Film Theory Research Articles

Что бы ни случилось с киноопытом: от чувственных данных к опытности в истории эстетики

<p>The aesthetics of sensuality is rightfully considered an interdisciplinary field. One of the principles of such reasoning is the shift from the particular to the general, since sensuality is able to resist the 'majors' of rationality among topics (aesthetic judgment, art expertise). Even the most non-reductive approaches, standing apart from the Theories, emphasize the absence of common features that many aesthetic experiences would inherit. Whereas experience, along with observation, has a base that acts as an aid to academic texts. In the language of film criticism, there are seemingly intuitive, but productive notions: intonation, voice and atmosphere. Experienceness as a concept at the intersection of practical aesthetics and film theory makes it possible to find prerequisites for interest in sensuality in a cumulative sense in the history of aesthetics. Being an expression of a particle 'already', referring to both time and space, experienceness in the narrow sense (watchfullness) means a qualitative gap between the value judgment of the film and the depth of experience. While in a broad sense (namely experienceness ) It can be a reason to reconcile the axiology and phenomenology of the sensual side of cinematic experience.</p>

Enacting algorithms: Evolution of the algorythmics storytelling

Visual storytelling, particularly through dance choreographies as showcased in previous AlgoRythmics performances, has been effective in communicating relatively straightforward algorithms in an engaging and memorable way. Nevertheless, when addressing complex algorithmic concepts, an approach with greater expressiveness and flexibility becomes necessary. Consequently, this study introduces stage performances as an innovative solution, using cinematic representation to successfully convey and communicate these intricate concepts and processes. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, a short film was designed, produced, and showcased to a second-semester CS2 university course audience studying programming techniques. Following an opening scene that establishes the context, the subsequent three acts vividly depict ad hoc, greedy, and dynamic programming solutions in response to the posed programming challenge. After the screening, a questionnaire was administered, built on four key constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model, as well as other potential facilitating factors. The study reveals 100% positive perceptions of educational benefits, with the vast majority of students expressing agreement regarding the utility, enjoyment, engagement, creativity, filmic quality, and cognitive benefits of short films. Additionally, a remarkable 96% reported the intent to utilize this approach. Our subsequent Structural Equation Modeling analysis discovered that students whose learning styles were in sync with this approach demonstrated a robust correlation between their perception of the method’s value, their enjoyment of the process, and their overall attitude towards this pedagogical method. This study confirms the potential of visual storytelling through short films as an effective tool for delivering programming education. The findings provide valuable insights for computer science educators seeking to engage learners and convey complex information in an attractive and effective way.

CINEMATIC DEPICTIONS OF BUSINESS: REALISM, ETHICS, AND EDUCATION

This study examines how business language and context are depicted in select movies, as well as their representations, accuracy, and impacts on educational relevance and societal perception. Through a comparative analysis, this study analyzes diverse communication styles, leadership dynamics, and ethical considerations in movies such as "The Social Network," "The Wolf of Wall Street," "Office Space," "The Big Short," and "Margin Call." To assess the realism of their depictions of real-world situations, this study analyzes how these movies portray business scenarios within popular culture. Furthermore, it explores how cinematic representations influence perceptions of business ethics, practices, and leadership, providing insight into how movies affect societal attitudes about business. Finally, the study highlights how analyzing cinematic portrayals of business language and context can enhance critical thinking skills among students of business and enhance ethical awareness. The results of this research have highlighted the nuanced and multifaceted nature of cinematic representations, and their educational value has been highlighted.

Death, Grief, and Mourning in an ICTY Film: Exploring Relational and Non/Living Worlds

Abstract International criminal justice is filled with living, dead, and dying bodies. While witnesses detail atrocities in the courtroom, such testimonies are largely considered for their evidentiary value to establish innocence or guilt. In this article, I explore how death, grief, and mourning are represented at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). I focus on the ICTY documentary, Crimes Before the ICTY: Višegrad, to analyse how filmic representations of international criminal justice register dead, dying, and grieving bodies. Drawing on Queer Death Studies and relational ontologies, I explore the more-than-human and non/living worlds through which death, grief, and mourning are represented in the film. A queer relational approach reveals and challenges the construction of the dead as evidence and death worlds as crime scenes. This approach illuminates how the natural world and buildings, bridges, and artifacts are vestiges, witnesses, and sites of death and grief in Višegrad. My analysis explores how these representations in the ICTY documentary reinforce civilizational logics and reductive representations of violence at the same time as they illuminate relational encounters of death and dying in international criminal justice, thus enriching attempts to see, know, and feel loss in the wake of violence.

