Fiction Film Research Articles

‘I, Robot’ and the Breadcrumbs of Anti-Blackness

Post-racial and colourblind framings suggest that the racial divides of the past have been rendered obsolete, largely due to the advancements spurred by social movements in the 1960s and 1970s. However, scholars across the fields of Rhetoric, Theory, and Black Studies have shown how these framings, rather than ameliorating racial divides, have deepened them by subtly endorsing whiteness and white supremacist ideologies. This paper introduces the concept of ‘Technological Progress Framing’ – the belief that technology and its rapid advancements can resolve racial disparities. It argues that this framing has, in certain contexts, either repackaged or supplanted post-racial perspectives, ultimately serving the interests of whiteness. Using the 2004 film ‘I, Robot’, the paper elucidates how science fiction films, undergirded by this Technological Progress Framing, further anti-Black rhetoric and agendas.

Encouraging Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Engagement: A Case Study of Biology in Text and Film

ABSTRACT In this article, we describe an interdisciplinary course entitled ‘Biologies in Text and Film,’ co-taught by a literary historian and biological scientist. In our course, we use dark science fiction film and texts, as well as biology content, to unpack the ways scientific knowledge is entangled in social and narrative paradigms and vice versa. We first describe our course’s theoretical positioning, which adapts a medical humanities framework. Our positioning breaks from an existing science-via-fiction approach that prioritises the teaching of science at the expense of a more holistic discussion of narrative and science’s social entanglements. Our course uniquely and substantively meets both literary and biology learning outcomes. We provide our four-stage course structure: breadcrumbing, deep-diving, interpretation, and application. We believe this approach can help humanities and STEM students to engage with high-stakes wicked problems through a disciplinary blending that leads students to a more robust understanding of how our real and imagined world(s) are entangled.

Mendax v Verax Images of Snowden and Assange in Fiction and Documentary Films

This paper deals with depictions of the whistleblower Edward Snowden and publisher/activist Julian Assange in fiction and documentary Films and aims to compare and contrast the images of the two whistleblowers in the media: one the “good patriot”, the other an “egotistical” outsider. Whereas a film like Snowden (2016) tries to locate Snowden in the tradition of American whistleblowing as a righteous critique of power and depict him as a “good” individual, films about WikiLeaks/Assange tend to focus on his problematic personality, as in The Fifth Estate (2013). Is it possible to think Snowden and Assange together, even when they appear radically different: Mendax, the (noble) “liar” and Verax, the truth teller? At the same time, whistleblowing can be read through critique of ideology as put forth by Slavoj Žižek, a critique that is perhaps only possible through the “naive” gaze of the whistleblower and can help us discern the act of whistleblowing as such from the individualistic approach often deployed by the media.

O contracinema feminista de Agnès Varda: imagens do desnudamento na reinvenção do amor

The text aims to characterize the feminist counter-cinema of Agnès Varda in three fiction films, Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), One sings, the other doesn’t (1976) and Vagabond (1985), based on an interpretative analysis that outlines three categories of images of nudity: literal, existential-metaphorical and cinematographic. The cine-pamphlet Women reply: our body, our sex (1975) summarizes the common proposal of the films and sheds light on their goal: the reinvention of love. This is an exercise in film analysis and philosophical interpretation, in dialogue with studies in history, theory and criticism of cinema, which seeks to characterize a particular form of feminist counter-cinema.

Motions in Pictures: From Habermas’s Informal Political Sphere to Formal Politics in the Films Footloose, Land and Freedom and The Beguiled

This article analyses three historical fiction films, Footloose, Land and Freedom and The Beguiled, to help illuminate aspects of politics and political theory. We study them to explore the relationship between Habermas’s concepts of the lifeworld and political spheres, which analysts have critiqued as opaque. Drawing on Habermas’s theory of communicative action, we debate prevailing understandings of the implications of his work for deliberative democracy via an exploration of the films. By expanding the definition of the term ‘motion’ (otherwise known as ‘draft resolution’), we relate this concept to these Habermasian themes. Thus, this paper analyses feature film case studies as they incorporate motions into fictionalised accounts. We suggest that focusing on these movies’ motions, embedded in unfolding narratives, can help reconceive Habermas’s work to illustrate fluidity in how people and ideas may move between informal and more formal spheres. Ultimately, by showcasing the importance of motions in political participation, via these movies, we advance the idea that motions may be seen as part of a ladder of involvement, providing further opportunities for encouraging participation.

