Dimitri Kirsanoff: The Elusive Estonian

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Dirk Hoyer
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Sound Film ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Use ◽  
Final Confirmation

Abstract This article investigates the contradictory information about the Estonian identity of the filmmaker Dimitri Kirsanoff (1899–1957) and examines the archival material that provides final confirmation of his birth and childhood in Tartu. In addition, Kirsanoff’s substantial contribution to silent cinema and his significance in the context of French avant-garde impressionism are discussed. Kirsanoff’s most acclaimed film Ménilmontant (France, 1926) was released 90 years ago. It is still frequently screened all over the world, due to its experimental montage techniques, the early use of handheld cameras, its innovative use of actual locations and the actors’ performances that still resonate with contemporary audiences. Ménilmontant is also influential because of its elliptical narrative style. However, with the advent of sound film, Kirsanoff’s career declined because the reorganisation of the film industry limited the creative freedom he enjoyed in the 1920s. This article attempts to contribute to a wider acknowledgement of Dimitri Kirsanoff’s Estonian origins, his films and his important place in the world cinema.

Patriarchy in Assamese Cinema

2020 ◽  
pp. 102-112
Author(s):  
Trisha Dowerah Baruah
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Visual Effects ◽  
Important Place ◽  
The World

Cinema is said to be one of the most important and influential social institutions of our time. The Indian film industry, for instance, is the biggest in the world, churning out dozens of films belonging to different genres every year. A good movie is always characterised by a well-written script, right direction, brilliant acting, and use of mind-blowing visual effects whenever necessary. Very often, the protagonist of the films would be essayed by a male artist while the woman would play second fiddle. However, times are changing and women have come to occupy an important place as far as the depictions of such issues are concerned. In this chapter, the study concentrates on the portrayal of women in some of the prominent films of two prolific filmmakers of Assam: Dr Bhabendranath Saikia and Mr Jahnu Barua. Both these filmmakers' cinematic oeuvres portray the plight of women functioning within various incarnations of patriarchy in different historical temporalities.

Prologue: What was Silent Cinema?

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Keith Withall
Keyword(s):  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Sound Film ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
Lumiere Brothers ◽  
A Site

This prologue provides an overview of silent cinema. Our sense of cinema as a site of commercial entertainment can be traced back to the Lumière brothers. In December of 1895, they attracted a fee-paying public in Paris to sit and watch flickering images on an illuminated screen. The commercial Pandora's Box they opened was to blossom in a few years into a world cinema industry and, at its peak, the fantastical Hollywood. Yet in the 30 years in which this miraculous construction was accomplished, audiences rarely had to listen to films, only watch them. Hence, the early decades of cinema were characterised by the title ‘silent’. In fact, there was a lot of noise, machinery, audiences, musicians, and commentators. Even so, the absence of the human voice and dialogue make the films seem rather strange when viewed by a modern audience. Nevertheless, while they lack the audio impact of the sound film, the photographic quality of many silents is superb. Not only had the film-makers mastered the main techniques of photography, but as the industry developed they also added a whole range of techniques for editing and movement.

scholarly journals Audience Study as Catalyst in Sustainable Nollywood Yoruba Film Industry

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1.2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Adejoke Adetoun Ademuyiwa ◽  
Eunice Uwadinma-Idemudia
Keyword(s):  
Learning Theory ◽  
Social Learning Theory ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Performance Ratings ◽  
Audience Reception ◽  
Profit Margins ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
The World ◽  
Sample Method

