Spy Films Research Articles

The Lady Vanishes: Collective Traumatic Memory in the film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

How does traumatic memory of bloody events of the first half of the 20th century, which had to but could not be worked through in the cultural texts of its second half, makes its appearance? The mother of the main character of the film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Serhiy Parajanov disappears without a trace, and without a funeral, despite the structuring rule of the film, which makes the mourning of its numerous deaths obligatory. The article analyzes this disappearance as significant. It is seen as a symbolic failure of the screen reality; as a symptom of what Aleksandr Etkind refers to as a “warped mourning,” an unfinished work of mourning for the victims of Stalinism. It is shown that the main character’s mother in the screen version of Shadows (unlike in Kotsiubynsky’s novel) becomes an embodiment of the collective traumatic memory; in this respect she merges with the lyric person of Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem on the intertextual level. Yet, despite this association, the mother in Parajanov’s film accumulates the dark energy of resentment and ancestral feud, which is present in Kotsiubynsky’s novel as an impersonal mythic background. The role of mother has changed from novel to film not only in terms of the quantity of her presence but also in terms of the quality of her relation with her son and her overall family. A secondary character, who makes only one appearance in the novel, she represents the distant relation of a traditional family; on the contrary, the mother in Parajanov’s film turns out to be a very significant figure, who holds her son very tightly through the first half of the film, as it is more typical for the modern nuclear family. Parallel to this transformation, the article follows the transformation of an object-symbol of invisible exe, the voice of which could be heard throughout the film. The invisible exe is what Michel Chion refers to as “acousmaton,” a character with the voice but without a visible body. This complex object-symbol, the only mythical entity that was taken by Parajanov from Kotsiubynsky’s novel densely populated by natural spirits, finds its body (not as an ordinary object, but as an incarnation of the doom) in the episode of the last appearance of the mother. This episode reveals the aberrant presence of this object-symbol, which marks erasure of the mother from the screen reality. Unraveling the intertwining texture of the meanings of these characters that emerge in the film as opposed to the source novel one can see the working of the collective traumatic memory both on the conscious level of this cultural text as well as in the gaps and ruptures that appear in it. Analysis of the complexity of maternal image in Parajanov’s film helps to unpack the “unconscious” of this cultural text, its nonverbalized visual subtext: what is shown, but not told. As in Alfred Hitchcock’s spy film The Lady Vanishes the disappearance of an older woman reveals a dense ring of silence that blocks the work of memory.Article received 27.04.2019

German pressure: Spy films and political censorship in Norway, 1914–40

This article explores the relationship between spy films, political censorship and Norwegian foreign policy during the period from 1914 to 1940. Espionage was a popular topic in Norway during this era, both in the news media and as a theme in fictional dramas. Based on a survey of the vetting of 57 spy films, both silent and sound, by the state censorship board, the article focuses on the Norwegian government’s hidden role in political film censorship throughout the period. While Norway’s Constitution and film censorship statutes provided no legal foundation for political censorship, there is nonetheless ample evidence that it took place. The article concludes with an in-depth analysis of the process of banning the US film Confessions of a Nazi Spy in July 1939, the German involvement in that process, and the subsequent effort to change the censorship law to reflect what was happening in practice.

Stereotyping Scandinavia in popular spy films: The image of the female

Stereotyping, though considered ‘politically incorrect’, is viewed by some as a culturally economical choice that helps us save energy by simplifying the process of perceiving the world and its people. Spy films, in turn, are often constructed from certain clichés that some viewers expect, while more sophisticated spectators find them discrediting. Yet intentional use of clichés, including national and cultural stereotypes, may serve the purpose of conscious criticism or cultural irony, as is often the case in spy film parodies or spoofs. Referring to the widespread spy narrative character typology embodied in James Bond films, the article considers the popular stereotype of the Scandinavian woman observed in twenty-first-century espionage films for wide audiences, focusing on the Hamilton and Kingsman series to examine the effects that serious or ironic use of the stereotype has on the representation of female characters.

