Foreign Films Research Articles

Malawians’ Foreign Film Dubbing, Film Pirating and Consumption as “Weapons of the Weak”

ABSTRACT None of the multinational companies has ever released any film in Malawi – a so-called "fourth world” whose GDP per capita is fourth from the bottom in the world (as of 2018). However, global films are widely found there, including in remote areas. Based on detailed fieldwork materials collected in Malawi, this article discusses the topic of foreign film dubbing (pirating) and consumption in Malawi. After the discussion, this article provides examples of how a "fourth world”, which is excluded by global film networks, inserts itself back into that network again, and further stays connected to the globe.

Censorship as enabling: importing, distributing, and translating foreign films in the Arab Middle East

Control over film exhibition in commercial film theatres globally has been perceived as a practice that an exclusive authority has enforced for so long. This study which casts light on the control enforced on foreign film exhibition in commercial cinemas in the Arab Middle East (AME), uncovers a system of foreign film exhibition in the AME that has been ever obscure to the public audience, readership, and researchers in fields like film studies and the broadcast of audiovisual content. The analysis of this system is based upon interviews with key agents involved in decision making regarding the foreign films selected for exhibition and the censorial practices implemented to make these selected films culturally suitable for commercial cinemas in the AME. These interviewees include an exhibitor in a regional film import and distribution company, film classifiers, and film translators. Their input helps to analyse the processes of foreign film selection, scene filtering, distribution, and classification that are all incorporated in the system of foreign film exhibition. Furthermore, this analysis helps to uncover an obscure system of exhibition and identify the policymaking process and the policymakers involved in this context. Thus, while this study argues that this system enables film exhibition, it challenges the prevailing perception that control over foreign film exhibition in the AME is exclusively enforced by an authority generally known as the board of censors.

The Politics of Video on Demand Platforms in Iran: In Between Formal and Informal Distribution

Abstract A study of the global flow of US-based SVODs, and their absence or presence within domestic media ecosystems, allows us to move beyond universalist approaches in platform studies. Starting with an analysis of the politics of Netflix’s absence from Iran’s media landscape, this article studies the contribution of domestic SVODs to the diversification of the Iranian movie culture. It argues that filtering Netflix in Iran is part of a long history of content regulation and the state’s plan to support local platforms. The dynamic informal circulation networks in Iran also pose challenges for foreign SVODs. Focusing on domestic platforms like Filimo, the article argues that they became part of a national project to battle piracy domestically. Iran’s laws as a non-signatory of international treaties on intellectual property, however, allow them to acquire foreign films through informal markets, situating these platforms in an ambiguous state in between formal and informal services.

The role of object distance and gender in Persian compliment responses

Abstract This study investigated the effect of the distance of the object of the compliment from the complimentee on compliment responses in Persian. A further aim of the study was to understand whether gender of the complimentee made a difference to the response pattern. To this end, 2652 Persian compliment responses were elicited through Discourse Completion Tasks from 563 BA students majoring in twenty disciplines at a university in Iran. The findings revealed that the distance of the object of the compliment did not influence the degree of acceptance or rejection of the compliment. It was also found that Iranian university students’ compliment response behavior, mostly characterized by the rejection or evasion of compliments was shifting toward accepting compliments. This observation is attributed to increasing chances of exposure to and interaction with foreign media such as satellite TV, the Internet, foreign films, series, etc. among Persian university students.

Georgia seen by foreign documentalists with a critical eye

The article is about documentaries about Georgia made by foreigners. It discusses films created on different topics. This thesis focuses on a BBC film that analyzes the Russian-Georgian conflict, in particular the August 2008 war. This film with various interviews, videos and photographs makes the facts described in it convincing.An interesting number of films may include films that relate to people's daily lives, and such an article is considered to be the French documentary "Georgia, Chiatura", which reflects the work, problems and traditions of the population of this city.This article also focuses on foreign films in which facts and events are not thoroughly explored and to some extent even biased.

