Revisiting Videogame Logic: Impossible Storyworlds in the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster

This paper demonstrates how two logics (narrative and videogame) function in a select number of contemporary blockbuster films. The paper is divided into three sections: The first outlines narrative and videogame logics; the second presents examples from Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) and Source Code (Duncan Jones, 2011) to demonstrate how videogame logic structures the events in each film; and the third discusses how these logics create specific storyworlds (imaginary worlds distinct from the actual world) that are unnatural and/or impossible.

Adaptação sob perspectiva: memento mori e as construções narrativas no conto e no longa-metragem

O presente artigo discorre acerca do conto Memento Mori, de Jonathan Nolan, e sua posterior adaptação cinematográfica, dirigida por Christopher Nolan, no ano de 2000. O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar as particularidades inerentes a cada suporte, investigando as estratégias de construção de enredo e os efeitos de sentido que geram na experiência estética a partir da leitura literária e sua posterior tradução para a linguagem fílmica, refletindo sobre as idiossincrasias de cada construção narrativa e no difícil processo de adaptação entre linguagens. Para isso, utiliza-se de uma análise comparativa fundamentada sob a Teorias do Efeito Estético e a Antropologia Literária, que discorrem sobre o fenômeno da experiência estética, individual e imanente; e o processo de atribuição de sentidos.

Mózg jako nowy wszechświat – wokół Incepcji Christophera Nolana

The article shows the growing interest of science fiction cinema in the human brain and related concepts, such as mind or consciousness. Nowadays, when distant space travel seems unreachable, artists find the exploration potential of the brain very promising. Thus, the main thesis of this analysis says that the brain has become for science fiction cinema the new universe. An excellent example of this paradigm shift is Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2010). In the movie, the mind is depicted as a physical and accessible place, where we can find a lot of mysteries to solve. The characters travel to the deepest parts of subconsciousness because the processes inside the brain are the key to understanding and changing the real world. The article also shows how the director uses the achievements of science fiction cinema and, at the same time, that he postulates a new way of considering the issues relevant to modern neuroscience.

Akord à rebours. O muzyce i „duchowej inteligencji” w filmie Interstellar Christophera Nolana

The essay aims to reveal the role of music in the movie Interstellar by Christopher Nolan and its significance in creating an artistic message that relates to the love myths characteristic of European culture and art. The orientation point is the Tristanic myth and the project of musical dramaturgy by Richard Wagner, the founder of the concept of music being the significant layer in a Gesamtkunstwerk, a synthesis of the arts, which strongly inspires i.a. cinema. The article ponders possible messages to be decoded from the music in Nolan’s movie: as a “form of a lover’s discourse” (R. Barthes), “significant form” (Suzanne K. Langer), “symbolic form” (E. Cassirer), responsible for shaping the ambience that constitutes an inherent structural part of the movie in the metaphysical cinema genre. The musical solutions applied by Hans Zimmer in the soundtrack to Nolan’s movie do more than merely imply inspiration from Wagner. They also allow for recognition of the polyphonic way of constructing formal and thematic relations between musical themes and the verbal-visual layer of the movie. This refined artistic project aims at a subtly directed confrontation with the nihilistic picture of love that is representative of melancholic-pessimistic images of the condition of human relationships in the modern culture. The analysed main musical theme, called the “à rebours chord” (i.e. anti-Tristan chord), turns out to be an overt musical manifestation of such a counterpunch and becomes a starting point to telling a story that refers to the concept of love which assumes taking action and fighting for the good of your loved ones, as well as the concept of Caritas and unconditional love. The way that the music and sound of the movie are orchestrated is therefore tightly coupled with its semantic and symbolic message, which allows for perceiving the music as a specific “libration point” of the movie structure. Its function might also be interpreted as a semantic attribute of “a spiritual intelligence”, referring to that which is binding and crucial for the axiological and metaphysical message of the movie.

Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Maritime Technology and Research in 2020