 Nollywood is the representation of the socio-cultural apparatus of Nigeria in the world cinema. Tis paper evaluates generally, film audience’s perspective in Nollywood films, and in particular non-native actors in native films. Most often, stakeholders in the film industry do not access, or are flagrantly ignorant of viewer’s feedback on the state of their production in all media of communication. Some determine this with the profit margins. Tis paper therefore evaluates the audience’s perception of non-native actors in Nollywood Yoruba native films. The area of concentration is on the quality of audience reception on native films by non-native actors. Cluster sample method is the tool of research for this paper, in which questionnaire samples were distributed among film viewers in the Yoruba speaking area in Nigeria. This is done in order to determine the performance ratings of non-Yoruba native actor’s skill of character interpretation in cultured films. Theoretical framework is anchored on Bandura’s Social Learning theory, which concentrates on impact of artistic models on the audience’s psyche. Findings reveal that audience ratings of non-native actors in Yoruba cultured films is poor, compared with their characterization in non-native setting, and this is due to wrong casting by directors who cast them against all odds in order to improve their profit margin. Findings also reveal the importance of audience study as a necessity in pre-production considerations of film shooting.

The Mature Silent Cinema

2014 ◽  
pp. 61-102
Author(s):  
Keith Withall
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War I ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
World War ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
International Industry

This chapter details how, from the end of the World War I until the end of the silent era in 1927 (and beyond), Hollywood dominated the international film industry. The Hollywood studios reached their peak, both in their organisation and efficiency, and in the sheer quality of their product. But this quality was fed from both within and without. Part of the response to Hollywood dominance was for other film industries to develop and exploit their own distinctive features, ranging from English idiosyncrasy, through art films in Germany and France, to complete contradiction in the Soviet Union. The chapter discusses those cinemas which were part of an international industry dominated by commerce. Of the other European industries, the country with most material available on DVD is Germany, in particular the expressionist cinema. This has the advantage that the influence of its conventions can still be seen clearly in modern horror, one reason being the long shelf life of Nosferatu (1922), directed by F. W. Murnau.

Musical moments and numbers in Austrian silent cinema

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Tieber ◽  
Anna K. Windisch
Keyword(s):  
Sound Source ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
General Level ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Musical Performances ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Sound Film ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Silent Era

Although the film musical as a genre came into its own with the sound film technologies of the late 1920s and early 1930s, several characteristic features did not originate solely with the sound film. The ‘musical number’ as the epitome of the genre, can already be found in different forms and shapes in silent films. This article looks at two Austrian silent films, Sonnige Träume (1921) and Seine Hoheit, der Eintänzer (1926), as case studies for how music is represented without a fixed sound source, highlighting the differences and similarities of musical numbers in silent and sound films. The chosen films are analysed in the contexts of their historical exhibition and accompaniment practices, Austria’s film industry as well as the country’s cultural-political situation after the end of the monarchy. These two examples demonstrate that several characteristics of the film musical are based on the creative endeavours made by filmmakers during the silent era, who struggled, failed and succeeded in ‘visualizing’ music and musical performances in the so-called ‘silent’ films. In reconstructing their problems and analysing their solutions, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of musical numbers during the silent era and on a more general level.

The problem of sex in the religions of the Abrahamic tradition

2001 ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
N. Nedzelska
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
First Person ◽  
Important Place ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Systems

The paradox of the existence of the species Homo sapiens is that we do not even know: Who are we? Why are we? Where did you go from? Why? At all times - from antiquity to our time - the philosophers touched on this topic. It takes an important place in all religions of the world. These eternal questions include gender issues. In the religious systems of the religions of the Abrahamic tradition there is no single answer to the question of which sex was the first person. Recently, British scientists have even tried to prove that Eve is 84 thousand years older Adam

EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP: ASPECTS AND APPROACHES

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
JAVED ALAM SHEIKH
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Economic Empowerment ◽  
World Population ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Map ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

Almost 50 per cent of the world population is constituted by the women and they have been making substantial contribution to socio-economic development. But, unfortunately their tremendous contribution remains unrecognized and unnoticed in most of the developing and least developed countries causing the problem of poverty among them. Empowering women has become the key element in the development of an economy. With women moving forward, the family moves, the village moves and the nation moves. Hence, improving the status of women by way of their economic empowerment is highly called for. Entrepreneurship is a key tool for the economic empowerment of women around the world for alleviating poverty. Entrepreneurship is now widely recognized as a tool of economic development in India also. In this paper I have tried to discuss the reasons and role of Women Entrepreneurship with the help of Push and Pull factors. In the last I have also discussed the problems and the road map of Women Entrepreneurs development in India.