Filmic Representation of ‘A Community with a Shared Future for Mankind’ in The Wandering Earth Series

Over the past 4 years, The Wandering Earth series has garnered significant acclaim and recognition within the market and film festival circuits. This study examines The Wandering Earth series, including The Wandering Earth and The Wandering Earth II, through the lens of ‘a community with a shared future for mankind’. Utilising qualitative content analysis, it explores the representation of global cooperation in these Chinese science fiction films, transcending conventional Western-centric narratives. The study reveals a unified international community by analysing film narratives, characters and visual symbolism, focusing significantly on China and non-Western countries’ roles in saving humanity. This approach aligns with global governance and post-colonial theories, highlighting the series’ challenge to Western hegemony and its contribution to the discourse on China’s growing cultural industry influence. This research enriches understanding of Chinese cinema’s role in shaping cultural values and international cooperation, emphasising the potential of the science fiction genre to reimagine global dynamics from a non-Western perspective. Its implications extend to enhancing the global understanding of China’s cultural narratives and contribute to the international dialogue on the evolution and influence of Chinese science fiction films.

The Power of Documentaries Comes from the Fact that They are Grounded in Fact, Not Fiction

This paper examines the distinctive power of documentaries compared to fiction films, emphasizing their authenticity. Documentaries are often perceived as more credible due to their use of real images and sounds, which leads audiences to trust the content presented. However, the author draws on multiple scholarly perspectives to argue that the truthfulness of documentaries can be subjective, much like that of fiction films. The paper also analyzes the educational and transformative roles of documentaries in society, highlighting key differences between documentaries and fiction films in terms of information dissemination, visual representation, and audience interaction. Through this analysis, the paper concludes that the strength of documentaries stems from their portrayal of the real world, setting them apart from the imaginative nature of fiction films.

Mediating Monstrosity: The Threat of the (In)Visible in the MonsterVerse

Drawing on Susan Sontag’s understanding of the anxieties about contemporary existence lurking beneath the surface of science fiction films, this article argues that the focus on media monitoring, mapping and materializing the giant monster in the MonsterVerse functions as a negotiation of the limits of visibility of catastrophe. Hiding, waiting, lurking underneath the surface in the “Hollow Earth”, the giant monsters are—paradoxically—invisible and hypervisible, absent and present at the same time. Throughout and across the films and series in the narrative universe, media in the MonsterVerse are charged with “proving” the threat of the (in)visible, while at the same time challenging mediated registers of truth and trustability. Making the monster is simultaneously presented as the promise and problem of technological mediation. With the emphasis on flashbacks to different time periods—including the 1940s in Kong: Skull Island (2017), the 1950s in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023) and the 1990s in Godzilla (2014)—this not only appears to be about the mediatization of the monsters but rather their analogization. Captured in hand-drawn maps, grainy images and static sound recordings, proving the existence of the monstrous threat becomes a question of materiality as well.

Artistic-Stylistic Search for Cinematic Expression and Hybrid Documentary: To the Question of Genealogy of Mockumentary

The purpose of article is to analyse the artistic-stylistic search for cinema expression in connection with the emergence of hybrid documentary as an audio-visual environment and a context for the development of mockumentary. Research methodology is based on the culturological approach that allowed us to expand the context of consideration of the problem genealogy of mockumentary and special-scientific methods of art history. Considering the synthetic nature of the researched phenomenon, the work is comprehensive and interdisciplinary. Without involving knowledge in philosophy, aesthetics, the theory of cinema and television is difficult to understand such multifaceted and complex phenomena, such as hybrid documentary and mockumentary. Scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time, at the level of a single research, attention is focused on the role of artistic-stylistic searches for cinematic expressiveness and hybrid documentary in shaping the context of the formation of mockumentary as a genreform and phenomenon of audio-visual culture in the second half of the XX century. Conclusions. If is proved that they should not exclude the practice of embodying life material in a work of fiction and documentary, which is directly related to the stylistic search for cinematic expressiveness as an important determinant of the genealogy of mockumentary. It is affirmed that the advent of television convinced us that the mobility of the boundaries between the chronicle and the staged aspect is not limited to on-screen synthesis and experiments with form, but also refers to semantic hybridisation, which has led to the formation of various genreforms within television documentaries, such as mockumentaries, documentary drama, or “docudrama”. Genre mutations and convergent processes, which also encompassed hybrid documentaries, eventually led to the expansion of the documentary sphere towards the emergence of mixed forms as hybrids of the fiction, fictional and real spheres, i.e. the transformation of the artistic-aesthetic system of documentary led to the emergence of mockumentary as a fiction film with fictional content in documentary form in the audio-visual culture of the second half of the XX century.