Review: Branding Brazil: Transforming Citizenship on Screen, by Leslie L. Marsh

Review: <i>Branding Brazil: Transforming Citizenship on Screen</i>, by Leslie L. Marsh

Video Surveillance as an Educational Exercise and Artwork

The purpose of the article is to analyze the importance of training exercises in video surveillance for the creative abilities’ development of film and television directors; to prove the necessity and usefulness of such exercises not only for documentarians but also for feature film and animation directors; identify specific methods of the director’s work on video surveillance. The research methodology is based on a theoretical analysis of the work of outstanding film directors, in particular films and evidence on the nature of documentary films by Hertz Frank and Frederick Wiseman and analysis of Ukrainian and foreign observation films. Scientific novelty. The role recognition of film and video surveillance as a basic element in the education and training of cinematographers; determination of characteristic features and fundamental differences of work on screen observations in comparison with work on other types of the screen works. Conclusions. The article analyzes the importance of video surveillance for the creative imagination development of students-directors. The importance of observations has been proved for the work of directors working in all types of cinematography from documentaries to feature films and animation. Examples of directorial work strategies on video surveillance are given, which are fundamentally different from the methods of creating other types of screen works.

New Identity in Modern Patriotic Cinema

The paper analyzes the construction of a new identity of citizens of the Russian Federation through modern patriotic films that form a holistic symbolic image filled with visual and verbal patterns of behavior. The results of an expert and focus group interview are given, as well as the results of an online survey on the assessment of the formation of new and transformation of old forms of identity, which strengthens or weakens the patriotic feelings of citizens after the release of the film. The stages and forms of identity change associated with the superficial preservation of old symbols, without deep meanings, the substitution of values and the displacement of some values by others are revealed. The forms and meanings of the transformation of values that affect the new meanings of identity (the identity of survival and the identity of development and realization) will also be highlighted. We pay particular attention to lexemes that highlight the features of major types of social behavior, as well as their social inclusion and evaluation of publications on patriotism on their pages in social networks. The results of a quantitative survey indicate a greater interest and attention to foreign films that influence the identity, but the features of Russian cinema are indicated, revealing additional meanings and forms of implementation in domestic cinema. There are four groups of constructing a new identity through the assessment of modern patriotic films: the first are those who watch these films with family and friends out of interest in the plot and full complicity and empathy with the characters, the second are those who watch because of fashion, the third watch them due to philistine interest, and the fourth are those who do not watch but assess (often negatively) modern patriotic films. The analysis of views on modern patriotic films of representatives of these groups in personal social networks is carried out. Conclusions are drawn about the prospects for constructing a new identity through patriotic films for children and adults, and the general mechanism for constructing a new modern identity of Russians is considered.

Fostering legal language skills of rural law students through multimedia

It is said that education is the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. India, once a land of high learning is now on its way struggling to impart quality education to all its countrymen. While the standard of education in cities is competing with international standards, the education in rural areas remains restricted to blackboard and books. Although the teachers make considerable use of blackboard, charts, models etc., they lack in the usage of technology with which they can enhance the learning process as well as acquisition process of a language. Teachers in general made little use of computer facilities such as the World Wide Web and e-mail. The usage of video materials and foreign films is popular to an extent among them. Teacher’s level of education and teaching experience too accounts for some of the differences in the frequency with which teachers used technology. It is clear that foreign language teachers need to improve their knowledge of how to integrate technology with other activities in classroom instruction. This need could be met by including 'Technology in Classroom' in the courses for pre-service and in-service teachers.

Online Algorithm Design of English Translation of Film and Television Works under the Background of Media Cultural Information.

