Gregory D. Booth
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195327632
- eISBN:
- 9780199852055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327632.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter examines the interaction between music and film in India, particularly the intense and symbiotic relationships between popular film and popular music. It evaluates the impact of the ...
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This chapter examines the interaction between music and film in India, particularly the intense and symbiotic relationships between popular film and popular music. It evaluates the impact of the Hindi film songs on popular Indian culture and on the professional lives of musicians. It offers a basic historical and contextual consideration of the practice of playback as a technological, industrial, and cultural process. It explains that playback is a method of filming in which a song is recorded and then played back over loudspeakers while actors mime, dance, and act for cameras.Less
This chapter examines the interaction between music and film in India, particularly the intense and symbiotic relationships between popular film and popular music. It evaluates the impact of the Hindi film songs on popular Indian culture and on the professional lives of musicians. It offers a basic historical and contextual consideration of the practice of playback as a technological, industrial, and cultural process. It explains that playback is a method of filming in which a song is recorded and then played back over loudspeakers while actors mime, dance, and act for cameras.
M.K. Raghavendra
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071587
- eISBN:
- 9780199080793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071587.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses Kannada cinema in the 1970s, covering both popular and art films. It explores the first Kannada art film —Samskara (1970), based on a 1965 novel by U. R. Ananthamurthy, about a ...
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This chapter discusses Kannada cinema in the 1970s, covering both popular and art films. It explores the first Kannada art film —Samskara (1970), based on a 1965 novel by U. R. Ananthamurthy, about a Brahmin scholar driven into moral crisis and forced to question the tenets he has lived by. It describes how the years beginning with 1972 represent a new era for Mysore because of happenings at the national level influencing the local arena. It considers the roles played by Rajkumar in the 1970s, which always included a characteristic bit of moral rhetoric not usually found when other actors play the lead. It highlights three art films made in the 1970s — Girish Karnad’s Kaadu (1973), B.V. Karanth’s Chomana Dudi (1975), and Girish Kasaravalli’s Ghatashraddha (1977) — after Indira Gandhi’s Congress came to power in Karnataka under Devaraj Urs to illustrate how later Kannada art cinema differs from Samskara in its implications.Less
This chapter discusses Kannada cinema in the 1970s, covering both popular and art films. It explores the first Kannada art film —Samskara (1970), based on a 1965 novel by U. R. Ananthamurthy, about a Brahmin scholar driven into moral crisis and forced to question the tenets he has lived by. It describes how the years beginning with 1972 represent a new era for Mysore because of happenings at the national level influencing the local arena. It considers the roles played by Rajkumar in the 1970s, which always included a characteristic bit of moral rhetoric not usually found when other actors play the lead. It highlights three art films made in the 1970s — Girish Karnad’s Kaadu (1973), B.V. Karanth’s Chomana Dudi (1975), and Girish Kasaravalli’s Ghatashraddha (1977) — after Indira Gandhi’s Congress came to power in Karnataka under Devaraj Urs to illustrate how later Kannada art cinema differs from Samskara in its implications.
David Platten
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719078163
- eISBN:
- 9781781705056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078163.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter argues that the French popular film is a contradiction in terms: French cinema has long been associated with high culture, and despite the iconoclastic verve and youth appeal of the ...
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This chapter argues that the French popular film is a contradiction in terms: French cinema has long been associated with high culture, and despite the iconoclastic verve and youth appeal of the Nouvelle Vague, the longer-term impact of this hugely influential movement was to reinforce perception of French film as self-reflexive and demanding rather than aimed at a wide audience. It defines cinema as an intrinsically popular medium. Not only does cinema's visual storytelling appeal across levels of education and class, but the ontological shift its invention produced in the subject's relationship to space, time and other subjectivities gave pleasure to the mass of the population. Developments in cinema's wonderful capacity to take people elsewhere continue to thrill a socially diverse public, and to inflect their vision in the widest senses of the word.Less
This chapter argues that the French popular film is a contradiction in terms: French cinema has long been associated with high culture, and despite the iconoclastic verve and youth appeal of the Nouvelle Vague, the longer-term impact of this hugely influential movement was to reinforce perception of French film as self-reflexive and demanding rather than aimed at a wide audience. It defines cinema as an intrinsically popular medium. Not only does cinema's visual storytelling appeal across levels of education and class, but the ontological shift its invention produced in the subject's relationship to space, time and other subjectivities gave pleasure to the mass of the population. Developments in cinema's wonderful capacity to take people elsewhere continue to thrill a socially diverse public, and to inflect their vision in the widest senses of the word.
