Film Culture Research Articles

Women, Feminism and Italian Cinema: Archives from a Film Culture by Dalila Missero, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2021, 188 pp., £90.00 (hardback), £19.99 (paperback), £5.00 (Ebook), ISBN: 978-1-474-46324-9 (hardback), 978-1-474-46325-6 (paperback), 978-1-474-46327-0 (Ebook)

Women, Feminism and Italian Cinema: Archives from a Film Culture by Dalila Missero, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2021, 188 pp., £90.00 (hardback), £19.99 (paperback), £5.00 (Ebook), ISBN: 978-1-474-46324-9 (hardback), 978-1-474-46325-6 (paperback), 978-1-474-46327-0 (Ebook)

Love is Glorious: The Analysis of Emotional Education Culture of Film “To Our Youth That Is Fading Away”

About the educational films, most of the existing studies in academia and culture are based on the construction of theoretical perspectives, or the discussion of the narrative content and the transformation of themes of a certain genre, but there is a lack of important educational issues based on the analysis of film texts. As a popular narrative genre of educational films in China since the beginning of this century, “youth narrative” has a wide range of communication audiences, but for the audience, there is a need for more in-depth discussion of its educational meaning. Therefore, it is necessary to select typical case of “youth film” in China, describe the emotional education in detail, and try to put forward the theoretical category of “emotional education culture”, to show that for teenagers, the complex, mutual, reverberative and dislocated relationship of emotional space poses a great challenge to education.

왜 영화를 트는가? - 동시대 비제도권 시네클럽 연구

This study aims to examine non-institutional cinè-clubs that screen films in the context of the increasingly individualised way of watching movies. Cinè-clubs in Korea, which have existed in various forms, have had a significant impact on the film viewing experience and the formation of cinephilia, which has been shaped by the military dictatorship, democratisation movement, and media changes of video and internet. This study analyses the activities and programming processes of non-institutional cinè-clubs in Seoul through a qualitative research methodology to discover the role and significance of cinè-clubs. Cine club operators born in the mid-90s to early 00s have embraced cinema in a variety of different ways. From this experience, their cinè-clubs represent a cross-section of contemporary cinèphilia, with activities that straddle the boundaries between legal and illegal, and programming that does not follow the canon, in the realm of the non-institutional. The university space and interaction in online communities are important conditions for the operation of these cinè-clubs. In addition, non-institutional cinè-clubs, which were formed as a result of the film movement in the 1990s, contribute to the diversity of film culture and the formation of new communities by discovering and screening films that have been marginalised by the Korean film institutions such as film festivals, film schools, and cinèmathèques. In the current stagnant Korean film culture, non-institutional cinè-clubs become a cultural space to discover lost vitality.

The Eroticism of the Face: Covers of Film Periodicals Ekrano Naujienos and Kinas (1955–1986)

Summary Soviet cinema magazines covers played a crucial role in shaping the cinematic star system of the Soviet Union, yet their significance has been largely overlooked in academic discussions. This article examines the covers of two periodicals, Ekrano naujienos (News of the Screen) and Kinas (Cinema), published in Soviet Lithuania from 1955 to 1986, focusing specifically on covers featuring a single face. The analysis situates these covers within the broader context of the close-up of the face, which held a prominent position in Soviet cinema culture. Additionally, the article explores the unique context of eroticism associated with the face in Soviet cinema criticism. Quantitative analysis reveals that cover images featuring women’s faces would eventually emerge as the predominant image type on the covers of both Ekrano naujienos and Kinas. By employing qualitative analysis, which divides images into descriptive and narrative categories, the aesthetic evolution of these covers is investigated. In the first half of the period from 1955 to 1972, narrative images were more prevalent. However, in the second half of that time, descriptive photographs depicting the faces of actresses, particularly those that were eroticized, became more prevalent. On the contrary, cover pages followed a standardized logic and avoided visually explicit images during the Stagnation period. The establishment of a cinema star system in Soviet Lithuania and the tightening of the Soviet cinema system are factors that contributed to these aesthetic shifts.

Listening to the kids: Children’s perceptions of culture and ethnicities in global animated films in Aotearoa New Zealand

This study aims to look at children’s opinions and ideas of representations of cultures in global animated films. The main idea behind this journal article is to give voice to the children that consume those media texts. This paper will highlight children’s answers to online surveys and one-on-one interviews from the second part of the data collection that took place in Aotearoa New Zealand over three years. As a theoretical framework, concepts and theories such as funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, 2005), cultural mediation (Martin-Barbero, 2006), and multiculturalism (Zalipour & Athique, 2016) are used to support the social and cultural landscape in which the research participants lived during the data collection. The interviews with the children aimed to discuss sixteen Disney and Pixar films and their respective twenty-four main characters. The purpose of the conversation was to understand where children think the films’ characters might have come from and, therefore, understand to what cultural background children believe those characters belong to. According to the research findings, some factors can add to children’s comprehensions of representations of culture in the media, such as the schools they attend, and the activities children develop in those educational environments.

