Popular Film Research Articles

The construction of ‘Jacques Becker’: realism, popular film and the auteur in 1950s film criticism

ABSTRACT Jacques Becker is well known as an auteur, one of the few French directors working in the post-war period who has been hailed as an ‘uncle’ of the New Wave (alongside Robert Bresson, Max Ophuls, Jean-Pierre Melville and Jacques Tati). This article positions him in relation to the ‘quality’ and popular cinema of the period through an exploration of the critical discourses that coalesce around his films. Becker embraced an auteurist conception of cinema but operated in an industry that was dominated by a commercial, quality cinema of international co-productions, stars and films destined for export. Drawing on articles from both the specialist and general press, this article explores the construction of Becker as an auteur at the very moment when the politique des auteurs was setting out its stall in opposition to the Tradition of Quality and popular cinema more generally. By tracing how Becker came to occupy a unique position in post-war French film, it sheds light on the framing of popular, quality and auteur film in relation to key social, political and aesthetic discourses in play at this time.

Dead but Not Buried

Abstract On April 12, 1919, Paris police arrested Henri Désiré Landru, a man who had spent the last four years of war luring women into engagements and confiscating their assets. Many of them were never seen again. Landru, charged with their murders, became an international media sensation—the inspiration for popular crime stories, including books, articles, films, television and radio programs, and theatrical performances, from his execution in 1922 to 2020. This article examines these stories for the revealing ways they bring together conceptions of war and violent crime. It considers a 1926 nonfiction account of Landru by the South African journalist and military veteran William Bolitho, the film Monsieur Verdoux (1947) written by Charlie Chaplin, Claude Chabrol's film Landru (1963), and a 2006 graphic novel by Christophe Chabouté. These narratives suggest, and this article argues, that stories about Landru—and the multiple murders he committed for profit—have served, at various times and in various places, as vehicles for critiquing warfare and the societies that embrace it.

Cinema and the Digital Revolution: The Representations of Digital Culture in Films

This article examines popular cinema’s interactions with digital culture, focusing on cinema and social structure. A product of technological and social developments, digital culture has introduced the creation of cyberspace, the emergence and spread of social media, and the formation of virtual communities. This article focuses on a specific period (1980 – 2010) to examine the evolution in cinema of portrayals of digital culture. The analysis includes four influential films: WarGames (1983, by John Badham), Perfect Blue (1997, by Satoshi Kon), Pulse (2001, by Kiroshi Kurosawa), and Life in a Day (2011, by Kevin Macdonald, Loressa Clisby, and Tegan Bukowski). The article provides a guide to popular cinema's interaction with and use of the possibilities offered by digital culture, revealing how the four selected films reflect digital culture themes. Each film demonstrates different aspects and dynamics of digital culture at a particular time, offering a unique look at that period's social and technological landscape through its portrayal of technological developments, human relations, cultural values, and social norms. Each film evaluates the impact of the digitization process on cinema from different perspectives, depicting how cinema adapts and responds to technological changes.

Online Streaming: A Paradigm Shift for Nollywood Movie Distribution

The Nigerian movie distribution and exhibition business has undergone major transformation in the last few years due to technological innovation. The study is about Nollywood paradigm shift from hard copy movie distribution to online streaming services. The aim is to ascertain why producers are moving to soft screening through online pay-to-view platforms. The objectives were to find out if this new trend is financially beneficial to the producers and whether it will likely continue in the future. The study adopted qualitative methods to interrogate existing data on some of the most popular Nollywood films released online by Netflix. This is based on a snap-shot of Netflix’s popularity chart in the month of October, 2020 and news of cinema theatre films release around the same period. The findings are that the online distribution deals must have been profitable for the producers, judging by repeated use by some of them and others enlisting in the business. The expanding scope of Nollywood producers using these online streaming platforms for distributions of their work suggests the likelihood of a continuing process. The study concludes that this is a mutually beneficial relationship between local producers and online business global entities. It, therefore, recommends that Nollywood producers avoid signing exclusive deals with online distributors only. This will allow home-grown cinema theatres to be financially rewarding to prevent the nation’s cinema theatre chains from collapsing due to redundancy.