Boundary Frustration in Double-Gyroid Thin Films.

Self-consistent field theory for thin films of AB diblock polymers in the double-gyroid phase reveals that in the absence of preferential wetting of monomer species at the film boundaries, films with the (211) plane oriented parallel to the boundaries are more stable than other orientations, consistent with experimental results. This preferred orientation is explained in the context of boundary frustration. Specifically, the angle of intersection between the A/B interface and the film boundary, the wetting angle, is thermodynamically restricted to a narrow range of values. Most termination planes in the double gyroid cannot accommodate this narrow range of wetting angles without significant local distortion relative to the bulk morphology; the (211)-oriented termination plane with the "double-wave" pattern produces relatively minimal distortion, making it the least frustrated boundary. The principle of boundary frustration provides a framework to understand the relative stability of termination planes for complex ordered block polymer phases confined between flat, nonpreferential boundaries.

Royalty and Its Representation in Popular Culture

Royalty and Its Representation in Popular Culture

The Traumatic Mirror and the Asymptote: Cinematic Representations of American Intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan

This article explores cinematic representations of American military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, examining documentary and fiction films from American, Iraqi, and Afghan perspectives. The article argues that these films often fail to communicate meaningfully with domestic and international audiences effectively, instead remaining ‘asymptotic’ or ‘uroboric’ in their rhetorical and communicative impact. I highlight the ethical challenge faced by filmmakers, whether situated in the West or in the Middle East, of turning the ‘traumatic mirror’ back on themselves, and the difficulties in achieving successful communication and self-reflexivity. The post-9/11 era is marked by a complex intersection of realpolitik, public performatives, and moral commitments, with long-standing tensions between West and non-West persisting in new forms. Cinematic representations of these interventions serve as a window into the traumatic legacies of these conflicts and the ongoing struggle for ethical representation, as well as a lens on the rhetorics of cinema.

Preparation of Ti/Steel composite plates with AA6061 as the intermediate layer based on CRB

This study utilized thin aluminum as the intermediate layer and successfully prepared Ti/Steel composite plates through cold roll bonding (CRB). This addresses the challenge of producing Ti/Steel composite plates via CRB. The experimental methods were based on thin film theory, and the surfaces of the steel and titanium plates were wire brushed and artificially oxidized before CRB, making it easier for the interface to form a mechanical bite during CRB, thereby reducing the minimum rolling reduction required for producing composite plates. With a low reduction rate of 39 %, the shear failure strength of the TA1 pure titanium/AA6061/Q235 steel composite plates is 64.5 MPa. The mechanical performance test results demonstrated that the composite plate exhibited exceptional tensile and bending properties.

Bisexual and transgender potentialities in pornographic spectatorship

ABSTRACT This article proposes a theoretical account of pornographic spectatorship that attends to the abundance, mutability, and unpredictability of the desirous and identificatory potentialities that constitute pornographic fantasy. In its privileging of multitude over singularity, and transformability over stasis, pornographic spectatorship has meaningful connections to bisexuality and transness, taken to be capacious modes of sexual desiring and gendered identification that refuse notions of sexual immutability. In certain psychoanalytic formulations of spectatorship in film theory, we find an insistence on the spectator’s sexual unfixity. These are put in dialogue with bisexual and trans media theories that stress the import of spectatorial unfixity qua bisexuality and transness themselves. In pornographic media’s metatextual appeals for a spectator to desire and identify, these dynamics are heightened. Although individual experiences of pornographic spectatorship are unpredictable, it persists nevertheless as a process that is affirming of transformational sexual potentialities, wherein bisexual and transgender possibilities might be forged.

What Can Cognitive Media Studies Bring to Social Justice?

Abstract This special issue is dedicated to research on cognition, stigma, and inclusion in film and media studies. We aim to highlight existing research in cognitive media theory and social justice, and also to bring in diverse perspectives from adjacent fields to foster interdisciplinary research into the future. In bringing these voices together, we hope to demonstrate the diverse nature of current research in cognitive film and media theory, and to disentangle cognitive traditions from their place in a historic binary opposition of cognitive and cultural approaches in screen studies.

