Contemporary Cinema

Este trabalho parte de uma análise reflexiva sobre o documentário: dividida em duas partes, uma primeira parte historiográfica e desconstrutiva focada nas décadas de 1920-1930, em que, à luz de uma bibliografia recente sobre o tema, abordamos e problematizamos a configuração do gênero discursivo “documentário” como herança colonialista, como vanguarda modernista e como aparelho de estado, inscrevendo neste mapa, ao fim, dois pioneiros brasileiros esquecidos; na segunda parte, destinada ao documentário contemporâneo, fazemos uma cartografia que circunscreve nossas eleições afetivas dentro do documentário contemporâneo brasileiro, passando à análise de um filme em específico – As Hipermulheres (2011), que incorpora e responde, acredito, em grande medida à problemática e os questionamentos anteriores sobre o documentário no sentido estético e político.

A History of Italian Cinema, 2nd edition is the much anticipated update from the author of the bestselling Italian Cinema – which has been published in four landmark editions and will celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2018. Building upon decades of research, Peter Bondanella and Federico Pacchioni reorganize the current History in order to keep the book fresh and responsive not only to the actual films being created in Italy in the twenty-first century but also to the rapidly changing priorities of Italian film studies and film scholars. The new edition brings the definitive history of the subject, from the birth of cinema to the present day, up to date with a revised filmography as well as more focused attention on the melodrama, the crime film, and the historical drama. The book is expanded to include a new generation of directors as well as to highlight themes such as gender issues, immigration, and media politics. Accessible, comprehensive, and heavily illustrated throughout, this is an essential purchase for any fan of Italian film.

La digitalizzazione della sala offre un punto di osservazione privilegiato per ricostruire il campo di tensioni che, a partire dagli anni ’80, ha prodotto una serie di cambiamenti. Il colore costituisce uno degli elementi che, fin dagli albori del digitale, ha più fortemente operato come elemento di innovazione delle tecniche, dei flussi di lavoro e delle retoriche visive. A questo proposito, il digital turn può essere considerato anche nei termini di un vero e proprio color turn, attraverso il quale il colore si impone come elemento chiave per la produzione e il consumo di immagini nei film e nei media contemporanei.

Soutenu par le Labex ICCA, ce séminaire entend contribuer à fédérer, dans une perspective pluridisciplinaire, un ensemble de travaux se proposant d’étudier les films ou les cinémas dits « de genre », tout en réfléchissant aux différents sens de ce qualificatif polysémique et à la variété de ses usages créatifs, professionnels et cinéphiliques.
Il déroulera une fois par mois le vendredi (15h-17h) à la Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Les propositions sont à envoyer avant le 15/09.

Cet article se propose de reconsidérer les relations complexes et parfois ambivalentes que l'image cinématographique entretient avec le monde globalisé et les flux (notamment d'images) qui le caractérisent. À cette fin, il examine différentes formes esthétiques que le cinéma contemporain peut donner à l'image-flux – en explorant les ressources du montage aussi bien que celles du cadrage –, à partir d'un corpus réunissant des blockbusters et des films d'auteur. L'analyse vise ensuite à dégager les effets poétiques et affectifs de ces mises en scène du flux. En particulier, l'article pose l'hypothèse que le cinéma contemporain représente un nouveau tragique du flux, qu'il relie à l'affect mélancolique ou dépressif.

This paper reconsiders the complex and somewhat ambivalent relationships between the cinematographic image and the globalized world as it is characterized by flows (of images, among other flows). For this purpose, the paper examines different aesthetic forms that contemporary cinema gives to the image-flow – taking into account the editing as well as the framing resources –, based on a multiple corpus of both blockbusters and author films. The analysis aims at bringing out the poetic and affective effects of these representations of the flow. In particular, the paper suggests that contemporary cinema offers a new tragic vision of the flow, which it links to the melancholic or depressive affect.

Der Film No Country for Old Men erzählt die Geschichte einer brutalen Verfolgungsjagd. Dabei zeigt der Thriller eine amerikanische Wirklichkeit, die mit ihren Werten und Traditionen nicht mehr in Übereinstimmung lebt und liefert eine fundamentale Kritik an der amerikanischen Gesellschaft.

