American Film Research Articles

Hidden in Plain Sight: Attending to Women’s Amateur Filmmaking Histories at the Irish Film Archive

This article aims to identify various ways in which women’s amateur filmmaking becomes obscured in both film archives and in the academic scholarship on film and filmmaking. Recognising that amateur film is marginalised and undervalued in relation to commercial and professional filmmaking, the article uses the case study of one Irish amateur filmmaker to identify the processes and practices that have resulted in her work being obscured and overlooked. The filmmaker, Sr Maureen MacMahon, was practicing amateur filmmaking from the 1960s to the 1970s and her work is held at the Irish Film Archive. Investigation of Sr Maureen’s filmmaking drew from a variety of sources including the films and film materials, film metadata recorded at the archive, newspaper archives, an archive held at Sr Maureen’s religious order and an interview with Sr Maureen. Analyses of these materials has resulted in three findings: firstly, the dispersal of materials and information pertaining to Sr Maureen across multiple sites posed challenges for our construction of a coherent narrative about her; secondly, Sr Maureen turned her hand to many creative and pedagogic activities beyond filmmaking, and, in her own estimation, she was an arts educator more than a filmmaker; and, finally, the films are not easily categorised as they are generically and stylistically diverse, making auteurist approaches difficult. Drawing from these findings we discuss the challenges that this creates for foregrounding women’s contributions to film.

Pragmatic Study of Bullying in “An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong” Movie

This study explores the phenomenon of bullying as a prominent sociocultural element within the American film "An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong" serve the dual purpose of providing amusement to audiences while also conveying messages of communication, morality, culture, society, and education. In addition to that, bullying remains a widespread problem within the educational institutions. Students, especially those with special cases are constant victims of bullying. The data will be subjected to analysis based on pragmatic theories, such as speech acts and strategies of impoliteness. The questions that the paper tries to answer are: what are the types of verbal bullying and its directness, what are the types of speech acts, what are the illocutionary acts and the directness of speech acts, and what are the impoliteness strategies? This study aims to identify the types and directness of verbal bullying, investigate the types of speech acts in the selected data whether it is used directly or indirectly, identifying the illocutionary acts, and investigating the impoliteness strategies and it is sub-types in "An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong" movie. Working on these aims, it is hypothesized that direct verbal bullying of verbal abuse is the predominant type, all the types of speech acts are employed by bullies, the impoliteness strategies are used equally. The study's findings indicate that the predominant kind of bullying observed is direct verbal bullying, characterized by instances of verbal abuse and name-calling. The direct expressive speech acts of mocking/taunting are widely used by girls in "An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong" movie. Positive impoliteness strategy is the most frequent strategy.

Unmasking Orientalism: Stereotypes in Education and Media in 20th Century America and Europe

This article examines the influence of Orientalism in both education and media during the 20th century in the United States and other European countries. The analysis highlights the significance of Orientalism and how it contributed to the stereotypes in education and the media. This research paper draws upon a diverse range of sources, including American textbooks, American and European films, and newspapers in the United States and across Europe in the 20th century. While the article briefly touches on Orientalism in education and media generally, its primary focus lies in dissecting Orientalist themes within American and European textbooks, films, and newspapers from this era. The examination of textbooks reveals how both Americans and Europeans portrayed Asians through a lens tinted by stereotypes and occasional hostilities. Likewise, in the realm of films and newspapers, an abundance of questionable Orientalist elements often misled readers and viewers, fostering a distorted understanding of Oriental cultures. These works, laden with biases, readily engendered stereotypes of Asians among European audiences. By shedding light on these dynamics, this research paper seeks to catalyze a positive transformation in American and European education and media, while also offering a challenge to the enduring presence of Orientalism.

The Dark Comedy of the Courtroom: Norman Jewison’s And Justice for All

This article examines And Justice for All’s (1979) peculiar spin on the courtroom drama. Though the film embraces a mode of seriousness to portray sexual violence and an unjust criminal justice system, it also includes an undercurrent of dark comedy and absurdity. The article shows how the film incorporates dark-comedic absurdity to emphasize how severely malfunctional the criminal justice system is. While the film reproduces the lawyer-as-hero trope known from earlier eras in American film history, it is very disillusioned with the state of the criminal justice system as such. In this sense, it gives viewers a recognizable lawyer-hero to root for even though the film invites viewers to be very skeptical of the state of the system.

