Hierarchical textual compositions and (post-)colonial framing in The View from Up Here

Anna Batori

doi:10.1386/sfs_00101_1

ISSN: 2042-7824
E-ISSN: 2042-7832

Hierarchical textual compositions and (post-)colonial framing in The View from Up Here
By Anna Batori¹
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¹ ISNI: 0000000104606294 University of Film and Theatre
Source: Short Film Studies, Volume 13, Issue 2, Sep 2023, p. 145 - 150
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/sfs_00101_1
Language: English
- Received: 30 Apr 2023
- Accepted: 29 May 2023
- Published online: 22 Dec 2023

Abstract

The article analyses the hierarchical visual compositions and framing of Marco Calvani’s The View from Up Here and argues that its carefully structured compositions create a metaphorical imbalance in power between the two main characters, an American housewife and a Syrian refugee. The repeated use of low-angle camera positions and the claustrophobic framings adds a connotative layer to the film that emphasizes the subaltern refugee’s inferior status in the view of the American.

Funding

This study was supported by the:

Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH)

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2023-12-22

2026-04-22

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References

Batori, Anna (2018), Space in Romanian and Hungarian Cinema, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[Google Scholar]
Bhabha, Homi K. (1996), ‘Unsatisfied: Notes on vernacular cosmopolitanism’, in L. Garcia-Moreno and P. C. Pfeiffer (eds), Text and Nation: Cross-Disciplinary Essays on Cultural and National Identities, Columbia, SC: Camden House, pp. 191–207.
[Google Scholar]
Felando, Cynthia (2023), ‘Interview with Marco Calvani about The View from Up Here (2017)’, Short Film Studies, 13:2, pp. 139–43.
[Google Scholar]
Said, Edward W. (1978), Orientalism, New York: Random House.
[Google Scholar]
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (1998), ‘Can the subaltern speak?’, in C. Nelson and L. Grossberg (eds), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 271–313.
[Google Scholar]

/content/journals/10.1386/sfs_00101_1

Hierarchical textual compositions and (post-)colonial framing in The View from Up Here

Short Film Studies 13, 145 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1386/sfs_00101_1

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Article Type: Article

Keyword(s): Orient-Occident dynamic; postcolonialism; spatial structuring; subaltern; textual metaphor; vertical enclosure

Hierarchical textual compositions and (post-)colonial framing in The View from Up Here

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