Este ensaio tem duas partes. Na primeira parte, tentamos ler a obra bastante conhecida de Yazujiro Ozu através do conceito do neutro de forma que o cotidiano e os seus personagens comuns possam ser uma forma de definir uma dramaturgia distinta, alternativa à tradição melodramática, hegemônica nas novelas e nos filmes hollywoodianos. Na segunda parte, tentamos pensar Ozu a partir de filmes contemporâneos e tributos que foram feitos a sua obra por Wim Wenders, Kiarostami e Hou Hsiao-hsien.

A walk suspended in mid-air, a fall at breakneck speed towards a fatal impact with the ground, an upside-down flip into space, the drift of an astronaut in the void… Analysing a wide range of films, this book brings to light a series of recurrent aesthetic motifs through which contemporary cinema destabilizes and then restores the spectator’s sense of equilibrium. The 'tensive motifs' of acrobatics, fall, impact, overturning, and drift reflect our fears and dreams and offer embodied forms of transcendence of the limits of our human condition along with an awareness of their insurmountable nature. Adopting the approach of 'Neurofilmology'—an interdisciplinary method that puts filmology, perceptual psychology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive neuroscience into dialogue—this book implements the paradigm of embodied cognition in a new ecological epistemology of the moving-image experience.

Pochissimi registi hanno creato una narrazione così potente e originale da caratterizzare un’intera generazione, ancor meno quelli che si sono imposti nel mercato. Christopher Nolan è con tutta probabilità l’autore più rappresentativo del nuovo secolo. Passato nel giro di pochissimo tempo dalle produzioni indipendenti del cinema inglese ai blockbuster americani con incassi da milioni di dollari. Le sue opere hanno raccolto gli apprezzamenti trasversali di tutta la critica. L’arditezza e la forza dei suoi racconti sono stati tali da farli entrare di diritto nella Storia del cinema. La filmografia di Nolan può essere assunta ad esempio della pro- duzione del nuovo millennio con film che hanno saputo anticipare temi e reinventare generi, a partire da Memento fino ad arrivare Interstellar, passando dalla trilogia del Cavaliere oscuro, The Prestige e Inception. Leonard Shelby, il detective Dormer, Bruce Wayne, Borden e Angier, i due Cobb, Cooper, sono personaggi che hanno lasciato un segno indelebile nell’anima dello spettatore.

In recent years some of the most innovative European and American directors have made films that place the spectator in a position of intense discomfort. Systematically manipulating the viewer, sometimes by withholding information, sometimes through shock or seduction, these films have often been criticised as amoral, nihilistic, politically irresponsible or anti-humanistic. But how are these unpleasurable viewing experiences created? What do the directors believe they can achieve via this ‘feel-bad’ experience? How can we situate these films in intellectual history? And why should we watch, study and teach ‘feel-bad’ films?
Answering these questions through the analysis of work by directors such as Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Brian de Palma, Bruno Dumont and Harmony Korine, The Feel-Bad Film invites readers to consider cinematic art as an experimental activity with ethical norms that are radically different from the ones we would hope to find outside the movie theatre.

(To read the introduction, please click the link to EUP or download the sample)

