Film Criticism Research Articles

Windowscapes, dreamscapes and screen texts: train travel as performative practice in experimental film

ABSTRACT Echoing the current research on mobilities, performative practice and the performative documentary, railway journey in screen texts is increasingly seen as a complex embodied, experiential and performative practice. However, although train films have received some attention in film criticism, little is known about the performative potential of train travel in experimental film. To fill this gap, I take a phenomenological stance on railway journeying to demonstrate how several stylistically distinct and rarely screened experimental films stage passengering through the display of window views or larger sections of trainspace, turning it into productive site of contemplation, creative activity and artistic expression.

On the Spot Scaffolding as the Hermeneutic Phenomenology Action Field: Critical Thinking Case for Medical Students in Iran.

A major contribution to the humanities literature has been the development and application of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory in relevant fields. Constructivism as a paradigm is owed to Vygotsky and his efforts. On-the-spot scaffolding in this regard is one of the innovations that can be triangulated with hermeneutic phenomenology to pave the way for a paradigm shift in the educational system in a broad view and for critical thinking for medical students in a narrow view. This study aimed to illuminate the other side of the behavioristic lesson plan, which is on-the-spot scaffolding in implementing one of the modules of essential skills for doctors of medicine (Adab-e Pezeshki), which is critical thinking. This study was qualitative and longitudinal. It is longitudinal due to the 3 years of involvement and qualitative due to the study design approach and the use of discourse analysis and hermeneutic phenomenology as tools. Three main findings emerged from the study's qualitative nature: first, students who attended the sessions or who merely completed the assignments created an on-the-spot critical thinking scaffolding design, which is an alternative to a behavioristic lesson plan; and second, the students wrote numerous movie reviews in both Persian and English. One of the components of reflective autobiography is these film critics and a student-written, instructor-edited paper submitted to ICHPE 2023. There is an urgent need for a paradigm shift and comparative-historical investigations in the medical education system in Iran.

The Portrayal and Representation of Mythological Stories in Chinese Cinema in the Digital Age

This scholarly article delves into the dynamic interplay between mythological narratives and digital innovation in Chinese cinema. By scrutinizing the amalgamation of traditional story arcs with modern cinematic techniques, it casts light on how digital advancements enrich narrative complexity and enhance visual allure. The methodology merges traditional film critique with digital analytic tools, underscoring the profound influence of digital technology on storytelling. Central to this discourse are case studies like "Ne Zha," which exemplify the modern reinterpretation of mythological themes. The paper contrasts how mythology is depicted in mainstream versus independent films, shedding light on their distinct narrative approaches. Additionally, the analysis extends to understanding the diverse reception of these mythological stories among domestic and international audiences, with particular attention to motifs of nostalgia and youth. In its concluding section, the article contemplates the wider ramifications for the film industry, explores challenges in audience engagement, and discusses the intricacies of copyright in the digital era.

Multiphrenic Identities and Cultural Theory in Post-Apartheid Literary Adaptations: Reflections on Ramadan Suleiman’s Film Version of Njabulo Simakhale Ndebele’s Fools

In both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, literary texts have been important sites of cultural enquiry. They both historicise culture and allow new theoretical frames. However, they are also sites of fragmented, overpopulated, multisensorial memories and the difficulties of their articulation. This article focuses on Ramadan Suleiman’s, Fools, an adaptation of Njabulo Ndebele’s novel by the same title, as an important site for examining cultural theory occurring at the juncture of apartheid literature and post-apartheid literary criticism. We argue that while the film is a figurative cartographical sketch of the apartheid ‘world’ narrated in the novel, its protagonist functions as an avenue of ‘discharging’ specific ideas of identity crisis in the post-apartheid cultural world. It angles towards multiphrenia as a productive frame to theorise the protagonist’s jumbled identity, drawing from the existing critique of both the text and the film. We conclude that, through this overwhelmed identity, Fools offers a sui generis paradigm of new possibilities in post-apartheid cultural criticism that is usable in both literary and film criticism.

