Looking for Myriam

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Dall'Asta

Despite the recent multiplication of studies in found footage cinema, the fog surrounding the figure of Myriam Borsoutsky remains thick. This article elaborates the rare extant information about her work to retrace an important chapter in the history of found footage cinema in France, in which women have played a major role. In an attempt to delineate a specifically female genealogy in the history of French compilation film, Myriam's work is studied alongside that of Nicole Vedrès, and situated in the cultural context of a net of relationships that includes other women, for instance Denise Tual and Yannick Bellon, as well as such masters of French cinema as Pierre Braunberger, Sacha Guitry, Henri Langlois, Alain Resnais, André Bazin, Chris Marker, Jean-Luc Godard, and Michel Leiris. A detailed analysis of two major works in this genealogy, Paris 1900 (dir. Nicole Vedrès, 1947) and Bullfight (dir. Myriam and Pierre Braunberger, 1951), draws upon Vedrès's own writings and André Bazin's critical notes on the films. The last section addresses the meaning of the neologism neomontage, coined by Bazin in his review of Bullfight to describe Myriam's “diabolical” editing abilities.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
VG Bijoy Philip

In this paper, I use two films—Les Statues MeurrentAussi (Statues also Die, 1953) directed by Resnais and Marker and Sans Soleil (Sunless, 1983) as representatives of Left Bank cinema to show how they construct experiences of time and memory using various modernist strategies. Key to this is the use of a mental journey genre in modernist cinema and the construction of a facial dispositif which leads to a perceptual experiencing of inner states. Les Statues MeurrentAussi is a key film in the history of French cinema as it highlights Alain Resnais’ and Chris Marker’s early commitment towards a politically avant-garde filmmaking style. The film was banned for many decades because it was highly critical of France’s colonial interests. The film is also a proof to the less emphasised collaboration between two pioneering directors and especially in their use of the essay film genre. Sans Soleil on the other hand is considered as a philosophical masterpiece because of its meditations on time and memory. In taking these two films, I hope not only to demonstrate cinema’s capability to generate affective spatio-temporal states but also to highlight a piece of film history which is often misappropriated under the tag of the French New Wave.


2020 ◽  
pp. 156-201
Author(s):  
Steven Rybin

Charlie Chaplin was a major figure in postwar film criticism, particularly in France, where critical luminaries such as André Bazin, Éric Rohmer, François Truffaut, and Jacques Rivette all wrote on his work. Early in her career, Geraldine Chaplin inherited her father’s Parisian legacy, in both discourse on her public life in France (where she lived and worked early in her career) and also across a number of French films in which she played a central role. This chapter examines Geraldine’s work in France for filmmakers such as Jacques Rivette, Alain Resnais, and Michel Deville in the context of French film culture’s fascination with her father, showing how Geraldine herself intervened in and redirected this critical legacy through her own performances.


Author(s):  
Steven Jacobs ◽  
Sofie Verdoodt

Chris Marker is a pseudonym of Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve (b. 1921, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France–d. 2012, Paris, France), a French director, screenwriter, photographer, editor, writer, and multimedia artist. A major figure in the history of both experimental and documentary film, Marker turned out to be a mythic artist, who is always elusive about his past—even his place of birth is highly disputed (Ulan Bator, Mongolia, and Belleville, Paris compete with Neuilly-sur-Seine). In addition, Marker was known to refuse interviews and not allow photographs to be taken of him (though these claims are not entirely accurate). After studying philosophy prior to World War II, an involvement in the French Resistance during the German occupation, and having joined the United States Air Force as a paratrooper, Marker emerged as an intellectual, journalist, writer, and photographer in Paris in the 1940s. Already he showed a particular interest in filmmaking and he eventually made his debut as a filmmaker in 1952 with a documentary of the Helsinki Olympic Games. Soon after, he collaborated with Alain Resnais on Les Statues meurent aussi—both Marker and Resnais became key members (next to Agnès Varda, Jean Rouch, and Marguerite Duras) of the so-called Rive Gauche group. From the 1950s onward, Marker made seminal documentary essay films such as Dimanche à Pékin, Lettre de Sibérie, and Le Joli Mai. In 1962, he became known internationally for the short La Jetée (The Pier), which consists of still photographs. After his involvement in collective and radical filmmaking for SLON and ISKRA in the period 1967–1974, Marker made Sans Soleil, his best-known and most widely seen essay film that combines documentary and fiction. Already interested in the interactions between various media from the beginning of his career, Marker also developed into a leading video and multimedia artist beginning in the 1980s.


