Sisyphean Unproductivity in Narrative Film

This article examines the relationship between labour, productivity and film. The purpose of this intervention is to suggest that narrative film can show us the unproductive tendencies that humans carry within them but that cannot always make themselves known. These leisurely desires erupt as musicality, ecstasy, and the undoing of the self when we carry out the repetitive gestures of work. This article compares Camus's freedom and Georges Bataille's sovereignty as they share an interest in anti-futurity and anti-productivity and it uses these concepts to propose worker's ecstatic escapes from labour as Sisyphean unproductivity. Using this theoretical framework, I carry out a comparative and formal analysis of Sisyphus (Marcell Jankovics, 1974), Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936), The Apartment (Billy Wilder,1960) , Saut ma ville (Chantal Akerman, 1971) and Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000). While the field of film studies has highlighted the role of cinema as a tool for propagating ideologies of productivity, the scenes examined suggest that film also has a history of subverting ideologies of productivity through repetitive, Sisyphean unproductivity. By updating the plight of the Greek hero to 20th and 21st century capitalism, these directors uncover a fundamental, yet impossible, human desire for non-productive activities This re-centering of the unproductive could be useful in future academic re-categorizations of the working class through its desires to not work, that is, it provides preliminary materials for understanding class identities through their deformation, and not just their formation.

Cognitive Transition and Cutting Techniques for Narrative Film Rhetoric Simulation

This chapter surveys, discusses, and explores the entire concept of visual narrative structure, cognition, and generation from continuity-based to discontinuity-based perspectives. The model of visual narrative structure, including presentation and meaning, is expanded to explain the cognitive transition based on the rhetorical transition techniques and the rhetorical cutting techniques. The classification of the visual narrative structure, including rhetorical transition techniques and rhetorical cutting techniques, is useful for narrative simulation for discussing and exploring the entire visual narrative concept and generation. The rhetorical cutting techniques and the rhetorical transition techniques can reveal various cognitive effects such as reality effects and nostalgia effects, including difficulty. The determinacy-based narrative, the indeterminacy, the diversity, and the ambiguity on narrative can bridge the gaps between cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and narratology.

Effectiveness of film as a health communication tool to improve perceptions and attitudes in multiple sclerosis

Background Health communication tools like film are capable of reducing health disparities and could be effective in addressing negative illness perceptions of MS in Hispanics/Latinx. Objective To test the feasibility of using a culturally appropriate short narrative film to examine illness perceptions overtime and attitudes in Hispanics/Latinx affected with MS. Methods Participants were assigned to view a short narrative film (n = 130) or not (n = 106). The Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ) was used to examine illness perceptions at baseline, one and three months. Focus groups were conducted at 6 months. Measures of sociocultural integration were obtained. Individual group BIPQ domains were evaluated over time using paired sample t-test. Multivariate linear regression was used to examine predictors of BIPQ change. Results A more positive perception of treatment (p < 0.0001) and understanding (p = 0.0003) were seen at 3 months for those exposed to film. Focus groups were effective in highlighting that the perceived disease prognosis, family support and awareness of MS contributes to attitudes. Exposure to film was found to be the strongest predictor (Beta:6.31, p = 0.01) of BIPQ change at three months. Conclusion Our results provide support that a short narrative film of MS in Hispanics/Latinx is a feasible intervention to change perceptions of MS to a more positive view.

ISSUES OF INDIVIDUAL CAPITALISM IN THE NARRATIVE FILM OF THANK YOU FOR SMOKING AND THE COMPANY MEN

The idea of capitalism always refers to the triumph of the U.S. giant industry. In economic field, American and British capitalism is called as individual capitalism – the contrary of communal capitalism a la Japan and Germany. This paper is intended to examine the identity of economic character of individual capitalism in two Hollywood movies Thank You for Smoking (2006) and The Company Men (2010). Exploring the theory of individual and communal capitalism stated by Lester Thurow, it can be found that through mechanistic relationship, hard individual competition and unending punishment, those all erase emotional bound between individual and corporation. In short it becomes one of the reasons why American industry perishes its superiority slowly.

Evil Medieval

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a noticeable shift occurred in the plots and soundtracks of narrative film in the United States. The genre of horror came to occupy a leading position among new releases (Rosemary’s Baby, 1968; The Devils, 1971; The Exorcist, 1973; The Omen, 1976), accompanied by music that would invert the signification of the church’s most sacred spiritual heritage: Latin became the language of the devil and chant his music. This chapter explores the historical and cultural bases for this turn to the dark side, to an evil medieval, by examining such concurrent events as Vatican II, the publication of Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible, the Charles Manson murders, and the Vietnam War.

THE CRISIS OF NATIONALISM IN INDONESIA-MALAYSIA BODER: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATIVE FILM OF 'TANAH SURGA...KATANYA’

This study aimed to identify the nationalism values in “Tanah Surga...Katanya” film. It is a qualitative descriptive study based on audiovisual of film. The results indicate that, in the border, the value of Indonesian nationalism is faded, such as lack of recognition of the Indonesia Rupiah, low appreciation on the national anthem, and looking down on the potential of the region. That condition is due to the government’s lack of attention to education, health, transportation, communication, and economic facilities. But, on the other hand, the spirit of nationalism and nationality emerged, as well as sacrifice to defend the country.