‘Martenaut Waves’ in the Music of the French Avant-Garde Cinematographer of the First Half of the 20th Century (on the example of the creativity of A. Honegger)

The purpose of the study is to reveal the figurative, semantic and symbolic specificity of the interpretation of the timbre of "Martenaut waves" in the music of the French avant-garde cinematography of the first half of the 20th century, including in the work of A. Honegger. Research methodology. Cultural-historical, interdisciplinary historical-cultural, as well as analytical-musicological methods were essential for this work. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it introduces for the first time into the circulation of art historians the materials related to the film music of A. Honegger and its timbral specificity, marked by an appeal to the semantic and expressive features of the "Martenaut waves". Conclusions. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as a result of rapid scientific and technical progress, cinematography came to the forefront of world art. The unity of cinematography as a synthetic art and music is strengthened by the emergence of sound cinema in 1926-1927, in which music is recorded on the same film as the image. The use of electric musical instruments, including "Martenaut waves", becomes organic in this process. Thanks to their unusual timbre, they acquired the meaningful status of the embodiment of "the materialisation of the intangible." The world of hallucinations and dreams, mystical spiritual revelations and unusual natural phenomena – such was the range of images that were conveyed with the help of this instrument in French film music of the 1930s and 1940s. A. Honegger worked most fruitfully in this field during the mentioned period, whose creative output includes more than forty soundtracks, including those using "Martenaut waves". One of the first films in which the expressive timbre of this instrument is used was the science fiction film "The End of the World" (1931) directed by A. Gans, as well as the animated film "Idea" (1934) directed by B. Bartosh and artist F. Mazerel. In the musical accompaniment of these films, the timbre of the "Martenaut waves" occupies almost the most important place, revealing the connection of the instrument with the sphere of the Sacred and the Cosmic and the spiritual and stylistic searches of European modern culture.

The effectiveness of using science fiction films to foster creativity in a biological context

ABSTRACT The use of science fiction resources to enhance creativity is an innovative approach that is gaining international attention. This study combines science fiction films (SFFs) based biological learning with the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model to offer the Biology in Science Fiction Films course in high school. During the course, we assessed students’ creative thinking propensities using the Creativity Assessment Packet and evaluated creativity in students-created micro-science fictions (micro-SFs) by the consensus assessment technique. The results showed that after the theme-based instruction: (1) the students’ creative thinking propensities produced a significant increase in the overall (p = 0.005), with highly significant increases in the imaginative dimension (p = 0.004) and the challenging dimension (p = 0.030); (2) Students’ scores on micro-SFs created in the post-test improved over the pre-test, but their pre- and post-test gaps have not yet reached the level of significant difference. The study indicates that the course has the potential to offer a new avenue for the development of students’ creativity. Collaborating across disciplines may be able to enhance students’ creativity in a more comprehensive manner.

Metaverse Insights: Research Advancements, Innovation Trends and Industry Implications

The metaverse is a universe of communication across boundaries. The provision of new experiences with the highest level of immersion through virtualisation, a greater degree of flexibility to produce and distribute information, and a space for new social communication all occur here. With the aid of technology and gadgets, people can engage digitally and visually in the virtual environment provided by metaverse. It is considered to be an ‘extension of the internet’ in fact. The metaverse has no restrictions based on location. It is based on an ‘immersive digital environment’ that is unbroken, without constraints and without borders. Although it seems like something out of a science fiction film or book, it is actually the way that communication will be done in the future. This article is an attempt to analyse the selective literature from the Scopus database to form an opinion about what can be the trends of research in metaverse and what are the areas of applicability of this phenomenon in business scenarios. It highlights the research areas mushrooming in the field of metaverse.