ANALISIS FORMALISTIK TERHADAP PENGKRITIKAN FILEM [FORMALISTIC ANALYSIS OF FILM CRITICISM

This study aims to examine and explain film criticism of K.Balamurugan's work using formalistic theory. The study has three objectives, which are to identify the subject of discussion, to identify the elements of plot criticism, and to identify character criticism in K.Balamurugan's work based on formalistic theory. The data source for this study is the film criticism book entitled 'Theernthu Pogatha Venkattikal' by K.Balamurugan. Formalistic theory is used as an analyzer of K.Balamurugan's film criticism. The researcher uses a qualitative approach and method used in this study is in the form of literature review to collect information related to this study. Data are analyzed using descriptive analysis based on the characteristics of formalistic theory, which are themes, plots, and characters, using the book entitled 'Theernthu Pogatha Venkattikal'. The results of the study show that most of the film criticisms of 'Theernthu Pogatha Venkattikal' are characterized by themes, plots, and characters contained in formalistic theory. In conclusion, K.Balamurugan's work covers all aspects based on formalistic theory and is able to examine and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a criticism through the application of various literary theories and approaches. The implications of this study can improve the effectiveness of critics in critiquing a work and improve quality in writing field.

"Spaziergänge im Zick-Zack" : Paul Leppin im Feuilleton der Prager Zeitschrift Die Wahrheit

The article provides an overview of the journalistic activities of the Prague-based German writer Paul Leppin for the magazine Die Warheit, which in 1925-1933 was one of Leppin's main publishing platforms. More in-depth attention is paid to the author’s general theses on art, Czech-German relations and his own attitude towards the Czechoslovak Republic, reviews of German writers from the Czech lands and film criticism. These aspects of Leppin's journalistic work for Die Wahrheit are complemented by insights into the contexts of literary and cultural-political discussions and events. The author’s self-stylization as a unique witness to old Prague, his specific interest in the moral dimension of art, and his defense of kitsch filmmaking at a time of economic and political crisis in Europe are highlighted.

Nuclear Imaginaries and Power in Oppenheimer.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is in awe of physics and the power it can bestow. Its central character is both mythic and human, and the film critiques and constructs the mythology surrounding him. The film presents science and technology as the individualized work of masculine genius, though it is ultimately more interested in nuclear weapons as political objects than as technological ones. Its nuclear imaginaries contain personal anxieties and stunning spectacle but also forget the nuclear uncanny and the human scale of nuclear weapons.

Кинематограф в одном кадре

The article examines the status of the screenshot, a separate static frame, a fragment of the cinematic stream, its relationship to the “whole” of the film, its influence on the spectator’s perception, as well as everyday user practices involving the observation and creation of screenshots. The starting point of the text is an attempt to reconsider the common notion of the screenshot/one-frame as a particle in a subordinate position to the film (and more broadly to the history of cinema). On the basis of texts by Pascal Bonitzer, Sergei Eisenstein, and Roland Barthes, the basic thesis is formulated — the mutual relation between the frame and the film can be constructed differently than the logic of “the frame is a lower-order element nested within the whole film;” on the contrary, the frame and the film in some cases meet as equivalent phenomena or they are superimposed on each other according to the principle of palimpsest. The article deals with three common forms of using frames and screenshots advertising and illustrative shots, the use of film images in sticker packs for messengers, and albums of images in social networks. The question is raised about the communicative plasticity of separate images, the metamorphoses that occur with them when they are taken out of their original context, and their insertion into new artistic and research practices. As such practices, the text pays special attention to two cases — the screenshot project of French director Frank Beauvais and contemporary audiovisual film criticism (based on the works of Johannes Binotto, Carrie Griffith, Daniel McIlwright).

PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH TO COMPLEX NARRATIVE IN MOVING IMAGE: NOLAN’S MEMENTO

This article explores Christopher Nolan’s Memento as an exemplar of complex narrative in moving images with a psychoanalytical approach. Psychoanalysis has provided a foundation for commentators, film critics and theorists to analyse cinema. By using Freud’s Iceberg Analogy of the unconscious mind, this article examines the parallelism between the emergence of unconscious complex mental states, how they are expressed through emotions and behaviour in moving images and how spectators reflect their unconscious emotions and mental states. The article focuses on Memento and analyses the movie's character and narrative structure. Memento was chosen as Christopher Nolan captured the scary extent of the human mind's complexity and its unconsciousness. Through complex narrative structures, he created associations between audiences’ unconsciousness and negative emotions of repression and stress associated with it, such as helplessness, fear of having no purpose, misjudgement or unfair treatment. This article examines the scene structures in relation to the complexity of narratives and narratives’ relation to Leonard Shelby’s unconscious mind, through the framework of psychoanalysis and interpretivist approaches by utilising psychoanalytic film theory and text analysis. It concludes that the protagonist, Leonard Shelby, has a detached preconscious and conscious and unconscious resulting from not his head injury but unconsciously using it as a psychological shield. The detachment between levels of consciousness is depicted as a moving image in black and white. This provides stability and consistency to Leonard’s version of narratives, which plays the reverse. The analysis of Memento with a psychoanalytical approach evidences the parallelism between Freud’s Iceberg Analogy of the unconscious mind and humans' complex unconscious mental states and how this is depicted in moving image.

Through Susy’s Eyes

The centrepiece of this essay is a close reading of Henry Mancini’s score for the 1967 suspense film Wait Until Dark, starring Audrey Hepburn. Drawing on poststructuralist narrative theory, I explore the implications of a blind protagonist for received thinking about focalisation and propose a music-informed narrative reading of the film. Informed by feminist disability studies and the work of film critics including Steven Shaviro, Stan Link, Vivian Sobchack, Michel Chion, and others, I propose that, unlike other films with visually impaired protagonists, which affirm the stability of visual experience by presenting blindness as an epistemological prop for theorising sight, Wait Until Dark effects a decentring of vision in cinematic experience that challenges traditional associations between sight and selfhood. Based on musical and narrative analysis, I argue that Mancini’s score is significant to this process.

Trying to Discuss the Important Significance of Semiotics in Film Criticism

Symbols are representative and symbolic signs that carry information that can be accepted and perceived. Modern semiotics emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, pioneered by Saussure and Peirce, and further developed and extended with the rise of structuralism. Film semiotics, a newly born methodology, has had profound effects on film criticism and film studies. This paper, based on the semiotic perspective, explores the origins and applications of film semiotics theory, examining its significance and contemporary value in film criticism.

Director’s theme in the film adaptation of a literary work

The purpose of the article. The article focuses on the process of film adaptation as a transformation of a literary text into a cinematic one. This phenomenon is mostly considered from the point of view of literary studies: the construction of dramatic structure, typology, comparative studies, screenwriter’s creativity, etc. However, the role of the director in film adaptation remains beyond the attention of scholars. This study examines the specifics of the film adaptation process in terms of the influence of the director’s theme, which is a manifestation of his or her personality.
 The methodology. We have used the analysis (of theoretical works on screenwriting and directing, research in the field of art history, psychology, etc.), typology (of structural elements and expressive means), systematization (of directorial techniques for transforming a literary basis into a screen work), observation (of the creative process in cinema), induction (based on practical experience) and modeling of the principles of the director’s work.
 The results can be used in training programs and practical activities of directors, screenwriters, film critics, art historians, and cultural critics. The paper provides examples on the basis of which practical principles are formed that can help in the creation of film adaptations.
 The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of a literary work into a screen work from the perspective of a director, its comprehension and systematization of directorial techniques in the process of film adaptation will be carried out.

Film Review Sentiment Analysis: Comparison of Logistic Regression and Support Vector Classification Performance Based on TF-IDF

Film sentiment analysis is a process for evaluating a sentiment value that exists in film reviews, so that positive or negative responses from films can be identified. In this study, a sentiment analysis will be carried out on film reviews on IMBD. The analysis was carried out to find out which reviews were positive and negative from film critics. The method used to carry out sentiment analysis in this study is review analysis and processing with TF-IDF and a positive or negative prediction process based on reviews that have been processed using a logistic regression algorithm and support vector classification. The data to be used is film reviews on IMBD, which consists of 2000 data, which is divided into 1000 positive data and 1000 negative data. Which is where the data will be preprocessed first and split with a percentage of 70% training data and 30% testing data. In the prediction process using the logistic regression algorithm, obtaining a test accuracy of 80.61%. While the prediction process using the support vector classification algorithm obtains a test accuracy of 82.42%.

