scholarly journals Slowly Moving Bodies: Signs of Pictorialism in Aki Kaurismäki’s Films

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-63
Author(s):  
Jarmo Valkola
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Film History ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Short Films ◽  
Narrative Interaction ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
Communication Culture ◽  
Moving Bodies

Abstract Aki Kaurismäki is arguably the best-known Finnish filmmaker, owing largely to his feature films such as Crime and Punishment (Rikos ja rangaistus, Finland, 1983), Calamari Union (Finland, 1985), Shadows in Paradise (Varjoja paratiisissa, Finland, 1986), Hamlet Goes Business (Hamlet liikemaailmassa, Finland, 1987), Ariel (Finland, 1988), The Match Factory Girl (Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö, Finland, 1990), I Hired a Contract Killer (Finland/ Sweden, 1990), La vie de bohéme (Finland/France/ Sweden/Germany, 1992), Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana, Finland/Germany, 1994), Drifting Clouds (Kauas pilvet karkaavat, Finland, 1996), Juha (Finland, 1999), The Man Without a Past (Mies vailla menneisyyttä, Finland, 2002), Lights in the Dusk (Laitakaupungin valot, Finland, 2006) and Le Havre (Finland/France, 2011). A large body of his work has been made in Finland, but also in countries like France and Great Britain. Besides feature films, he has also made documentaries and short films, as well as musical films with the group Leningrad Cowboys. In a broader context, Kaurismäki has a unique place in Finnish and international film history, as well as in media and communication culture. Kaurismäki’s cultural context includes elements that have been turned into national and transnational symbols of social communication and narrative interaction by his stylisation. The director’s cinematic strategy investigates and makes choices evoking a social understanding of characters that has special communicative value. Kaurismäki’s films have been scrutinised for over thirty years.

Charles Chaplin

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Kornhaber
Keyword(s):  
Film History ◽  
Charlie Chaplin ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Short Films ◽  
Charles Chaplin ◽  
History Of ◽  
Marked Decline ◽  
Andre Bazin ◽  
Film Stars ◽  
Sound Technology

Charles Chaplin (b. 1889–d. 1977), better known as Charlie Chaplin, was one of the greatest film stars of the 20th century and one of the most important filmmakers in the history of the medium. Born into poverty in London to a family of music hall performers, Chaplin grew up in destitution with his mother, who suffered from periods of insanity. He joined the prestigious Karno stage company while a teenager and from there was recruited to the fledgling Keystone Studios, famous for its raucous brand of slapstick films. Chaplin excelled at Keystone, quickly developing the “Tramp” character that would become his mainstay and graduating to directing his own short films after only weeks on the job. He left Keystone within a year for a series of more lucrative contracts, quickly becoming one of the highest-paid figures in the film industry and creating a classic body of short films. By 1919 Chaplin had amassed a large enough fortune to start his own film studio and co-founded United Artists to distribute his works, leaving him all but free from outside influence or interference. Throughout the 1920s he created the feature films that would help define his legacy but struggled with the advent of sound technology, refusing to include spoken dialogue in his films for nearly a decade. Chaplin’s first full talkie, The Great Dictator (1940), offered a scathing parody of fascist dictatorship and marked a newfound political mode in his filmmaking. Chaplin’s leftist politics, coupled with a scandalous and protracted paternity suit in the mid-1940s, soon led to a marked decline in his popularity, such that when he left for a worldwide publicity tour for Limelight (1952) he was denied reentry to the country. Chaplin lived the remainder of his life in Switzerland, returning to America only in 1972 to accept an honorary Academy Award. Critical appraisal of Chaplin’s body of work has varied over the decades. Hailed as a genius from early in his career, he saw his critical fortunes fall with his transition to talking pictures. Yet Chaplin always had a coterie of dedicated critical supporters, including such illustrious figures as André Bazin and Andrew Sarris, and the critical estimation of his work has only grown since his death. He remains today one of the most lauded and beloved figures in film history.

