scholarly journals Nikos Kazantzakis’ Unshot Adaptations of Don Quixote and Decameron

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panayiota Mini

This article examines two of Nikos Kazantzakis’ unshot screenplays of the early 1930s: his adaptations of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Boccaccio’s Decameron, kept in typed manuscripts at the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum Foundation in Iraklion, Crete. The article analyses Kazantzakis’ Don Quixote and Decameron in the contexts of early talking cinema and his ideas of the image-language relationship. Written at a time when the artistic value of talking cinema was still debated, Kazantzakis’ adaptations demonstrate that he sought to express ideas with images rather than dialogue (Don Quixote) and use sound as a creative element (Decameron) in ways alluding to Eisenstein’s 1928-1929 writings, with which, as evidence suggests, the Greek author was familiar. Thus, Kazantzakis’ Don Quixote and Decameron show how a technological development in film history – the coming of sound – and the Soviet film theory influenced this author’s adaptation techniques, while also enhancing our understanding of his creative career as well as the worldwide resonance of Cervantes’ and Boccaccio’s literary milestones.

STUDIUM ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 245-272
Author(s):  
Marcos Centeno Martín

Resumen La construcción del cine japonés como cine nacional ha partido a menudo de una visión esencialista que ha ignorado la dimensión transnacional de esta filmografía. Por un lado, el descubrimiento occidental de ciertos autores japoneses en los años cincuenta condujo a la articulación del paradigma del cine nacional japonés a partir de películas dirigidas a asombrar al público europeo con imágenes exóticas de Japón. Los grandes maestros, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi y Ozu fueron escogidos como representantes de una supuesta japonesidad cinematográfica ignorando el peso de Occidente en sus obras. Por otro lado, el estudio de este corpus tradicionalmente ha evolucionado con herramientas teóricas desarrolladas en Occidente y necesita renovarse con conceptos de la tradición cultural, estética y filosófica propia. Pero además, es necesario evaluar cómo se implementaron los elementos del lenguaje fílmico en Japón para entender su relativismo respecto a la historia general del cine. Sus usos y formas no siempre han coincidido con los desarrollos occidentales, de forma que conceptos fílmicos occidentales no han tenido exactamente el mismo significado en el contexto japonés. Palabras clave: cine japonés, cine nacional, transnacionalidad teoría fílmica, cine de postguerra   Abstract The construction of Japanese cinema as a national cinema has often drawn on a essentialist vision neglecting the transnational nature of this filmography. On the one hand, the Western discovery of certain Japanese authors in the fifties triggered the articulation of the paradigm of the Japanese “national cinema” from films aiming to astonish European audiences with exotic images of Japan. The great masters, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi and Ozu, were chosen as main representatives of the apparent cinematographic japaneseness neglecting the weight of the West on their works. On the other hand, the study of this corpus has been traditionally evolved with theoretical tools developed in the West and need a renewal with concepts taken from Japanese philosophical, aesthetic and cultural tradition. Moreover, it is necessary to assess how the film language elements were implemented in Japan in order to understand its relativism regarding the general film history. Their usages and forms were not always equivalent to those in the West and as a consequence, Western concepts ended up having different meanings in the Japanese context. Key words: Japanese cinema, national cinema, transnationality, film theory, postwar cinema


2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 33-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Casetti

Abstract Over the past ten years, film theory has been openly challenged by the tenets of film history, cultural studies, aesthetics and philosophy. The decline of so called “Grand Theory” has made possible the emergence of a new paradigm. This relative eclipsing of film theory is the sign of a three-fold problem within cinema studies. First, film in its new formats and with its new supports is no longer a unique and consistent object which can be subjected to specific forms of research. Film theory’s weakness is thus a sign that “film,” as an object, is now dispersed. Second, cinema has always been at the crossroads of a great number of different fields. Its history is an amalgam of the history of media, the performing arts, visual perception, modern forms of subjectivity, etc. Film theory’s weakness is symptomatic of the urgent need to rethink a history that was never unique or unified. Third, in our post-modern era any recourse to rationality seems to be a trap, the object of study itself being refractory to any kind of schematization. Film theory’s weakness is indicative of the need to maintain an open approach to the subject. Through these three issues, we are witnessing the emergence of a new theory, both informal and dispersed, which is manifested in a variety of discourses that are content to gloss the phenomenon in order better to understand the cinema and facilitate its social recognition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Sultan I. Usuvaliev