Cinema as a Basis for the Formation / Creation of Modern National Identity

The purpose of the article is to analyse the role and place of cinema in the formation and strengthening of modern Ukrainian identity; to study the main trends observed in the development of contemporary Ukrainian cinema in the direction of state-building and geopolitical processes, in particular in the context of the war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine in 2022; to examine the shortcomings that negatively affect the quality and perception of Ukrainian cinema in Ukraine and the world. Research methodology. To achieve the set goals and solve the tasks, the researchers used such diverse approaches and methods as analysis (to study contemporary popular films) and synthesis (to identify trends in the development of Ukrainian cinema), historical method (to clarify the historical realities of Ukraine’s development), literary analysis (to study literary sources that highlight identity in cinema). Scientific novelty. For the first time, contemporary Ukrainian cinema is analysed in terms of trends in the formation of national identity through feature films. The main components of Ukrainian national identity are identified: awareness of cultural heritage, understanding of one’s role in the collective identity, and active consumption of cultural and information space, including cinema. The role and place of cinema in the formation and strengthening of modern Ukrainian identity are analysed. Conclusions. It is determined that the formation of Ukrainian national identity is conditioned by history, language, culture, religion, territory, traditions, politics and education. The article has analysed the Ukrainian cinema space and found that there is a tendency to rethink classical works and appeal to Ukrainian culture as a means of forming national identity, as well as to cover the topic of war and heroic events in the history of Ukraine, which contributes to the self-identification of Ukrainians as courageous fighters for freedom and independence. The study also has identified shortcomings, such as the use of “trouser culture”, acting unprofessionalism and instability of cinematic development, which negatively affect the quality and perception of Ukrainian cinema.

‘How kindly he hears my confession:’ A thought experiment for teaching Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) in the context of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm

While not often ranked amongst Alfred Hitchcock’s most popular or critically lauded films, 1953s I Confess is a compelling work for many reasons, including its ability to provoke thoughtful questions about Catholicism. In this paper, I describe a particular assignment I give in an undergraduate course called Catholicism on Film, and argue for its usefulness as a means of integrating the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm into a course taught at a secular institution, that examines the role of Catholicism in popular cinema. As well, this paper contends that cinema, as an artform, has a unique ability to explore Catholicism, and that Hitchcock's film is a particularly strong exemplar of how movies, an inherently empathetic medium, can shift our perceptions of each other, and something as seemingly rigid as dogmatic laws.

Representation of masculinities in the Arabesk films of Orhan Gencebay within the context of 1970s Turkish popular cinema (Yeşilçam)

ABSTRACT This study explores the Arabesk films of Orhan Gencebay and their representation of masculinities. It compares their approach with that of other Yeşilçam melodramas within the productive years of the Turkish popular cinema between the late 1960s and 1980, focusing on the treatment of fallen women and men’s corporeal performances in need of female approval. Gencebay’s filmography presents an opportunity to decipher an indecisive, modernized and quasi-authentic masculinity constructed upon the moral dilemmas engendered by the absence of traditional village relations in an urban setting. Although Arabesk masculinities have a generally positive attitude toward fallen women and present a milder approach to tradition, they often fall back on patriarchal modes of thought by putting the emancipation of women down to men, thus finding common ground with other masculinities prone to violence in Turkish cinema of the period.