A Research on the Evolution of Gender Stereotypes of Women in American Films

A Research on the Evolution of Gender Stereotypes of Women in American Films

Italian Immigrants Culture in New York: A Comparative Study on The Godfather II and Mean Streets Through the Lens of Audiovisual Language

This study explores the dynamics of cultural integration, assimilation, and identity formation of Italian immigrants in American films in the 20th century. It makes a comparative analysis of two iconic films, The Godfather II and Mean Streets, through the lens of audiovisual language. Drawing upon the semiotics theory, mirror theory, and root theory, this research aims to analyze the dynamic changes in culture, economy, and emotions experienced by Italian immigrants. The study is anchored in three key aspects. First, it focuses on the identity politics of Italian immigrants in the United States, with a spotlight on second-generation immigrants. Unlike the first generation, they retain a strong sense of separation from their Italian roots, exhibiting few traces of a transitional identity arc. The second aspect revolves around the directors reconstruction of national history in a global context and its connection to the Mafias influence on economic predicament. Lastly, by looking into the narrative symbols in these films, this research continuously explores the emotional dynamics in the process of cultural integration.

Predicting IMDb Rating of Movies by Machine Learning Techniques

Film Industry is not only a industry or a centre of entertainment, rather it is now a centre of global business. All over the world is now excited about a movie’s box office success, popularity etc. A huge data is available online about these movies success or popularity. We have used Hollywood movie list from Wikipedia and their rating from IMDb movie rating website to create our data set. Then machine learning classification algorithms are applied of the data set. Lastly an efficient model is developed to predict a movie’s IMDb rating. The model gives good classification measures with the data set. Index Terms-Movie Rating, Machine Learning, Prediction, Box Office, IMDb.

Springing from the Land of Music: Hollywood's Film Music Between "Austrian" Entertainment and "German" Arts

Abstract: The article investigates how national artistic ideologies of German-ness and Austrian-ness were incorporated in Hollywood film music of the 1930s and 1940s and in the general discourse in the American press. It argues that these stereotypes were indeed important in Hollywood's marketing strategies toward the middlebrow, which emerged as a wealthy branch in America's society at the time. Among these strategies was the promotion of film music as a 'serious' art form that was historiographically grounded in a 'German' art music tradition, in contrast to 'Austrian' light musical entertainment.

Punking: How appropriation revitalised it and the role institutions play in the protection and longevity of this elusive art

Abstract From the streets of Los Angeles in the early 1970s, a dance style named Punking emerged. This occurred at the height of the civil rights movement in the underground LGBTQ+ clubs of LA by a group of BIPOC queer men. A blend of sharp, exaggerated poses and movements borrowed from Hollywood films and pop culture became an art form that reflected their identity and encapsulated the escapism and liberation of a group of young queer people growing up in an environment where being queer was illegal and dangerous. By the late 1980s and 1990s, the dance faded, but it still influenced dance styles such as jazz, house, and even vogue. In the early 2000s, interest in the dance was reignited. However, its name and origins remained elusive, prompting an investigation into its history, shifting narratives and exclusion from dance history. In this article, I will explore how a dance form becomes lost in translation and how this dance can be preserved and introduced into institutionalised spaces to offer resources and legal protection for an art form on the verge of erasure from history.

The image of Muslims in American Cinema: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Movies

The image of Muslims in American Cinema: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Movies

In the Shadow of the Cuckoo Clock. The Subversive Realism of the Third Man

Abstract With a view to exemplifying how film noir can effectively combine elements of expressionism and realism through a participatory viewing experience, this paper provides a discussion of The Third Man as a cinematic text that concomitantly reiterates traditional insular values in times of global conflict and strengthens the individuality of post-war British cinema against the pressures of the American film industry.

