Popular Film Research Articles

Abstract 13871: Portrayal of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Popular Film

Introduction: The representation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in popular media plays a pivotal role in shaping public conceptions about CV health. CVD is the leading cause of death among women and disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minority populations in the United States, yet recent national surveys indicate a significant decline in public awareness. Our study sought to investigate the portrayal of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in popular film. Hypothesis: Portrayal of AMI in film will predominantly show white men exhibiting symptoms of chest pain. Women, racial/ethnic minority populations, and subtle symptoms of AMI will be underrepresented. Aims: To examine 100 full length feature film scenes depicting AMI and evaluate the representation of gender, race/ethnicity, and symptoms. Methods: The 100 most popular films with scenes depicting AMI were identified using the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Scenes and AMI symptoms were analyzed by cardiologists/cardiology fellows. Gender and race/ethnicity were acquired via movie plots/scripts or via actor self-identification if the former was unavailable. Results: Of the 100 scenes analyzed, 10% depicted women. The representation of people of color was only 6% in contrast to the 94% of scenes featuring non-Hispanic whites. Of the 10 women portrayed, 1 was non-white. The distribution of gender and race/ethnicity for all scenes is shown in Figure 1. The most prevalent presenting symptom observed in 65% of scenes was chest pain accompanied by loss of consciousness. Conclusions: Popular film depictions of AMI appear to be under representative of women and racial/ethnic minority populations. This may be a contributing factor to the inaccurate public perception that CVD does not affect these populations. Film depictions of AMI, which predominantly portray dramatic symptoms of chest pain and loss of consciousness may also perpetuate false beliefs on typical (or even atypical) symptoms of AMI.

Popular historical films as collective memory-work in Eastern Europe: from Polish KATYN to Romanian AFERIM! and Hungarian BET ON REVENGE

Abstract Historical film – a film genre supported in the Cold War era – has re-emerged in the 21st century in Eastern European cinemas, its success signalled by popularity, dedicated state financing funds or political support. This article frames the phenomenon within the Assmannian model of three communicative generations, suggested to be interlinked on the level of both the creative staff and the audience of Eastern European historical films. Based on box-office data of the Lumiere Database of the European Audiovisual Observatory, and research referring to further elements of canonization, it is argued that titles such as Polish Katyn (2007), Romanian Aferim! (2015) or Hungarian Bet on Revenge (2016) – the first majority production historical films to achieve significant audience, and, consequently, critical success in their domestic markets in the 21st century – signal a successful collective memory-work process. While in the major Polish market this may be inscribed within the three communicative generations of the victims, the forgetters and the mourners doing memory-work – possibly processing collective traumatization too –, the two small national examples fall outside the validity of the Assmannian model. In order to somewhat refine this apparent opposition between 21st century Eastern European major and small national collective memory-work through historical films, further examples from the Polish, Hungarian and Romanian top lists are examined. Poetic-medial features – the actualization of “trauma narratives” (Alexander 2012) or of postmodern irony, the employment of cinematic and/or televisual visuality – seem to facilitate collective memory-work differently for major and small national domestic audiences, activating or not their belonging to the three communicative generations with respect to the historical events represented in the films.

Onomatopoeia, Sound Effects and Humour in Japanese Anime and US Animation Films and Television

Onomatopoeia are words signifying sounds by phonetically imitating or suggesting them. Research into the use of onomatopoeia in literature, language and comics has been rich and varied while the study of the use of onomatopoeia in film, television and their functions has so far been limited. This article focuses on two aspects: (a) the relationship between onomatopoeia and sound effects in US animation and Japanese anime; and (b) audiovisual humour caused by the use of onomatopoeia and sound effects in US animation and Japanese anime. The author introduces classifications and usage patterns of onomatopoeia in English and Japanese, and analyses the different types of onomatopoeia and sound effects in recent popular US animation films and TV, and in Japanese anime and their contributions to creating humour by applying humour theory (incongruity theory in particular). This study combines film analysis, soundtrack analysis, linguistic analysis and theories of humour, and will be of interest to students and scholars of film, sound, linguistics, psychology and other subjects interested in the study of onomatopoeia and audiovisual humour.