As a carrier and medium of culture, film and television have richer cultural connotations and a mission of cross-cultural communication. The translation and dissemination of film and television works not only play an important role in enhancing understanding and communication between different countries, but also contribute to the social life and values of ordinary people. Influence is growing. In order to improve the media communication function of film and television works, this paper attempts to explain and discuss how subtitle translation uses these two translation strategies through the analysis of Chinese and foreign film and television dramas. Through the analysis of the specific translation process of film and television works, the author draws the conclusion that in order to achieve the specific translation purpose, the subtitle translation should be based on the author's intention, translation purpose, text type, and reader factors. This paper adopts a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and selects suitable examples to explain or illustrate the phenomenon of film and television translation in the description and analysis process. The system designed in the paper is designed with the dissemination and evaluation of film and television works as parameters. The example in this study is that the author himself recorded it according to the Chinese and English subtitles on the screen when watching. Without personal modification, the selected films are officially official institutions, published or broadcast translations. This research focuses on the dialectical analysis and thinking of the collected corpus, so that the conclusions are more convincing than just giving some perceptual examples.

Review: Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era, by Jie Li

Review: <i>Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era</i>, by Jie Li

The market for foreign cinema in contemporary Italy: a geography of film consumption

The article aims at studying the geographical variability of theatrical consumption and popularity of contemporary films imported in Italy since the beginning of the XXI century. It relies on the data about regional admissions and theatrical distribution of more than 4100 titles, namely all the films with more than 15,000 admissions that had been projected in Italy from January 2000 to the pandemic outbreak in mid-February 2020, which forced the closure of all cinemas nationwide. While the regional patterns of distribution of both domestic and foreign films are always rather homogeneous and do not undergo major regional variations, Italian and non-Italian films are consumed in very different ways, geographically. When it comes to foreign cinema, a Regional Popularity Index shows how different regions and primarily wider trans-regional areas have different preferences linked to particular themes and genres. Different films are more or less popular in different areas, even regardless of any disparities in their distribution, precisely because they meet (or fail to meet) the specific tastes of macro-regional audiences. Specifically, the data consistently show a divide in taste between the northern-central audiences and their southern counterparts, which replicates the great distance that still divides the North from the South of Italy, from an economic, social and cultural point of view.

The Film Industry as a Sector of the Economy: Current Problems and Trends

Nowadays, the film industry is an important sector of the economy of many countries. Scientific interest in the research of cinema will grow with each passing day. This is because the film industry, consisting of producers and commercial organizations, is an object of investment and a successful asset. The article focuses on defining the role of the film industry in Kazakhstan’s economic and social development. The article’s primary goal is to identify and discuss current problems and trends in the development of the domestic film industry by analyzing its current state. The paper reveals the essence of the three main functions of the film industry - economic, social and ideological. The current state of the domestic film industry is analyzed by the use of statistical and sociological data. Relevant issues, socio-economic peculiarities, critical participants in the film market of Kazakhstan were considered. The research results established that private film companies dominate the domestic film business. The market is dominated byproducts of the foreign film industry, evidenced by their financial receipts. The task of increasing the share of domestic films, including national cinema in the film market, becomes more relevant. In addition, the article presents the problems that prevent the development of the domestic film industry and the factors that contribute to its further development. These factors include improving public administration in the field of cinematography, the establishment of clear parameters for the quality of domestic films, ensuring the principles of accessibility of Kazakhstani films.

The impact of protectionism on cultural industries: the effect of China’s film policies on imported films

ABSTRACT Hollywood studios have actively sought to export more films to China in order to benefit from its huge film market. Facing this expansion, the Chinese government has introduced quotas in order to restrict the market access of foreign films while protecting its domestic film industry and preserving Chinese values. Nonetheless, this protectionism has brought about an unexpected effect; a limited number of Hollywood films in China have been able to attract large audiences and even exert a strong influence upon society. This paper examines how this paradox has been possible. First, it compares the level of China’s overall protectionism with other countries. Second, China’s two main policy instruments in the domestic market are scrutinized: import quota (buy-out and revenue-sharing models) and screen quota. In revealing their true effects, this paper demonstrates that these instruments of protection have produced unexpected negative business practices that foster rather favorable conditions for US films in China which is contrary to what the Chinese government is seeking to achieve.