Sally Faulkner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748621606
- eISBN:
- 9780748651078
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748621606.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
A key decade in world cinema, the 1960s was also a crucial era of change in Spain. This book focuses in depth on this period in Spain, and analyses six films that reflect and interpret these ...
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A key decade in world cinema, the 1960s was also a crucial era of change in Spain. This book focuses in depth on this period in Spain, and analyses six films that reflect and interpret these transformations. The coexistence of traditional and modern values and the timid acceptance of limited change by Franco's authoritarian regime are symptoms of the uneven modernity that characterises the period. Contradiction – the unavoidable effect of that unevenness – is the conceptual terrain explored by these six filmmakers. One of the most significant movements of Spanish film history, the ‘New Spanish Cinema’ art films explore contradictions in their subject matter, yet are themselves the contradictory products of the state's protection and promotion of films that were ideologically opposed to it. The book argues for a new reading of the movement as a compromised yet nonetheless effective cinema of critique, and also demonstrates the possible contestatory value of popular films of the era, suggesting that they may similarly explore contradictions. It therefore reveals the overlaps between art and popular film in the period, and argues that we should see these as complementary rather than opposing areas of cinematic activity in Spain.Less
A key decade in world cinema, the 1960s was also a crucial era of change in Spain. This book focuses in depth on this period in Spain, and analyses six films that reflect and interpret these transformations. The coexistence of traditional and modern values and the timid acceptance of limited change by Franco's authoritarian regime are symptoms of the uneven modernity that characterises the period. Contradiction – the unavoidable effect of that unevenness – is the conceptual terrain explored by these six filmmakers. One of the most significant movements of Spanish film history, the ‘New Spanish Cinema’ art films explore contradictions in their subject matter, yet are themselves the contradictory products of the state's protection and promotion of films that were ideologically opposed to it. The book argues for a new reading of the movement as a compromised yet nonetheless effective cinema of critique, and also demonstrates the possible contestatory value of popular films of the era, suggesting that they may similarly explore contradictions. It therefore reveals the overlaps between art and popular film in the period, and argues that we should see these as complementary rather than opposing areas of cinematic activity in Spain.
Isabelle Vanderschelden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733162
- eISBN:
- 9781800342002
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733162.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores the renewal of French historical drama and heritage film. French cinema has always sought inspiration in historical events to form the basis of powerful narratives. In the ...
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This chapter explores the renewal of French historical drama and heritage film. French cinema has always sought inspiration in historical events to form the basis of powerful narratives. In the 1980s, a range of films explored and renewed the approach to this cinematic genre by developing a trend of spectacular mainstream heritage films, known in France as 'les films du patrimoine'. Towards the mid-1990s, these lavish costume dramas became less popular in France, and some commercial flops made producers more wary of investing large sums in them. In the new millennium, however, the heritage drama seems to have been revamped to produce a series of innovative films that combine compelling elements of national identity and transnational features often borrowed from New Hollywood. These films are often described as popular in the sense of being 'seen by a large number of people', and 'reaching a broad public'. Le Pacte des loups/Brotherhood of the Wolf (Christophe Gans, 2001) illustrates the emergence of this trend perfectly, by combining popular cultural myths with the high production values of recent European superproductions in a competitive global market.Less
This chapter explores the renewal of French historical drama and heritage film. French cinema has always sought inspiration in historical events to form the basis of powerful narratives. In the 1980s, a range of films explored and renewed the approach to this cinematic genre by developing a trend of spectacular mainstream heritage films, known in France as 'les films du patrimoine'. Towards the mid-1990s, these lavish costume dramas became less popular in France, and some commercial flops made producers more wary of investing large sums in them. In the new millennium, however, the heritage drama seems to have been revamped to produce a series of innovative films that combine compelling elements of national identity and transnational features often borrowed from New Hollywood. These films are often described as popular in the sense of being 'seen by a large number of people', and 'reaching a broad public'. Le Pacte des loups/Brotherhood of the Wolf (Christophe Gans, 2001) illustrates the emergence of this trend perfectly, by combining popular cultural myths with the high production values of recent European superproductions in a competitive global market.
Blake Atwood
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231178174
- eISBN:
- 9780231543149
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231178174.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter moves beyond the art-house films that typically determine the scholarship on Iranian cinema and asks how Khatami’s presidency impacted popular cinema as well. A comparison between Mas’ud ...