A Casablanca of the North? Stockholm as imagined transnational setting in the British spy thriller Dark Journey

The article examines the largely forgotten British émigré film Dark Journey, its Swedish setting and Scandinavian release. The spy drama, which tells the story of German and French secret agents in Stockholm during World War I by mixing thriller elements with romance, raises a number of questions regarding the representation of spies in a Scandinavian context, Sweden as a contested film market in the later 1930s and the transnational production strategy of films made at the Denham studios in Britain. It is one of the films that helped the profession of secret agents to change its image from a dingy and unchivalrous activity to an adventurous, illustrious and cosmopolitan enterprise. Interestingly, the film offers a very positive portrayal of its German protagonist, played by Conrad Veidt, that is at odds with other Anglo-American spy films but not at all uncommon for Swedish spy fiction.

Spy Films and Intellectual Alienation

The article analyzes spy films as examples of alienation within modern office life. It shows how intellectual socialization within this type of life can lead to a corruption of a person’s moral capabilities. The article studies this corruption process with a focus on how the moral person, in this case the fictional spy character, uses her intellect in relation to other mental faculties and in relation to the person’s own biographical experience of time. With reference to Plato and Hannah Arendt, the article shows that the professional use of intellect has an active and a passive quality. It is passive in so far as the person acquires it gradually, through training. It is active on the other hand, since the person willingly submits to this training. The moral stakes of these spy narratives thus concerns the choice to become a certain kind of person by subjecting oneself to a certain type of intellectual training. Memory forms an entry into this question of choice in all the examined films, hence memory is also at the centre of my analysis. This psychological mode of interpretation is inspired by Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of narrative.

Robust, self-cleaning, anti-fouling, superamphiphobic soy protein isolate composite films using spray-coating technique with fluorinated HNTs/SiO2

The practical applications of protein-based materials have so far been limited due to their natural hydrophilicity and high sensitivity to moisture. In this study, we developed a facile surface coating technique to prepare superamphiphobic soy protein isolate (SSPI) films materials. First, fluorinated superamphiphobic HNTs/SiO2 particles (HS-SH-F) were prepared through simple and efficient thiol-ene click reaction. Then, HS-SH-F particles were sprayed onto SPI films while Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a medium adhesive layer. The as-prepared SSPI films exhibited excellent repellent liquid (both water and oil) ability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time for exploring and achieving superamphiphobic property on protein-based films materials. The as-prepared superamphiphobic protein films can repel various liquids even with low surface tension (the n-heptane contact angle is 154.2°, and the slide angle is 9.5°). Moreover, the SSPI films retained great superamphiphobic performance after various harsh conditions tests, such as 20 times tape-peeling test, blade-scratch, strong acid/basic and organic solvents immersion, etc., indicating excellent mechanical robust and chemical durability. Such surface coating deservedly exhibits outstanding self-cleaning property and antifouling function. Therefore, it can be applied in various harsh environments, such as outdoor service and underwater materials. More importantly, this is a scalable approach for a wider range of materials other than protein-based materials.

Collaborative translation: an instrument for commercial success or neutralizing a feminist message?

ABSTRACTThis study examines the ways in which collaboration in audiovisual translation is approached and portrayed by different parties involved in the transnational distribution and consumption of cultural products. It considers the case of the Korean translation of Spy, an American action comedy spy film that was praised by many critics for its feminist message. Prior to its release in Korea, the film became widely known for its translators, which included a high-profile comedian, comedy scriptwriters, and a professional translator. Drawing on the concepts of ‘framing’ and ‘voice’, the present study shows how collaborative translation was used as a tool by the distributor to promote and market the film and to extend its commercial reach. The paper also argues that today’s viewers are not passive audiences. Empowered by social networks and digital devices, they actively share reviews and engage in discussions concerning translation method and quality, translators’ identities, and translation effects. Linking collaborative translation to what they see as the ‘flattening’ of a feminist voice and the insertion in the film of humor that reinforces unequal gender relations, many audiences actively resisted the distributor’s portrayal of collaborative translation as an optimal way to translate the film. The findings have implications for enhancing our understanding of collaborative translation work, translation of humor within the Korean cultural context, and perceptions on the connection between translation quality and collaborative translation.