The Neo-Positive Value of Symbolic Representations and Ritual Politics: Reconsidering the South Korean Allegory in Popular Film, Asura: The City of Madness

The article is a preliminary effort to join neo-positive and historical institutional analysis from comparative politics with insights from discursive and phenomenological analysis. It highlights a message arising from a South Korean film related to moral–ethical dimensions and the implications of development policy. Taken in symbolic as well as empirical terms, the film proffers that economic development policy not attending to political institutional development—including correct institutional practices at the micro-level—is feeding Asia’s demons (e.g., asuras) rather than its forces of stability and (rational, democratic, participatory) political order. The film suggests that institutional atrophy and social decay may emerge from the breakdown of political institutions and participatory politics as a political system moves from rationalized institutions and practices into what the current work calls, “mafia politics.” Political ritual and political theatre are actively employed in the film in ritualized acts of the desecration of political order. The current work suggests that the analysis of symbolic representations relating to ritual politics and performativity (e.g., “political theatre”) located in certain art forms, such as international film, may be useful in studies of religion and politics, and in qualitative comparative political and historical institutional analysis more broadly.

3.O. Workshop: Students avoiding school toilets: a universal, unrecognized & rarely discussed public health issue

Abstract Based on recent statistics, access to school toilets can be considered no more an issue in the European region (UNICEF, 2020). However, presence is not equivalent to use. Four complementary perspectives will illustrate this universal yet unrecognised and underdiscussed public health issue: the avoidance of school toilets by children and adolescents. The workshop will be introduced by a presentation about WHO initiatives, perspectives and recommendations on sanitation and handwashing facilities in schools. Putting the European specificities in a global context will allow us to understand the difference between access and use that will drive the other presentations. The next presentation, will question Youth popular culture regarding school toilets. For many adolescents, popular culture is the primary way in which they learn about people's experiences, therefore, the way toilets are pictured in popular culture such as books or films may influence adolescents’ use of school toilets, even if they are not aware of that. This presentation will analyse some examples of how school toilets are presented in Young Adults’ fictions and popular films. This will help finding ways to talk about and alleviate concerns about the use of toilets in school by adolescents. The next presentation will give a Dutch insight: in 2023, master students under the supervision of a health sociologist and a paediatrician conducted an online survey on school toilets use by secondary pupils and reasons not to use them. The findings aim at advising schools on how they can adapt so that pupils use school toilets more often, but as well they may serve to advocate the topic to general practitioners, paediatricians, and youth health care physicians about health issues related to this public health problem. The last presentation will be driven by a health promotion and pedagogical perspective, through the example of the training of French school doctors. Since 40 years they have periodically addressed the issue of underuse of school toilets by children and adolescents, with the same negative findings. In 2022, 24 school doctors have worked again on the topic with health promotion's methods. Overall, their health priority stood as: “School toilets, a place of challenges and a reflection of the well-being of each and every pupil”. From there, some have built a tool to assess toilets in schools and the readiness of the staff to act upon the findings in a health promotion perspective. In conclusion, our perspectives, based on findings from different EU countries are rather complementary and coherent: children and adolescents underuse school toilets, despite their presence, leading to medical problems, lower well-being at school with the risk to endanger their learning availability. This confirms, if needed, that this is still a true public health issue. Some of the findings around the issue of safety (environmental as well as psychological) seem to be universal and will be discussed with the audience. Key messages • Underuse of school toilets by pupils is a true yet under-addressed public health issue even in Europe. • Safety (environmental and psychological), could be a lever to improve the use of school toilets by pupils.

