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- Volume 13, Issue 1, 2022
Film Matters - Volume 13, Issue 1, 2022
Volume 13, Issue 1, 2022
- Editorial
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- Articles
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Divines and the Constructed Self
More LessThis article examines the character of Dounia from the 2016 film Divines through different facets of her identity. As a North African girl living in a Roma camp outside of a Parisian banlieue, Dounia faces a multitude of challenges if she wishes to not only survive, but ultimately escape her socio-economic position. To do so, Dounia must enter the banlieue’s male-dominated economy by masquerading in a male role. This performance of gender exposes other pieces of her identity as performed, and performance itself is exposed as her most powerful tool toward escape.
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Chicken Soup for the Postmodern Soul: Philosophizing Spike Jonze’s Her Through the Lens of Evolving Modernity
Authors: Oishika Basak and Abhiraj GoswamiSpike Jonze’s Her is a dystopian fiction that envisages a world wherein machine sentience has achieved the capacity to replace human experiences thereby leading to an ontological crisis of emotions and the inability to ground one’s thoughts in objective reality. While on the surface, the cinema displays the characteristic traits of a melancholic romantic drama with subtle futuristic elements, this article, however, explores the darker side of Jonze’s screenplay and the dominant political and philosophical ideas that come with it, thereby deciphering the nuances of what Jonze strives to put forward: a forewarning of the times that are approaching. This article also attempts at characterizing the world of Her by identifying the trajectory of late capitalism, alienation, and the realm of the simulation, all of which are critical themes that must be taken into account so as to make sense of the ethical dilemmas that technologically developed societies will have to face in the future. This research has been carried out through the analysis of articles, journals, interviews, reviews, and other secondary data sources available.
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Reflexivity, Third Space, and Representation: Radical Reimaginings of the Banlieue in Swagger (2016)
More LessThis article considers the construction and reimaging of the banlieue space in Olivier Babinet’s 2016 film, Swagger. It is informed by Homi Bhabha’s concept of Third Space, and explores the ways in which the film challenges reductive representations of the banlieue and its inhabitants, the violent rhetoric of French Universalism, and the myth of national identity. Swagger employs reflexive strategies that challenge dominant notions about the banlieue space and population that are rooted in colonialism and White supremacy. In doing so, it reveals the connections between cinematic representation, systemic violence, and spatial transformation.
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Western Modernism and the Fetishization of the Hijab: Deconstructing the Movie Hala
More Less9/11 became the cursor in converting millions of Muslims into one homogeneous society – what Edward Said describes as the “Christian picture of Islam.” This ongoing process scrutinized mainstream Muslims irrespective of their context/origins. Practicing Muslim women who adorned a headscarf, popularly known as hijab, came to be interpreted as being oppressed, irrespective of their social-economic or ethnic status since it went against the notions of western feminism, which extensively preached the idea of being liberal and free in all senses. This article attempts to discuss the obsession with the “unveiling of the veil” through the movie Hala (Baig, 2019) and explores how the degradation of Islam produces smeared representations, thereby justifying and glorifying western ideals and civilization as whole.
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Aesthetics in Claymation: An Exploration of Adam Elliot
By Taylor FloydThis article aims to explore the films of Adam Elliot to assist in defining an aesthetic of claymation filmmaking using an experimental rubric. This study identified patterns among Elliot’s filmmaking that are influenced by claymation and could be repeated in other films. The rubric can now be applied to a claymation film produced by another director to conduct a comparative analysis, identifying the patterns that define the aesthetic of claymation.
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“I’m Learning to Smoke Now”: The Evolution of Cigarettes in Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai
More LessThis article explores the symbolic connotations of cigarettes in Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Although a common theme in film noir, the act of smoking can become a dynamic component of cinematic narrative. My work argues that Elsa Bannister’s use of cigarettes in the film reinvents the object’s role within the genre, as cigarettes move from being a “thing” to embodying Elsa’s power. The article demonstrates this by examining valuable scenes through shot-by-shot analysis and thus challenging the characters’ agency in relation to Elsa.