Effect of commercial P25 TiO2 doping in polydimethylsiloxane tribo-film on the output performance of triboelectric nanogenerator and its application

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a popular tribo-layer film for triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) often used for mechanical energy harvesting to collect sustainable energy. Material doping in PDMS is a feasible method for performance enhancement of TENG. Different dielectric materials in TENG involved in time-consuming and complex chemical process. Here, we propose a PDMS-TENG doped with a commercially available and non-toxic dielectric material P25 TiO2 with fast process. The dielectric triboelectric layer is casted by PDMS with doped TiO2 (TiO2@PDMS) at a precisely controlled concentration and combined into TENG with aluminium sheet (TiO2@PDMS-Al-TENG). The optimal TiO2@PDMS-Al-TENG occurred at 0.45 wt% of P25 TiO2. In comparison to the non-doped PDMS-Al-TENG, the open-circuit voltage increased by 223 %, the short-circuit current increased by 263 %, and the output power increased by 692 %. TiO2@PDMS-Al-TENG can be applied to drive electrical appliances. This demonstrates that using commercially available low-cost TiO2 can enhance power generation performance enough for PDMS-Al-TENG at a fast process and be widely used in the power generation thin films.

The Influence of Bollywood Movies on the representation of Indian Indentured Labourers in Mauritian Media and Culture

This study explores the influence of Bollywood movies on the representation of Indian indentured labourers in Mauritian media and culture. The research investigates the ways in which Bollywood movies have impacted the depiction of Indian Indentured labourers in Mauritian society, and how this representation has changed over time. The study utilizes a qualitative method, including questionnaires, relevant literature reviews, and content analysis of popular Bollywood films and Mauritian media. The findings indicate that Bollywood movies have had a significant impact on the representation of Indian indentured labourers in Mauritian media and culture. While earlier representations of indentured labourers in Mauritian media were largely negative and stereotypical, Bollywood movies have played a key role in challenging these stereotypes and promoting a more positive image of the Indian community in Mauritius. The study highlights the importance of media representation in shaping cultural perceptions and argues that Bollywood movies have played a vital role in promoting a more nuanced and positive image of Indian indentured labourers in Mauritian society. The study concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for future research and for promoting cultural diversity in Mauritian society.

Special issue introduction: representation of diasporic food cultures

ABSTRACT Diasporic food cultures enter dominant societies through a variety of manners and spaces, in homes, at food fairs, restaurants, through cookbooks, in supermarkets, but also in visual media. This special section investigates how the representations of diasporic food cultures in popular television and film mediate a variety of food traditions which negotiate and challenge dominant societal assumptions about the present, the past and the future of food and eating, and their complex relationships to race, class, gender, identity and the environment. The contributions to the issue note how the meeting of various diasporic culinary traditions and the often already transcultural host food traditions marks the start of new, feminist, decolonial food cultures, identities and futures, which raise critical questions about our food culture. This investigation of the representation of diasporic food cultures not only reveals the continuing transmutation of food cultures but more importantly the transformation of culture as such, within an increasingly polarized, uneven and fortified world where the dominant food system contributes to a social and ecological breakdown.

Climate diaspora and future food cultures in Snowpiercer (2013) and The Road (2009)

ABSTRACT This article takes as its starting point the realization that existing food regimes and the food systems that enable them are the main drivers of climate change. This, the article notes, is a systemic challenge, but also a profoundly cultural issue as the way that people eat is deeply connected to questions of identity and belonging. The article enters this field of inquiry by studying how the awareness that current food systems are unsustainable is being mediatized and narrated in popular fiction and film. This media often depicts humans in worlds where the current food system has collapsed, forcing also people in the Global North to move or otherwise adapt to a changing climate, and, in the process, to profoundly alter the way they eat. The article discusses two visual texts: Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer (2013), and John Hillcoat’s The Road (2009). The analysis of these texts shows that they employ food, eating and migration to make life in a future transformed by climate change comprehensible to the reader. The article also investigates how the fiction studied connects food and eating to the existing world-system and thus to the material history that is driving the climate crisis.