Properties of soy protein isolate/nano‐silica bilayer films during storage

AbstractThe development of bionanocomposite materials for packages has received increasing attention due to environmental pollution issues. However, storage results in many undesirable properties in films. This study evaluated the effects of storage on simple layer and bilayer soy protein isolate/nano‐silica (SPI/nano‐SiO2) films, which may reduce the migration of nanoparticles, and on the properties (mechanical, barrier, and optical) and parameters (moisture content, sulfhydryl content, and glycerol migration rate) of the films. Compared to SPI films, SPI/nano‐SiO2 films had a higher moisture content, higher sulfhydryl content, lower glycerol migration rate and better properties after storage. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that hydrogen bonding existed between SPI and nano‐SiO2 and that α‐helix, β‐sheet, β‐turn, and random coil structures transformed due to bond breaking and formation during storage. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that SS‐3‐2 film had better morphologies after storage. In conclusion, bilayer films are safer and may replace simple layer films in food packaging.Practical applicationsBased on an EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) scientific opinion, SiO2 is approved in the European Union. However, nanoparticles have been reported to process certain characteristics that pose a health hazard. To reduce the migration of nano‐SiO2, the contact area between the food and films with nano‐SiO2 must be reduced. SPI film is a biodegradable packaging material and has been widely studied due to its biodegradable properties, which are attributed to the lack of repeating units in peptides compared to petroleum synthetic polymers. However, the properties of SPI film change during storage, which limits its application. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of storage on the properties of simple layer and bilayer SPI/nano‐SiO2 films.

Formation of New Nationalism Subject in 2010s through Spy Films―Focused on the movie, 'Secret Reunion', and 'The Berlin File'

Formation of New Nationalism Subject in 2010s through Spy Films―Focused on the movie, 'Secret Reunion', and 'The Berlin File'

‘Jumping on the Bondwagon’: The Spy Cycle in British Cinema in the 1960s

The article examines the significant cycle of spy thrillers in British cinema in the 1960s. It argues that the success of the early James Bond pictures, which commenced with Dr. No in 1962, initiated a popular cycle of spy films that lasted through the decade. The interest in fictional intrigue generated by the new-style espionage stories of Len Deighton and John le Carré further fuelled the cycle, and there appeared a number of adaptations of these authors’ novels. The article pays particular attention to the critical reception of the cycle and the two styles of Bond-inspired spy thriller and Deighton/le Carré-inspired espionage drama, carefully considering the mounting reviewer fatigue regarding the overworked spy picture and recounting the decline of the cycle.

The Exotic Narrative in Transnational Films:Case Study of Spy Films Produced in the New Century

The Exotic Narrative in Transnational Films:Case Study of Spy Films Produced in the New Century

Doubled Over 007: “Aryu Pondŭ” and Genre-Mixing Comedy in Korea

Abstract This paper contends that genre mixing in comedy films of the 1960s in South Korea had the potential to interrupt filmic codes, which were increasingly propagandistic following the tightening of film law. The advent of the James Bond films as a global cultural phenomenon stimulated local production of spy films, where the villain was typically North Korean. These films were welcomed by cultural regimes of the time due to their anticommunist orientation, but a small hybrid genre, the “spy comedy,” undermined their absolutism. Based in the vernacular comedy traditions of slapstick film performance, stage comedy, and radio, these “spy comedies” spoofed aspects of both the James Bond franchise and the local action thrillers that imitated Bond. This was often accomplished by overlaying the narrative of a rustic with that of a spy. The comedies reveal a synchronicity between development and urbanization, which displaced large numbers of people, and the othering of North Koreans, which led to spy paranoia about those who were out of place. This paper argues that global genres played a particular role for South Korean comedy in the 1960s: they enabled oblique treatments of sensitive social issues through play. Generic heterogeneity defined comedic films of this era.