Parenting and the Prosocial Behaviors of Children Across Cultures

2019 ◽  
pp. 162-178
Author(s):  
Maria Rosario T. de Guzman ◽  
Aileen S. Garcia ◽  
Irene O. Padasas ◽  
Bernice Vania N. Landoy
Keyword(s):  
Parenting Styles ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
Inductive Discipline ◽  
Parenting Dimensions

A large body of empirical work has shown the role that parenting plays in the development of prosocial behaviors of children. Parenting styles (e.g., democratic versus authoritarian) and parenting practices (e.g., inductive discipline versus guilt-shame induction) in particular have been empirically linked to prosocial behaviors as well as numerous other well-being indicators in children. What is less understood is the role that culture and cultural context might play in the parenting-prosocial nexus. This chapter explores the contributions of culture comparative and in-depth cultural studies of parenting and children’s prosocial behaviors. These studies extend the range of variability of parenting dimensions and contexts as they relate to children’s prosocial outcomes – providing a means of testing the generalizability of theory in a wider range of settings, as well as in identifying facets of parenting and family life that may otherwise be neglected in current scholarship. Collectively, studies support traditional socialization theories and show how numerous parenting dimensions are linked to prosocial outcomes in children in several cultural communities. Nonetheless, emerging research suggests culturally embedded processes that impact upon the parenting and prosocial link - meriting closer attention for future scholarship.

scholarly journals Developing A Cross-Cultural Conceptual Framework for the Validation of the Advanced Clinical Solutions (ACS)-SP: Assessing Social Perception in Latinx Populations

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1298-1298
Author(s):  
M Forte ◽  
P Nestor
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Communication Styles ◽  
Normative Sample

Abstract Objective Develop a cross-cultural conceptual framework for the validation of the Advanced Clinical Solutions (ACS) Social Perception subtest to effectively assess Latinx populations. Method The framework serves to examine and evaluate the composition of the normative sample of the ACS-SP using eight key variables taken from the ECLECTIC framework, specifically education (e.g., literacy), acculturation levels (e.g., race, ethnicity), language (e.g., proficiency), economics (e.g., SES), communication styles, testing comfort, intelligence conceptualization, and context of immigration (Fujii, 2018). In addition, the model assesses the normative sample in reference to the intersectionality of identities (Cole, 2009; Wadsworth et al., 2016) across cultural and demographic variables that may influence the expression of emotion, and consequently, the interpretation of ACS-SP results. The model applies an Etic-Emic approach to address the question of cross-cultural validity of the ACS-SP (Cheung, van de Vijver & Leong, 2011). Finally, the model can be applied to examine the ACS-SP in relation to cultural intelligence (CQ), a more recently established construct defined as an individual’s ability to function effectively inter-culturally (Ang, Rockstuhl, & Tan, 2015). Discussion A large body of research has shown that the expression and measurement of social cognitive abilities are greatly influenced by cultural factors (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002). For example, studies have shown that the expression of these abilities may be greatly influenced by cultural differences in display rules. Likewise, it is equally important to consider key cultural variables such as those related to socioeconomic status (SES), demographics, and identity in the neuropsychological assessment of social perception in Latinx populations. Therefore, the model conducts a cross-cultural analysis of the ACS-SP. References Ang, S., Rockstuhl, T., & Tan, M. L. (2015). Cultural intelligence and competencies. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 433-439. Cheung, F. M., Leung, K., Fan, R. M., Song, W. Z., Zhang, J. X., & Zhang, J. P. (1996). Development of the Chinese personality assessment inventory. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27(2), 181-199. Cole, E. R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American psychologist, 64(3), 170. Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 203. Fujii, D. E. M. (2018) Developing a cultural context for conducting a neuropsychological evaluation with a culturally diverse client: The ECLECTIC framework. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 32(8), 1356-1392, DOI: 10.1080/13854046.2018.1435826. Wadsworth, L. P., Morgan, L. P., Hayes-Skelton, S. A., Roemer, L., & Suyemoto, K. L. (2016). Ways to boost your research rigor through increasing your cultural competence (part 1 of 2). The Behavior Therapist.

