Fiction Film Research Articles

The Great Leap Backward: Forgetting and Representing the Mao Years

The Great Leap Backward: Forgetting and Representing the Mao Years

Review: Post-Horror: Art, Genre and Cultural Elevation, by David Church

Review: <i>Post-Horror: Art, Genre and Cultural Elevation</i>, by David Church

Is there no place like home? Women’s quest for their place in Maura Delpero’s cinema

This article is the first academic study on the Italian filmmaker Maura Delpero and analyses her fiction film Hogar (Maternal) (2019) and documentaries Signori Professori (‘Professors’) (2008) and Nadea e Sveta (‘Nadea and Sveta’) (2012). The three films are discussed individually and also through a comparative analysis that investigates the modes of filmic representation of the female search for a place in the world, thematic and stylistic recurring elements and dynamics between fiction and non-fiction filmmaking in Delpero’s works. Discussion of Delpero’s films is augmented with the director’s own reflections on her work as expressed in an interview the article author conducted in May 2020.

Red Planets

The desert in the South of Jordan is a popular location for multimillion-dollar productions of science fiction films. The combination of vast arid lands and lucrative tax rebates offered by the Royal Film Commission make the Jordanian desert a desirable backdrop for expeditions to hostile extraterrestrial planets. Dune (2021), Mission to Mars (2000), The Martian (2015), Last Days on Mars (2013), Transformers (2007), and The Red Planet (2010) are a few of the feature film titles produced by American companies and filmed in Jordan’s Wadi Rum. This article argues that the cinematic portrayal of worlds ravaged by resource scarcity and climate peril too often sustains the perception of the desert as an unruly, lawless, and dead land. While the environmental humanities often aim to shift the scale of our historic lens to bear witness to the entire earth, this article reflects on the stakes of further abstracting the specificity of geography and extending the colonial imaginaries of wasteland. Reflecting on the process of capturing images of landscapes in the Middle East, the article considers desert locations as unique “extractive zones” wherein the topsoil is captured and circulated as high-definition images. Thinking of filmmaking as extractive means defining images as materials, and considering the laws, labor, and cultural imaginations merged in this process.

Science Fiction and Political Imagination: ELLs Co-constructing Critical Social Justice Narratives in the ELT Classroom

Abstract Engaging with social, political, and cultural topics can pose challenges in English language teaching classrooms. These sites represent linguistically diverse settings housing distinct ideologies. This article documents classroom interactions that began with exposure to a science fiction film and progressed to a discussion of contemporary sociopolitical concerns that resonated with ELLs. Drawing on this case study, the article explores how an instructor and her ELL students addressed sociopolitical topics in a science fiction–themed classroom. The author analyzes student–teacher and student–student interactions in the classroom and the instructor’s subsequent self-reflection. Findings suggest that, when adopting intellectually stimulating materials that foster ELLs’ agency in learning, teachers need scaffolding to meaningfully incorporate such tools into a critical pedagogical approach.

Роль эвристического потенциала в реализации технической образности в зарубежной научной фантастике

The paper aims to identify the main features and the focus of imagery realization of heuristic potential by the example of technical vocabulary in the screenplays of English science fiction films. The article clarifies the role of heuristic potential in solving screenwriting problems, identifies the mechanism of heuristic metaphorical selection in the screenplays of science fiction films in the English language, proves that the characteristics of the technical sphere can be used as the primary source of units during the figurative reinterpretation of problematic screenwriting situations. The scientific originality of the research lies in the fact that it studied technical imagery based on the screenplay text for the first time which expands the understanding of an image during its amplification (development, completion) in order to seek understanding between the characters. As a result, it has been proved that heuristic potential uses technical imagery to solve important screenwriting problems, and that leads to the moments of inspiration and discovery of new solutions on the basis of technical imagery schemes.

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

How Pandemic Films Help Us Understand Outbreaks: Implications for Futures and Foresight

We analyzed 30 pandemic films and developed a processual model to explain the social-level coping mechanisms to confront pandemics as portrayed in films. The model describes the underlying collective understanding of disease outbreaks. The model suggests that pandemic films divide the disease outbreak into three phases: emergence, transmission, and termination. Concurrently, three social processes tend to be activated to cope with the pandemic: healthcare, political, and public awareness. This model is used to compare the social imaginary reflected in films with the current COVID-19 outbreak. The resemblance of the model and the current outbreak suggests that fictional pandemic films may still follow our collective understanding of the pandemic dynamics. Four scenarios are suggested as road maps for futures and foresight practice concerned with future pandemic outbreaks.