Transatlantic Cinephilia: Film Culture between Latin America and France, 1945–1965

Transatlantic Cinephilia: Film Culture between Latin America and France, 1945–1965

‘Make it look a little like a festival’: Film exhibition and festival organizing at Films Femmes Méditerranée during the COVID-19 pandemic

This article attends to the strategies of survival, affective labour, and practices of care – for women’s film work and publics – within women’s film festivals during the COVID-19 pandemic through the case study of Films Femmes Méditeranée, a women’s film festival based in Marseille, France. The festival was founded in 2007 to give visibility to the work of female filmmakers from the Mediterranean through a curated program of films, showcased in art-house theatres, with free screenings for young audiences, students, the unemployed, and people living on social benefits. Drawing on interviews conducted with workers at Films Femmes Méditeranée, I first provide an overview of the history and the mandate of Films Femmes Méditeranée in relation to the legacy of early women’s film festivals by bringing to light the work of care carried on in the context of Marseille. I will then analyse Films Femmes Méditeranée’s practices of curation and care through digital media during the pandemic. Through a consideration of the labour of film programming and festival organizing vis-à-vis social distancing measures and an examination of curatorial choices, I interrogate how Films Femmes Méditeranée has adapted to the pandemic crisis through digital media to maintain its commitment to fostering transnational approaches to women’s film culture and to provide a space for encounters between female filmmakers and audiences.

Mumbai to Dubai: Promotional strategies and the celluloid journey of Bollywood films to the UAE

In recent years, the cinematic migration of Bollywood films from Mumbai to Dubai has captivated attention, prompting a focused investigation. This study aims to scrutinize the promotional strategies used in distributing Bollywood films in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through meticulous analysis of questionnaire responses. Executing an extensive survey for UAE moviegoers and industry professionals, the research seeks quantitative data on the efficacy of diverse promotional strategies. The study underscores the importance of cultural variables in Bollywood-UAE film promotion, examining cultural similarities between India and the UAE, portraying UAE culture in Bollywood films, and using cultural festivals for marketing. Economic factors driving this collaboration, including box office success, coproductions, and the impact of Bollywood tourism on the UAE economy, are systematically analyzed. The study explores technological advancements in film promotion—social media, internet streaming, and virtual reality—and their impact on the relationship between Bollywood and the UAE. The survey investigates audience preferences, advertising impacts, and awareness levels by examining specific advertising tactics in the UAE, such as premieres, endorsements, tours, and participation in festivals and award shows. In addition to providing a comprehensive understanding of the promotional environment, the questionnaire data analysis identifies trends influencing the trajectory of Bollywood films in the UAE, offering empirical support to film studies and marketing. The hypothesis is tested on the Chi-square, Pearson Correlation, and Mann‒Whitney. The research’s conclusions contribute to understanding the globalization of the Bollywood film industry, guiding producers, marketers, and researchers in cross-cultural film promotion and global industry partnerships.

Adapting the Holocaust: Martin Amis’ and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest

Abstract Critics and reviewers have frequently dismissed the adaptive relationship between Martin Amis’ novel The Zone of Interest (2014) and Jonathan Glazer’s 2023 film of the same name. This essay argues that this is an inaccurate characterization of the connection between two works that respond to one of the main cultural challenges of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: how best to represent the horrors of the Holocaust. Both, I argue, do so at least in part through strategies of adaptation, and should be seen not just as two parts of a source-text/adapted-text binary, but as part of a larger adaptive and intertextual network. This status has a direct impact on the overlapping ways they deal with the problematics of Holocaust representation. By addressing the challenges of Holocaust representation through strategies of adaptation, Amis’ novel and Glazer’s film reaffirm both the importance of the Holocaust to contemporary literary and cinematic culture and the importance of adaptation and adaptive processes to its representation.

Singing Against the Grain: How Ivan Kavaleridze Navigated Socialist Realism in His Film Opera Natalka Poltavka (1936)

Abstract The article discusses the first attempts of Soviet culture to produce a hybrid genre of film opera in the mid-1930s. It traces the artistic background of Ukrainian sculptor and filmmaker Ivan Kavaleridze who was chosen to pioneer the new genre, as well as the complex national dynamic between Russian and non-Russian Soviet republics amidst the stabilization of Socialist Realist conventions and the launch of the anti-formalist campaign in the ussr. Finally, it addresses the issues of russification, exoticization and alienation of Ukrainian film culture of the time.