Broken Phenomenology: The Silent Witness from the Decalogue Cycle of Krzysztof Kieslowski and his Philosophical Meaning

1988, as the TV cycle ‘Decalogue’ was finished by Krzysztof Kieslowski, one of the most intriguing appearances throughout its episodes was the character of the silent witness, a young man played by Arthur Barciś. He is the first character who appears at the beginning of Decalogue I and therefore of the whole series and who returns in eight from the ten films of the cycle in very different hypostases: as nomadic camper, surveyor, nurse, bus driver, or rowboat driver, traveler on foot or by bike etc. The film critics were intrigued by this character and interpreted him in different ways, especially in key either religious or ethical. They all and Kieslowski himself agreed that the silent witness is a strange and symbolic appearance that comes out from the frames of everyday life. It is as if a curtain would break or be torn and from beyond it something foreign and strange would appear, difficult to integrate into our categories, but which is surprisingly so eloquent for us. The phenomenology, that Kieslowski describes, is broken in this manner, but, paradoxically, also consolidated by this presence, that gives it meaning and content.

Talent has no race, has no face - but it has a skin colour: The 'appropriate femininity' with the case of Kurdish-Swedish Actress Evin Ahmad.

Sexist and misogynist attitudes towards actresses in the mainstream film industry and other media have been the target of feminists for decades. Stigmatized and stereotyped images of immigrants on the screen have also been scrutinized. However, very little attention has been given to the ways in which actresses with foreign background, not necessarily from Black communities, are portrayed and narrated. Addressing this issue would reveal how non-Western body images on screen are racialized according to certain Western beauty standards. Sweden is often described as the most gender-equal film industry in the world; however, this does not mean that marginalization and subordination of non-white actresses with foreign backgrounds, does not occur. Accordingly, using the framework of feminist film critique and drawing on the works of Homi Bhabba, Sara Ahmed and Patricia Hill-Collins, this article offers a reading of Swedish-Kurdish actress Evin Ahmad's experiences to demonstrate how 'beauty' and 'body' culture involve a complicated terrain around race, skin colour and body image. This article argues that a generalized ideology of beauty and stereotypical images of a Middle Eastern woman imposed on Ahmad demonstrate that values and attributes such as beauty, appearance and sexual attractiveness should be understood in the context of social and cultural relations, rather than as universally valued or devalued individual characteristics.

Digitisation of films and selection of films for digitisation from the perspective of users

Purpose. The selection of films that archivists carry out today has an important impact on the future configuration of digitalised and virtually accessible film collections. Given the responsibility that this task entails, we consider it interesting to explore what the different profiles of the users of film archives think about selection and digitisation of films. Approach/Methodology/Design. To this end, structured interviews were conducted with 31 subjects belonging to four groups of users: film researchers, film professionals, journalists/ film critics, and last year audio-visual communication undergraduates from the Universityof Seville. Findings. The most notable results, which do not differ in essence from what is known in the archival field, include, on the one hand, the unanimous view that digitisation is an effective way of conserving audio-visual memory and fostering public interest in film collections and archives and, on the other, that when films have to be selected for their digitisation, this should be done following rigorous and systematic selection criteria, thus avoiding the detrimental effects of random methods. Lastly, some future research lines are offered. Originality/Value. All the bibliography consulted view topics relating to film selection and digitisation exclusively through the prism of archival and library and information sciences. Namely, these studies are restricted to these specific areas of knowledge and aimed at professional and experts in the field. For that reason, it may be interesting to explore other viewpoints and perspectives that go beyond purely technical, theoretical or methodological approach to film curation.