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This chapter moves beyond the art-house films that typically determine the scholarship on Iranian cinema and asks how Khatami’s presidency impacted popular cinema as well. A comparison between Mas’ud Kimiai’s Protest (1999) and Qeysar (1969) foregrounds a discussion about the fate of the tough guy film, a genre popular both before and after the Revolution of 1978-1979. While Qeysar celebrates vigilante justice and creating a space in which one’s moral code supersedes the rule of law, Protest kills its vigilante character and replaces him with a new hero, a thoughtful, sensitive man who discusses politics and thinks critically about the Reformist Movement. In this way, Protest announces the death of the tough guy genre in Iranian cinema, a death initiated not by revolution but rather by the rise of Reformist Movement.Less
This chapter moves beyond the art-house films that typically determine the scholarship on Iranian cinema and asks how Khatami’s presidency impacted popular cinema as well. A comparison between Mas’ud Kimiai’s Protest (1999) and Qeysar (1969) foregrounds a discussion about the fate of the tough guy film, a genre popular both before and after the Revolution of 1978-1979. While Qeysar celebrates vigilante justice and creating a space in which one’s moral code supersedes the rule of law, Protest kills its vigilante character and replaces him with a new hero, a thoughtful, sensitive man who discusses politics and thinks critically about the Reformist Movement. In this way, Protest announces the death of the tough guy genre in Iranian cinema, a death initiated not by revolution but rather by the rise of Reformist Movement.
Isabelle Vanderschelden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733162
- eISBN:
- 9781800342002
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733162.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter describes French comedy films. Comedy holds a significant place in contemporary French popular culture and in the national cinema industry. It is the most popular film genre, at least in ...
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This chapter describes French comedy films. Comedy holds a significant place in contemporary French popular culture and in the national cinema industry. It is the most popular film genre, at least in terms of domestic audiences. French comedy is also considered an important vehicle for stars, many of whom evolved as comic actors before turning to other cinematic genres, and some of whom have moved towards film directing and writing. Comedies are popular films in the sense that they are 'seen by a large number of people, and thus reach a broad public'. The chapter looks at Francis Veber's Le Dîner de cons/The Dinner Game (1998) and Le Placard/The Closet (2001) to address a number of issues which are central to understanding the significant place of the genre within French popular culture. Both include elements of social satire, French cultural references, and a focus on comic use of language.Less
This chapter describes French comedy films. Comedy holds a significant place in contemporary French popular culture and in the national cinema industry. It is the most popular film genre, at least in terms of domestic audiences. French comedy is also considered an important vehicle for stars, many of whom evolved as comic actors before turning to other cinematic genres, and some of whom have moved towards film directing and writing. Comedies are popular films in the sense that they are 'seen by a large number of people, and thus reach a broad public'. The chapter looks at Francis Veber's Le Dîner de cons/The Dinner Game (1998) and Le Placard/The Closet (2001) to address a number of issues which are central to understanding the significant place of the genre within French popular culture. Both include elements of social satire, French cultural references, and a focus on comic use of language.
Neelam Sidhar Wright
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748696345
- eISBN:
- 9781474412155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748696345.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter focuses on pedagogic practices and newer approaches to contemporary Bollywood cinema. It begins with a discussion of Satyajit Ray's views on popular Indian cinema and the reasons for ...
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This chapter focuses on pedagogic practices and newer approaches to contemporary Bollywood cinema. It begins with a discussion of Satyajit Ray's views on popular Indian cinema and the reasons for Indian cinema's cursory appearance in film studies courses. It then considers student responses to studying popular Indian films, the current status of Indian film education and academia's alleged failure to do much good for popular Indian cinema. It also examines postmodern practices in contemporary Bollywood cinema and outlines new directions in Indian film research. The chapter argues that many of the academic approaches towards, and much critical journalistic writing on, Bollywood have worked against Bollywood's interests in securing international appeal.Less
This chapter focuses on pedagogic practices and newer approaches to contemporary Bollywood cinema. It begins with a discussion of Satyajit Ray's views on popular Indian cinema and the reasons for Indian cinema's cursory appearance in film studies courses. It then considers student responses to studying popular Indian films, the current status of Indian film education and academia's alleged failure to do much good for popular Indian cinema. It also examines postmodern practices in contemporary Bollywood cinema and outlines new directions in Indian film research. The chapter argues that many of the academic approaches towards, and much critical journalistic writing on, Bollywood have worked against Bollywood's interests in securing international appeal.