Transgressive Bodies in Dark Worlds: Female Gangsters and Film Noir in Indian Popular Cinema

Transgressive Bodies in Dark Worlds: Female Gangsters and Film Noir in Indian Popular Cinema

Heroic Soldiers, Justified Wars: Depictions of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in Polish Popular Film

Polish popular film has responded to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with two productions: the TV series Misja: Afganistan (dir. Maciej Dejczer, 2012) and the feature film Karbala (dir. Krzysztof Łukaszewicz, 2015). They do not reflect the prevailing views of the public on these two military conflicts, but rather appeal to the general imaginings about Polish wars in the course of history. As they leave out issues of politics, it is the portrayal of the soldiers that most fundamentally contributes to the construction of the perspectives on the wars in the Middle East in the films under discussion. The predominantly positive image of the Polish soldiers leads the viewer to believe that the wars in which they fought were justified. Misja: Afganistan and Karbala perpetuate the tropes entrenched in the heroic/martyrological model of representing war in Polish film through exploiting universal connotations of heroic war.

Beyond lectures and practical courses: Teaching pharmacology using imaginative pedagogical tools

Pharmacology has broadened its scope considerably in recent decades. Initially, it was of interest to chemists, doctors and pharmacists. In recent years, however, it has been incorporated into the teaching of biologists, molecular biologists, biotechnologists, chemical engineers and many health professionals, among others. Traditional teaching methods, such as lectures or laboratory work, have been superseded by the use of new pedagogical approaches to enable a better conceptualization and understanding of the discipline. In this article, we present several new methods that have been used in Spanish universities. Firstly, we describe a teaching network that has allowed the sharing of pedagogical innovations in Spanish universities. A European experience to improve prescribing safety is described in detail. The use of popular films and medical TV series in biomedical students shows how these audiovisual resources can be helpful in teaching pharmacology. The use of virtual worlds is detailed to introduce this new approach to teaching. The increasingly important area of the social aspects of pharmacology is also considered in two sections, one devoted to social pharmacology and the other to the use of learning based on social services to improve understanding of this important area. Finally, the use of Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation in pharmacology allows to know how this approach can help to better evaluate clinical pharmacology students. In conclusion, this article allows to know new pedagogical methods resources used in some Spanish universities that may help to improve the teaching of pharmacology.

Treading on the Tiger’s Tail: Chinese Wuxia and Japanese Jidaigeki Action Films Reacting to State Censorship in the 1930s and 1940s

This article highlights the relationship between wuxia (martial heroes) and jidaigeki (period drama) action films and state censorship in the 1930s and 1940s. I first introduce readers to key East-Asian literary conventions that portray righteous warriors who incarnate their moral codes with swords. I then illustrate the political contexts in 1930s China and 1940s Japan which caused the popular film genres of wuxia and jidaigeki to become politically problematic and therefore strictly censored. I closely examine director Bu Wancang’s 1931 wuxia film A Spray of Plum Blossoms and Kurosawa Akira’s jidaigeki 1945 film Treading on the Tiger’s Tail, investigating creative solutions each director found in order to release their respective films despite censorship pressures. There are three inventions both directors pioneered in their work, namely “ostensible exactness” in setting; “patriotic warriors” in characterization; and “swordless fights” in presenting spectacular action scenes. I argue that although these solutions failed to restore both genres back to their former popularity, Kurosawa’s film paved the way for the success of his world-class jidaigeki in the 1950s, and Bu’s wuxia led to the emergence of kung fu films in the 1960s. My critical analysis underscores the innovative creativity of Chinese wuxia and Japanese jidaigeki films while calling attention to the artistic and cultural legacies of these two popular cinematic genres. The comparison demonstrates how film censorship may undermine or even destroy traditions that have a long history and deep cultural roots.

The creative characteristics of Liu Chi's film songs in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chinese film music entered a heyday, and Liu Chi was the most influential composer at that time. In his film songs, based on the development of the times, he boldly used ethnic and folk music as song materials, innovated the form of songs, and created many popular film songs for the people. This article starts from analyzing the three movie songs created by Liu Chi in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and summarizes his creative characteristics from the perspectives of nationality, originality, and contemporaneity. Provide research ideas for the development of film songs during this period.