The article is devoted to the history of the Russian film studies and methodology of film history as science using the example of the Introduction of History of the Soviet Film Art by Nikolai Iezuitov (18991941), one of the founders of the national film studies. Since the manuscript of History of the Soviet Film Art the first history of the Soviet cinema has not yet been published and introduced into scholarly use, the author pays special attention to archival sources. Despite a number of essays and discussions about film history and its methodology, a fundamental scholarly work on the historiography of the history of Soviet and Russian cinema has not yet been written. The relevance and novelty of the article is that it is based on the study of archival manuscripts of Nikolai Iezuitov. The exploration of early approaches to the study of the history of the Soviet cinema is important both historically and pedagogically. One of the most important sources of the concept of film history at an early stage of the national film studies is Iezuitov's Introduction to History of the Soviet Film Art. The Introduction is valuable because: 1) it is a rare evidence of reflection on the foundations of film history as scholarship and its methodology; 2) it is given by the author of the first history of the Soviet cinema; 3) it is represented by the author not as a separate abstract essay but as a part of the history itself. The Introduction defines the scholarly tasks and content of film history; overviews foreign books on the history of cinema; emphasizes specific periods of Soviet film history; and indicates the principles of work with relevant sources. Iezuitovs main principles in relation to film history are established in connection, firstly, with Soviet history scholarship; and secondly, with the vision of film history as the history of film art. Thus, film history, according to Iezuitov, is the unity of Marxist understanding of history and art-historical (stylistic) analysis of films and the main film movements in Soviet cinema.


Servis plus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-26
Author(s):  
Марина Косинова ◽  
Marina Kosinova ◽  
Артур Аракелян ◽  
Artur Arakelyan

In the period of “thaw” (mid 1950s – mid 1960s), there is a sharp qualitative and quantitative growth of Soviet cinema. If in 1951 in the USSR was filmed just nine films which didn’t represent a high artistic value in the creative attitude, already in 1956–57, Soviet cinema shocked the whole world. In 1958 they released 66 new Soviet film, but by 1960 our film industry overcame the milestone of 100 films and continued to steadily increase the production. The growth of the film industry contributed to the cinema spreading and film distribution. In the years of “thaw” in the USSR cinema attendance exceeded 3 billion, compared to 1.5 billion in 1953. The Gross fundraising from screenings at state cinema chains increased to 5.5 million rubles in 1957, and throughout the hole cinema chain – up to 7.5 million rubles. On the 1st January 1958, the chain consisted of 80 thousand cinemas, including more than 50 thousand in rural areas. By this time, they had mastered new technical possibilities of cinema (wide-screen, panoramic, wide angle, circular panorama). They fully mastered color film. However, in the field of cinema there were still a lot of unresolved issues. Revenues from films increased annually in largely through the construction and commissioning of new cinemas, and due to the tightening operation mode of already active cinemas, contrary to their real capabilities. But cinema rigidly centralized administrative-command system which had been formed in the 1930s continued to operate until the perestroika in the Soviet. They sold films to the distributors as a “product” based on the amount of the estimated cost of the film. The Studio was lcompletely disinterested in the outcome of the promotion of the film, its success with the audience. Thus, they did not have a major driver in the fight for the quality of films. Numerous attempts of the Filmmakers ‘ Union, established in 1957, to change the existing system didn’t have the results. The only application of far-reaching ideas of the Union became an Experimental creative Studio.


Tanaka Kinuyo ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 187-203
Author(s):  
Yuka Kanno

Yuka Kanno uses the final chapter of the book to examine Girls of Dark (Onna bakari no yoru, 1961), a film which follows the lives of ex-prostitutes in a rehabilitation facility. Within an exclusively female community as diverse in age as personality, Japan’s first lesbian film character emerges, defying traditional representations of lesbianism in Japanese popular culture. Kanno argues that this unusual character is pivotal to understanding of the desire, solidarity and conflict which characterises the female community in the film. The female continuum is presented as both diegetic and relational by including the narrative space of the film and that embodied by the three women who collaborated to produce it: Tanaka Kinuyo (director), Yana Masako (novelist), and Tanaka Sumie (scriptwriter). Using queer and feminist theory, Kanno’s fascinating and innovative discussion seeks to relocate the concept of women’s cinema within Japanese film history and film theory.


Author(s):  
Annette Kuhn ◽  
Guy Westwell

Over 550 entries This dictionary covers all aspects of its discipline as it is currently taught at undergraduate level. Offering exhaustive and authoritative coverage, this A-Z is written by experts in the field and covers terms, concepts, debates, and movements in film theory and criticism; national, international, and transnational cinemas; film history, movements, and genres; film industry organizations and practices; and key technical terms and concepts. Since its first publication in 2012, the dictionary has been updated to incorporate over 40 new entries, including computer games and film, disability, ecocinema, identity, portmanteau film, Practice as Research, and film in Vietnam. Moreover, numerous revisions have been made to existing entries to account for developments in the discipline, and changes to film institutions more generally.


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