Paul Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164382
- eISBN:
- 9780231536028
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164382.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This book argues that philosophy must take up the fundamental concerns of love, death, justice, knowledge, and faith as they are found in contemporary culture. It demonstrates how this can be ...
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This book argues that philosophy must take up the fundamental concerns of love, death, justice, knowledge, and faith as they are found in contemporary culture. It demonstrates how this can be achieved by turning to popular film. The book discusses such well-known movies as Forrest Gump (1994), The American President (1995), The Matrix (1999), Memento (2000), The History of Violence (2005), Gran Torino (2008), The Dark Knight (2008), The Road (2009), and Avatar (2009). It explores the powerful archetypes covered in these films and assesses the hold they have upon us. The book's inquiry proceeds in two parts. First, it uses film to explore the nature of action and interpretation, arguing that narrative is the critical concept for understanding both. Second, it explores the narratives of politics, family, and faith as they appear in popular films. It engages with genres as diverse as romantic comedy, slasher film, and pornography, and explores the social imaginary through which we create and maintain a meaningful world. It finds in popular films a new setting for a philosophical inquiry into the timeless themes of sacrifice, innocence, rebirth, law, and love.Less
This book argues that philosophy must take up the fundamental concerns of love, death, justice, knowledge, and faith as they are found in contemporary culture. It demonstrates how this can be achieved by turning to popular film. The book discusses such well-known movies as Forrest Gump (1994), The American President (1995), The Matrix (1999), Memento (2000), The History of Violence (2005), Gran Torino (2008), The Dark Knight (2008), The Road (2009), and Avatar (2009). It explores the powerful archetypes covered in these films and assesses the hold they have upon us. The book's inquiry proceeds in two parts. First, it uses film to explore the nature of action and interpretation, arguing that narrative is the critical concept for understanding both. Second, it explores the narratives of politics, family, and faith as they appear in popular films. It engages with genres as diverse as romantic comedy, slasher film, and pornography, and explores the social imaginary through which we create and maintain a meaningful world. It finds in popular films a new setting for a philosophical inquiry into the timeless themes of sacrifice, innocence, rebirth, law, and love.
Chris Perriam
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780748665860
- eISBN:
- 9780748684267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748665860.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The chapter links the growing awareness of Spanish queer cultures as seen in films and filmmaking to the emergence of iconic figures of different sorts. It engages in some brief, close readings of ...
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The chapter links the growing awareness of Spanish queer cultures as seen in films and filmmaking to the emergence of iconic figures of different sorts. It engages in some brief, close readings of actors on cinema (and television) screens, of personalities in the pages of the networked social media and of glossy magazines, and of the image of directors themselves. These include Ventura Pons and Pedro Almodóvar, while the actors include well- and lesser-known names. The chapter maps the different ways in with Spanish LGBTQ film-watchers identify -- or not -- with the iconic images presented to them.Less
The chapter links the growing awareness of Spanish queer cultures as seen in films and filmmaking to the emergence of iconic figures of different sorts. It engages in some brief, close readings of actors on cinema (and television) screens, of personalities in the pages of the networked social media and of glossy magazines, and of the image of directors themselves. These include Ventura Pons and Pedro Almodóvar, while the actors include well- and lesser-known names. The chapter maps the different ways in with Spanish LGBTQ film-watchers identify -- or not -- with the iconic images presented to them.
Deborah Bridge
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780748684021
- eISBN:
- 9780748697069
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748684021.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
One epic series in particular fulfils a number of definitions of the epic without itself being considered epic. It not only embraces “popular trends and ideals that define or represent an era” and ...
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One epic series in particular fulfils a number of definitions of the epic without itself being considered epic. It not only embraces “popular trends and ideals that define or represent an era” and appeals to “cross-cultural structures of belonging and identification”, but has also contributed to shaping young people’s “inchoate sense of collective desire” in a way that no other epic films have. The series has dominated 21st century film, and may well be the greatest epic of this century. The films? Harry Potter, of course. This chapter explores how a series intended primarily for children and “tweeners” has become unique among epic films in the universality with which it addresses the fears and anxieties of its audience, how the films have “grown up” with their viewers and vice-versa, and how their popularity has contributed to making Harry Potter one of “the most important non-religious global cultural icons in history”.Less
One epic series in particular fulfils a number of definitions of the epic without itself being considered epic. It not only embraces “popular trends and ideals that define or represent an era” and appeals to “cross-cultural structures of belonging and identification”, but has also contributed to shaping young people’s “inchoate sense of collective desire” in a way that no other epic films have. The series has dominated 21st century film, and may well be the greatest epic of this century. The films? Harry Potter, of course. This chapter explores how a series intended primarily for children and “tweeners” has become unique among epic films in the universality with which it addresses the fears and anxieties of its audience, how the films have “grown up” with their viewers and vice-versa, and how their popularity has contributed to making Harry Potter one of “the most important non-religious global cultural icons in history”.