Xiaomei Chen. Performing the Socialist State: Modern Chinese Theater and Film Culture

This book presents a nuanced, revisionist exploration of the development of modern and contemporary Chinese theatre and related arts, challenging the conventional demarcations between Republican, high socialist, and post-socialist periods. It discloses subtle entanglements in theatre theory and practice, underscoring the persistent approaches to aesthetics and politics across eras and theatrical genres.

Research on Social and Cultural Stereotypes of Chinese Men in Hollywood Films: A Case Study of "The Mask of Fu Manchu"

To better penetrate the international market and gain a wider international audience, Hollywood has made films with rich and varied themes based on the cultures of various countries. Given China's rich cultural heritage and vast market, Hollywood has made many films set in China t open up the Chinese market and carry out cultural exchanges between China and the West. However, due to the misunderstanding between cultures, there are prejudices and stereotypes of Chinese men's society and culture in Hollywood films. This study applies the case study method in the qualitative research method and takes〈The Mask of Fu Manchu〉 film as a case study to systematically analyze Fu Manchu's external characteristics such as gender, t, and form, as well as internal characteristics such as behaviors and personalities. It is found that the Chinese male socio-cultural symbols in the film are oversimplified and culturally misinterpreted, leaving the audience with a stereotypical impression of cultural homogeneity. Based on this, this study explores multiple perspectives from history, culture, and art to find ways to eliminate stereotypes of Chinese men in Hollywood films, promote producers' understanding of different cultures, build a positive image of China, and provide a path for viewers to correctly understand Chinese culture.

Cultural Export and Global Perception of the Mexican Film Industry

This paper examines the dynamic role of the Mexican film industry as a significant cultural exporter and its evolving perception in the global market. It traces the historical development of Mexican cinema from its Golden Age to its modern resurgence, highlighting the contributions of seminal filmmakers and landmark films that have shaped its international identity. The study explores the mechanisms of cultural export, including traditional and digital distribution channels and the pivotal role of film festivals and international awards. Further, it analyzes the global reception of Mexican films, noting the critical and audience responses across diverse cultural landscapes. The influence of Mexican cinema on global film practices and cultural trends is examined through its narrative innovations and thematic contributions. Finally, the paper discusses future trends and identifies potential challenges and opportunities for Mexican cinema, emphasizing the need for sustainable funding models and the balance between global appeal and cultural authenticity. This comprehensive review illuminates how Mexican cinema continues to contribute to and shape the global cinematic landscape, advocating for a more inclusive and diverse film culture.

The experience of cinema-going for women in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s

ABSTRACT In the field of Japanese film studies, the relationship between women and cinema during the 1920s and 1930s has been mainly explored through the perspective of women’s representation in films, largely neglecting the experiences of actual, historical female audiences in cinemas. This article examines how Japanese female audiences received films in cinemas and the experiences these venues offered to women. By analysing contemporary film magazine and newspaper articles, which discuss female film audiences or are authored by women themselves, this study sheds light on the cinema-going experiences of women in Japan during this period. It particularly focuses on schoolgirls’ experiences of watching Western-imported films, drawing on their testimonies found in film magazines. For schoolgirls, cinema visits constituted an adventurous escape from domestic confines. Watching foreign-imported, particularly American, films provided them with an opportunity to observe and imagine lives divergent from their own. Moreover, the widespread film culture among schoolgirls enabled them to share their affinity for these films. The article concludes that cinema-going offered schoolgirls an opportunity to momentarily escape their constrained lives and collectively envisage a life beyond their immediate realities.

The Earth in the Land: Internationalism, Regional Culturalism, and Cosmopolitanism in 1960s Films from Soviet Ukraine

Abstract In the film history of the Ukrainian ssr, the Thaw is regarded as the era of the rebirth of a national Ukrainian cinema. Both films celebrating regional diversity and films merely drawing on local crews and infrastructure are said to have contributed to a national film culture. I look at three distinct approaches to the Soviet concept of multinationality to show that the rebirth of a national cinema was characterized by approaches that did not claim a distinct national identity for Ukraine. Instead, directors facing regional diversity either transcended Ukraine’s cultural environment (through internationalism), undercut it (through what I call regional culturalism), or ignored it altogether (through cosmopolitanism). With the help of this typology, I point to the complex cultural politics of the time. The Soviet Ukrainian films I discuss exemplarily were not part of a common national project at the time, though they may have contributed to it as time passed.