Rozmowa z Jerzym Hoffmanem


 
 
 An interview with the Polish film director Jerzy Hoffman was recorded on 11–12 July 2022 at his estate in the village of Sikory Yuskie in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Jerzy Hoffman is perhaps the most popular Polish film director in Ukraine. His films gained recognition even before Ukraine gained independence. However, his most notable work is Ogniem i mieczem [With Fire and Sword, 1999], which starred the great Ukrainian actor Bohdan Stupka (1941–2012) as Hetman Bohdan Chmielnicki. The collaboration continued in the film The Old Tale. When the Sun Was a God (2003). In 2008 Jerzy Hoffman made a four-part documentary film Ukraine. The Birth of a Nation.
 The conversation touched on issues related to these films, completed and unrealized projects on Ukraine, reflections on the history of Polish-Ukrainian relations and the role of Jerzy Hoffmann’s work in establishing them. As a filmmaker who closely follows events in Ukraine, he shared his impressions and predictions about how the ongoing war will change and transform Ukraine and the world.
 
 

A Long Tail Item Recommendations for MovieLens

Amidst the framework of the Movie-lens dataset, this research paper digs into the essential topic of long-tail item suggestions. Long tail items, which are frequently neglected in traditional recommendation systems, constitute a substantial reservoir of specialty material. We evaluate and analyze existing methodology and breakthroughs in this subject, including collaborative filtering and matrix factorization, as well as hybrid and deep learning-based approaches. Our assessment highlights the ongoing issue of improving recommendation accuracy and diversity, especially for less popular films. In this paper, we investigate the crucial importance of user-item interaction patterns and auxiliary data sources in tackling the long tail problem. We present a complete analysis of the state-of-the-art in long tail item suggestions for movie lenses by exploring the strengths and limits of various strategies. This study gives insightful information for long-tail recommendations looking to create more inclusive, user-centric, and interesting movie recommendation platforms. It also sheds light on the changing landscape of recommendation systems.

Magic and Metamodernism

Magic and Metamodernism

2010년대 한국형 블록버스터 영화로 본 내셔널리즘 형상화 연구

This study analyzes the narrative characteristics of 'Korean blockbuster' movies made after the 2010s. Through the process, the “national identity” and “community sense” of the modern Korean public will be diagnosed. And it aims to understand the specificity of Korean movies. Popular films literally aim to represent the consciousness, desires, and values of the 'public'. At that time, recent films that have been highly talked about and commercially successful serve as the “representation of the nation” of the Korean public these days. Among them, this study targets to analyze “spy movies” that have recently increased in quantity and have narrative genealogies. The keywords of Korea's special situation of “division”, “capital”, which is most important than anything else in the movie, and “hero”, which is made of masculine solidarity and fantasy, are repeated. These Korean spy films will tell you what the public is aiming for and wanting, and what objects are angry and cynical.

The gentle craft of saying “No” in Persian and English: A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic slant

Refusals have proven to be problematic since they are the source of so many cross-cultural misunderstandings in that they are face threatening acts, which require that the speaker utilize redress, mitigation or politeness markers. The present study’s goal was to investigate the realization of the speech act of refusal in the Iranians and Americans contexts to identify the similarities and differences. It also explored the effect of social status on the choice of refusal strategies. Two well-known popular family drama film series were selected as the sources of the data. Totally, 455 refusal words, expressions, and utterances were collected from the two series. The collected data was coded using Beebe et al.’s (1990) taxonomy of refusal strategies. Descriptive statistics, Binomial, and Chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. The frequency of the refusal strategies and also the frequency of utilizing these strategies with respect to the interlocutors’ social status were analyzed. The results revealed no statistically significant differences between the two cultures with respect to the prevalence of refusal strategies, shift, and content of semantic formulae used in refusals. However, there were statistically significant differences in the frequency of the two major refusal categories, namely, Direct and Indirect strategies. Furthermore, concerning social status, the differences were statistically significant in the frequency of the refusal strategies utilized by the three social levels as regards the main categories in both cultures. The findings enhance intercultural understanding and provide valuable insights into the realization of refusals in different cultural contexts, the influence of social status, and the implications for intercultural communication. It highlights the significance of pragmatic issues and cultural awareness in promoting effective communication and mutual understanding across cultures, hence, ameliorates mutual cross-cultural communication and warrant teachers and material developers about the significance of pragmatic issues in developing the learners’ communicative competence.