Nicht nur Slapstick: Stummfilme als unterschätzte Zeugen der Medizingeschichte

2020 ◽  
Vol 145 (25) ◽  
pp. 1818-1827
Author(s):  
Dennis Henkel ◽  
Eelco M. Wijdicks ◽  
Axel Karenberg
Keyword(s):  
Medical Profession ◽  
Silent Film ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Short Film ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Illegal Abortion ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Short Films

AbstractMedicine in silent film has a long history. Although the silent era in cinema was dominated by burlesques (using escaped “lunatics”) a number of themes emerged after systematic review. The cinematic representation of medicine coincided with the discovery of X-rays. During this “roentgenomania”, short films were produced showing groundbreaking X-ray images, which fitted perfectly into needs of dramatic cinema. But soon the “cinema of narration” evolved: Starting just after the turn of the century, the short film “The Country Doctor” was able to address complex interplay between duties and limitations of the medical profession. This was followed by numerous feature films on infectious diseases, which often used tuberculosis as a centerpiece of its story. Directors often took advantage of the well-known stereotype of the omnipotent physician. But in certain medical fields, such as psychiatry or surgery, a more ambivalent figure of the doctor was portrayed, f. e. in “Hands of Orlac” (1924). Silent cinema also offered interesting ideas on the healing powers of the medium itself: in “The Mystery of the Kador Cliffs” (1912) a film screening could cure the patient of fears after reenactment. Finally, a closer look at the early era of film echoes how social conflicts where dramatized, especially in the case of nationwide birth control. How illegal abortion kept the society on its edge, was most clearly shown in the adaption of the scandalous play “Cyankali” (1930).In addition to discussing various topics in the cinematic representation of medicine, this brief overview shows that silent movies were a new and true art form, representing an exceptional resource for historians of film and medicine.

The same roles adopted by people involved in mass media enterprises, such as producers or distributors of feature films, are involved in practices surrounding personal memory artefacts such as photographs, home videos or diary entries. When the social context of such practices changes, these roles are renegotiated in relation to the people with whom we communicate and the tools we use to help us. A pilot study combined an analysis of sets of photographs taken by different participants at the same event – a wedding – with interviews that explored the phenomenological experience of engaging in memory practices connected to these photo sets. Focusing on personal photography, seven media roles were selected as a framework for examining changes in artefact-related memory practices due to shifting socio-cultural contexts and technological affordances. These roles – Creator, Director, Archivist, Gatekeeper, Distributor, Consumer and Critic – were found to be useful in highlighting individual differences in capturing, organising, reviewing and sharing photographs amongst people with varying technological engagement in varying social groupings. Preliminary findings suggest that technological affordances and constraints can change the social and cultural context of communication as well as personal goals of media production and consumption. Different media tools create subjective triggers and barriers for the adoption of roles, making some processes of media production or consumption easier or more accessible to certain types of people while other processes may become more complex or culturally inappropriate. These triggers and barriers, in combination with a continuous reconfiguration of related cultural norms, affect the adoption of roles and these roles directly affect engagement with memory artefacts. This paper forms part of a larger project that aims to explore how our changing engagement with technology is affecting our individual and collective memory practices.

2012 ◽  
pp. 27-40
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Media Production ◽  
Home Videos ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
The People ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The Social ◽  
Memory Practices ◽  
Technological Affordances

The Race Relations Narrative in British Film

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Bidnall
Keyword(s):  
Race Relations ◽  
West Indian ◽  
West Indians ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Short Films ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Impact

“West Indians and the Race Relations Narrative in British Film” revisits perhaps the three most famous middlebrow British “race relations” films of the 1950s and 60s and their star lead, Bermudan—not West Indian—actor Earl Cameron. Taken together, Pool of London, Sapphire, and Flame in the Streets demonstrate the evolving “race relations narrative” that refracted shifting popular attitudes to Caribbean settlers in the capitol. Equally important but less acknowledged in the cinematic histories is Cameron’s perceptive portrayal of “safe” West Indian characters to a mainstream British audience. This chapter’s second subject is the Jamaican actor, filmmaker, and settler Lloyd Reckord. As major feature films remained preoccupied with the impact of Commonwealth migration on white domestic life, Reckord expanded British film’s experience and knowledge of race through his short films Ten Bob in Winter and Dream A40.

