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2022 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Stephanie Pridgeon

Abstract This article focuses on the points of contact between Jewishness, gender, and revolutionary politics in Latin American films set in the 1960s and 1970s. The piece introduces the term “mujeres errantes” to explore how Latin American Jewish women filmmakers have crafted depictions of Jewish women who err from the norms with which they are expected to conform as they come into contact with pan-Latin American revolutionary political move­ments of the 1960s and 1970s. The study analyzes the specific representations of women- and Jewish-identified fictional protagonists in the films El amigo alemán and Novia que te vea. Through a discussion of how each film engages with the notion of “Mujeres errantes,” this article considers the place of revolutionary politics in film as cultural representations of Jewish Latin American women.


Author(s):  
Martina Martausová

A number of recent productions would appear to suggest that American cinema in the 21st century has abandoned the traditional, culturally defined tropes of the American wilderness in favor of its portrayal as an alternative environment for the contemporary American man. This study focuses on the role of the forest as a specific form of the wilderness in two contemporary American films, Captain Fantastic (2016) and Leave No Trace (2018), analyzing how this background motivates and shapes the authentic representation of the main male protagonist. This form of authenticity, as the study suggests, reflects a more extensive cultural call for the authenticity of American masculinity in American cinema in the 21st century. The crucial aspect in relation to the contemporary representation of the American man in these two films is the father/child relationship that emphasizes the role of the setting in the process of regenerating man’s position in society, thereby reflecting the postfeminist characterization of the American man.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-47
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Fear ◽  
Cristina Stanca-Mustea

Led by German-born Carl Laemmle, Universal Pictures devoted itself to winning over the German market in the interwar period. Yet the German market proved difficult to crack, owing to political risk and cultural distance. We argue that cultural differences kept most American films from becoming more successful, even those that were shown in German theaters and prior to the advent of sound film. Universal Pictures resorted to a film strategy of localization using German actors and directors, which proved a winning formula just as the Nazis came to power.


Author(s):  
Katharina Loew

In the mid-1920s, the innovative imagery and emotional force of German films startled American critics and filmmakers. Well-known directors like F. W. Murnau and Paul Leni were invited to Hollywood, and their American films showcased a range of unconventional camera effects, in particular moving camera feats and extreme camera angles. What galvanized American commentators about these methods was the realization that cinematic devices could be used to visualize affective content. German filmmakers proffered a novel model of cinematic immersion, which augmented the audience’s absorption in the story world with figurative levels of meaning. Prompted by objectives originating in techno-romantic thought, Hollywood began to pay increased attention to the expressive potential of technical tools, with lasting effects on American filmmaking.


Author(s):  
Paul Haacke

This chapter discusses Alfred Hitchcock’s American films after he moved from England to Hollywood, and especially the ways in which they displaced transatlantic fears and anxieties of wartime onto cinematic and urban spaces as well as what Chris Marker called the “vertigo of time.” After considering the history of embodied suspense and terror from Thomas Hardy’s invention of the “cliffhanger” to Harold Lloyd’s comic dangling in Safety Last!, it focuses above all on Hitchcock’s Vertigo while also examining other key films from Rebecca to The Birds. In turn, it considers relations between history and geography, depth psychology and the built environment, and conceptions of memory, temporality, and contingency from Henri Bergson and Marcel Proust to Gilles Deleuze.


