Tag: Film Criticism and Theory,
A Contentious Genre: Defining the Historical Film
On its surface, the historical film genre appears easy to define as a film that depicts historical events. However, after many decades of research into the film and history discourse, a concrete definition of what constitutes a historical film continues to elude film scholars. There is no singular answer as to what defines a film …
Changes of Japanese Female Characters in Chinese Films About WWII
World War II is a significant topic for movie makers in China because of its unforgettable influence on Chinese history. Although the culture boom in China serves as a key driver of growth for the movies on World War II in recent years, it has been pointed out that the study on the role of …
Challenging the Narrative Rhetoric: Inscribing Her Story Into History
Historically the media has been used for propaganda, and censorship to supress creative expression. Recently the presence of censors in newsrooms and on editorial boards served to highlight its misuse of the media, so when Alankrita Shrivastava’s film Lipstick Under My Burkha ran into trouble with the censor board, it raised the question of whether …
Bypassing the Camera: The Image Production Possibilities of Taiwanese Experimental Images
In the article, Experiment – My Film History by Taiwanese artist, Kao Chung-Li, Li stated that “animation” served as cameraless, hand-made, and physically strong “images” that remind us of the importance of “how images are produced”. They reproduce and transform Taiwan’s image history. Like “cameraless film” or “drawn-on-film animation”, Kao reassembles ready-made objects, old photographic …
Cinematic Representations of Girls Who Participate in African Political Conflicts
Fictional films which mainly focus on the experiences of girls who participate in African political conflicts are often caught up in the politics and dominant ideologies of their times. In films about wars that are widely perceived as just, such as the anti-colonial wars, girls who participate in the conflicts are often represented as brave …
Re-Thinking Politics in Film: Thai Independent Cinema After the Coups D’état 2014
During the period of political instability that led to the coups d’état of 2006 and 2014, the independent cinema flourished both domestically and internationally. The political conflicts in the past decade have become an important backdrop for independent filmmakers to explore various issues. With a certain degree of freedom, their films have created a discourse …
Lesbians (On Screen) Were Never Meant to Survive
My paper will focus on the evolution of the image of the lesbian on screen. We all know what can be the role of cinema in the structuring of the personal and collective imaginary and hence the importance of visual communication tools to share and spread lesbian stories “even” with a happy ending. If, in …
From the Nightmarish to a Dreamy State of Being: The Troubling Present in Thai Independent Cinema after the Coups D’État 2014
From ApichatpongWeerasethakul’s debut film, Mysterious Objects at Noon, to Blissfully Yours and on to Tropical Malady, the subjects, forms, and modes of visual presentation reflect the evolution of a unique style of filmmaking that deals intimately with themes such as desire and sexual ambiguity which are rarely explored in mainstream cinema. Weerasethakul paved the way …
Looking through ‘Her’ Eyes: ‘Productive Look’ in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s ‘The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain’
The aim of this paper is to unravel further what the film The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain -Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) is saying about critical seeing and vision. Presenting a discussion of the film by depending on the concepts of “gaze”, “look”, “screen” and “productive look” by Kaja Silverman, this …