2015 ◽  
pp. 151-158
Author(s):  
A. Zaostrovtsev

The review considers the first attempt in the history of Russian economic thought to give a detailed analysis of informal institutions (IF). It recognizes that in general it was successful: the reader gets acquainted with the original classification of institutions (including informal ones) and their genesis. According to the reviewer the best achievement of the author is his interdisciplinary approach to the study of problems and, moreover, his bias on the achievements of social psychology because the model of human behavior in the economic mainstream is rather primitive. The book makes evident that namely this model limits the ability of economists to analyze IF. The reviewer also shares the author’s position that in the analysis of the IF genesis the economists should highlight the uncertainty and reject economic determinism. Further discussion of IF is hardly possible without referring to this book.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Robion-Brunner ◽  
Anne Haour ◽  
Marie-Pierre Coustures ◽  
Louis Champion ◽  
Didier Béziat

In the context of the “Crossroads of Empires” project led by Anne Haour, one strand of enquiry aims to understand the history of blacksmith groups and the development of iron production in Dendi country, in the northern Republic of Benin. Numerous remains of iron production have been discovered, showing a great variability in furnace design and waste assemblages. At least three smelting traditions can be distinguished. In this paper, we present the smelting site of Kompa Moussékoubou (10th/11th c. AD) which has been investigated by archaeological and archaeometric methods. Beyond the archaeometallurgical results, the excavation of a 1 x 2 m trench on a settlement mound nearby and survey work, which place the site within its wider context, are also discussed. In particular, we offer a detailed analysis of the ceramics recovered during test pitting and within one of the furnaces itself. This paper thus offers a rare opportunity to combine archaeometallurgical and ceramics data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-176
Author(s):  
Arianna D’Ottone Rambach
Keyword(s):  

Abstract This article (re-)considers a unique Qurʾān manuscript (MS London, SOAS, 12217) in ciphered characters (Ar. al-taʿmiya), reminiscent of the ring letters of the Graeco-Egyptian tradition (Brillenbuchstaben). The case of this Qurʾān manuscript offers an opportunity to decode (Ar. istikhrāj al-muʿammà) a cryptographed text, to date and localize a very special Quranic codex, and to investigate the history of the collections it passed through, as well as the religious and cultural context of its production. Lastly, it examines the relations between Islam and magic—with which cryptography is often associated.


1998 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-283
Author(s):  
Martin E. Marty

This article is based upon an address to the Conference on Christianity and Literature at the Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association in Toronto on 29 December 1997. The invitation asked me to comment on the public/private distinction that I make as Director of the Public Religion Project and to accent the “cultural context,” which fits my History of Culture faculty assignment and three decades of writing Context, a newsletter relating religion to culture. I was to inform it theologically, which a divinity professor is supposed to be able to do, and to show some curiosity about the literary theme, as my decades-long stint as literary editor at The Christian Century should poise me to do. Under it all my limiting job description matches a badge provided me at a conference in Tübingen, where the hosts handed out identifications marked “Theologian of History,” “Theological Historian,” and “Historical Theologian.” Mine read simply, “Historical Historian.”—MEM


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-135
Author(s):  
K. S. Guzev

Introduction. The objective necessity of the appearance of this code of laws for the pharmaceu-tical industry is shown. The proofs of the readiness of all branches of pharmacy to develop the text of the Pharmacopoeia, taking into account modern international requirements for scientific and practical activities in the development, manufacture and production of medicines, are presented.Text. The work presents the history of the creation of the VII edition of the State Pharmacopoeia of the USSR. The sequence of steps for the formation of the Pharmacopoeia Commission, the stages of its activities for the preparation of the updated text of the Pharmacopoeia is described, a detailed analysis of the prepared text is given in comparison with the current Pharmacopoeia of the VI edition (1910). Various points of view of experts on the content of the main text are cited, which served as the basis for the new document. The role of domestic scien-tists-pharmacists in the development and publication of the VII edition of the State Pharmacopoeia of the USSR is evaluated.Conclusion. The role of the Pharmacopoeia Commission in the timely development of the text of the new edition of the State Pharmacopoeia is emphasized. The fact of its wide discussion among experts and the novelty of the approach, which gave a powerful impetus to the development of the entire industry, are noted.


Popular Music ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW BANNISTER

Indie alternative rock in the 1980s is often presented as authentically autonomous, produced in local scenes, uncaptured by ideology, free of commercial pressures, but also of high culture elitism. In claiming that the music is avant-garde, postmodern and subversive, such accounts simplify indie's historical, social and cultural context. Indie did not simply arise organically out of developing postpunk music networks, but was shaped by media, and was not just collective, but also stratified, hierarchical and traditional. Canon (articulated through practices of archivalism and connoisseurship) is a key means of stratification within indie scenes, produced by and serving particular social and cultural needs for dominant social groups (journalists, scenemakers, tastemakers, etc.). These groups and individuals were mainly masculine, and thus gender in indie scenes is an important means for deconstructing the discourse of indie independence. I suggest re-envisioning indie as a history of record collectors, emphasising the importance of rock ‘tradition’, of male rock ‘intellectuals’, second-hand record shops, and of an alternative canon as a form of pedagogy. I also consider such activities as models of rational organisation and points of symbolic identification.


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