Superfemale vs. the Superwoman: Dialectical Dénouements in Classical Hollywood Cinema of the 1940s

Superfemale vs. the Superwoman: Dialectical Dénouements in Classical Hollywood Cinema of the 1940s

Rising Notability of Post Apocalyptic Narratives in Topical Hollywood Movies

Objective: The following research, mapping the survival elements with reference to the survive of the characters in the identified adapted films through the lens of the post-apocalyptic genre. Method: The researcher has identified 17 films that suit the criteria for selection and study. According to the Darwin’s theory, it provides new insight into the role of Hollywood films in dealing with catastrophes, Darwinian concepts of survival of the fittest and rebuilding of civilization. Evolved properties of human survival behavior are also focused. Result: The research offers scope for wide responses to the theme of survival. A large number of books and films analyses the issues of survival. The protagonists are intelligent and capable men and women with leadership qualities. Survival in different complex situations is explored and can provide scope for further study. Rolf Frohlich’s views on survival instinct as a product of evolution is relevant for further study. Conclusion: The paper concludes in the light of due analysis how the concept of survival of the fittest portrayed in multiple films can offer guidelines to follow in future pandemic outbreaks. A brief descriptive account of the portrayal in pandemic fiction and adapted films. Evolutionary perspective explaining the survival mechanism and the fight against pandemics depicted in Hollywood pandemic films.

Концерт в голливудских короткометражных мультфильмах «золотой эры»

The article is devoted to the representation of classical music concert in Hollywood cartoons of the 1930s — 1950s. A concert as a symbol of the academic musical culture was well-known to the American cinema audience. The author of the article studies how the cartoons creators rethought the main elements of a concert ceremony using both the general stereotypes related with the world of classical music and the familiar images of American life of the first half of the 20th century. Special attention is focused on the development of a typical concert repertoire in cartoons and its relation to the category of popular classical music. The article gives a detailed analysis of concert types, features of a concert space, the appearance and behaviour of soloists, orchestra players, and conductors, and the evolution of these elements during the Golden Age of Hollywood cartoons. The conclusion is made that a concert in cartoons becomes an ideal object of parody and carnival play which mirror the conflict between high and low art that exists in the mind of the audience and work as assimilation mechanisms for the artistic experience of the elite culture. The methods of history, art studies, and cultural studies are used in the research.

Phantasmagorical realism in Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul 2021)

This article proposes a close analysis of the film Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2021). It begins by situating the film within a broader trend in contemporary East/South East Asian and Latin American cinemas, which incorporates elements of the phantasmagorical into an aesthetics of realism. The combination of these seemingly contradictory concepts gives rise to a sophisticated interplay of temporalities. This interplay comprises the present phenomenological reality, layers of the past and the realm of memory associated with posthumous presences, and the unusual occurrences that may belong to the future. I refer to this phenomenon as ‘phantasmagorical realism’, a recurring theme in Weerasethakul’s cinema. This concept is partly influenced by non-European philosophies and belief systems, such as Thai Buddhism and Animism. In Memoria, this is further accentuated by intermedial connections with Latin American magical realism and Chinese classical literature, both of which are also influenced by non-European philosophies and belief systems, including Amerindian Perspectivism and Daoism.

The Illness Trajectory in Marilyn Monroe's Psychological Autopsy: From Autism Spectrum Disorder to Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder with Catatonia.

A mounting body of literature is showing that, in the clinical and general population, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autistic traits (ATs) would appear to be spread along a continuum, reaching the highest levels among individuals affected by other mental disorders, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Furthermore, individuals with ASD or ATs appear to be more vulnerable to psychological traumas, with greater likelihood of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and BD. Marilyn Monroe was a famous actress, singer and model, as well as one of the most admired stars of American cinema and a timeless icon. The present report debates the possibility to explore Marilyn Monroe's case under a neurodevelopmental perspective according to which a ASD favored, on one hand, her worldwide success and, on the other, her mental illness trajectory. The analysis is based on the review of her four biographies written by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, her complete filmography, interviews, filmed material and personal scripts. The present work reconstructed a hypothetical illness trajectory originating from a ASD and culminating in a BD with unspecified catatonia, followed by premature death whose cause has never been clarified. The description of this illness trajectory also confirms the strong impact of psychological traumas on the substrate of ASD vulnerability and its correlation with the development of BPD and BD. This paper suggests Marilyn Monroe as a possible prototypical case of BPD under a neurodevelopmental perspective that accounts the ASD, as reported in DSM-5-TR (2022), in verbal adult without intellectual impairment, high-functioning autism (HFA), as vulnerability background predisposing to the progression to BPD and BD with unspecified catatonia, triggered by multiple traumas.