Addressing the Future with Data Visualization in Science Fiction Films: Dystopia or Utopia

The subject of the research is the methods and techniques of addressing the future in dystopian and utopian films. The object of research is visual effects and ways of displaying the future, which allow us to convey to the viewer the meaning of the narrative. In the process of research, special attention is paid to the possibilities of science fiction films that create another world with the help of special effects, emphasizing many themes and hidden ideas, while depicting a fairy tale. Special emphasis is placed on the fact that modern technologies, the possibilities of creating visual effects have changed the film industry, as a result of which it has strengthened the genre convergence of utopian and dystopian film products, as a result of which it has become possible to create plausible worlds so that science fiction films are perceived in a more immersive way. The main conclusions of the study are the conclusion that the modern tradition of visualizing science fiction films embraces and interweaves dystopias and utopias within the framework of one work, as a result of which the narratives are doubly fictional: they create a utopian or dystopian place as a backdrop for history, and at the same time the place itself becomes history. The author's special contribution lies in the fact that in the process of research, visual techniques of representing the future in cinematic fiction are highlighted, which invariably contain cultural meanings. The scientific novelty of the research is to identify and analyze the most typical techniques of reproducing the future in science fiction films using visual effects, which include brutalist architecture, creating an image of the future city.

A CASE STUDY COMPARING GOOD PRACTICE IN THE USE OF PEDAGOGICAL RESOURCES IN HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN ENGLAND AND REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

The aim of this study is to analyze good practice in teaching about the Holocaust, comparing the use of pedagogical resources in Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and England (United Kingdom). The paper compares the use of three types of pedagogical resources used in history classes: fictional films, documentaries, and photographs of Holocaust atrocities. Comparison is drawn between a developing and post-conflict society (Republika Srpska) and the well-established and reputable English educational system. By cross-referencing teachers’ and students’ answers, the paper attempts to identify good practice of notable value to be shared and exchanged. The research method firstly incorporated questionnaires, followed by interviews and then lesson observation. Data revealed that teachers in both education systems do not appear to consider all the educational benefits of film screening. The way teachers from England use pictures of Holocaust atrocities and organization of school trips seem to be applicable to the context of Republika Srpska, as well as being useful for classroom practitioners beyond these two education systems.

The Space between the Screen and Architecture

This article presents the historical and contemporary relationship that cinema and urban-architectural space have developed. Its purpose is to show the reciprocal influence between objective and virtual reality projected in science fiction films like Blade Runner, by director Ridley Scott (1982), and Ready Player One, by Steven Spielberg (2011), regarding the current perception of architectural space. The idea behind establishing the relationship between these films is highlighting the prospective used by their directors around user-architecture interaction and technology. Some of the literary and cinematographic works that address the topic of postmodern cities and the cities of the future are cited as background, either from a Utopian vision or from the perspective of a dystopia. Methodologically, a critical review of both films was carried out based on an analysis layout on the conception of architecture through its scenography or staging (Zavala, 2003), as well as the similarity with the way in which we currently travel through the architectural space with the use of mixed reality technology. In this way, the results show how mixed reality (physical and virtual) influences the perception and behavior of users within physical spaces. The conclusion expresses the inescapable presence of mixed reality in spaces as complex as those of cinema and architecture.

Escaping Confinement

One of the most representative aspects of fiction films that address the COVID-19 pandemic is the insistent appearance of electronic devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones) to allow virtual communication between the main characters of the story. I claim that, in those films, the use of these devices and the images they produce is different from those that appeared in pre-pandemic cinema, and, as such, conveys different meanings to the filmed images. In order to explore these ideas, I will first study the ontology of phone footage imagery, to establish the main traits of this type of image. Afterwards, I will signal the differences between pre-pandemic and pandemic phone footage imagery, in order to understand the key formal traits that imply different meanings for each case. Finally, by analyzing some of the most relevant commercial films about the COVID-19 pandemic that have been produced so far (Songbird (2020), Locked Down (2021), Safer at Home (2021), Host (2020), and Ctrl+Alt+Trick/treat (2020)), I will intend to prove that in these fictions phone footage (as opposed to other electronic-device footage) addresses the desire to gain certain freedom in a scenario of confinement.