Joker stages: popular performance and theatrical sensibilities in Joker comics and film adaptations

ABSTRACT Clown, performer, entertainer. The Joker’s stage identities and innate theatricality have many facets. This article explores the violent clown’s theatrical sensibilities across a range of Joker comics and films with the aim of opening up a conversation between the present and the past – between contemporary Joker ‘stage performances’ unfolding in comics and a powerful mix of historical contexts and cultural continuities that, we argue, continue to inform Joker stages in comics and film. The Joker’s theatrical sensibilities, this study shows, are influenced by the aesthetics and cultural backgrounds of three intertwined phenomena: (un)happy comic performers from fictional films, stage hypnotists, and ‘theatres of pain’. From these three phenomena emerges a dialogue with historical precedents of comic performance, hypnotic spectacle and the representation of violence (sometimes with comedic elements) that not only refers back to the late nineteenth century, but continues to shape the Joker’s identity and stories, and helps us to better understand the character’s aesthetic achievements and cultural power.

Spatial Fantasies in Contemporary Russian Cinema

Fantastic film worlds give the viewer a new experience of understanding and living in space – combining different locations, establishing and overcoming boundaries, transitions into a fascinating other reality. This article examines the spatial patterns that create arenas of action for characters in Russian films and series of fantasy-mystical content shot in the 2020s. Analyses of worldbuilding in science fiction are related to philosophical ideas about possible worlds and are most represented by discussions of fantasy literature, whereas film fiction and the spaces it depicts await research attention. The authors dissect spatial patterns in sci-fi cinema as a reflection of current social conflicts/divisions and solidarities/convergences; reflecting on how spatial configurations encode the unprecedented mediation of modern technologies and normalize futuristic spatial practices. The focus is on the recurring film-to-film emphasis on the permeability, hybridity and tunnelling of space, on the phantasmagoria of non-releasing places. Russian cinema responds to an ontological philosophical agenda by visualizing the permeability of boundaries and the co-presence of man and other beings. The analysis shows that the portals and roads linking dream and reality, Soviet and modern Moscow, the cyber village on Mars and other planets of the solar system bear a significant plot load. The movement of the characters in an extraordinary space reproduces the archetypal test of the road and provides an opportunity to discuss social and attitudinal issues relevant to the Russian present. Particular attention is paid to the pattern of non-releasing space, which concentrates the fear of isolation characteristic of the established culture of mobility. Science fiction in cinema immerses viewers in worlds inhabited by unusual creatures, filled with artefacts, infrastructure, often through plot tension, frightening hints, visual effects draws attention to significant problems and challenges, including in the discussion of images of the future.

Fascination and strength: The face in the work of Ciprì and Maresco

This article explores the treatment of the face in the work of Palermo filmmakers Daniele Ciprì and Franco Maresco and proposes several considerations regarding the stark nudity of the face, its rawness and strength, and the relationships that the two filmmakers establish between face and mask. Through an analysis of the cinematic fiction of Maresco and Ciprì – Lo zio di Brooklyn (The Uncle from Brooklyn) (1995), Totò che visse due volte (Totò Who Lived Twice) (1998) and Il ritorno di Cagliostro (The Return of Cagliostro) (2003) – as well as their television work on Cinico TV (1989–96), this article demonstrates how the face emerges as a powerful tool that combats aesthetic homogeneity and narrative indoctrination of the media, as well as outlines a grotesquely attractive world.

Backroads into buried pasts: Irish border mobilities and narrative film

ABSTRACT Because of the Irish border’s troubled history and heightened symbolism, filmmakers have since long relied on the border as a setting to thematise issues of national identity, belonging, and trauma. Departing from the concept of border poetics this article takes films featuring the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as its topic of inquiry. Beyond compiling a border film archive in which all cinematic representation of the Irish border is collected, a close reading is conducted of border mobilities in a sample of 43 narrative fiction films (1937–2021). The article’s textual analysis makes the distinction between three border mobilities (1) border crossing, (2) border inhabiting, and (3) border (re)visiting, to investigate how filmmakers utilise the Irish border for various narrative, formal, and ideological ends. As such, the border’s cinematic legacy can be better understood.