UNDERSTANDING BOLLYWOOD CULT FILMS: EXPLORING THEIR ROLE IN CHANGING CONVENTIONS AND IMPACTING NEW THOUGHTS IN INDIAN YOUTH, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

This research explores the impact of Bollywood cult films on Indian society and culture, focusing on how they challenge preconceived notions and promote original thought. Cult films often address taboo topics and minority perspectives, encouraging viewers to think critically and explore alternative options. These films reflect social and cultural shifts in India, highlighting the concerns and opinions of younger generations and building passionate fan followings. Despite having a low return on investment, many cult films have a long-lasting influence, sometimes serving as catalysts for social and cultural movements and impacting the careers of performers and filmmakers. The study highlights the importance of filmmakers considering the social impact of their work and using their platform to support ideals that promote peace, justice and social harmony. Researchers and students interested in the film industry, popular culture and society can use this data to examine and compare various cult films and understand their cultural and social values. The results of this research can be used by scholars, students and researchers to better understand the cultural and social significance of Bollywood cult films and their impact on Indian society and culture.

Approaching a National Film History through Data. Network Analysis in German Film History

The present paper is an attempt at importing network analysis as a method and applying it to a field that has hitherto been examined in different ways: the study of national cinema. The approach was motivated by the perceived conundrum in the existing studies of German cinema that filmhistorical and political history usually do not match. The aim is to open up another perspective on the problem of periodization by looking at the data of film production, more specifically of collaboration. By using a comprehensive data set which is made availavable by the Filmportal, the central internet platform on German film, the approach in this paper is to look at the key creatives involved in the production of a film in the period from 1919 to 1939 and to conceptualize collaboration and connectivity in a (national) film culture through the use of network research methods.

A Digital Archaeology of Early Hispanic Film Culture: Film Magazines and the Male Fan Reader

As a sociologically-oriented study, this project contributes to an archaeology of cinema fandom broadly, and early Spanish fan culture specifically, by spotlighting male readers of popular film magazines. Taking as an exploratory case study reader interactivity with the magazine Popular Film, analysis of correspondence and published photos of readers participating in reader contests demonstrates that the magazine’s cinema fan base was composed of a strikingly large proportion of readers who were male and that these were ardent enthusiasts of celebrity consumer culture. This is a notable contradistinction to the widely-held idea of the star-struck female movie fan. Methodologically, in conducting this study we reflect on the challenges of digital approaches to historical periodical research, where particular challenges are posed when working with magazines in a non-anglophone language, and when there are few baseline studies to rely on to guide and contextualize patterns picked up through strictly macro methods. We advocate for the affordances of a mixed macro-micro approach that combines distant reading with traditional textual studies of close reading. By adopting such a hybrid framework, digital methods provide new opportunities towards reconstructing profiles of magazine readerships and to unearth evidence of male movie fans in Spain.

Quantifying Women’s Marginalisation in Ibero-American Film Culture During the First Half of the Twentieth Century: A Network-Science Proposal

The research presented here uses the tools of social network analysis to empirically show a socio-cultural phenomenon already addressed by the social sciences and history: the historical marginalisation of women in the field of cinema. The novelty of our approach lies in the use of a large amount of heterogeneous historical data. On the one hand, we built a network of interactions between people involved in the film field in Ibero-America during the first half of the twentieth century. On the other hand, we propose a k-core decomposition and a multi-layered analysis, as a quantitative way to study the position of women within the cultural melieu. After conducting our analysis, we concluded that women were mostly situated in the outer k-shells of the empirical network, and their distribution was not uniform across the k-shells. From a qualitative perspective, these results can be interpreted as the consequence of the lack of evidence of the participation of women in the public sphere.

Exploring the Intersection of Religion and Cinema: Trends and Reflections in Contemporary Film Culture

This article delves into the complex relationship between religion and film, and studies the latest trends and ethical reflections in the field of film culture. Through an interdisciplinary perspective, this article explores how movies serve as a medium for communication between audiences and religion. By paying attention to the use of religious symbols and themes in movies, audiences are invited to reflect on spiritual themes and religious culture. The analysis of the social response of religious expressions in movies highlights the interactive relationship between social beliefs, cultural backgrounds, and religious narratives. This study focuses on the rich and diverse interpretations of religious themes in global film works by showcasing different depictions of religious elements in global films. In addition, the study also explored the role of film festivals as active platforms for religious dialogue and cross-cultural exchange, promoting a deeper understanding of religious diversity in contemporary society. The article also showcases the constantly evolving trend of religion in movies, as well as the ongoing academic enthusiasm for the ethical significance of depicting religious elements in movies.