Phyllis Lassner, Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film

Phyllis Lassner, <i>Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film</i>

Development of Eco-friendly Soy Protein Isolate Films with High Mechanical Properties through HNTs, PVA, and PTGE Synergism Effect

This study was to develop novel soy protein isolate-based films for packaging using halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), poly-vinyl alcohol (PVA), and 1,2,3-propanetriol-diglycidyl-ether (PTGE). The structural, crystallinity, opacity, micromorphology, and thermal stability of the resultant SPI/HNTs/PVA/PTGE film were analyzed by the Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transformed infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The SPI/HNTs/PVA/PTGE film illustrated that HNTs were uniformly dispersed in the SPI matrix and the thermal stability of the film was enhanced. Furthermore, the tensile strength (TS) of the SPI/HNTs/PVA/PTGE film was increased by 329.3% and the elongation at the break (EB) remained unchanged. The water absorption (WA) and the moisture content (MC) were decreased by 5.1% and 10.4%, respectively, compared to the unmodified film. The results highlighted the synergistic effects of SPI, HNTs, PVA, and PTGE on the mechanical properties, water resistance, and thermal stability of SPI films, which showed excellent strength and flexibility. In short, SPI films prepared from HNTs, PVA, and PTGE showed considerable potential as packaging materials.

Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film by Phyllis Lassner

Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film by Phyllis Lassner

Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film by Phyllis Lassner

Reviewed by: Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film by Phyllis Lassner Erin G. Carlston Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film. Phyllis Lassner. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. Pp. viii + 245. $120.00 (cloth). In Espionage and Exile, Phyllis Lassner argues for a connection between twentieth century fictions about spies and the real-world plight of European exiles and refugees from the 1930s up through the Cold War. Understood "as a political condition and state of being and identity," "exile" also describes the state of many of the protagonists of espionage fiction (3). Lassner writes that the six British writers and filmmakers whose work she examines all tie "the exiled condition that defines the spy's place in the fictional secret world to that of the stateless refugee in twentieth-century history" (218). In doing so, they use genres associated with light entertainment to make the kind of "critical intervention" into politics and ethics that is usually viewed as the prerogative of weightier forms. Lassner is especially interested in the significant role played in these fictions by Jewish characters and other victims of Nazi persecution, a feature common to the works she examines and, she claims, one that distinguishes them from the "canonical modernists" who ignored Nazi racism. Those writers and filmmakers discussed in Espionage and Exile who were working in the 1930s and during World War II all use Jewish characters or other refugees from Nazism to build their case for British and North American resistance to Hitler. "Empathy for the persecuted forms a literary, political and ethical bond among the writers studied in this book," writes Lassner, empathy that drove their effort to goad their fellow Anglophones into involvement in the anti-Nazi cause (4). The book's Introduction is followed by chapters on Eric Ambler; Pamela Frankau, Helen MacInnes, and Ann Bridge; the actor Leslie Howard; and John le Carré. In the chapter on Ambler, Lassner observes that the protagonists of his 1930s thrillers are men who stumble by accident into the drama of European politics: men without strong political or national loyalties who "reside in epistemological, political and existential exile" but eventually find that neutrality is not an option (25). In an absorbing reading of Ambler's 1939 novel The Mask of Dimitrios, Lassner points out that by making his accidental spy a British writer who travels around the violence-wracked Continent simply to gather colorful detail for his books, Ambler is criticizing writers who—unlike himself—are willing to use "stories of Fascist economic manipulation to revise the novel of escapist intrigue while wanting to escape its political implications" (53). Thus he also implicitly criticizes Britain's own attempts at neutrality and appeasement throughout the 1930s. Unlike women writers of detective fiction, women writers of spy novels have garnered almost no scholarly attention to date; Lassner's chapter on Frankau, MacInnes, and Bridge addresses that critical lacuna. As Lassner shows, political disruption provides a marvelous pretext for mid-century women writers to let their heroines break out of conventional bourgeois gender roles and behave in "un-feminine" ways without being punished for it (70). In fact, political extremity licenses female heroism, and in the novels Lassner analyzes, the female characters are indeed heroines—not just sidekicks, victims, or incidental love interests as they typically are in thrillers by men. As these middle-class Englishwomen shed the security and privilege of their position by engaging with the political conflicts on the Continent, their behavior becomes a critique of the "privileged isolationism" of England itself (82). In addition, all three of these writers—sharply aware that Jews were among the primary victims of those conflicts—used their mass-market, popular fiction to dramatize the plight of European Jewry at a time when national governments and mainstream media were still ignoring it. The chapter on Howard was my favorite section of the book, both because of the tightness of Lassner's argument and because so much of the information Lassner provides about Howard was new to me. Before being killed in 1943 when the Luftwaffe shot down his civilian plane, Howard, who was of Hungarian...