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The Paradise Theater (1941–1951): African American Movie Palaces and the 1943 Racial Uprising in Detroit
More LessThis article reveals how the Paradise Theater culturally and socially impacted the lives of the surrounding Black population in Detroit between 1941 and 1951. Firstly, this article examines the programming of the Paradise Theater—especially its live performers/exhibitionists—and specifically highlights the significance of the Paradise Theater’s all-Black stage show policy. Secondly, this article demonstrates how factors such as the Detroit Uprising of 1943 caused the Paradise Theater to transition from a mixed-race house to a primarily Black space. Finally, this article discusses the many philanthropic efforts of the Paradise Theater, which impacted not only Black Detroit, but the entire nation.
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Nagisa Ōshima’s Essayistic Exploration of Japan’s “Korean Problem”
More LessJapanese New Wave filmmaker Nagisa Ōshima repeatedly tackled Japan’s cultural and systemic discrimination toward Koreans in his films. The “Korean problem” is a complex issue that stems from a storied history between the two countries. However, Ōshima was undaunted at the task of confronting his Japanese audience with challenges to their potential biases. Ōshima incorporated essay film techniques in his films Forgotten Soldiers (1963), Diary of Yunbogi (1965), Death by Hanging (1968), and Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968) to disrupt the illusion of film and encourage self-reflection among the audience.
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Can Queer Representations in Comedy Be Progressive in the Twenty-First Century?
More LessOliva Wilde’s 2019 film garnered attention through the subversive conversation it placed on-screen effortlessly through the art of comedy. However, scholars Kathleen Battles and Wendy Hilton-Morrow write, “homosexuality can only be represented through heterosexist categories and language, while at the same time it is marked as a deviation from the norm,” this rocky navigation of queerness in heteronormative territories produces the heavy question of if comedy is progressive enough to contribute to the movement of the discourse on queerness. This article answers that question by performing a deep focus on the cinematography, character actions, behaviors, relationships as well as examining their environments that offer the pleasures of comedic and educational glimpses of queer theory on-screen.
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Ethical Criticism and There Will Be Blood: Autonomism, Moralism, and Immoralist Perspectives
More LessThe article explores the role played by moral categories in the assessment of an artwork’s overall aesthetic value. By means of close analysis of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007There Will Be Blood, the work maintains an immoralist approach, where an artwork’s unethical attitude may yield cognitive gain to its receiver—or perhaps unsettle their moral compass in an unusual, pleasant way. There Will Be Blood is considered a cinematic masterwork; yet, the viewing experience is complicated by the film’s greedy and self-obsessed protagonist, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis). The article scrutinizes the film’s most notable sequence—the explosion of the oil derrick—to formulate an aesthetic evaluation that manages to assess, simultaneously, formal and moral aspects.
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“No, I Am the Man”: Hierarchical Male Homosociality in The Avengers (2012)
More LessThe manuscript is an analysis of homosociality among the male Avengers in the first film depicting the unification of the superhero team. It argues that The Avengers replicates and valorizes hierarchical homosociality as the preferred method of communication and unifying force among the male Avengers, thereby maintaining hegemonic masculinity and the gender hegemony in the superhero franchise. This article’s focus on homosociality takes on a different approach to analyzing gender in superhero films as it takes an in-depth look at same-sex interactions in a group setting, as opposed to the individual gender identities of the characters.
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Hitchcock and the Internalization of Soviet Sound Theory
By Jack ZornadoThis article provides an overview of the trajectory of Alfred Hitchcock’s use of film sound as it relates to Soviet sound theory. I begin with his first use of sound in Blackmail (1929), tracing a line through his middle period with Strangers on a Train (1951), and end with a film from his late period, The Birds (1963). My analysis of Hitchcock’s use of sound in these films shows the influence of Soviet sound theory and its affects on his films and his own cinematic style.
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- Dossier: Depicting Spiritual Life Through Literature and Film: Silence by Endo, Shinoda, and Scorsese
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Introduction: What Kind of Faith? On Christian Spiritual Life and the Message of Silence
By Mina RadovicThe dossier examines the ways in which spiritual life can be communicated through literary and cinematic expression. The dossier emerged from work with three outstanding students—Elijah Young, Alison Parmenter, and Costanza Chirdo—taking the class on the final-year undergraduate course Studies in Literature and Film which I taught at the Department of English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. By looking at one shared source text the aim is to study, compare, and reveal the ways in which literature and film can serve as unique artistic forms for communicating about faith and the significance of confronting silence as a way to building one’s relationship with God and our fellow human beings. The text in question is the Japanese novel Silence by Shūsaku Endō, and its two eponymous film adaptations, by Masahiro Shinoda and Martin Scorsese, respectively. It is through a comparative study of the texts that we can get the “full picture” of the message of Silence and better understand how each author (or auteur!) adds meaningful depth to the source material’s depiction of the Christian spiritual life.