Pour ce qui est de son rapport à l’espace, on ne saurait nier le fait que l’art cinématographique s’inscrit en partie dans le vaste héritage des systèmes de représentation qui ont précédé son avènement, au premier rang desquels la peinture, le théâtre et la photographie. Mais cela ne doit pas recouvrir le fait que le cinéma a également développé des formes et des « idées esthétiques » de l’espace qui lui sont propres, assumant ainsi la fonction, pour les hommes de son temps, de donner à éprouver et à penser des dimensions de leur espace vécu qui seraient inexprimables en dehors de ses images et de ses sons.
Comment les films organisent-ils l’espace qui leur est spécifique ? Quels effets et quelles significations produisent-ils par cette opération ? Comment l’espace est-il perçu/construit/éprouvé par les spectateurs ? Que pouvons-nous retirer du cinéma pour penser l’espace de nos vies ? Ce livre a été conçu comme une tentative d’approfondissement du rapport singulier à l’espace que nous fait expérimenter le cinéma.
(...)
L’espace au cinéma ne sera donc pas considéré comme un motif stable représenté par le film, et disponible pour la vue uniquement (dans la lignée d’une conception optique-systémique de l’espace qui pourrait être commune à tous les arts visuels), mais comme un phénomène dynamique produit par le film, et engageant le corps du spectateur. Il sera étudié comme une puissance plastique autonome, directement liée à la nature des images filmiques, à leur mouvement, à leur être-sonore, et à leurs rapports de succession. C’est pour penser cette conception-là de l’espace cinématographique que sera introduit et développé dans ce livre le concept d’« image-espace ».
Si une place importante sera aménagée à l’analyse de films contemporains, l’ensemble des développements à venir sera aussi l’occasion d’ébaucher une histoire générale de l’évolution des formes et des techniques cinématographiques dans le rapport qu’elles entretiennent avec l’espace. On pourra ainsi observer que la composante spatiale du cinéma a constitué, pour chaque évolution significative des procédés expressifs de cet art, un moyen de rupture déterminant avec les représentations qui la précédaient ; on peut avancer, de ce point de vue, que l’espace filmique constitue une notion clé, autour de laquelle s’articule toute l’histoire du cinéma.

Abstract: The English title of a recent book by renowned film scholar Yomota Inuhiko
reads: What is Japanese Cinema?. In the preface to the English edition Yomota states that
the direction we might take, should we try to provide an answer to the question, changes
according to which word, «Japanese» or «Cinema» we choose to emphasize. When his
survey reaches the recent past, the Japanese scholar describes the 2000s as «an era of
chaos». Starting from these questions and affirmations, and combining them with others
made by scholars such as David Bordwell, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Andrew Dorman
and Mori Naoyuki, the following article attempts to explore a more specific doubt: what is
contemporary Japanese cinema? In so doing, however, other questions arise, as we need
to define when contemporaneity starts and what makes it different both from previous
eras, and from the contemporaneity of other national cinemas. The further we probe, the
more complex our definition becomes.
Keywords: contemporary Japanese cinema; Japanese film theory; visual culture, digital culture.
要旨:『What is Japanese Cinema?』（日本映画とは何か）とは、著名な映画史研究者、四方田犬彦
の最新のエッセイの英訳版のタイトルである。四方 田はその序文で、「Japanese」という言葉に重
きを置くか、「Cinema」という言葉に重きを置くかによって、疑問に対する答えを導くであろう探究
の方向性が変わってくるのではないかと述べている。現代映画の研究に至り、四方田は、2000年
代を混沌の時代と定義している。こういった問いや断言から出発し、他の研究者たちの疑問と絡
み合わせながら、本稿では、「現代日本映画とは何か」という更に具体的な疑問に対する答えを求
めようとしている。ただし、そのための様々な疑問が生じる。まず、日本映画の現代性がいつから
始まるのか、それまでの日本映画の時代とは何が異なるのか、また、他の国の映画の現代性とは何
が異なるのかを明確にする必要がある。しかし、話題を深く掘り下げれば掘り下げるほど、その定
義は拡大し、とらえどころのない話題になっていく。
キーワード: 現代日本映画、日本映画論、ビジュアル文化、デジタル文化.

Il paesaggio nel cinema contemporaneo contiene 21 saggi dedicati alla riflessione teorica, alle modalità di raffigurazione del paesaggio in aree fisiche e culturali diverse; alle forme documentarie, alla tecnologia digitale, alle arti sperimentali, alle architetture urbane, alla rappresentazione della memoria, del culto dei morti, degli spazi di guerra, delle catastrofi naturali; alla valenza simbolica dei luoghi, ad alcune traiettorie particolari di registi. Completa il volume una bibliografia essenziale.

El tatuaje es una práctica que comparte características con la pintura. Sin embargo, su catapultación hacia un estatus artístico a partir de esta analogía, resulta por cuestiones de mercado y autoría, cuando menos, conflictiva. El body art, por otra parte, puede y ha sido el nicho artístico más apropiado para el desarrollo del tatuaje, aun cuando el reservorio del arsenal estético y conceptual no radique en el cuerpo/lienzo, sino en el gesto o concepto que lo utiliza y excede.