SYNTHESIS OF CINEMA AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE ENVIRONMENT

The article highlights examples of the phenomenon of the synthesis of two visual arts - cinema and architecture. The work considers the main examples in the following subtopics: cinema as a way of increasing the attractiveness of architecture; architecture in cinema as a mirror of society; mutual borrowing in cinema and architecture; and their classification is given. 
 One of the main reasons for the appearance of this article is the need for deeper and holistic coverage of such issues, as well as the relationship and synthesis of cinema and architecture. There is a large amount of research on synthesis and assumptions that apply to one thing: either cinema or architecture. Also, sometimes you can find various essays or publications that partially touch on similar issues, namely, the synthesis of cinema and architecture. However, for the most part, they are rather specific and limited, they explore similar issues using the example of only some specific films, talk about how architecture is depicted in films, etc. Nevertheless, there are works that comprehensively and thoroughly investigate exactly the interaction between cinema and architecture, as well as how they directly influence each other, but they are quite a few. 
 That is why it became necessary to investigate in more detail the phenomenon of the interaction of these two disciplines from a slightly different perspective. Instead of exploring how they alternately use each other as tools, the article explores whether cinema and architecture can be considered equal visual arts that, in addition to being used, can also complement and mutually borrow ideas from each other. 
 That is why this article is one of the necessary steps that will help to better research this topic, and can later be used as a basis for the rest of more in-depth research. 
 The paper examines the phenomenon of the synthesis of two arts: cinema and architecture. In particular, attention was paid to such phenomena as: the influence of cinema on increasing the attractiveness of the architectural environment, as well as the reflection of architecture in cinema and the mutual influence of film art and architecture. 
 It has been established that architecture in cinema can not only act as a background space where events take place but can also be an active participant in the film. Moreover, the synthesis of cinema and architecture can very often act as a kind of mirror of society, not just reflecting a believable reality, but also raising questions and rethinking certain moods and narratives that were present in society at certain times. 
 In addition, these findings provide additional information about the possible influence of cinema on increasing the attractiveness of the architectural environment, space, or area. In particular, this is demonstrated in the example of the phenomenon of film tourism. In other words, certain locations or buildings used as scenery and background in cult and popular films, such as Lord of the Rings trilogy, themselves become attractions over time, increasing the interest of tourists in these places. In conclusion, the article shows various forms of interaction between cinema and architecture, as well as the possible roles of architecture in films.

An analysis of the portrayal of dentistry in modern popular film from a dentist's perspective.

Dentists have been portrayed negatively in many forms of media, including in film. These portrayals may affect the public perception of the profession. This study aimed to quantify the proportion of modern popular films which depicted dentistry in a negative light and to evaluate the common themes arising in films containing dental professionals.Popular films containing references to dentistry or dental treatment were identified from previous publications, and by searching plot summaries of the top 100 films released during each year 1980-2019. All films identified were watched, relevant dialogue was transcribed and pertinent details from scenes with dentists were documented.A total of 60 films that had the potential to influence public perception of dentistry were included in the analysis. Many portrayals were negative (50%), with very few positive depictions (5%), and 30 films contained scenes of clinical dentistry, which were often medically inaccurate (30%). In total, 57% of patients in clinical scenes were distressed or physically harmed. Conscious sedation is frequently abused. Dentists are most commonly portrayed by white men, whereas women may be cast as hygienists. Common themes include sexual misconduct, crime and an unfavourable comparison with medicine.The portrayal of dentistry in film is largely negative and frequently inaccurate.