The Impact of Federal Reserve Interest Rate Hike on the Entertainment Industry: An Empirical Evidence

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes on the entertainment industry, with a focus on the American film company Disney. The study utilizes a VAR model for impulse response analysis and an ARMA-GARCH model for assessing stock returns and conditional variances. The findings indicate that a rise in the USD index leads to a decrease in Disney's earnings from foreign markets, and a Fed rate hike could have a negative impact on its profitability. However, higher interest rates can encourage funds to flow into the stock market and increase the demand for stocks, leading to a rise in stock prices. Negative effect dominates at the beginning, followed by positive effect, and then changes back to negative effect, gradually net effect tends to 0 over time. The paper suggests that investors diversify their portfolio, and that enterprises develop targeted risk management and seek policy support. The study provides insights into the multifaceted effects of a Fed rate hike on the entertainment industry, and contributes to the existing literature on exchange rate risk and capital structure in multinational corporations.

A24 and the Asian American Prestige Film

Some of the most visible and acclaimed recent Asian American films (Minari, The Farewell, After Yang, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Past Lives) have been financed or distributed by the Hollywood studio A24. This article explores A24’s “winning formula” for Asian American prestige, a package of discourses around race, independent film, and Asian American representation that appeals to both Oscar voters and Asian American filmgoers ready to venerate the films on social media and in journalistic writing. Specifically, in its advertising and other paratextual materials, A24 uses discourses of cultural authenticity, often around familiar and legible narratives of Asian immigrant families, to position these films as “quality” works worthy of official recognition. Their success in doing so speaks to a moment when Hollywood insiders both recognize the industry’s historical inability to represent Asian stories and desperately want to commend any efforts at doing so.

록키와 아도니스

This article examines the Rocky films, the most successful sport film franchise in the world, and the Creed films, the equally successful reboot of the Rocky universe first released in 2015. While prior criticism focuses on the Rocky films’ dated narrative of white working-class masculinity in favor of the updated racial and gender diversity of the Creed films, my article highlights the former’ enduring achievements, as well as the latter’s process of “remasculinization” despite the surface inclusiveness. The first section surveys the key issues of sport studies, (sport) film studies, and masculinity studies, in relation to the term “ideology.” The second section looks at the “negative dialectics” of ideology and utopia portrayed in the Rocky films, and reads the representation of masculinity in these films from the perspective of “post-masculinity.” Drawing upon the theme of “crisis of white masculinity” which has been ardently adopted by American literary and film texts since the 1950s, the last section argues that the Creed films create an extended Black version of this theme in a way similar to Fight Club.

Positive Shift of the Image of China in Recent Hollywood Blockbusters

Hollywood will encounter some cultural policies when its films are imported to the Chinese film market on a revenue-sharing basis. These include a quota system, a censorship system and an uncertain release schedule. However, China has been the fastest growing film market since 2008 and the second largest film market in the world since 2012 (yet the current film industries worldwide are recovering from the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic). Despite the restrictive cultural policies, Hollywood, attracted by the promising profitability, have incorporated more Chinese roles and more plots about China to please the Chinese film regulators and audiences in order to gain access to the lucrative Chinese film market. Furthermore, the depiction of China has become more positive and diverse in recent Hollywood blockbusters compared with the Orientalist stereotypical images in the past. The author intends to examine the reasons behind the phenomenon through analysing the positively changing images of China from early Hollywood films to the recent Hollywood blockbusters. In fact, the positively changing depiction of China illustrates China and the US negotiating the dynamic process of cross-cultural exchange in economic and political terms through compromise, competition and collaboration.