The editorial team greatly appreciates the reviewers who have dedicated their considerable time and expertise to the journal’s rigorous editorial process in 2020, regardless of whether the submissions were finally published or not. In 2020, a total of 45 articles were submitted to the journal, with a median time to first decision of 50 days, and 71 days from submission to publication. The editorial team would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for their generous contribution in 2020: Agnieszka Lazarowska, Poland Akihiko Matsuda, Japan Aldo Chircop, Canada Anand Kumar, Malaysia Anastasia Christodoulou, Sweden Anthony Paul Sison Guerrero, United States Anthony Yaw Karikari, Ghana Arunachalam Ponshanmugakumar, India Asen Asenov, Bulgaria Birgit Pauksztat, Sweden Boris Svilicic, Croatia Carlos Efrén Mora Luis, Spain Chalermpong Senarak, Thailand Chandrashekher Umanath Rivonker, India Che Abd Rahim Mohamed, Malaysia Christiaan Adika Adenya, Kenya Christopher Nolan, United States Dimitrios Dalaklis, Sweden Dong-Taur Su, Taiwan Ergun Demirel, Turkey Fatima Zohra Bouthir, Morocco Florin Rusca, Romania Floris Goerlandt, Canada Fu Ming Tzu, Taiwan Geng-Ruei Chang, Taiwan George H. Kaplan, United States Giulio Dubbioso, Italy Hao Long, China Hong Oanh Owen Nguyen, Australia Jacopo Aguzzi, Spain Jagan Jeevan, Malaysia Jerónimo Esteve-Perez, Spain Jiangang Jin, China Jianjun Wu, China Jianmin Li, China Jiao Jialong, China Juan Carlos Astudillo, Hong Kong Jun Ando, Japan Kantapon Tanakitkorn, Thailand Kwan Ouyang Taiwan Laura Piñeiro, Spain Li Ye, China Lidong Fan, Australia M. P. R Prasad, India Maciej Reichel, Poland Mahinda Bandara, Sri Lanka María-Araceli Losey-Leon, Spain Marta Mańkowska, Poland Maruj Limpawattana, Thailand Masayoshi Doi, Japan Mate J. Csorb, Norway Ming-Cheng Tsou, Taiwan Mohammed Russtam Suhrab Ismail, Malaysia Mohd Hazmi Bin Mohd Rusli, Malaysia Moses Kopong Tokan, Indonesia Mumini Dzoga, Kenya Neil J. Douglas, New Zealand Nucharee Nuchkoom Smith, Thailand Oghenetejiri Digun-Aweto, South Africa Olabisi Michael Olapoju, Nigeria Olaf Chresten Jensen, Denmark Om Prakash Sha, India Paul Tae-Woo Lee, China Pengfei Zhang, United Kindom Peter RANERI, Sweden Peter Ralph Galicia, Philippines Phansak Iamraksa, Thailand Phatchara Sriphrabu, Thailand Proshanto Mukherjee, China Saikat Banerjee, India Sarinya Sanitwong Na Ayutthaya, Thailand Seonho Cho, Korea Sheree-Ann Adams, Grenada Supawat Chaikasem, Thailand Surasak Phoemsapthawee, Thailand Suresh Bhardwaj, India Thee Chowwanonthapunya, Thailand Vasilios D. Tsoukalas, Greece Wirachaya Chanpuypetch, Thailand Yodchai Tiaple, Thailand Yottana Khunatorn, Thailand

Ficción, crisis y futuro: el caso de Interestelar

En este artículo se toman ideas del ecocriticismo, una corriente de teoría literaria, para examinar el largometraje Interestelar, de Christopher Nolan, como un documento cultural que usa diferentes instrumentos narrativos para exponer sistemas de valores en tensión ante situaciones ambientales extremas, como lo es la crisis climática actual. Se examina cómo las tensiones se expresan a través del uso de la tecnología, la noción del papel de la humanidad en relación con su entorno y la concepción del futuro. Se explora la perspectiva cornucopiana presente en la película, así como la romantización que sugiere de la colonización y la conquista de nuevos mundos. Al final se concluye cuáles son los elementos culturales que se resaltan en la película y que proyectan un discurso concreto sobre el futuro.

“ENTERTAINING” THEORY OF RELATIVITY IN THE LESSONS OF RFL: VIEWING THE FEATURE FILM “INTERSTELLAR”

Nowadays the number of foreign students entering various educational programs at Russian universities is actively growing. Multimedia technologies are actively used for their training along with traditional forms of work. This paper discusses the features of working with video material in physics lessons in a foreign language classroom. Such classes help to increase the motivation of students to acquire knowledge and successfully master the main course material. The authors focus their attention on a visual demonstration of the basic provisions of the general theory of relativity, for which the Oscar-winning film “Interstellar” by Christopher Nolan is chosen. The paper describes the main stages of the lesson such as preparatory, viewing and final, as well as their main aims. The authors offer different types of tasks and exercises that prepare students for watching a scientific and feature film on the topic under study, control their understanding and learning of theoretical information. The paper provides examples of the implementation of all types of speech activity while working on the selected topic. The authors demonstrate that this form of the lesson allows one to form not only communicative competence, such as the ability to answer questions and present the studied material, but also professional competence, such as the ability to solve tasks, formulate hypotheses, and scientifically argue one’s point of view. The proposed system of organizing the lesson proves the importance and efficiency of including video material in the process of studying physics. It is necessary to emphasize the practicality of the work that offers a well-planned lesson, which can be adapted to the level of a student (either a student of the pre-academic programs, bachelor’s or master’s). In addition, the presented types of tasks can form the basis for creating a similar lesson on any other topic.