Medijske pripovijedi o superherojima kao potencijalni kontekst za istraživanje dječjega razumijevanja moralno relevantnih događaja

Currently, superhero films are one of the more popular film genres, and the genre does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. In addition, the lives and exploits of superheroes are told through other forms of media such as animated films and television series targeted towards children. However, these narratives are also violent. If older children (i.e., approximately 7–11) engage with superhero media, then it is important to understand the ways they attempt to make sense of this genre. To this end, the essay examines how superhero media may serve as a potential context for older children’s understanding of morally relevant events. This potential—based on three broad areas of scholarship on children’s capacities for understanding others and their morally relevant acts—is explored along two dimensions. The first is through common narrative features of the genre, and the second is through research implications. It is suggested that a research program utilizing the genre’s narrative features as a part of a methodology to investigate older children’s understanding of morally relevant acts affords unique opportunities to build upon existing scholarship on the relationship between media content and children’s moral understanding.

Changes in Conversations Across a Century of Popular Cinema

Abstract Over the course of a century, filmmakers of popular cinema have composed conversations between two characters in several ways. Here, I investigate three. The oldest but initially rare conversational format occurred in silent movies, placing single characters in alternating shots either at midframe or on the same side of the screen. Next, beginning about 1930, movies began to show dyads with the camera looking over the shoulder of one character, and then reversing to show the other over the shoulder of the first. And finally, by the 1950s they increasingly began to place characters in alternating shots on opposite sides of the screen. I assessed the relative frequencies of these three types in over 60,000 shots in 210 movies released from 1915 to 2015. Each of these yoked-shot pairings increased, and by about 1990 they encompassed more than a third of all shots in popular cinema. But their increases were not uniform and their relative prominence has continually changed almost to the present day. A relevant factor is that mean shot durations decreased from the 1960s into the 2000s. Strikingly, once the average shot duration declined to about 5 s by the 1990s, the durations of same-side character pairings became systematically shorter in duration than opposing-side pairings, likely because of constraints of eye movements.

Remembering Cold Days

“Remembering Cold Days” is a book on the changing meanings of the 1942 massacre of Novi Sad. It answers questions about what we know and do not know about this specific war crime today and, most of all, how different individuals and communities have been remembering and interpreting the events since 1942. It also focuses on the changing international context – the massacre was one of hundreds of similar war crimes that marked World War II as one of the worst conflicts for civilians – and the various political regimes which altered the framework for these memories and interpretations. It further looks at a series of trials related to the massacre and the public debates in Hungary, Yugoslavia and elsewhere instigated by a popular novel and film since the mid-1960s. Finally, it analyzes how the end of communism in 1989 and the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s changed the perspectives on the perpetrators and victims of 1942.

Ned Kelly without a Beard

Before Justin Kurzel’s 2019 adaptation of Peter Carey’s 2001 Booker Prize winning The True History of the Kelly Gang came out, almost a dozen films had already been made about the outlaw Ned Kelly. Raising money for a new film seemed like an impossible task. What untold aspects are there of this story? Kurzel, as Carey, was not interested in telling how it really was. Rather he became interested in how history can be "stolen" and turned into political agenda. The oft-told story of the Kelly Gang continues to define the way Australians think about themselves and their national identity. Kurzel’s disturbing take on Carey’s book is not likely to turn out to be a crowd pleasing, popular film. This paper aims to examine how the film deliberately breaks with the received notions of Kelly representations. A beardless Ned Kelly succeeds in alienating rather than identifying the viewer with the main character, thus highlighting the artificial character of the Ned Kelly myth.

