Cinematic Qualities Research Articles

Cinematic Qualities and Visual Pleasure in John Updike’s “A&P”

Cinematic Qualities and Visual Pleasure in John Updike’s “A&P”

Toplumsal Cinsiyet Dinamiklerinin Açığa Çıkarılması: İran Sineması Üzerine Eleştirel Bir Analiz

The main purpose of this research is to examine the portrayal of gender in Iranian cinema and the subsequent effects on today ‘society, gender dynamics, and individual identity as a result of those impacts. The historical foundation of Iranian cinema, the key films in the industry, and the impact that political and cultural forces have played are all extensively discussed throughout study. Moreover, the paper delves into the portrayal of men and women in Iranian cinema, as well as the impact of the media on the formation of cultural standards and gender identities. It also analyzes the loosening of traditional gender standards, while calling attention to the predominance of destructive female characters in contemporary Iranian cinema and emphasizing the significance of sensitive male characters in that cinema. Furthermore, the study looks at how family connections are shown in Iranian films across time, as well as the delicate interplay of distinct sex, gender, and cultural features.
 As a result, women in Iranian cinema take on more prominent roles, but gender equality remains a challenge, and women continue to create meaningful films that resonate with audiences. The representation of masculinity in Iranian cinema is complex and varied, reflecting changing social and cultural norms in Iranian society. It is portrayed as heroic and honorable in some films, but violent and aggressive in others. This sparks a discussion about cinema’s role in shaping social norms and values, as well as the need for more diverse and nuanced portrayals of masculinity.

Filmowość Marii Antoniego Malczewskiego


 
 
 The aim of this article is to analyse the poetics of Antoni Malczewski’s Maria in terms of its cinematic qualities. The author uses various film theories, including those formulated by Siegfried Kracauer, Béla Balázs and Jean Mitry, in order to approximate the meaning of a text being cinematic and to find tools for the analysis of a literary text through this lens. Six features are distinguished: (1) fragmentariness of the plot structure, (2) editing within scenes, (3) a focus on movement, (4) transcending the limitations of human perception, (5) quasi-reproduction of reality and (6) giving images meaning as parts of a larger composition. These can be found in different passages from Maria, the analysis of which leads the author to conclude that the key to the cinematic qualities in Malczewski’s novel is the quasi-impersonal reproduction of reality achieved thanks to the withdrawn narrative perspective, the descriptions of empirical reality and the behavioural characteristics of the characters. In the summary, the cinematic qualities of Maria are put within a context of the history of literature and linked to the break with classicistic poetics and the move towards Romanticism.
 
 

The role of the sound effect to represent the psychopathic character in cinema

The role of the sound effect to represent the psychopathic character in cinema

Cinematic literary translation: the case of A Hero Born

ABSTRACT Cinematic qualities in novels have been minutely examined. However, cinematic texture in literary translation remains unidentified and unexplored. Employing “cinematic literary translation” supported by the concept of transmediation as a theoretical linchpin, this article analyzes how films influence literary translation epistemologically, aesthetically, and technically. It examines how the cinematic literary translation of Shediao Yingxiong Zhuan (射雕英雄传), a wuxia novel by Jin Yong, is conceptualized, attempted, and achieved by the translator Anna Holmwood. It demonstrates that Holmwood is inspired by the films directed by Tsui Hark and has strategically appropriated various cinematic techniques such as undercranking, fast cutting, zoom-in shot, and extreme long shot in her translation. These transmedial and intersemiotic appropriations not only accelerate the narrative pace of and confer a cinematic texture on the translation, but also reconfigure the otherwise nationalist literary genre into a postmodern cultural commodity geared toward a global readership.

‘Inbetweenness’, Tanah Air and Nusantara in Dain Said’s Bunohan (2012), Interchange (2016) and Dukun (2018)