Rape by Deception in Popular Culture: The Hidden Harm in Body-swap Narratives

ABSTRACT The increasing support for affirmative and informed consent to sexual activity has led to several jurisdictions, including the UK, several US states and Israel, to incorporate rape by deception, or rape-by-fraud, into laws against rape. Broadly, rape by deception involves the rapist making false claims about identity, fidelity, contraception and/or disease risk. False claims like these can make informed consent impossible and put the victim/survivor at risk for serious ongoing health conditions, including sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. However, storylines featuring rape by deception in popular film and television suggest that cultural knowledge and recognition of the harm inflicted by rape by deception is not widely shared. In body-swapping narratives, a popular trope in comedy and speculative fiction, characters inhabit or swap bodies with other characters and may then engage in sexual activity where one party involved is unaware of the swap. In visual media, the body swapping trope is largely conveyed by actors taking on the mannerisms of other characters to comedic effect. In this article we will explore a range of representative examples of this trope and argue that rape by deception is rarely considered in these narratives, indicative of a broader cultural failure to think through the consequences of affirmative and informed consent.

Mediatization of Religion and Its Impact on Youth Identity Formation in Contemporary China

In response to the trend of information technology development, religions in China are undergoing a process of mediatization. This study takes the popular Chinese animated films Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child (哪吒之魔童降世) (2019) and New Gods: Yang Jian (新神榜: 杨戬) (2022) as research cases of mediatization of religion and conducts a focused study of the respective protagonists Ne Zha (哪吒) and Yang Jian (杨戬), both prominent figures in Chinese religious and folk traditions. Through text analysis and empirical research on the two movies and their fans, this study examines how religion is being mediatized in contemporary China in the transformation to Religion 2.0 or a type of amalgamation of real- and virtual-world practices that enact a relationship with the divine, and how this shapes identity formation for fans, who are mostly young individuals in their teens and twenties. This research argues that to obtain permission for dissemination in mainstream media and thrive in the cultural context of China, religion chooses to assume the form of media products that can bypass scrutiny that forbids “supernatural phenomena” and aligns with the mainstream ideology. It has to be a “contributory religion” that contributes to the “revitalization” of national spirit and inherited Chinese culture, not a potential “superstitious” threat to the Marxist orthodoxy. In the context of official promotion of atheism and the regulation of public discourse, animated films with themes adapted from traditional mythological and religious stories, such as Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child and New Gods: Yang Jian, have become a major cultural form through which people in China engage with religious symbols and narratives. The enormous success of the two movies resulted in a large population of young fans. Influenced by these films, their fans have developed an egoistic religious perspective rather than assimilating the religious or cultural messages contained in the movies. These fans may experience solace and a call to faith to some extent in their consumption of the movies, but they selectively enhance religious literacy that only meets their personal needs. Interest in divine individuals far outweighs interest in or loyalty to the religious doctrine or sect itself. Pilgrimages are undertaken to fulfill personal fantasies, and the promotion of the divine is aimed at vying for influence within fan communities. The second part of this study examines the activities of the fans that I argue are characteristic of the age of Religion 2.0.

Gender Politics and Stereotypes in Bollywood Films Dhrishyam 1 and 2<b></b>

Indian cinema is one of the most influential and powerful tools for addressing various social issues via the medium of a screenplay. The Indian film industry, commonly known as Bollywood, is one of the largest and most prolific film industries (Pillania 115) in the world. This article aims to explore Gender Roles and Stereotypes prevalent in Bollywood films, through an in-depth analysis of the popular films Dhrishyam 1 and 2, hereafter referred to as the Dhrishyam film series. By examining the portrayal of lead characters, the study aims to shed light on the ways in which Indian cinema perpetuates societal norms and biases. Through a combination of qualitative content analysis and audience reception analysis, the research provides empirical evidence to support the claim that Indian films, including the “Dhrishyam” film series, contribute to the diffusion of gender stereotyping, consolidating unreasonable societal expectations. With a focus on the intersectionality of gender, identity, and culture, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationships between Indian cinema and societal constructs, leading to critical insights into theneed for more diverse and inclusive portrayals in the film industry.

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.