How does mythic love endure in modernity? Exploring romantic love’s cultural structure and structure of feeling

In ideal-typical terms, the cultural structure of love can be said to be organised according to the binary categorisations of ‘mythic’ and ‘prosaic-realist’ love. Sociological studies on the culture of love have typically favoured the latter, characterising contemporary love as a product of modern sensibilities that prioritise individual autonomy over loving commitment. And yet, as many empirical studies have shown, mythic love seems to persist. This article theoretically and empirically accounts for the endurance of mythic love by demonstrating how its core promises are reconciled with prosaic-realist love. It elaborates a theoretical model for assessing the attitudes people have towards romantic ideals: ‘structures of feeling’ (Williams, 1961; Illouz, 2012). To investigate romantic structures of feeling, I conducted interviews with participants who watched one of two quintessential cinematic representations of mythic and prosaic-realist love, respectively: The Notebook (2004) and Blue Valentine (2010). I found that mythic love persists as a legitimate cultural model for love through the feeling structures of irony and aspiration. Participants expressed aspiration towards mythic love through surprised faith in the film’s mythic idealism and attributed authenticity to mythic love’s purity, while also integrating prosaic-realist rationales into their assessment of mythic love’s legitimacy. Participants expressed ironic dispositions towards prosaic-realism, finding its core principles to be ‘too real’ and deflationary. These findings point to a need to take myth in romance seriously, by not only recognising its existence but also the cultural mechanisms that reconcile its promises with prosaic-realist alternatives.

Editorial

The editorial introduces this issue of Journal of Scandinavian Cinema (JSCA) that in particular explores the representation of children and films for young audiences in the Nordic countries. The issue includes an article on the child figure in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata and an In Focus section with four short subjects about youth films in Nordic cinema, followed by an article on the representation of women in a Finnish silent film and a conference report from China. The editorial summarizes the main arguments and contributions of each article and highlights the relevance and importance of studying cinematic representation in the Nordic countries.

Film as Art: From Art Theory to Film Theory

This article uses the introduction of the book Film as Art, the definition and interpretation of the concept of “film,” the connotation and extension of “film art,” the necessity and possibility of “film art” research, etc. to analyze China’s important theoretical issues in the development of film theory are sorted out and reflected on. The article believes that in the context of globalization, the development of Chinese film theory faces many theoretical issues, such as the independent character of the theory itself, the relationship between theoretical research and creative practice, and the influence of socialist literary and artistic thought with Chinese characteristics on contemporary Chinese film creation and theoretical research. In this regard, the article puts forward some corresponding countermeasures. This article believes that only by adhering to the development path of socialist literature and art with Chinese characteristics and taking film as art as a basic principle can we promote the prosperity and development of Chinese film theory in the new era and can we better play the important role of Chinese films in the world cultural field.

Deconstructing Ex Machina (2014): a feminist-psychoanalytic exploration of female artificial intelligences

This article examines the portrayal of female artificial intelligences (AIs) in Hollywood's science fiction (SF) films, with a primary focus on Ex Machina. Employing feminist and psychoanalytic perspectives, the study critically reassesses how socio-cultural expectations and patriarchal desires shape the cinematic representation of female AIs. It seeks to address a nuanced gap by revealing the unconscious psychological forces that mold gendered imprints within technology and analyzing how (female) AIs, positioned as posthuman beings, not only mirror but engage in the construction of femininity for the fulfillment of male fantasies and the subversion of male dominance, accomplished through the strategic manipulation of “artificial skin” and gynoid bonding. Finally, this paper aims to contribute to the broader discourse on gender dynamics surrounding female AIs and their power relations with humanity in the cinematic SF. It explores the narrative functions of intelligent fembots, which may disrupt patriarchal narratives both in reel life and, perhaps, real life.

Influence of surface structure and tube material on the condensation heat transfer coefficient of propane on horizontal single tubes and in tube bundles

The condensation heat transfer of propane on the outside of single horizontal tubes and in tube bundles was investigated by determining the condensation heat transfer coefficient αcond in a newly designed experimental setup. To study the influence of different surface structures and tube materials, experiments were conducted with a smooth tube, finned tubes with various fin densities and heights, and a high-performance condensation tube at vapor temperatures of 30 and 40 °C and varying heat flux densities. In addition, the influence of inundation on αcond was systematically investigated by varying the mass flow of liquid condensate at heat flux densities of 20 and 60 kW·m−2. The experimental setup was successfully validated using smooth tubes by a comparison of the resulting αcond with literature data and Nußelt's film theory. For the single copper tubes with fin densities from 19 to 48 fins per inch, αcond increased and was by factors of 9 to 21 larger than for the smooth tube at the same heat flux density. Investigations of the inundation effect have shown that the additional condensate can lead to an increasing condensate film thickness, which decreases αcond due to its increased thermal resistance, and/or can lead to turbulences in the condensate film, which increases αcond. The interplay of the two effects depends highly on the surface geometry. An increasing fin height always enhanced αcond, whereas a lower thermal conductivity of the tube material leads to a smaller αcond.