M. Todd Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835746
- eISBN:
- 9781469601465
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807837467_bennett
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate ...
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World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate the masses. Through multinational research, this book reveals how the Grand Alliance—Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States—tapped Hollywood's impressive power to shrink the distance and bridge the differences that separated them. The Allies, it shows, strategically manipulated cinema in an effort to promote the idea that the United Nations was a family of nations joined by blood and affection. The author revisits Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Flying Tigers, and other familiar movies that, he argues, helped win the war and the peace by improving Allied solidarity and transforming the American worldview. Closely analyzing film, diplomatic correspondence, propagandists' logs, and movie studio records found in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union, he rethinks traditional scholarship on World War II diplomacy by examining the ways that Hollywood and the Allies worked together to prepare for and enact the war effort.Less
World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate the masses. Through multinational research, this book reveals how the Grand Alliance—Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States—tapped Hollywood's impressive power to shrink the distance and bridge the differences that separated them. The Allies, it shows, strategically manipulated cinema in an effort to promote the idea that the United Nations was a family of nations joined by blood and affection. The author revisits Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Flying Tigers, and other familiar movies that, he argues, helped win the war and the peace by improving Allied solidarity and transforming the American worldview. Closely analyzing film, diplomatic correspondence, propagandists' logs, and movie studio records found in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union, he rethinks traditional scholarship on World War II diplomacy by examining the ways that Hollywood and the Allies worked together to prepare for and enact the war effort.
Paul W. Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164382
- eISBN:
- 9780231536028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164382.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter considers the need for a new course in philosophical inquiry. Philosophy is an academic discipline addressing a professional readership, and therefore, must be an accessible form of ...
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This chapter considers the need for a new course in philosophical inquiry. Philosophy is an academic discipline addressing a professional readership, and therefore, must be an accessible form of self-discovery. Popular films are fine examples of a common object of discourse for philosophical engagement for two reasons: first, films are widely known and obtainable; second, their imaginative resources are responsive to the audience's expectations. Discussions about popular films are, in a way, discussions about the self. The chapter examines the film The Artist (2011) and its themes of redemptive promise of love and the fear of being alone and powerless in changing world, both of which are narrative paths followed by philosophy.Less
This chapter considers the need for a new course in philosophical inquiry. Philosophy is an academic discipline addressing a professional readership, and therefore, must be an accessible form of self-discovery. Popular films are fine examples of a common object of discourse for philosophical engagement for two reasons: first, films are widely known and obtainable; second, their imaginative resources are responsive to the audience's expectations. Discussions about popular films are, in a way, discussions about the self. The chapter examines the film The Artist (2011) and its themes of redemptive promise of love and the fear of being alone and powerless in changing world, both of which are narrative paths followed by philosophy.
David Looseley
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316555
- eISBN:
- 9781846316692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316692.017
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the place of contemporary popular culture in French Studies. It considers the reasons behind UK French Studies's absence of engagement with popular culture, and cites a semantic ...
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This chapter examines the place of contemporary popular culture in French Studies. It considers the reasons behind UK French Studies's absence of engagement with popular culture, and cites a semantic misunderstanding between French Studies and cultural studies. It also suggests that contemporary popular culture lies outside the comfort zone of French scholars. The implication of high-cultural excellence enshrined in the word ‘literature’ has made them chary of station-bookstall ‘fiction’. They have happily studied art-house cinema for years, but have not felt quite so comfortable with popular film.Less
This chapter examines the place of contemporary popular culture in French Studies. It considers the reasons behind UK French Studies's absence of engagement with popular culture, and cites a semantic misunderstanding between French Studies and cultural studies. It also suggests that contemporary popular culture lies outside the comfort zone of French scholars. The implication of high-cultural excellence enshrined in the word ‘literature’ has made them chary of station-bookstall ‘fiction’. They have happily studied art-house cinema for years, but have not felt quite so comfortable with popular film.
