The term 'poetic cinema' is common in Russo-Soviet critical discourse, but has meant different things at different times. This article demonstrates how 'poetic cinema' has two overlapping, but ...nonetheless distinct meanings: on the one hand, according to Russian Formalism, the term 'poetic' connotes a defining feature specific to art; on the other hand, it implies an expressive mode characterised by elevation from a concrete reality and commonly ascribed to poetry. The meaning of 'poetic' oscillated between the 'formalist' and 'elevated' senses over the course of Soviet history, whilst the latter meaning has been adapted in varying historical conditions. The article explores these changing meanings of 'poetic cinema'; the parallels and divergences between the poetic cinema of the 1920s and the 1960s; the use of the terms 'poetic cinema' vs. 'auteur cinema'; and the overlap between 'poetic' and ethno-national cinemas during the late 1960s and 70s. The ambiguities of the term 'poetic cinema' in Russo-Soviet critical discourse at different 'thaws' and 'freezes' in Soviet cultural history point to a repressed 'other' behind the realist mandate that dominated Soviet cinema and culture.
Fragile National Identity in Taiwanese Historical Film Pan, Yiling
Annali di Ca' Foscari : Rivista della Facoltà di lingue e letterature straniere dell'Università di Venezia,
12/2023, Letnik:
59, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This paper aims to redefine and negotiate the boundaries of Taiwan’s identity through an examination of historical films, delving into its complexity and fragility. It begins by providing a ...contextualisation of Taiwanese historical films. It then proceeds to compare narrative styles between the 1980s Taiwan New Cinema and 2010s films, tracing the transition from one historical interpretation to another. Lastly, it argues for a distinct narrative style in the 2010s, citing examples from feature films and documentaries. This study contributes to the understanding of Taiwan’s multifaceted national identity and the role of cinema in shaping it.
A few years after the arrival of sound cinema in Italy, the technology of dubbing emerged as an optimal solution to transfer films across national borders. This seemingly simple artifice had enormous ...cultural and political ramifications transnationally. For example, in the early 1930s, dubbing became the only way to screen foreign films in Italy, and the fascist government transformed the technology into a filter to bolster national identity and limit internal and external "threats" such as local dialects, foreign words, and music. Thus, under Mussolini’s regime, a film’s soundtrack (including music, sounds, and noises) underwent significant manipulation once it crossed the Italian border. This article examines Italian dubbing in the 1930s through the lenses of national cinema and local production. Additionally, it aims to explore early soundtrack manipulations before the establishment of dubbing as a practice, as well as the nationalist roots of dubbing itself. Finally, by analysing archival documents, this study posits that dubbing was not merely a matter of mechanical translation, but also a locus of sound experimentation in a time of stagnation for Italian cinema. Investigating dubbing, a phenomenon so profoundly ingrained in Italian society, opens up new interpretations of Italian culture, political history, and film production from the 1930s throughout the twentieth century.
Recent work in Australian screen scholarship has been focused on expanding the limitations of our national cinema discourse. Terms like Deb Verhoeven's 'Industry 3' or Ben Goldsmith's ...'outward-looking Australian cinema', and the discourse of 'transnationality' more generally, exemplify a contemporary tendency that seeks out new conceptual foundations from which to analyse Australian film as interrelated with international industrial contexts. US film historian Janet Staiger has proposed one potentially fruitful alternative conceptual schema. Staiger argues that the concept of 'film practices' offers a way to carry out the historiographical grouping of film texts without recourse to categories of nationality or transnationality. In this article, I examine the analytical possibilities of the film practice schema in the Australian context. I focus on the Australian production firm Kennedy Miller Mitchell, which I identify as operating within the contemporary classical Hollywood cinema practice. Scholars have previously encountered conceptual deficiencies in grouping the work of this firm under prevailing terms of national cinema discourse. I show how the application of the film practice schema can make better sense of Kennedy Miller Mitchell's place in the Australian and international screen industries, and I assess some of the advantages and disadvantages of this approach for future scholarship.
Desray Armstrong is one of the most prolific producers working in the Aotearoa New Zealand screen industry. As a wahine (woman/female) Māori, Armstrong's presence counters the traditional domination ...of white male screen professionals, yet her aim is to support writers and directors from all backgrounds who have a story to tell. Beginning as a production manager, she worked her way up over a career spanning twenty years, and in December 2021 the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) awarded her the Māori Screen Excellence Award. However, Armstrong gained her first producer credit only after employing a non-traditional financing model for the artistically ambitious Stray, which was considered outside the remit of the more commercially minded NZFC. Since Stray, and with the support of the NZFC, she has produced films that are challenging and topical, including the noir thriller Coming Home in the Dark, the family saga Juniper and the social media satire Millie Lies Low. This article demonstrates how the onerous public film funding model in New Zealand and the wider market can affect the ability of filmmakers to tell stories that sit outside the narratives acceptable to New Zealand's pākehā-dominated culture. It exposes the mismatch between Armstrong's view that her work is seen by some, as pākehā focussed and the NZFC's idea of the ‘Māori screen industry’. It concludes that despite the drive toward a more accessible industry, led by the NZFC, filmmakers like Armstrong challenge traditional views about how New Zealand should be represented on screen, choosing to position the story and the storyteller as the chief focus, and not where the story originates from.