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The Internal Journey Toward Spiritual Self-Recognition in Shūsaku Endō’s Silence
By Elijah YoungThis article will plot and examine the spiritual progression of protagonist Sebastiao Rodrigues from “blind faith” to a fuller awareness of his spiritual self. Endo’s narratives will be seen to eschew allegorical readings in favor of presenting the importance of the spiritual journey for the individual. In the face of extreme violence, Rodrigues will be seen to develop from a position of aspiration toward honorable martyrdom to one of disillusion and disconnection from institutions that obfuscate the clarity of his personal relationship with Christ. The conclusion Endo will be seen to arrive at is that this is the true potential of a spiritual life, that the individual might find affirmation of their own belief in spite of persecution and judicial torture.
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The Sound of Silence: Spiritual Struggle and Apostasy in Masahiro Shinoda’s Film
More LessThis article assesses the spiritual journey of a Christian priest in seventeenth-century Japan in Masahiro Shinoda’s 1971 film, Silence. With a specific focus on cinematic elements like soundscapes and themes, it evaluates how the director utilizes filmic features to establish and heighten prevalent motif’s such as religious boundaries and apostasy. Furthermore, it strives to understand how the film reflects its contemporary sociopolitical climate and aims to explore any authorial influences.
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The Hope of the Cross in Martin Scorsese’s Silence
More LessMartin Scorsese’s Silence depicts the relationship between man and God. In the atmosphere of seventeenth-century Japan, where Christians were persecuted as a consequence of their attempt to spread Catholic Christianity, the film follows the journey of Jesuit priest Father Rodrigues, who is sent to the country in search of his vanished mentor. Throughout, Rodrigues’s journey turns out to be external and physical as much as it is internal and, predominantly, spiritual. Found in a country and culture to which he doesn’t belong, and which are hostile to him, Rodrigues’s faith slowly undergoes a transformation. This article focuses on the way his relationship to God changes, and on how this delicate, yet powerful process is presented through the film.
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- Featurettes
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Interview with the Makers of The Portal
Authors: Nicholas Mahoney and Leigh Ann VicoliInterviews with Jacqui Fifer and Tom Cronin, makers of The Portal.
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Arrival: The Complex Concepts of Time and Language
By Mika PascualA personal response to the social constructs of time and language as addressed in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival.
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- Dossier: Reading Literature and Science
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Introduction: Can’t Buy Me Love?: Market, Mass Production, and Investment in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence
By Tom Ue“Can’t Buy Me Love?: Market, Mass Production, and Investment in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence” examines the film’s (2001) money plot. In so doing, it reveals how companies profit off robots like David (Haley Joel Osment). It goes on to revisit Spielberg’s source material, Brian Aldiss’s “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” (1969), which offers direct criticism of how we turn to short-term fixes, all the while neglecting long-term problems. I argue that Henry downplays his wife Monica’s discontent both in creating and in relying on a succession of AI stand-ins—Teddy, David, and now a serving-man—and, indeed, the couple abdicates their responsibility toward each other.
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How Capitalism Ends Humanity
By Miles Anton“How Capitalism Ends Humanity” compares two texts, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and Alice W. Fuller’s “A Wife Manufactured to Order” (1895), and foregrounds their arguments about how capitalism and humanity cannot coexist. In Metropolis, the inhumane practices of capitalist rulers and enforced mechanical behavior of the factory workers demonstrate this tension. In “A Wife Manufactured to Order,” the commercialization of robot women does so. This analysis concludes that, ultimately, all participants in capitalism (i.e. laborers, owners, and consumers) will reject capitalism for real humanity. The “capitalism vs. humanity” lens can be used to project future backlash to advancements in artificial intelligence.
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Getting Tested for Monsterdom: Frankenstein and Ex Machina
More Less“Getting Tested for Monsterdom: Frankenstein and Ex Machina” advances our understanding of what it means to be a monster. We might conceive of monsters as beings that look grotesque and/or that act maliciously with intent. However, there is a vast gray area as to why one should or should not be labeled a monster. This article will discuss the unjust physical expectations leveled toward “monsters” and give a new line of application to the nature vs. nurture theory.
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