Using a non-verbal way of transmitting information in the genre of video essay

The rapid development of the global network and new technologies has led to the update of the system of film criticism genres. Writers of journalistic works on modern video hosting sites rely heavily on visual images to fully reveal the topic. The ability to work with editing and sound accompaniment becomes an important skill for a film critic. The subject of the research is non-verbal means of transmitting information in audiovisual essays. The origins and features of the genre that originated from the printed essay are analyzed. The definition of the phenomenon of "transimagery" is given, which implies the emergence of new images on the basis of existing ones. The content of narrative and poetic videos on the Every Frame a Painting channel is considered in detail. The relevance of the study is due to the growing popularity of the phenomenon of the audiovisual essay and the low level of knowledge of this genre of film criticism. The novelty lies in the fact that the video essay is a relatively young genre. There is a lack of studies both in foreign and domestic scientific practice. Our article offers a theoretical understanding of the features of an audiovisual essay. It is concluded that the unique features of the video essay cannot be reproduced in traditional textual forms of film criticism. The creation of new visual images contributes to the possibility of explaining phenomena that could not be explained in the form of text. The results of the study can be used by scientists in the field of mass communication, journalism and film criticism.

From “Makers of Images” to Cineastes? Looking Critically at Festivals and Critics’ Reception of Nollywood

At its inception in the early 1990s, the Nollywood film movement did not attract a positive appraisal from most “learned” critics. Its non-conformist approach to filmmaking made most critics to associate it with the act of just “making images” as well as a lack of respect for cinema. Even major film festivals seemed “not friendly” to Nollywood films. Today, the quality of Nollywood films has remarkably improved even though much is still to be done. However, it remains important to examine if such improvement in quality has affected international film critics’ reception of Nollywood films. Using secondary sources and critical observations this author examines how Nollywood film criticism has evolved over these last years. The author focuses specifically on how the FESPACO and Cannes Festival have received Nollywood productions.

Ukraiński ruch filmowy we Lwowie w latach 30. XX wieku


 
 
 Title of the article: The Ukrainian film movement in 1930s Lviv The Ukrainian film movement in the 1930s was not developed on a wider scale. Due to the cost of the equipment and the film, few people could make films. Those who did included the members of the Ukrainian Photographic Society, who had completed specialist film courses. Their achievements included short feature films and documentary films, some of which were of true artistic merit. From the circle of Ukrainian cinematographers, J. Dorosz, S. Kułykiwna, W. Humecki and J. Bochenski deserve mention special. Moreover, the last two film-makers wrote about the necessity of recording Ukrainian cultural heritage; they expressed the need for patriotic, socially useful films. At that time, Ukrainian film criticism also developed in Lviv, In particular, it found expression in two outstanding periodicals published in the Ukrainian language, “Cinema” (1930–1936) and “Light and Shadow” (1933–1939).
 
 

A Critical Scrutiny of Cinematic Lighting Technique in Cultural works of Selected Yoruba Nollywood Films

It could be reiterated that, of all the components of mise-en-cadre, cinematographic lighting is one of the most important features but this component had received little attentions from most Nigerian film critics or scholars. In most cases, this element is only used to explain or buttress relevant points in film theory and discourse. However, in this study, attention will be devoted on the deployment of cinematic lights and the various techniques used in selected Nollywood films. In the creative deployment of the 3-point lighting technique in selected cultural works of Yoruba Nollywood films, the researcher employed a library study, descriptive analytical cum studio diagnostic approaches as the basic methods of data gathering. The observation research method is deployed as secondary source of information. While a structuralist hypothetical approach is equally employed as a theoretical framework. In this exploration, the paper reviews the concepts of cinematic lighting before zooming on to discuss the key light, fill light and backlight as components of the 3-point lighting system. Practical analysis and demonstration are thus carried out with concrete sample shots from selected Yoruba films. Finally, it is recommended that a 3-point lighting technique should be creatively utilised as innovative device through which a director and the light-designer could create impressive and wonderful pictures and thus improve on the quality of Yoruba films. Keywords: 3-Point-Lighting, Cultural works, Nollywood, Yoruba films