Muslim Women in French Cinema

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
French Cinema ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Short Films

Muslim Women in French Cinema: Voices of Maghrebi Migrants in France is the first comprehensive study of cinematic representations of first-generation Muslim women from the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) in France. Situated at the intersection of post-colonial studies, gender studies, and film studies, this book uses the multi-layered concept of ‘voice’ as an analytical lens through which to examine a diverse corpus of over 60 documentaries, short films, téléfilms (made-for-television films), and feature films released in France between 1979 and 2014. In examining the ways in which the voices, experiences, and points of view of Maghrebi migrant women in France are represented and communicated through a selection of key films, this study offers new perspectives on Maghrebi migrant women in France. It shows that women of this generation, as they are represented in these films, are far more diverse and often more empowered than has generally been thought on the basis of the relatively narrow range of media and cultural productions that have so far reached mainstream audiences. The films examined in this study are part of larger contemporary debates and discussions relating to immigration, integration, and what it means to be French.

scholarly journals Times BFI Film Festival 2007

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lana Gorlitz
Keyword(s):  
Audience Participation ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
Bob Dylan ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Short Films ◽  
The World ◽  
Spiritual Self ◽  
The Times ◽  
Artistic Director

DARJEELING LIMITED at the TIMES BFI FILM FESTIVAL The Times BFI London Film Festival (17 October-1 November 2007) celebrated its 51st anniversary last year, hosting 185 feature films and 133 short films from 43 countries. The LFF thrives as a "festival of festivals," choosing the best films available on the circuit. This creates an atmosphere which focuses primarily on audience participation and enjoyment rather than the typical emphasis on the industry and the acquisition of distribution rights. The principal concern for Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director of the LFF, was "to select films which showed another way of looking at the world." By all accounts, that was a mission accomplished. From the pursuit of a spiritual self in The Darjeeling Limited, and a lonely voyage to Alaska in Into The Wild, to a glimpse into the world of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, and a young girl's experience of...

Emergency and the Everyday

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Fusco ◽  
Nicole Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Everyday Experience ◽  
New Class ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Short Films ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The U.S

This introduction outlines Reichardt’s career, from promising indie auteur in the 1990s to a subsequent retreat from the spotlight to a triumphant return in the mid-2000s. The book’s argument is laid out here: chronicling the banal aftermath of crisis rather than its spectacular epicenter, Reichardt’s films establish emergency as an everyday experience. This section also claims that Reichardt focuses on two contemporary emergencies in particular: U.S. economic decline – and the rise of the new class known as “the precariat” – and environmental degradation – especially in the U.S. postindustrial Pacific Northwest. In this way, Reichardt is a filmmaker interested in uniquely American experiences of failure. Finally, this section offers synopses for all the Reichardt works covered in the book, including both feature films and short films.

scholarly journals Flemish Cinema and Film Culture through South African Eyes

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Botha
Keyword(s):  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
South African ◽  
Film History ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
Short Films ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

THE HERITAGE OF FILM: PERSPECTIVE ON FLEMISH CINEMA AND FILM CULTURE THROUGH SOUTH AFRICAN EYES I assisted the Locarno Film festival in 2005 with a retrospective of short films by young South African directors. There I met a very talented, young Flemish director, whose film was by far the best in the one section.(1) It moved me immensely with its honest portrait of alienation and racial discrimination. We had a long discussion on film history, aesthetics and film cultures. We also talked about the history of film in Belgium and it was noted that while the French speaking side of Belgian cinema had recently received international acclaim (for example, the work by the Dardenne Brothers), Flemish cinema was struggling. In fact, the young filmmaker made the statement that there was little to be excited about in the history of Flemish cinema. He felt especially that the films about...

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