luc Godard’s A bout de souffle(1960).Less
Fashion is ubiquitous in the depiction of la Parisienne and demonstrates perhaps better than any other motif the variations within the type. These variations are reflected in the eclectic array of film genres in which a fashionable Parisienne appears. The association of la Parisienne with fashion can be traced back to the nineteenth century, when the image of the chic Parisienne was first exported, both throughout France and abroad, as an ambassador for French luxury goods and style. The relationship between la Parisienne and fashion is perpetuated in cinema primarily through the way the type is costumed, but also includes extra-cinematic considerations such as the actress/couturier relationship and the way a certain look, designed or self-styled, was achieved and marketed. Costume forms an integral part of the mise en scène in Parisienne films and has three primary functions: it denotes the elegance of the Parisienne, aids in periodising a film, and provides meaning beyond denotation by referencing a pre-existing iconography.
The films examined in this chapter are: Jules Dassin’s Reunion in France, Stanley Donen’s Funny Face(1956), Vincente Minnelli’s Gigi, (1958), Roman Polanski’s Frantic (1988), François Ozon’s 8 femmes (2001) and Jean-Luc Godard’s A bout de souffle(1960).
Berna Gueneli
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780748694150
- eISBN:
- 9781474408592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694150.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter turns its attention to Fatih Akin, who is one of the most prominent directors in Germany and Europe today. Gueneli argues that Akın's cinematic Europe challenges existing notions of a ...
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This chapter turns its attention to Fatih Akin, who is one of the most prominent directors in Germany and Europe today. Gueneli argues that Akın's cinematic Europe challenges existing notions of a clear-cut and nationally-oriented Europe. In developing this argument, she looks at the specificities of sound and mise-en-scène, particularly in the road movie Im Juli (In July, 2000), but also references his more recent films. Akın's cinematic Europe features a connected and expanding European space. Akın's filmic visions of Europe contribute to the ongoing renegotiations of what constitutes Europe. The films construct a complex, cosmopolitan, tolerant, and mobile Europe, which promote ethnic, religious, and lingual diversity. This interconnectedness of a formerly divided European North/South and East/West is reflected through what Gueneli terms the aesthetics of heterogeneity in Akin's cinema.Less
This chapter turns its attention to Fatih Akin, who is one of the most prominent directors in Germany and Europe today. Gueneli argues that Akın's cinematic Europe challenges existing notions of a clear-cut and nationally-oriented Europe. In developing this argument, she looks at the specificities of sound and mise-en-scène, particularly in the road movie Im Juli (In July, 2000), but also references his more recent films. Akın's cinematic Europe features a connected and expanding European space. Akın's filmic visions of Europe contribute to the ongoing renegotiations of what constitutes Europe. The films construct a complex, cosmopolitan, tolerant, and mobile Europe, which promote ethnic, religious, and lingual diversity. This interconnectedness of a formerly divided European North/South and East/West is reflected through what Gueneli terms the aesthetics of heterogeneity in Akin's cinema.
Tony Keen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474412599
- eISBN:
- 9781474449526
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474412599.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter discusses the aesthetics of the BBC’s 1979 production of Frederick Raphael and Kenneth McLeish’s The Serpent Son, an adaptation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy, which critics at the time ...
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This chapter discusses the aesthetics of the BBC’s 1979 production of Frederick Raphael and Kenneth McLeish’s The Serpent Son, an adaptation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy, which critics at the time associated with science fiction. Certainly, the design of costumes, sets, props and lighting, together with the direction and camerawork, gave this trilogy a non-realist studio-bound visual style familiar to contemporary British television science fiction series, such as Doctor Who, Blake’s Seven and TheTomorrow People. By examining elements of the mise-en-scène, this chapter assesses whether this was a deliberate choice. It argues that, whilst the similarities are there, the aesthetic is as much the result of production methods employed at the time by the BBC, and general non-mimetic approaches to the production of Greek drama on screen, as it is any deliberate attempt to recall the science fiction genre. But the choice of a non-realist aesthetic for Greek tragedy is also a clear statement about the producers’ view of the connection between the modern audience and ancient Greek texts. This is the dominant visual aesthetic of productions of Greek tragedy on British television around this time, many of which employed similar distancing effects.Less
This chapter discusses the aesthetics of the BBC’s 1979 production of Frederick Raphael and Kenneth McLeish’s The Serpent Son, an adaptation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy, which critics at the time associated with science fiction. Certainly, the design of costumes, sets, props and lighting, together with the direction and camerawork, gave this trilogy a non-realist studio-bound visual style familiar to contemporary British television science fiction series, such as Doctor Who, Blake’s Seven and TheTomorrow People. By examining elements of the mise-en-scène, this chapter assesses whether this was a deliberate choice. It argues that, whilst the similarities are there, the aesthetic is as much the result of production methods employed at the time by the BBC, and general non-mimetic approaches to the production of Greek drama on screen, as it is any deliberate attempt to recall the science fiction genre. But the choice of a non-realist aesthetic for Greek tragedy is also a clear statement about the producers’ view of the connection between the modern audience and ancient Greek texts. This is the dominant visual aesthetic of productions of Greek tragedy on British television around this time, many of which employed similar distancing effects.