Representation of intersectional and cultural identities in Taiwanese-language port city cinema

This article contributes to two relatively under-researched areas in the existing literature of Taiwanese popular culture and film studies – Taiwanese-language films (taiyupian) and port city cinema. We compare five case studies in Taiwanese-language port city cinema: Anping zhuixiang qu (Nostalgic Song of Anping) (Chen Yang 1969), Huilai anping gang (Back to Anping Harbor) (Wu Feijian 1972), Fenggui lai de ren (The Boys from Fengkuei) (Hou Hsiao-Hsien 1983), Haijiao qi hao (Cape No.7) (Wei Te-Sheng 2008) and角頭 Jiao tou (Gatau) (Li Yunjie 2015). Across each case, we analyse how the cinematic representation of port cities may have reflected social and cultural developments, changing (and unchanged) Taiwanese intersectional and cultural identities from the 1960s to the twenty-first century.

Fifth-order evolution equation for a liquid film with odd viscosity

A fifth-order nonlinear wave equation (generalized Korteweg–deVries equation) that arises in the theory of thin liquid films is introduced with the odd viscosity by the long-wave approximation regime. The presence of the odd viscosity is considered to be a non-dissipative factor in the evolution of the film flow. Sinusoidal and travelling waves arise in systems with non dissipation and instability. The introduced wave equation includes quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. The linear instability of sinusoidal waves is analyzed. The stability and bifurcation of travelling waves are discussed.

From the Soil to the Screen: Women Representation in Contemporary Rural China

This research delves into the representation of female characters in contemporary Chinese cinema, focusing on films set in rural and underdeveloped areas between 2010 and 2022. Under the guidance of Professor Luis Duno Gottberg at Rice University, the study scrutinizes the complex interplay between traditional socio-cultural norms and evolving gender perceptions within these cinematic narratives. Central to our inquiry is the exploration of how a distinctly Chinese interpretation of the Male Gaze and entrenched Confucian patriarchal values shape the portrayal of women, signaling a negotiation between historical and cultural influences and modern identities. Employing a qualitative research methodology, this study integrates a comprehensive literature review, focusing on feminist film theory and its application within the Chinese context. Content analysis of selected films is conducted to uncover recurring visual and narrative themes, character development, and gender dynamics.

Built to Destroy

David Cronenberg’s cult classic horror film The Brood explores the breakdown of the nuclear family as the impotent Father fails to protect the Child from the destructive threat of the Mother. The article argues that the film employs a misogynistic, eugenic gaze which compels viewers to perceive the “antagonist” Nola as a violent madwoman whose actions necessitate her destruction by the forces of professional male rationality. In constructing such a woman, the film’s eugenic gaze encourages co-identification with a cast of professional men who set out to destroy the very monster their misapprehension has helped to create. Building on scholarship in feminist film theory and disability studies, the article elaborates the many eugenic gazes operant in The Brood and concludes with a speculative reimagining that attends to the utter lack of care Nola receives as she struggles to extricate herself from intergenerational neglect and abuse.

Alfred Andersch, the Cinéma des Auteurs, and the Poetics of Screenwriting

This essay presents a little-known chapter in the film history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Alfred Andersch, founding member of Gruppe 47 and influential broadcast editor, was one of the few authors who was intensively involved with film. The essay reconstructs Andersch’s attempt to associate film and literature and thereby develop an alternative concept to the European cinéma des auteurs. To this end, the essay discusses not only Andersch’s critical writings but also a number of documents from his estate. Andersch’s film theory is evaluated in light of the contemporary literary debate on the medium. His screenplays for the adaptations of his novels Die Rote and Die Entwaffnung are used to examine the conclusions Andersch drew regarding film aesthetics in his own poetics of screenwriting. In sum, the essay reconstructs Andersch’s attempt at a literary response to the crisis of West German film around 1960.