Shakespeare and the Popular Film Industry

Shakespeare’s popularity on the big screen increased exponentially in the 1990s, largely thanks to Kenneth Branagh’s and Baz Luhrmann’s films and Shakespeare in Love (1998), co-written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, which became the highest grossing Shakespeare film. In the recent two decades, the popular movie industry has also rediscovered the marketing value and crowd-tickling element in Shakespeare allusions, and several box office success genres, like superhero films, relied on “Easter egg” inclusion of well-known Shakespearean quotes or motifs. This paper offers a bird’s eye view of several tendencies characterising the attitude of the popular film industry to Shakespeare in the last 30 years. It also presents brief case studies with a focus on what makes or unmakes a “Shakespeare film” at the box office and in critical opinion, arguing that success relies on some form of a crossover effect. The films in focus are Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet, Shakespeare in Love, Joss Whedon’s film noiresque, Much Ado About Nothing (2012), and Richard Eyre’s King Lear (2018).

A Feminist Act of Defiance: ‘Iphigenia says no’ by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke

AbstractIn ‘Iphigenia says no’, Anghelaki-Rooke provides a critique of the myth of Iphigenia’s sacrifice that gives the story a distinctively feminine poetic voice designed to subvert the unchallenged authority of myth. Her poem is an impassioned plea for a feminist poetics that gives women a voice and agency, rejecting any form of control or authority over the female mind and body. The choice of Euripides’ tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis and an emphasis on the chorus are central to the anti-war message of the poem, but other contextual factors also frame the poet’s choice of myth and determine the direction of her rewriting: these are a feminist anti-war stance that is distinct from the anti-war stance of male poets like Seferis; the peace movements of the Cold War period and their political reverberations in Greece in the early 1960s; archaeological excavations and the renewed interest in the play that these inspired; classical reworkings in popular films of the years immediately prior to the writing of the poem; and the national curriculum and its underlying ideology.

Lucky Numbers and Greedy Ghosts: Lottery as Trope for the Singapore Dream

Abstract This article analyzes Singaporean films on the topic of the state-sponsored lottery as trope for the national dream, focusing on three different categories: popular films that link lottery winnings to the state’s promise of economic prosperity; hor-medy (horror/comedy) films that depict characters who are punished by the ghosts for greed; and art films that depict social inequalities in relation to unsuccessful efforts to attain the national dream. In doing so, it examines what Lee Kah-Wee refers to as the “relationship between morality and economics within the context of nation-building” with respect to Singaporean film. The convergence of cinematic treatment of lottery cultures between otherwise separate popular films, horror films, and arthouse films is a unique commonality in Singapore film. Also, films discussed in this paper from the late 1990s to 2013 reflect the ongoing centrality of lottery films in Singaporean cinema and the national imaginary.

Linguistic creativity and multimodal tropes in cinematic discourse

The present article explores the creative potential of language that is realized in cinematic discourse and is based on the case study of eight popular Soviet comedy films of the 1960s with the overall running time of 670 minutes. The choice of this period is determined by the sociohistorical relevance of the sixties in the development of Russian culture and cinematic art. The goals of this paper are to identify and categorize the verbal means that trigger the creation of cinematic tropes, and to define the transformations that these verbal means acquire as a result of their involvement into constructing cinematic figurativeness. To achieve these goals, a complex methodology has been elaborated. It includes three stages of analysis and rests on conceptions that have been recently developed in linguistics, film studies, and research on multimodality. According to research findings, cinematic figurativeness originates in two kinds of verbal means. Non-figurative verbal means (i.e. words used in their literal meanings; free word-combinations, etc.) and figurative verbal means (i.e. literary metaphors; idioms, etc.) are employed for the creation of three kinds of cinematic tropes: cinematic metonymies, cinematic metaphors, and cinematic irony. In the process of the formation of cinematic tropes, verbal units of both categories are transformed in a variety of ways: structurally, grammatically, semantically, and pragmatically. The investigation has revealed a dual or reverse character that linguistic creativity has in cinematic discourse: verbal units provide the creation of cinematic tropes and at the same time they themselves acquire certain innovative properties. The results could contribute to further studies of creativity in cinematic discourse as well as in other types of multimodal texts, including media, advertising, visual poetry, and electronic literature.