Innovations in audiovisual translation – thematic analysis of national art texts

The article discussed innovations in audiovisual translation: from reproduction to perception of music or film texts. Cinematography is an integral part of world art, representing a universal way of interaction between different cultures. Audiovisual translation is currently a popular type of translation activity since foreign films form the basis of film distribution in the country. Today, over 50% of the cross-cultural exchange of information is carried out through films, television programs, shows, and video games. Audiovisual translation requires special skills and abilities from translators since the actions they perform are radically different from their usual experience of working only with a verbal (text/speech) series. Recipients of an audio-visual work process message are received simultaneously through several information channels. This imposes a special responsibility on audio-visual translation. The work aims to identify the main features of audiovisual translation as a particular type of translation activity. The object of the research is the process of audiovisual translation as a special type of translation activity. The subject of the study is the features of subtitling as a type of audiovisual translation. The research is based on the method of linguistic translation analysis, which includes such components as observation, description, generalization, comparison, and systematization. In addition, the methods of contextual and interpretative analysis, discourse analysis, and comparative analysis of film discourses were used. The practical results of the research are the systematization, generalization, and application of existing methodological recommendations for working on an audiovisual translation (in particular, over-subtitling), the linguistic translation analysis of the film "Searching for Sugar Man,” as well as the creation of the text of the translation of this film into Russian using subtitling. The choice of the material is due to its novelty and the diversity of social, historical, and cultural realities and the song component, which are of interest from the point of view of linguistic translation analysis.

From ‘Trucfilm’ to ‘Animatiefilm’: How the Emergence of Animation as a New Artistic Form Is Reflected in Dutch Terminology

Before 1940, the influence of foreign films, filmmakers and film networks on film culture in the Netherlands was substantial. This article investigates how various Dutch professionals within the fields of film production, distribution, exhibition and reception referred to animation film, in a period when this term was not part of the Dutch language. From early on, animation film was recognized as being ‘intrinsically different’ from live-action film and, along with the gradual emergence of this new artistic form, a corresponding language to support it evolved, influenced by language contacts in various contexts in the multilingual landscape in Europe. From the first singular appearances in 1913, a more form-specific terminology had gradually developed by 1940. During the same time, animation film steadily proceeded to occupy its permanent place in Dutch film culture.

«Преступление и наказание» в зарубежных киноверсиях: трансформации хронотопа

The paper analyses the only preserved foreign silent screen version and twelve foreign sound film versions and adaptations of Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, produced in Europe, Asia, both Americas, and Australia from 1923 to 2016 — and defined as “faithful”, “based on”, “associated with”, “with reference to” etc. Specific objects of the analysis are the basic attitudes of cinema makers towards literary sources (originals) and the artistic potentials of the common motto of film directors: “This is how I see it”, applied to the process of translating a book into a film. The contents and quality of various screen versions of Crime and Punishment are here explored from the point of view of the transformations of the chronotope. To what time and place is the plot of the novel transferred, when it does not remain in its original ones? What happens with the plot, the characters, and the meaning of the novel, if the events are transferred to another cultural milieu and/or to another historical period? How is the novel’s epilogue (the perspective of Raskolnikov’s renewal and rebirth in the time after the novel) interpreted? An analysis of the screen versions shows that the fate of Raskolnikov remains a painful moment for the cinema worldwide: the central character of the novel is too deeply connected with the last century, he rhymes too much with its tragic fate.