ABSTRACT This article examines three films by Malaysian Dain Said; Bunohan: return to murder (2012), Interchange (2016) and Dukun (2018). Particular attention is paid to the use of land and water (tanah air) imagery, cinematic qualities, and the richness of the cultural practices of Nusantara from which the films arise. Dain’s films explore arguments around national identity in the areas of the dramatic and the semantic. Additionally, the cinematic style of these films denotes a struggle between transnational identities and the logics of rigid national cultural boundaries. I argue that the films bring to fore a way of thinking that sees the people of Nusantara living in the interspace and moving smoothly across the archipelago. By perceiving films as ‘a liminal site of modern society’ and reflecting on ‘inbetweenness’ as the premise for everything that drives the narratives of Bunohan, Interchange, and Dukun, I maintain that the three films represent a Malaysian interstitial future that emerges between the claims of the past and the demands of the present. These films challenge and explicitly expose the conservative notion of a Malaysian monoculture, and they highlight the complexities of associative relationships through the subjects’ fractured sense of belonging. Dain creates images of Nusantara life, characterised by elements of mise en scène with which regional populations can relate. These transnational non-state-centred representations show that the land and the water have defined societies living in the in-between region of Nusantara, and focus on features that reveal the connection between peoples rather than the cultural biases and discrimination that are so often part of national discourses in the region.

Emotion, enjoyment, empathy and identification with characters in cinema

Emotion, enjoyment, empathy and identification with characters in cinema

Emotion, Enjoyment, Empathy and Identification with Characters in Cinema

Emotion, Enjoyment, Empathy and Identification with Characters in Cinema

Zombie-Themes Outbreak Films and World War Z (2013)

There are many subgenres and a diverse range of creatures in horror cinema. One of these creatures is the Zombie. The Zombie character in cinema has evolved through eras. The Zombie which, in the past, was presented as a creature resurrected after death in horror cinema began to be associated with virii and the apocalypse afterwards. Nowadays, the Zombie in the cinema are beyond the figure of a horror. As a matter of fact, many zombie-themed movies are presented as allegories of apocalypse or as outbreak-themed movies. What is the meaning of the zombies which are the subject of outbreak films? What cultural codes do zombies represent in outbreak-themed films? What does the changes in different adaptations of this myth mean in outbreak-themed movies? Zombies in epidemic films can be likened to slaves that are reprogrammed after a resurrection process. From this point of view, we are to evaluate the movie World War Z, and the data obtained is to be interpreted in our conclusion section.

The Quality of Cinema as the “seventh art”: A Study on Ricciotto Canudo’s New Total View of Art Inspired by the Philosophies of Schopenhauer and Hegel

1907 gibi çok erken bir tarihten itibaren film eleştirileri yazmaya başlayan gazeteci, edebiyat eleştirmeni, müzikolog, romancı ve senarist Ricciotto Canudo (2 Ocak 1879 – 10 Kasım 1923), 1900’lerin başında modern sanatın beşiği Paris’e yerleşen İtalyan kökenli bir avangart sanat düşkünü entelektüel olarak sinemaya “yedinci sanat” payesini vermiş seçkin bir sinema estetikçisi olarak kabul edilir. Bu denemecinin özgün düşüncesinde sinema bir sanat biçimi olarak kendinden önceki altı geleneksel sanata (mimari, musiki, resim, heykel, şiir ve dans) eklenir çünkü sinema aynı anda plastik sanatların, ritmik sanatların, bilimin ve sanatın füzyonudur yani birleşimidir. 
 Club des Amis du Septième Art (Tr. Yedinci Sanatın Dostları Kulübü) isimli öncü sinema kulübünü Paris’te kurarak yeni bir sanat olarak kabul ettiği sinemanın misyonerliğine ve propagandacılığına soyunan Canudo’nun ismi bu davası için radikal manifestolar (La naissance d’un sixième Art: Essai sur le cinématographe, Manifeste des sept arts) kaleme alan, bu uğurda uzman dergi çıkaran (La Gazette des Sept Arts) ve sinema estetiğini önemli makalelerinde açıklamaya girişen (L’esthétique du Septième art) büyük sinema düşünürü hatta kuramcısı olarak anılır. Peki, sinemanın özgül estetiğini tutkulu şekilde savunan ve söz konusu yeni ifade aracını saf bir sanat şeklinde yücelten bu Latin milliyetçisi sanatseverin tefekküründe yer bulan yedinci sanat fikrinin oluşumunda Schopenhauer ve Hegel felsefeleri hangi rolleri oynamaktadır? Canudo’nun kültürel bagajında bu felsefi kişilerin etkili yeri nedir? Sinema ya da Canudo’nun özgül deyişiyle “sinegrafi” neden modern zamanların olmazsa olmaz yedinci hatta total (tam, toplam, bütüncül) sanatıdır? 
 Bu makalede; sinema estetikçisi, kuramcısı, denemecisi ve eleştirmeni kimliklerine sahip Canudo’nun sinemaya adadığı yedinci sanat söylemi ile sinema sanatı hakkındaki felsefi düşüncesi, Schopenhauer ve Hegel gibi iki filozofun sanat felsefeleri ile olan yakın ilişkileri bağlamında, tarihsel ve karşılaştırmalı bir okuma yöntemi çerçevesinde hareket edilerek çözümlenecektir.