Business Suit, Briefcase, and Handkerchief: The Material Culture of Retro Masculinity in &lt;em&gt;The Intern&lt;/em&gt;

Business Suit, Briefcase, and Handkerchief: The Material Culture of Retro Masculinity in &lt;em&gt;The Intern&lt;/em&gt;

Bodies in crisis: Sensuality and the cinematic reconfiguration of the spy genre in contemporary Chinese cinema

Abstract Spy films produced during the Cold War and the immediate post-Cold War era in Mainland China reflect a heightened anxiety of national security and serve primarily as political propaganda. This article examines the changing cultural context of post-socialist China and the transformation of the spy film genre in contemporary Chinese cinema in the age of globalization and transnationalism. Looking specifically at three recently released films, Ang Lee’s Se jie/Lust, Caution (2007), Chen Guofu and Gao Qunshu’s Fengsheng/The Message (2009) and Alan Mak and Felix Chong’s Ting feng zhe/The Silent War (2012), this article examines the centrality of body narrative to the cinematic reconfiguration of the spy genre in contemporary Chinese cinema. It argues that the recently emerged spy films demonstrate special interests in the body’s dual role in cinema – as both an image that invites the embodied spectator to engage with it and a site where multiple discourses of nationhood, sexuality and individual identity intersect to reveal the transnational imagination and reconfiguration of the spy figure, whose identity can no longer be defined by an absolute dichotomy between mind and body, between exteriority and interiority, but by the constant tension generated from the inseparability between the mind’s rationality and the body’s corporeality.

Heavy skies and a cold Soviet feel: Helsinki as a Cold War cinematic body double

Abstract During the 1970s and 1980s, American and British films, and spy films in particular, situated in Moscow and Leningrad were regularly shot in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, since the film crews could not work inside the Soviet Union. This article addresses the creation of a ‘Soviet feel’ through the use of Helsinki locations in films such as Gorky Park (Apted, 1983) and Telefon (Siegel, 1977) in the geopolitical context of the Cold War and Finland’s location as both a hub for international espionage and something of a border zone between the eastern and western power blocs. This analysis is connected to a broader consideration of Cold War geography, cinematic cities as body doubles and the ‘agentiality’ of urban spaces in film.

Mechanical and barrier properties of soy protein isolate films plasticized with a mixture of glycerol and dendritic polyglycerol

ABSTRACTSoy protein isolate (SPI) films plasticized with different contents of short and linear glycerol (G) and hyperbranched dendritic polyglycerol (DPG) in the presence of water were prepared for the first time with kneading and compression molding; these were analyzed in relation to their visual, morphological, microstructural, mechanical, and water‐ and oxygen‐barrier properties. It was shown that the film prepared with a mixture of 15G15DPG (where the numbers represent the weight percentage of the respective compound) had a higher tensile strength (∼14.4%), lower elongation at break (∼85.7%), and improved water‐barrier (∼54.6%) and oxygen‐barrier (∼84.1%) properties compared to the SPI film plasticized only with 30G. The attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectra of the plasticized SPI films indicated that such properties were related to the approximately 11.3% higher conversion of SPI from the α‐helical conformation to the intramolecular β‐sheet structures for the 15G15DPG films. This resulted in finer films with lower surface roughnesses and surface areas. On the other hand, further increases in G and DPG revealed an opposite effect and worsened the properties; this was much more pronounced by the increased DPG amount because of SPI unfolding and aggregation and resulted in microporous films. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41837.