Lynn Fotheringham
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474412599
- eISBN:
- 9781474449526
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474412599.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter explores the production contexts for and audience responses to The Theban Plays (BBC, 1986), a trilogy of plays by Sophocles, and Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis (BBC, 1990), the last ...
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This chapter explores the production contexts for and audience responses to The Theban Plays (BBC, 1986), a trilogy of plays by Sophocles, and Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis (BBC, 1990), the last productions of Greek tragedy that would be broadcast on British television for twenty years. These four plays were directed by Don Taylor at the end of a long career in television from 1960. Taylor’s commitment to studio-bound drama, shot as if live on multiple cameras, could be seen as old-fashioned by the mid-1980s, as could his ‘Reithian’ commitment to democratizing works from the dramatic canon via television. Nevertheless these productions garnered enthusiastic as well as critical comments from both newspaper reviewers and the audience sample surveyed by the BBC. This chapter demonstrates how various features of the productions, including an anti-realistic mise-en-scène and the uses made of the multiple cameras, align with and reflect Taylor’s published views on television drama. Close analysis of the wide variety of opinions expressed by those watching underline the complex social, political and aesthetic issues involved in judging attempts to put ancient drama before a modern television audience.Less
This chapter explores the production contexts for and audience responses to The Theban Plays (BBC, 1986), a trilogy of plays by Sophocles, and Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis (BBC, 1990), the last productions of Greek tragedy that would be broadcast on British television for twenty years. These four plays were directed by Don Taylor at the end of a long career in television from 1960. Taylor’s commitment to studio-bound drama, shot as if live on multiple cameras, could be seen as old-fashioned by the mid-1980s, as could his ‘Reithian’ commitment to democratizing works from the dramatic canon via television. Nevertheless these productions garnered enthusiastic as well as critical comments from both newspaper reviewers and the audience sample surveyed by the BBC. This chapter demonstrates how various features of the productions, including an anti-realistic mise-en-scène and the uses made of the multiple cameras, align with and reflect Taylor’s published views on television drama. Close analysis of the wide variety of opinions expressed by those watching underline the complex social, political and aesthetic issues involved in judging attempts to put ancient drama before a modern television audience.
Giusy Pisano
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474407120
- eISBN:
- 9781474434874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474407120.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Blurred voices, undefined and acousmatic; noise transformed into music; the backdrop of a world of imperceptible yet present sound; gimmicks brought about as quickly as they disappear; the fading of ...
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Blurred voices, undefined and acousmatic; noise transformed into music; the backdrop of a world of imperceptible yet present sound; gimmicks brought about as quickly as they disappear; the fading of words, noise, and music; reverberations . . . These are the common practices of the mise en scène of sound, both in so-called auteur cinema and in more popular cinema. Yet such practices are more generally attributed to images, while sounds are relegated to the more concrete, enclosed and well-defined. This chapter interrogates the causes of a misunderstanding: the confusion of the principles of reproduction, fidelity and real sounds and the inability of theoretical categorisations to analyse the mise en scène of sound.Less
Blurred voices, undefined and acousmatic; noise transformed into music; the backdrop of a world of imperceptible yet present sound; gimmicks brought about as quickly as they disappear; the fading of words, noise, and music; reverberations . . . These are the common practices of the mise en scène of sound, both in so-called auteur cinema and in more popular cinema. Yet such practices are more generally attributed to images, while sounds are relegated to the more concrete, enclosed and well-defined. This chapter interrogates the causes of a misunderstanding: the confusion of the principles of reproduction, fidelity and real sounds and the inability of theoretical categorisations to analyse the mise en scène of sound.