Author(s):  
Ángela Sáenz-Herrero ◽  
Juan Pedro Rica-Peromingo

In this text, we propose an overview of the evolution of the Spanish language through the dubbed versions of foreign films in Spain along the twentieth century.We cover from the early stages of cinema and silent movies and the use of intertitles –as iliteracy was high in large cities and the rate was even higher among women and in rural areas (Gubern, 1993)– so these title cards were something problematic to deal with, for this reason the film lecturer (Sánchez Salas, 2011), the commentator (Fuentes Luque, 2019) or the “explicador” film explainer proved key as a link between the audience and the movies (Fuentes Luque, 2019). After the talkies appeared, different varieties of Spanish could be heard in multilingual movies. Franco’s regime influenced the result of many films exhibited in Spanish movie theatres not only in the images, but also in the political ideologies, the religious aspects, the indecorous language, and sexual or improper activities, portrayed in Hollywood movies (Díaz Cintas, 2019). A “neutral” Spanish was created during the sixties to achieve a greater Hispanic audience. This practice was used on TV series, cartoons, and in Walt Disney’s movies. During the 70s, and with the boom of the 80s’ blockbusters, a greater number of American films were translated and consumed into Spanish. The immense impact of these movies influenced Spanish language and the traditional audiovisual translation mode –dubbing– (Rica Peromingo 2019), adapting and domesticating cultural references, filtering calques and false friends (Rica Peromingo, 2016).


Author(s):  
Ana Claudia da Cruz Melo ◽  
Carmen Lucia Souza da Silva ◽  
Felipe Giuseppe de Albuquerque Gracio

In this article, we present the results of the research that focused on the history of the Odeon amusement room, built in Belém do Pará, Brazil, at the beginning of the 20th century. In the light of reception studies, the research aimed to raise elements that allowed inferences about the profile of the public and the nature of the films exhibited during the 1910s, in the context of an Amazon city, which was experiencing economic and migratory impacts of the First Cycle of Rubber Exploitation (1850 to 1920). For the operationalization of the methodology of the studies, we visited the memories of the pioneer of Spanish cinema, Ramón de Baños Martínez, about his period in the capital of Pará, hired as a projectionist, camera operator and photographer. We also sought to gather information about Odeon's programming, in the pages of the newspaper O Estado do Pará, a periodical founded in 1911. Theoretical-methodological movement guided by Bernardet and Mascarello, regarding the need for research on the History of Brazilian Cinema to go beyond the field of film production. The investigation revealed, among other aspects, that even given the predominance of showing imported, European and North American films, the public was always eager for national and, above all, local productions, applauded after facing long lines and in late-night sessions. It also reveals the colossal audiences of pornographic films, exclusively for male audiences, sold as a miraculous elixir for the problems of sexuality.


2021 ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Kleshchenko

The article presents the results of a study of Cuba's cinema images in Soviet and American cold war cinema. The study aimed to compare the ways of representing Cuba in the Soviet and American cinema of this period. Materials for the study were Soviet and American films made in the period 1945-1991. It is shown that in the American cinema of the cold war, Cuba can be positioned as an enemy, as an arena of confrontation in the struggle of two superpowers, or as a victim of this struggle. In Soviet cinema, accordingly, Cuba is positioned as a fraternal country, or as a victim of American imperialism. There is a similarity in the representation of Cuba in Soviet and American cinema: images of Cuba are involved in constructing the image of the enemy to strengthen the threat emanating from it and perform a mobilization function. Besides, the image of Cuba in distress serves to legitimize the fight against the invaders, Soviet or American. The feminization of Cuba is used as an ideological device for constructing the image of the enemy. At the same time, the images of Cuba in American cinema are more diverse, due to the long history of relations between the two countries based on geographical proximity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (84) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Mikkel Jensen

This article presents readings of three American films that engage with American histories of deindustrialization: Gung Ho, Roger & Me and 8 Mile. Since the publication of Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison’s The Deindustrialization of America in 1982, much research has explored important economic and social-historical aspects concerning the waning number of industrial jobs in the U.S. and the impact of factory closings on many cities in the so-called Rust Belt. This paper explores a cultural side of that story, especially taking its cue from Sherry Lee Linkon’s The Half-Life of Deindustrialization (2018). The paper explores how Gung Ho’s comedic depiction of deindustrialization all but elides important class tensions, how Roger & Me, among other things, intervenes in discussions regarding priorities in leftist discourse in the U.S. and how 8 Mile explores a tension between industrial and creative work in the 1990s in Detroit. It closes by pointing to the relevance of further research into the cultural aspects of deindustrialization.


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