Soviet Film Policy of the Second Half of 1950s — Late 1970s

The subject of this article is the film policy of the Soviet leadership in the period of “cold warming.” The term is used as a conditional-instrumental designation of the period — the second half of the 1950s to the late 1970s, clearly manifested as a management style in which elements of “détente” in the field of culture, cinematography, which appeared much earlier than this phenomenon in international relations, continuously coexisted with an atmosphere of tension between the USSR and the USA. On the basis of a wide range of sources, including archival documents used here or are subjected to in-depth analysis for the first time, this article addresses political, ideological, institutional, media, and communicative aspects of Soviet film politics in historical dynamics, from Khrushchev’s “modernization” to Brezhnev’s “conservative appeasement”. The leading role of such structures as the USSR State Committee for Cinematography, film export organization, and Ideological Commissions of the Central Committee of the CPSU in following established traditions of state pragmatism is established. This was expressed in the opening of external information “gateways” on the principle of duality. Import and “free” transmission of foreign film production, the assumption of private and departmental interaction with Western, American cinema figures, the reception of “alien” artistic and administrative-organizational experience of improving the filmmaker, were interrupted by strict control, demonstrative strengthening of censorship, and control and supervisory activity of party-state structures to counter “bourgeois media attacks”. As a result, this led to the return of excessive ideological and political principles, the inertial construction of barriers, the re-conceptualization of figurative-visual stereotypes and dogmatic prejudices.

Lexical and grammatical peculiarities in the translation of animated films

The article reveals the peculiarities of the transfer of lexical and grammatical components in the animated films, analyzes the methods used in the translation of English-language films into Ukrainian and presents ways to reproduce stylistic features. The aim is to identify lexical and grammatical features in the translation of animated films. In addition, the goal is to analyze the strategies and effective ways of conveying the content that arise in the translation process. The importance of the research lies in the need to study the components of the film’s text, which serve as a leading tool in working with the plot, as well as ways to adequately translate the scripts of modern cinema. A significant factor is the emergence of a considerable amount of foreign film production, which leads to the development of Ukrainian dubbing and the improvement of various methods in reproduction of plots in the field of translation. The subject of the research is a set of ways to convey the lexical and grammatical features of the plot in the process of translation and reproduction of stylistic integrity, in particular through the use of various transformations. The theoretical significance of the study is the generalization of information about the concept of “film text” and its functions, highlighting the specifics of film translation and its difficulties, as well as studying a set of strategies that help in the localization process. The practical value of the work is that the studied theoretical material and the results of the analysis in the translation of the film text, which contains a number of transformations, can be used for further exploring and deeper study of ways in lexical and grammatical transmission of the film’s text. In addition, the data obtained in the research process will be useful for teaching and further development of modern translation studies. The conclusions highlight the importance of research for future scholars, which is based on the establishment of new methods of working with film translation and determining the stylistic characteristics of the plot.

Youth problems in South Korean cinema (on the material of Lee Chang-don’s film “Burning”)

The article analyzes youth issues in South Korean cinematography, using the case of Lee Chang-dong’s film Burning, based on the story “Burn the Barn” by H. Murakami. The theoretical foundation of the study was the approaches of Z. Bauman, specifically his concepts of consumer society, individualized society, consequences of globalization for the individual and society, and modern retrotopia. The analysis of the film is carried using elements of system analysis, which contributes to a better disclosure of the social content of the films of G. Korte and N. A. Agafonova. The methods for collecting empirical data were the content analysis of the film, a review of an interview with director Lee Chang-dong, reviews by Russian and foreign film critics, and audience reviews that contain reactions to the social issues of the film. The works of A. Lankov, O. Kiryanov, D. Tudor, and Y. Hong, as well as publications in periodicals covering the topic, helped to understand the specifics of social problems in the context of the development of modern South Korean society. Youth problems reflected in the film Burning are considered within the framework of economic inequality and social stratification, gender inequality, the disappearing periphery (small homeland) and social perspectives in society. To represent the key problem of socio-economic stratification and inequality of life chances in the context of (post) globalization, Lee Chang-dong resorted to creating diametrically opposed types of young people. Misunderstanding and tension reign between them from the very beginning, leading to anger, which in turn comes out, and at the end of the film a tragedy occurs. The inequality depicted by Lee Chang-dong, on the one hand, is a global trend that is typical for most developed countries of the world. On the other hand, the director placed this trend in the context of modern South Korean society with its specific features.