The One-shot Sequence and the Rhetoric of the Gaze in Contemporary Italian Cinema and the Films of Paolo Sorrentino

Film Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-99
Author(s):  
Vito Zagarrio
Keyword(s):  
Film History ◽  
Italian Cinema ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
Italian Film ◽  
The One

The one-shot sequence – the articulation of an entire scene through a single, unbroken long take – is one of the cinema’s most important rhetorical devices and has therefore been much used and widely theorised over the years. This article provides a brief overview of these theories and of the multiple ways in which the one-shot sequence has been used both in world cinema (in general) and Italian cinema (in particular) in order to contextualise its use by one of Italian cinema’s best-known and most significant practitioners, Paolo Sorrentino. Through close analyses of one-shot sequences in Sorrentino’s films L’uomo in più/One Man Up, Le conseguenze dell’amore/The Consequences of Love, This Is the Place and Il divo – La vita spettacoloare di Giulio Andreotti – the article argues that Sorrentino’s predilection for the device is best explained by the wide variety of functions that it serves (as a mark of directorial bravura and auteur status; as a self-reflexive device and meditation on the cinematic gaze; as a political tool; and as a means of generating emotion). While rooted in history, Sorrentino’s use of the one-shot sequence thus transcends its position within Italian film history and discourse.

Avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma: opera, melodrama and the Resistance

Modern Italy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine O'Rawe
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Film History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Vocal Performance ◽  
Italian Cinema ◽  
World War ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
Italian Film ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

Italian neorealism is conventionally read as the authoritative cinematic chronicle of Italy's experience of the Second World War and the Resistance, through canonical films such as Rossellini'sRoma città aperta(Rome, Open City, 1945). It is important, however, to restore a full picture of the array of genres which narrated and refracted the Resistance experience in the post-war period. To this end, this article looks at a key genre that has been overlooked by scholarship, the opera film ormelodramma. In examiningAvanti a lui tremava tutta Roma(Before Him All Rome Trembled, Gallone, 1946), the article considers Mary Wood's contention (inItalian cinema. Oxford: Berg, 2005, 109) that in this period ‘realist cinematic conventions were insufficient for the maximum perception of the historical context’, and that the ‘affective charge’ of melodrama was essential for restoring this complexity. It assesses the appeal to the emotions produced by the film, and the ways in which this is constructed through the bodily and vocal performance of the operadivo, and questions the critical division between emotion (always viewed as excessive) and authenticity (seen in neorealism, the mode of seriousness) which has seen the opera film relegated to the margins of post-war Italian film history.

Vampires in Italian Cinema, 1956-1975

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Guarneri
Keyword(s):  
Film History ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Italian Cinema ◽  
Film Censorship ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Show Business ◽  
International Distribution ◽  
Italian Film ◽  
Post War

The book takes as its subject a corpus of thirty-three vampire movies made, distributed and exhibited during the peak years of film production in Italy, and certified to be of Italian nationality by state institutions such as the Italian Show Business Bureau and the Italian Film Censorship Office. Positioning itself at the intersection of Italian film history, horror studies and cultural studies, the book asks: why, and how, is the protean, transnational and transmedial figure of the vampire appropriated by Italian cinema practitioners between 1956 and 1975? Or, more concisely, what do the vampires of post-war Italian cinema mean? The aim is to show that – in spite of Italian vampire cinema’s imported and derivative nature, and its great reliance on profits coming from distribution on the international market – Italian cinematic vampires reflect their national zeitgeist from the economic miracle of the late 1950s to the mid-1970s austerity, twenty years of large political and socio-economic change in which gender politics were also in relative flux. The result of an original research into film production data, film censorship files, screenplays, trade papers, film magazines and vampire-themed paraliterature, the book leaves the well-trod track of award-winning art films to shed light on some of the so-called ‘lower forms’ of cinematic culture, looking for the economic backbone and cultural instrumentality of post-war Italian cinema in the run-of-the-mill genre movies rushed through a cheap production and into domestic and international distribution to parasitically (vampirically?) exploit a given commercially successful film.

scholarly journals Gazing at the partner in musical trios: a mobile eye-tracking study

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Vandemoortele ◽  
Kurt Feyaerts ◽  
Mark Reybrouck ◽  
Geert De Bièvre ◽  
Geert Brône ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Nonverbal Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contrasting Cases ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The One ◽  
Mobile Eye Tracking ◽  
Initial Exploration

Few investigations into the nonverbal communication in ensemble playing have focused on gaze behaviour up to now. In this study, the gaze behaviour of musicians playing in trios was recorded using the recently developed technique of mobile eye-tracking. Four trios (clarinet, violin, piano) were recorded while rehearsing and while playing several runs through the same musical fragment. The current article reports on an initial exploration of the data in which we describe how often gazing at the partner occurred. On the one hand, we aim to identify possible contrasting cases. On the other, we look for tendencies across the run-throughs. We discuss the quantified gaze behaviour in relation to the existing literature and the current research design.

scholarly journals ¿Es el cine japonés un cine nacional?