Suzanne Gauch
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190262570
- eISBN:
- 9780190262600
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190262570.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the three films of Tunisian Nacer Khemir’s Desert Trilogy, The Wanderers of the Desert (1986), The Lost Neckring of the Dove (1991), and the 2005 Baba Aziz: The Prince Who ...
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This chapter examines the three films of Tunisian Nacer Khemir’s Desert Trilogy, The Wanderers of the Desert (1986), The Lost Neckring of the Dove (1991), and the 2005 Baba Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul, as profound reconfigurations of how popular film generates meaning. While Khemir’s stunning engagement with Islamicate art, literature, and music has drawn accusations that his films play to a retrograde or outmoded orientalism, this chapter shows how they instead destabilize narrative, cultural, and cinematic knowledge. Exposing the lacunae in postindependence, state-sponsored orthodoxies of progressive modernity as well as insidious geopolitical hierarchies, the desert trilogy proves itself not only surprisingly political, but resolutely mobile, contemporary, and transnational.Less
This chapter examines the three films of Tunisian Nacer Khemir’s Desert Trilogy, The Wanderers of the Desert (1986), The Lost Neckring of the Dove (1991), and the 2005 Baba Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul, as profound reconfigurations of how popular film generates meaning. While Khemir’s stunning engagement with Islamicate art, literature, and music has drawn accusations that his films play to a retrograde or outmoded orientalism, this chapter shows how they instead destabilize narrative, cultural, and cinematic knowledge. Exposing the lacunae in postindependence, state-sponsored orthodoxies of progressive modernity as well as insidious geopolitical hierarchies, the desert trilogy proves itself not only surprisingly political, but resolutely mobile, contemporary, and transnational.
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226808550
- eISBN:
- 9780226808796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226808796.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter presents a particular dimension of cultural representation— that of fiction, and especially elite fiction made into popular films—and it begins with two observations. First: if one ...
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This chapter presents a particular dimension of cultural representation— that of fiction, and especially elite fiction made into popular films—and it begins with two observations. First: if one excludes novels about the Holocaust, there are far fewer important postwar novels written in English about World War II than one might expect. And, second: the recent novels we do have generally sidestep combat, often by using dual settings or dual timeframes that motivate (in the sense of making seem natural) movement to a different place or time and, consequently, displacement onto a different subject.Less
This chapter presents a particular dimension of cultural representation— that of fiction, and especially elite fiction made into popular films—and it begins with two observations. First: if one excludes novels about the Holocaust, there are far fewer important postwar novels written in English about World War II than one might expect. And, second: the recent novels we do have generally sidestep combat, often by using dual settings or dual timeframes that motivate (in the sense of making seem natural) movement to a different place or time and, consequently, displacement onto a different subject.
Simon J. Bronner and Caspar Battegay (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906764869
- eISBN:
- 9781800343375
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906764869.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
How Jews use media to connect with one another has profound consequences for Jewish identity, community, and culture. This volume explores how the use of media can both create communities and divide ...
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How Jews use media to connect with one another has profound consequences for Jewish identity, community, and culture. This volume explores how the use of media can both create communities and divide them because of how different media shape actions and project anxieties, conflicts, and emotions. Taken together, the chapters consider how Jewish use of media at home and in the street, as well as in the synagogue and in school, affects the individual's sense of ethnic and religious affiliation. They include closely observed case studies, in various national contexts, of the role of popular film, television, records, the Internet, and smartphones, as well as the role of print media, now and historically. They raise fascinating questions about how Jews and Jewish institutions harness, tolerate, or resist media to create their sense of social belonging as Jews within the wider society.Less
How Jews use media to connect with one another has profound consequences for Jewish identity, community, and culture. This volume explores how the use of media can both create communities and divide them because of how different media shape actions and project anxieties, conflicts, and emotions. Taken together, the chapters consider how Jewish use of media at home and in the street, as well as in the synagogue and in school, affects the individual's sense of ethnic and religious affiliation. They include closely observed case studies, in various national contexts, of the role of popular film, television, records, the Internet, and smartphones, as well as the role of print media, now and historically. They raise fascinating questions about how Jews and Jewish institutions harness, tolerate, or resist media to create their sense of social belonging as Jews within the wider society.