Where There’s Smoke and the Generative Documentary

<i>Where There’s Smoke</i> and the Generative Documentary

The Lethal Film Noir Femme Fatale : A Precursor To Bond Girls In James Bond Films

Film noir as a film making style gained prominence in a post world war II world. The filming style of noir with its unique americanization became a force of sorts in the mid 1940’s and in much part of the post war booming decade of 50. One of the interesting contribution of film noir apart from aesthetics of visual and lighting techniques is the depiction of female characters which came to be known as femme fatale. Femme fatale in its synonyms and various contours came to be recognized as a character with its diabolical charm and fatal attraction became the reason for the ultimate demise of the male protagonist. The development of femme fatale chracters also paved way for future fetishization of female characters in cinema. The highly popular 007 Bond series is an excellent nursery of sorts where the female characters often found themselves to be either femme fatale or femme atrappe. The paper aims to establish some of the occurrences of this sort of character in Bond films and how their resemblance with the ones in the film noir era was an experiment in creating fierce female characters on the celluloid. The depiction and celluloid portrayal in a way helped establish and explore the various contours of female characters.

Revolution in Paradise: Veiled Representations of Jewish Characters in Cinema of Occupied France

Revolution in Paradise: Veiled Representations of Jewish Characters in Cinema of Occupied France

НАРАТИВНІ СТРАТЕГІЇ В РОМАНІ ІЛЛАРІОНА ПАВЛЮКА БІЛИЙ ПОПІЛ

The article is devoted to the analysis of narrative strategies in the debut novel of Illarion Pavliuk White Ashes. Taking into consideration the author’s intention and tracking the influence of the textual indicia on the recipient, the article aims to find out how the narration is organized and what artistic effects the author was trying to achieve. The features of retrodetective and noir as “adrenaline” genres present in the novel are analyzed. The cinematic qualities of the work as a result of the author’s intention is marked. The leading narrative strategy used in the novel, the intertextuality, is highlighted, in particular, the intertextual interaction with the story of M. Hohol Vii, and the influence of intertextems on the reader’s interpretation of the text. The phenomenon of unreliable narration is considered on the basis of the selected material and it is proved that the homodiegetic narrator, private detective Taras Bilyi, is unreliable. The strategy of using prolepsis and provoking the reader’s hesitation which is realized through the formation of doubts about the nature of the artistic convention of the events described, is also examined.

The Journey in Animated Cinema - between Escape and Return

The journey in the animation cinema can be in many aspects - from fully real tracking of movement in space, through vertical or horizontal movement in the past, present and future, with or without a specific direction, to physical or psychological escape and / or return after time.The text analyzes the specifics of travel, escape and return in key examples of modern animation cinema.In animation, screen movement takes place in a specific space and for a specific time. And the first signal association for avoidance, for travel is precisely movement, movement in time and space. Of course, in animation cinema the movement is absolutely free and unlimited and can vary from fidelity to nature to abstraction and absurdity, it can manifest itself in a new quality of cinema - in the metaphorical image, in the creation of its own system of signs and symbols.The journey in the animation cinema can be in many aspects - from fully real tracking of movement in space, through vertical or horizontal movement in the past, present and future, with or without a specific direction, to physical or psychological escape and / or return after time. The text analyzes the specifics of travel, escape and return in key examples of modern animation cinema. In animation, screen movement takes place in a specific space and for a specific time. And the first signal association for avoidance, for travel is precisely movement, movement in time and space. Of course, in animation cinema the movement is absolutely free and unlimited and can vary from fidelity to nature to abstraction and absurdity, it can manifest itself in a new quality of cinema - in the metaphorical image, in the creation of its own system of signs and symbols.