Il saggio si propone di analizzare il ruolo delle donne all'interno della filiera cinematografica ed il modo in cui si relazionano alla tecnologia e vengono in questo modo raccontate dalla stessa.
Nella prima parte si analizzerà il ruolo delle donne nella storia del cinema, indagando nel concreto il lavoro che hanno intrapreso all'interno dell'industria cinematografica, partendo dalle “registe-pioniere” del cinema muto, raccontato da Veronica Pravadelli nel volume Le donne del cinema e in We want cinema: sguardi di donne nel cinema italiano, curato da Laura Buffoni.
La seconda parte sarà incentrata sul rapporto fra donne e tecnologia nel cinema contemporaneo, partendo dai testi: Il cinema delle donne contemporaneo (V. Pravadelli) e Smagliature digitali (C. Cossutta, V. Greco, A. Mainardi, S. Voli).

This essay is a a reading of The party and the dogs (2016, 25 minutes, available temporarily at http://portacurtas.org.br/filme/?name=a_festa_e_os_caes) by Leonardo Mouramateus. A movie made only by photos that talks about the possibilities of being together and what is to belong today through images and parties. Stablishing a dialogue with major Brazilian modernist poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, I would point to  an  affective cosmopolitanism  that would be a response to issues of globalization inside contemporary intellectual life and art. This talk is a part of my recent book Afetos, Relações e Encontros com filmes Brasileiros contemporâneos. (Affects, Relations and Encounters with Brazilian Contemporary Films) that is going to released soon. All the short movies by Leonardo Mouramateus can be found with English subtitles at https://vimeo.com/mouramateus

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Film Studies at UNSW Sydney

Final thesis mark: 89/100 (Honours Class 1)

Philippine cinema has a rich history of engaging with national politics and discourse, beginning with the golden age of Philippine cinema during Ferdinand Marcos’ era of martial law (1972-1981). From Lino Brocka to Mike de Leon, these directors have scrutinised ideas of the nation and national identity through depictions of presidential corruption and state-sanctioned violence. This thesis recognises that this political engagement has continued in contemporary Philippine cinema of the last decade — from retrospective films meditating on the post-Marcosian state, and allusions to a national massacre during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term, to the current reign of Rodrigo Duterte and his so-called “War on Drugs.”

In recognising this, I investigate how a selection of films produced during the last decade communicate past and present corruption in the Philippines, by analysing how these directors represent nationalism and national identity through a variety of formal, generic, and stylistic approaches. I argue that contemporary Philippine cinema exposes the “myth” of a fair and democratic unified nation through confronting scenes of immorality, unlawfulness, and authoritarian violence. Drawing on the works of several film theorists to support my analysis, I focus on scenes of violence and immorality that are reflective of the nationalist violence instigated by presidential dictators who instil the false promise of a national democracy across the Philippines. These debates and discussions will be generated through a formal and thematic analysis of the following films — Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz, 2013), Birdshot (Mikhail Red, 2016), and Fan Girl (Antoinette Jadaone, 2020).

Na primeira década deste século, o cinema português reconfigurou-se com o aparecimento de vários novos autores. Este novíssimo cinema português não é fruto do acaso, mas antes o resultado de várias transformações significativas que fora acontecendo progressivamente ao nível dos modos de produção e das novas opções temáticas e cinematográficas. Visualmente, o cinema português foi, lentamente, transformando-se e o panorama atual é, em muitos aspetos, diferente daquilo que, até há bem pouco tempo, era entendido como " cinema português ". Neste breve texto, tentaremos fazer uma análise tanto produtiva, como temática, mostrando, em concreto, que mudanças foram operadas e que tendências podemos vislumbrar nestes novos autores. Como ainda nos encontramos com pouca distância histórica, o nosso argumento é, em certo sentido, algo especulativo e a carecer de confirmação futura. É claro que não queremos, com este texto, fechar o conceito de "cinema português" num grupo de autores ou mesmo do género do “cinema de autor”. Apenas tentamos fazer uma análise de algumas das tendências que se podem reconhecer nas últimas duas décadas.