STUDIUM ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 245-272
Author(s):  
Marcos Centeno Martín
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Film History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
National Cinema ◽  
The West ◽  
Japanese Cinema ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The One ◽  
Film Language

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

Introduction: Refocus on Tarkovsky

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Sergey Toymentsev
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Film History ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Film Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Interdisciplinary Dialogue ◽  
Religious Cult ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Up

This introduction outlines the main tendencies in Tarkovsky studies, the most salient of which are English-language auteur studies, methodologically based in film history and formalist analysis, and Russian-language hagiographic and quasi-theological monographs fostering the religious cult of the director. This chapter argues that most Tarkovsky scholars trained in Slavic studies are somewhat reluctant to enter into interdisciplinary dialogue with other film theories and philosophical approaches by relying more on the traditional (empirically oriented) methods of film analysis developed by film history and film hermeneutics. This anthology, the chapter argues, attempts to overcome the methodological narrowness of Anglophone auteur studies on Tarkovsky on the one hand and Russophone hagiographic zeal on the other by opening up the field to different theoretical approaches.

On the Pinna Illusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baingio Pinna
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Illusion ◽  
Illusory Motion ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Rotation Effect ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Motion Signal ◽  
First Case ◽  
Counter Rotation ◽  
The One

The Pinna illusion is the first case of visual illusion showing a rotating motion phenomenon. Squares, arranged in two concentric rings, show a strong counter-rotation effect. The inner ring of the squares appears to rotate counterclockwise and the outer ring clockwise when the observer’s head is slowly moved toward the figure while the gaze is kept fixed in the center of the stimulus pattern. The direction of rotation is reversed when the observer’s head moves away from the stimulus. The speed of the illusory rotation is proportional to the one of the motion imparted by the observer. While the way each individual check receives a local illusory motion signal can be explained by the response of direction-selective neurons at the earliest cortical stage of visual processing, the whole illusory rotational motion can be thought to be sensed by the higher cortical area, which collates all the signals provided by the local motion checks.

Women and the Shift from Theatre to Cinema in Spain: The Case of Helena Cortesina (1903–84)

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-120
Author(s):  
Elena Cordero-Hoyo ◽  
Begoña Soto-Vázquez
Keyword(s):  
Film History ◽  
Silent Film ◽  
The Other ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Spanish Film ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Feminist Film ◽  
Marginal Status ◽  
The One

The purpose of this article is to identify the main causes behind women achieving, on the one hand, important positions as theatre managers in Spain but, on the other, being relegated a marginal status in the shift to cinema. We use the career of the artist Helena Cortesina to illustrate the only known example of a woman becoming a silent cinema entrepreneur in Spain. An actress, producer, and director of Flor de España o la leyenda de un torero ( Spanish flower or the bullfighter's story, 1921) Cortesina transitioned from the variety dances stage to silent film and became a theatrical manager. Her professional career exemplifies the inter-artistic relations between cinema and the scenic arts at the beginning of the twentieth century and the professional bridge between them. This article contributes to feminist film historiography. Following Monica Dall’Asta, it presents a ‘history that invites us to work using creative hypotheses and even imagination’. The article revisits Spanish Film History, reinterpreting the hegemonic production of knowledge that has been historically told from a (supposedly) un-gendered perspective. Our article seeks to disrupt this patriarchal narrative of firsts (including geniuses, technical discoveries, and masterpieces) that relegate women's experiences to the margins of History.

scholarly journals Waking Life: The Destiny of Cinema’s Dreamscape; or the Question of Old and New Mediations

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
Markos Hadjioannou
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Film History ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Medium Specificity ◽  
Technological Base ◽  
Current Transition ◽  
The One ◽  
Fixed Boundaries

In light of the current transition from celluloid to digital cinema, this paper will explore the relation between old and new technologies as a means for understanding medium specificity as an activity of mediation. While the ongoing debate in screen studies aims at clarifying the extent of digital technology’s effects, it seems that the new technology is either being interpreted as inducing a rupture in film history clearly distinct from celluloid, or as directly repeating strategies, goals, forms, and impulses specific to an indexical and analogical visual culture. Indeed, the desire to acknowledge points of divergence or close interaction between technological forms is unquestionably useful; but my own approach to the technological change takes into account both the differences and similarities of forms as a means of exploring medium specificity. This will be a matter of dealing with the new as not new or old, but new and old – as simultaneously distinct and interactively interrelated, so that each medium acquires a space of its own without fixed boundaries. Rather than merge the one form into the other, the ontological explication of a medium may take account of its specific technological base while simultaneously paying attention to previous technologies that reside in it intact yet affected by the contextual possibilities of the new. Newness, thus understood, becomes a complex concurrency of differences and similarities that shift the borders of distinct forms in unexpected and continually renewable ways. With this in mind, I will discuss an example of digital mediation through Richard Linklater’s Waking Life (2001), with a focus on the digital’s power for a creative interpretation of reality’s experience.

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