Communication of Autonomous Vehicles in Road Accidents for Emergency Help in Healthcare Industries.

Autonomous cars like driverless motors are considered solely in science fiction films; however, in 2019, they are turning into a veracity and reality. People all around the world are excited to see the driverless automobile in reality. Selfless vehicles do not want human intervention. A completely driverless car is nonetheless at a superior trying out stage; however, in part due to computerized technological know-how, it has been around for the last few years. A partly computerized car has points such as lane keeping, automatic braking, and adaptive cruise control. With a self-sustaining automobile device, the vehicle has to feel the environment and discover objects, and with the assistance of GPS, it should run on the right navigation course even while obeying site visitors and transportation rules. In addition to that, the safety of passengers and pedestrians is also very important. This capability to keep away from collisions with barriers and accidents during assemble is important. To forestall the self-sufficient vehicle, this autonomous system helps a lot. The sensor used in this gadget identifies the objects in front of the car and stops the car, directing it to go on a specific course to keep away from accidents and communicate with each other. This accident-avoidance gadget and communication system help the self-sustaining car to attain the vacation spot via coaching the vehicle with synthetic intelligence. By making the motors smartest the lifestyles fashion additionally turns into smartest.

„W oku” kinematografu… „Leśmian” Leszka Barona (1990) (wstępny rekonesans)

The main topic of the article is to indicate the lyrical and — somewhat on the margin — biographical strategies used by Leszek Baron in the film Leśmian from 1990, the aim of which was, on the one hand, to tell about a selected fragment of the life of the Polish poet Bolesław Leśmian (1877–1937); and, on the other, the use of film means as an equivalent of the poetic imaging characteristic of the author of W malinowym chruśniaku. The research material is primarily the fictional film about Leśmian. The aim of the text is to show how Baron understood the psychology of Leśmian’s work and the specificity of his poetry. This entails the need to problematize individual dimensions of the production, that is, to analyze the perspectives adopted by the director. Ultimately, it leads to answering the question: how does Baron try to present the figure and work of Leśmian to new recipients who already belong to a different space-time?

The Networked Storyteller and Her Digital Tale: Film Festivals and Ann Hui’s 'My Way'

In cooperation with China’s Youku online channel, the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society commissioned Ann Hui to make a short film, My Way, to be part of an omnibus production, Beautiful 2012. In order to be considered for this commission, Hui needed to be acknowledged at international film festivals and be a recognized auteur known in the Asian region and beyond. Without Hui’s festival credentials and the reputation of the other directors in the curated production, the collected shorts would have little appeal to other programmers and distributors. Although she has famously resisted the label of “film auteur” in the past, Ann Hui undoubtedly stands as the most celebrated female director based in Hong Kong active before and after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in 1997.Given the length of her career as well as the impressive critical and scholarly attention her work has garnered, Hui serves as an exemplary case study of how film festivals play a vital role in the career of a Hong Kong female fiction film director. In the case of My Way, the festival circuit permits a specific type of production and digital distribution that enables Hui to craft a network narrative, which places the transition of its protagonist from male to female within a broader community connected through a shared gender identity. By analyzing Ann Hui’s presence at the festivals in Venice and Hong Kong, as well as the link between her festival exposure and her Internet success, My Way offers insight into the circuitous paths women filmmakers follow in order to tell their stories on transnational screens.

Intranational film industries: a quantitative analysis of contemporary Belgian cinema

ABSTRACT This article presents a quantitative analysis of Belgian fiction film production between 2000 and 2019. Analysing an extensive database, it explores the current state of Belgian cinema, which is characterised on the one hand by a strong international dimension, and on the other hand by two largely separate intranational industries: a Flemish and a francophone Belgian film industry. Despite the persistent gap between the two industries, a certain rapprochement seems to be manifesting recently. This industrial analysis is preceded by an exploration of the conceptual and practical difficulties and limitations that arise when trying to determine whether a film can be labelled (partly) ‘Belgian’, ‘Flemish’ and/or ‘francophone Belgian’. Emanating from the complexity of the Belgian situation, these difficulties reveal some of the theoretical contradictions of the concept of national cinema. As such, departing from a quantitative study of Belgian cinema, this article also provides an original contribution to ongoing debates on the concept of national cinema.