Richard Barrios
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199973842
- eISBN:
- 9780199370115
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199973842.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
The chapter looks at the art and craft of writing songs for films, plus the rewards (money and Oscars) and hazards (possible deletion). Harold Arlen and “Over the Rainbow,” nearly cut from The Wizard ...
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The chapter looks at the art and craft of writing songs for films, plus the rewards (money and Oscars) and hazards (possible deletion). Harold Arlen and “Over the Rainbow,” nearly cut from The Wizard of Oz. The chapter then considers Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, with Hart and Hammerstein, and the Sherman brothers, with Mary Poppins. It describes Irving Berlin’s one-man celebrations, such as Easter Parade, and his writing the dazzling “Cheek to Cheek” in one day. The chapter also describes the forgotten Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin, creators of “Thanks for the Memory.” The chapter examines Cole Porter’s difficulties with film. The chapter moves on to consider the Astaire-Rogers series, for which some of the finest popular songs were created. The chapter finally looks at ABBA and Mamma Mia! and the slovenly genre of “composer biopics.”Less
The chapter looks at the art and craft of writing songs for films, plus the rewards (money and Oscars) and hazards (possible deletion). Harold Arlen and “Over the Rainbow,” nearly cut from The Wizard of Oz. The chapter then considers Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, with Hart and Hammerstein, and the Sherman brothers, with Mary Poppins. It describes Irving Berlin’s one-man celebrations, such as Easter Parade, and his writing the dazzling “Cheek to Cheek” in one day. The chapter also describes the forgotten Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin, creators of “Thanks for the Memory.” The chapter examines Cole Porter’s difficulties with film. The chapter moves on to consider the Astaire-Rogers series, for which some of the finest popular songs were created. The chapter finally looks at ABBA and Mamma Mia! and the slovenly genre of “composer biopics.”
Daniel Bishop
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190932688
- eISBN:
- 9780190932725
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190932688.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Popular
In the tumultuous era of the late sixties and early seventies, several currents of American art and culture coalesced around a broad sensibility that foregrounded and explored the immediacy of lived ...
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In the tumultuous era of the late sixties and early seventies, several currents of American art and culture coalesced around a broad sensibility that foregrounded and explored the immediacy of lived experience as both an aesthetic and political imperative. But in films set in the historical past, this sensibility acquired complex additional resonances by speaking to the ephemerality of the present moment through a framework of history, myth, nostalgia, and other forms of temporal alienation and distance. The Presence of the Past explores the implications of this complex moment in Hollywood cinema through several prominent examples released in the years 1967 to 1974. Key genres are explored in detailed case studies: the outlaw film (Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands), the revisionist Western (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, McCabe and Mrs. Miller), the neo-noir (Chinatown), and the nostalgia film (The Last Picture Show and American Graffiti). In these films, “the past” is more than a matter of genre or setting. Rather, it is a richly diverse, often paradoxical concern in its own right, whose study bridges diverse conceptual territories within soundtrack studies, including the sixties pop score, myth criticism, media technologies, and the role of classical music in compilation scoring. Against a broader background of an industry and film culture that were witnessing a stylistic and aesthetic diversification in the use of music and sound design, The Presence of the Past argues for the film-philosophical importance of the soundtrack for cultivating an imagined experiential understanding of the past.Less
In the tumultuous era of the late sixties and early seventies, several currents of American art and culture coalesced around a broad sensibility that foregrounded and explored the immediacy of lived experience as both an aesthetic and political imperative. But in films set in the historical past, this sensibility acquired complex additional resonances by speaking to the ephemerality of the present moment through a framework of history, myth, nostalgia, and other forms of temporal alienation and distance. The Presence of the Past explores the implications of this complex moment in Hollywood cinema through several prominent examples released in the years 1967 to 1974. Key genres are explored in detailed case studies: the outlaw film (Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands), the revisionist Western (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, McCabe and Mrs. Miller), the neo-noir (Chinatown), and the nostalgia film (The Last Picture Show and American Graffiti). In these films, “the past” is more than a matter of genre or setting. Rather, it is a richly diverse, often paradoxical concern in its own right, whose study bridges diverse conceptual territories within soundtrack studies, including the sixties pop score, myth criticism, media technologies, and the role of classical music in compilation scoring. Against a broader background of an industry and film culture that were witnessing a stylistic and aesthetic diversification in the use of music and sound design, The Presence of the Past argues for the film-philosophical importance of the soundtrack for cultivating an imagined experiential understanding of the past.