scholarly journals Vernacular traditions in Norwegian jewelry design - Past, present, future

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Skjerven
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Reliable Indicator ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Situation ◽  
Jewelry Design

Living in an era of globalization, the capability of communicating identity has become of greater importance than ever. This has increased our estimation of the vernacular, which represents an expression of a national or local identity. In Norway the vernacular tradition in silver jewelry is particularly strong. It has played an important role not only locally, but also in the constantly changing relation with the outside world, in accordance with the societal situation. It should therefore constitute a reliable indicator of how our country relates to the present process of globalization. The aim of the paper is to throw light on the relation between Norway’s role on the global scene and the use of the vernacular tradition in the development of jewelry design in general. It consists of a historical exploration that leads up to a discussion the present and future situation. Today there is a cleft between consumer behavior and avant-garde practice. In accordance with the global situation and Norway’s geopolitical situation of existing in the outskirts of political and economic decisions, the situation is characterized by a variety of practices, and by a slow acceptance of the vernacular values in the world of avant-garde practitioners.

Responsibility before the World: Cinema, Perspectivism and a Nonhuman Ethics of Individuation

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-410
Author(s):  
Andrew Lapworth
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Experimental Film ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences

The recent ‘nonhuman turn’ in the theoretical humanities and social sciences has highlighted the need to develop more ontological modes of theorising the ethical ‘responsibility’ of the human in its relational encounters with nonhuman bodies and materialities. However, there is a lingering sense in this literature that such an ethics remains centred on a transcendent subject that would pre-exist the encounters on which it is called to respond. In this essay, I explore how Gilles Deleuze's philosophy offers potential opening for a more ontogenetic thinking of a ‘nonhuman ethics’. Specifically, I focus on how his theory of ‘individuation’ – conceived as a creative event of emergence in response to immanent ontological problems – informs his rethinking of ethics beyond the subject, opening thought to nonhuman forces and relations. I argue that if cinema becomes a focus of Deleuze's ethical discussions in his later work it is because the images and signs it produces are expressive of these nonhuman forces and processes of individuation, generating modes of perception and duration without ontological mooring in the human subject. Through a discussion of Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor's experimental film –  Leviathan (2012)  – I explore how the cinematic encounter dramatises different ethical worlds in which a multiplicity of nonhuman ‘points of view’ coexist without being reduced to a hierarchical or orienting centre that would unify and identify them. To conclude, I suggest that it is through the lens of an ethics of individuation that we can grasp the different sense of ‘responsibility’ alive in Deleuze's philosophy, one oriented not to the terms of the already-existing but rather to the nonhuman potential of what might yet come into being.

Kazuo Ohno's World from Without and Within. By Kazuo Ohno and Yoshito Ohno. Translated by John Barrett. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004; pp. 344. $34.95 paper.

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-317
Author(s):  
Kurt Wurmli
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
The West ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Art Form ◽  
The World ◽  
Inside View ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata are recognized as the most influential creators of the contemporary Japanese dance form known today as butoh. Since its wild and avant-garde beginnings in the late 1950s, butoh has evolved into an established and appreciated art form throughout the world. Despite its popularity and strong influences on the international modern dance world, butoh only recently became an accepted subject for academic research in Japan as well as in the West. With the new opening of butoh research centers and archives—such as the Ohno Dance Studio Archives at BANK ART 1929 in Yokohama, the Kazuo Ohno Archives at Bologna University in Italy, and the Hijikata Tatsumi Archives at Keio University in Tokyo—serious scholarly attention has been given to the art of butoh's founders. However, the lack of firsthand sources by butoh artists reflecting their own work still poses great limitations for a deep understanding of the art form. Kazuo Ohno's World from Without and Within is not only the first full-length book in English about the master's life and work, but also offers a rare inside view of butoh.

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