Postcards from the Edge: SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic Narratives in Fiction Film and Documentaries

Postcards from the Edge: SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic Narratives in Fiction Film and Documentaries

«Поручкалися з інопланетянами»: нормалізація ірраціональної картини світу в підрадянській Україні часів «перебудови»

Анотація. Метою цієї статті є дослідження процесу нормалізації ірраціонального в поведінці та способі мислення підрадянських українців наприкінці 1980-х років. Завдання статті – проаналізувати як і чому містичні «вчення» та квазінаукові ідеї розвивалися, поширювалися та знаходили підтримку серед підрадянських українців у період «перебудови». У центрі уваги нашого дослідження також проблема наслідків легітимізації ірраціонального світогляду для людини та українського суспільства в цілому. Джерельна база дослідження базується на значній кількості документів, до якої входять матеріали та довідки ЦК компартії України про настрої різних соціальних верств населення, методичні рекомендації з атеїстичної пропаганди, боротьби з «культами», «шкідливими вченнями» тощо. До неї також входять друковані матеріали, насамперед газети та журнали, як спеціального спрямовання, так і розраховані на широку аудиторію читачів, а ще художні та документальні фільми, що містять інформацію про офіційну позицію держави щодо езотеричних, окультних та інших практик. Наукова новизна роботи полягає в тому, що масові ірраціональні практики розглядаються як частина суспільно-політичного процесу в підрадянській Україні. Висновки. Саме комуністична партія атеїстів через контрольовані нею ЗМІ узаконила світ ірраціонального. Висока довіра до державних ЗМІ сприяла широкому поширенню «нових знань» магічного спрямування. Потяг до ірраціонального був наслідком як бідності, так і соціальних страхів. Ірраціональне стало способом самовираження поза межами соціалістичних цінностей і правил. Світ ірраціонального задав орієнтири для нового самовизначення пересічних людей. Разом з утилітарним перекладенням відповідальності за власне життя на ірраціональний світ такий підхід до самовизначення сприяв обґрунтуванню нової моделі поведінки, яка (як і в радянські часи) не передбачала участі в політичних і соціальних процесах.

Image-Correction

The article attempts to identify a new type of attitude to time, which appears in the cinema of recent decades and is connected to the presentation of the process of changing the past and moving the hero into an alternative temporal series, with the past with its events being subjected to an optimizing correction. The films of Christ- offer Boe and Hong Sang-soo are the central object of the analysis, but the new modus operandi of the relation to the past revealed here can also be traced in popu- lar cinema. Particular attention is paid to the changing representation of the manip- ulation of the past in science fiction cinema. Examining the “strange” films of recent decades in a broader historical context and comparing them to previous attempts to represent alternative versions of real- ity (for example, the films of Akira Kurosawa and Alain Resnais), allows us to iden- tify “unplacedness” as the main characteristic of the new kind of cinema, when the change of past is not placed in the minds of characters, is not presented as a sub- jective interpretation of reality and is not relegated to the field of the fantastic and the fictional. It is presented as an ontologically real fact, dealing with everyday real- ity. The typology of the image developed by Gilles Deleuze in his book on cinema and the question he posed about the third type of the image make it possible to cre- ate the concept of the ”image-correction” uniting the phenomena in question. As an alternative to both “image-movement” and “image-time”, “image-correction” charac- terizes a new epoch in the history of cinema and creates conditions for its retroactive revision as a history of “corrective manipulation of time.”

ИСТОРИЯ ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЫ ЧЕРЕЗ ПРИЗМУ СОВРЕМЕННОГО РОССИЙСКОГО КИНЕМАТОГРАФА: ПРОБЛЕМА ИДЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ДЕФОРМАЦИЙ

The purpose of the article is to analyze the ideological misrepresentation of the events of the Great Patriotic War through the lens of modern Russian cinema. The relevance of the study is determined by the de-mand for the protection of historical memory and the for-mation of a patriotic perception of the country's past through the possibilities of cinema. The source base of the work includes modern Russian feature films devoted to the history of the Great Patriotic War. The content of films was correlated with historical realities and the tasks of patriotic education. The tendency of patriotic accents in the Russian historical fiction films, in comparison with the cinema of the 1990s, is fixed. At the same time, the ten-dency to a negative attitude towards the Soviet system, which often turns into actual anti-Sovietism, is also re-vealed. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the artistic images and storyline of films created on this basis ideologically distorts the history of the Great Patriotic War and contains threats to present the deeds of the people in a non-heroic way.