The crystal reveals the whole: medieval dreamscapes and cinematic space as virtual media

This article examines the rich visual culture of the medieval period in order to better understand dreaming as a kind of visual thought experiment, one in which ideas associated with cinema, such as embodied viewing, narrative sequencing, projection, and sensory engagement, are palpable in a range of visual and literary works. The author explores the theoretical connections between the oneiric qualities of cinema and the visual culture of medieval dreams, dealing in turn with the following themes: (i) media and mediation; (ii) projection and premonition; (iii) virtual spatiality; and (iv) automata and other animated objects. The wide swath of medieval literary dream texts, with their mobile perspectives, sensory plentitude, and gnostic mission, resonate with the cinematic in the structuring of the gaze. Investigating the codes of medieval culture provides us with an unusually rich episteme for thinking about how the dreamscapes of the Middle Ages evoke media dispositifs. Opening up these thought lines across distinct eras can help us extrapolate similarities around ways of imagining objects, spaces, sensations of embodied viewing or immersion, reminding us that our contemporary cinematic and digital landscapes are not divorced from earlier ways of seeing and believing. Whether stoking religious fear and veneration or providing sensual pleasure as in Le Roman de la Rose, the dreamworlds of the Middle Ages have bequeathed us a number of an extraordinarily rich creative works that are the imaginative building blocks of media worlds-in-the-making, as speculative in many ways as current discourses around new media.

Victorians in the Closet: Oscar Wilde's Monstrous Hollywood Legacy

This essay offers a new perspective on the Victorians’ representation in early cinema. It argues that the profile of Oscar Wilde and the decadent movement was such, in early twentieth-century America, that its movies often viewed the Victorians through a decadent lens. Situating its discussion in a detailed exposition of Hollywood's interest in late-Victorian decadence, this essay discusses the reciprocal relationship between Oscar Wilde's imagination and cinematic horror. It sketches the inherently cinematic qualities in decadent writing and, focusing on Wilde'sThe Picture of Dorian Gray(1891), offers a new reading of how it incorporates different cinematic technologies to create a sense of supernatural horror. The essay goes on to examine how Wilde's novel inspired early American horror films, with close analysis of how its dialogue and visual effects were incorporated into the genre-defining adaptation ofJekyll and Hyde(1920).

Evaluation of Neurocinema as An Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Science

Neurocinema is considered as one of the emerging interdisciplinary sciences and relies on neuroscience discoveries to explore various aspects of the movie effect on the viewer’s brain. The mentioned science not only investigates this effect but also seeks to answer how a good movie takes control of the neural pathways. Another part of neurocinema investigates movies that their content includes patients’ neurological and also psychiatric problems. As cinema is heavily influenced by technology, the quality of cinema and whatever it deals with, will vary to respond in advancements of technology. Considering that neurocinema will face a new world in line with these changes, the various aspects effect of this new world on the human brain should be thoroughly considered.

Film Adaptation as Experimental Game Design

Film adaptation is a popular approach to game design, but it prioritizes blockbuster films and conventional “game-like” qualities of those films, such as shooting, racing, or spatial exploration. This leads to adaptations that tend to use the aesthetics and narratives of films, but which miss out on potential design explorations of more complex cinematic qualities. In this article, I propose an experimental game design method that prioritizes an unconventional selection of films alongside strict game design constraints to explore tensions and affinities between cinema and videogames. By applying this design method and documenting the process and results, I am able both to present an experimental set of videogame film adaptations, along with potentially generative design and development themes. In the end, the project serves as an illustration of the nature of adaptation itself: a series of pointed compromises between the source and the new work.

Memory in haunted times: a roundtable discussion of Zulu love letter

ABSTRACT This roundtable is curation of broad-ranging and multidisciplinary reflections on the continuing relevance of Zulu Love Letter, fifteen years after its release. The connecting strand in all the reflections is how the film invites us to ponder on the enduringlegacies and the disturbing specters of apartheid, especially in these tumultuous times characterized by all sorts of political, economic, gender,xenophobic and ableist violence. The recurring concern in all the contributions is how to make sense of these specters of apartheid that linger in thepost-apartheid landscape. While some of the reflections in the roundtable show how Zulu Love Letter forces us to rethink our assumptions aboutreconciliation in South Africa, others point to the recalcitrant presence of the past inscribed on individual bodies and in rebellious mournings. Somereflections also touch on the cinematic qualities of the film in order to locate it within the genre of counter cinema, especially on account of its remarkable tendencyto disrupt linearity. The copious use of flashbacks – or interludes – in the film helps to foreground the argument about haunting in post-apartheid South Africa. In all,we reflect on the making, reception, public life as well as the revived intellectual interest in the film. We note how, since the calls for fees must fall and decolonization, the filmappears to be interpolated in inter-generational reassessments of the gains and losses of the post-apartheid period in South Africa.