Beyond the Silver Screen: Exploring Future Public Life Through Sociological Film Analysis

This study seeks to interrogate prospective configurations of public life through science fiction films, particularly by addressing the effects of technological advances and changes on society. In the study’s methodology, 27 films were assessed using the sociological film analysis method. In these films, an analysis was conducted on thematic elements, encompassing aspects such as the physical environment, socio-cultural structures, public life, technological infrastructure, and dynamics of human relationships. As a result, a codex of thematic codes was meticulously crafted. The main findings indicate that the films contain scenarios that discuss the boundaries of public space and reflect future social structures. The emphasis appears to be on how and to what extent technology is used. This research presents novel ideas and a platform for discussion for urban planning, architecture, social sciences, and film studies. The originality of this study lies in its analysis of cinematographic content from a sociological standpoint, providing an in-depth perspective on the future of public life and adding a new dimension to the existing body of knowledge on the subject.

Eschatology of the Singularity: “Deus ex machina” in the Construction of Film Images of the Future

The mixed assessment by critics and theorists of the deus ex machina artistic device common in popular cinema requires a more thorough study of its dramatic and narrative functions in science fiction films. It is in the construction of film images of the future that this technique is combined with a fantastic assumption, expressing the narrator’s attitude towards artistic narration and becoming an argument in dialogue with the viewer. The study reveals, based on the analysis of empirical material, the multifunctionality of deus ex machina using the example of the development of the theme of technological singularity in cinema. The analysis of films significant for the development of the science fiction (Sci-Fi) genre and the most popular television series among science fiction fans today demonstrates the evolution of the deus ex machina technique. In addition to the trivial function of arbitrary resolution of peripeteia, it acquires various dramatic functions (accelerating or slowing down the rhythm of action, connecting parts of the plot in a large form), obtains the properties of scaling and fragmentation, synchrony and asynchrony with a fantastic assumption, adding complex narrative functions to the toolkit of expressive means, through which the narrator reveals or, on the contrary, conceals his attitude to artistic reality, involving the viewer into the game of probable meanings. The authors of the article come to the conclusion that the theme of technological singularity has been penetrating cinema since its appearance in the work of L. Lumiere and determines, depending on the narrator’s attitude to the topic, the vector of techno-skepticism or techno-optimism in the eschatological dilemma that characterizes the cosmogony of traditional religions. The article is of interest to researchers and film lovers and contributes to the study of artistic and scientific communication.

The Analysis of Surreal Space’s Expression in Science Fiction Films: A Case Study of Interstellar

This research analyzes surreal space expression in science fiction films, using Interstellar as a case study. The study aims to identify the expression forms and visual effects of surreal space in science fiction films and to summarize the underlying scientific principles, aesthetic principles, and audience psychological interaction. The findings of this research will contribute to the improvement and industrial development of science fiction film scene design. By proposing instructions that combine scientific theories and physical space design, the study aims to address the issues of immature theories of surreal spatial constructions in science fiction films. The guidance provided will help enhance the quality of science fiction film productions.

BEDAWANG NALA: ARTISTIC INSPIRATION FOR A FICTION FILM TO STRENGTHEN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AWARENESS

This research explores the philosophical and symbolic value of Bedawang Nala in Balinese architectural art and the development of its narrative in fiction films based on Hindu mythology. Bedawang Nala, depicted as a giant fire-haired turtle with dragons Anantabhoga and Basuki, reflects cosmic balance and natural harmony in Tri Hita Karana. This qualitative research uses an interdisciplinary perspective involving the views of cultural studies and the creativity of film art creation. Data was obtained through in-depth interviews to explore the meaning and connection of the Bedawang Nala concept with environmental themes, audiovisual observations of traditional Balinese architecture, and literature studies on Bedawang Nala and ecological issues. Data were analyzed using interview transcript interpretation techniques to identify main themes related to the philosophical and symbolic values of Bedawang Nala, audiovisual analysis, and literature synthesis that connects findings from interviews and observations with current discussions about ecological education. The findings show that the Bedawang Nala mythology is not just an aesthetic ornament but has an educational value relevant to contemporary environmental issues. The development of this mythology-based film narrative can be an effective academic and cultural reflection tool, strengthening ecological awareness in society. This research suggests making and evaluating films based on Bedawang Nala and exploring other local mythologies to increase the educational impact and environmental awareness through film media.