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- Volume 4, Issue 1, 2014
Journal of Scandinavian Cinema - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2014
Volume 4, Issue 1, 2014
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Stiller at first: A footnote
By Jan OlssonAbstractThis article disentangles the confusion surrounding the production order of Mauritz Stiller’s film activities during his first months at AB Svenska Biografteatern (Svenska bio)/Swedish Biograph in 1912. Drawing on items from the extensive Stockholm press scene, it can be demonstrated that Stiller’s first film production indeed was the one that was first publicly screened, Mor och dotter/‘Mother and Daughter’ (1912) featuring Stiller, Anna Norrie and Lilly Jacobsson. The article also sheds light on Stiller’s role in Stockholm bohemian circles as local film production was ushered in.
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The withdrawal of touch in close encounter: The tactility of facial close-ups in Ingmar Bergman’s films
By Xianghui WenAbstractThis article focuses on the tactility of facial close-ups in Ingmar Bergman’s films through Jean-Luc Nancy’s concept of touch. In contrast to the model of touch offered by phenomenological film scholars, which emphasizes the intimate and mutual contact between the viewer and the image, Nancy’s touch is a withdrawal or a degree of untouchability within contact, which can enable us to decode the ambiguity and tension within Bergman’s use of facial close-up more precisely. Both Nancy’s works and Bergman’s films follow a paradoxical logic in approaching the tactile dimension of aesthetic experience. By establishing a dialogue between them, this article explores how Bergman expresses the double effects of close-ups and creates the withdrawal of touch.
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On short film storytelling
More LessAbstractThree major differences between short film and feature film storytelling are described, and a non-formulaic model is proposed as an alternative to sequential models that were designed to describe feature film storytelling.
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Film studies anno 2013: A bird’s eye view
Authors: Olof Hedling and Pelle SnickarsAbstractThis short subject assessing the current state of the academic field of film studies as practiced at sites of higher learning in Sweden is based on experiences and knowledge the co-authors gained as members of a national committee to evaluate the ‘academic quality’ of programmes from a comparative point of view.
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Ruben Östlund’s Play (2011): Race and segregation in ‘good’ liberal Sweden
More LessAbstractThis article analyses Ruben Östlund’s film Play (2011) in the context of the current debate on race, racism and multiculturalism in Sweden. It discusses the social roles in Play as an effect of existing racial and class segregation, arguing that the film’s critical gaze is directed mainly towards the liberal white discourse, on the one hand politically correct and tolerant, on the other hand closed to difference. The black boys’ petty crime represents a subversion of the liberal white hegemony in which they are included only as different and ‘Other’. Östlund also dares to ask the both pertinent and most taboo question about multiculturalism in Europe today: What are the negative effects of drastic demographic changes?
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Speaking images, race-less words: Play and the absence of race in contemporary Scandinavia
Authors: Elisabeth Stubberud and Priscilla RingroseAbstractWhat happens when a film that deals with issues of race and lived multiculture is released in a socio-political landscape where there is limited language to address lived experiences of racialization? This article examines the Swedish fiction film Play (Östlund, 2011) and a TV interview with its director. While mainstream reviews interpreted the film in terms of a non-racial dynamic, we argue that the film is not only about race, but that its racial dynamic is highly gendered. We suggest furthermore that Ruben Östlund’s ambiguous response to the question of the racist legacy of the film points to its failure to confront the prevailing racial hegemony.
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Playing with art cinema? Digitality constructs in Ruben Östlund’s Play
Authors: Anna Westerståhl Stenport and Garrett TraylorAbstractThis article analyses how Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s much-discussed feature film Play (2011) re-aligns assumptions of auteur and art cinema through its plot, thematic and compositional aspects, while relating these to digital communication technologies and convergence paradigms.
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