Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Motion picture plays – History and criticism'
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Pouliot, Carolle. "Le scénario : cinéma ou littérature?, suivi de Malebouge." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=63846.
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Preston, Barry A. (Barry Alan). "Myths and Movies: a Mythographical Methodology of Motion Picture Analysis." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1996. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279362/.
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Over the past decade, cinema studies scholars have begun to recognize the value of mythographical methodologies for motion picture analysis; however, most of the scholarly research in this field has focused either on mythic archetypal images or on monomythic narrative structure, rather than combining the two approaches into a unified theory. This essay addresses the problem by proposing a mythographical methodology of motion picture analysis based on Carl Jung's theory of archetypal images and Joseph Campbell's theories concerning the monomythic structure of heroic narratives. Combining the two approaches of myth interpretation results in a more comprehensive methodology for interpreting the mythic elements of motion pictures. This essay illustrates the application of this methodology through a detailed analysis of Terry Gilliam's film, The Fisher King.
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Douglas, John Anthony Art College of Fine Arts UNSW. "Aberations of self : manifestations in cinema histories." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Art, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/43254.
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The Screen Test (Americana/Australiana) project is a collection of works that re-makes selected fragments of film spanning cinema history. Through a process of selectively slowing and stilling this form, of what Laura Mulvey calls Delayed Cinema, opens up new possibilities for interpreting and understanding cinema and the photographic. The aesthetic qualities and repetition of the scene or shot are re-created and re-performed, allowing an alternate form of cinema to take place. This alternate cinema takes on the characteristic of the Hollywood screen test and thus we can see each piece as the artist performing the screen test for each film. However, over time the screen test becomes the site for shifting the aesthetic elements within the film and shaping the narrative as a form of aesthetic building block. The viewing of each fragment allows for a new reading of film that suspends or subverts the temporal narrative and allows the contained segment to exist outside of the film opening up the possibility of constructing and emphasizing new iconic images and meanings. Each video piece is supplemented with a photographic still in tableaux form that further explores the aesthetic material of the film or shot raising the aesthetic components of the film ( props, locations etc) to the level of fetishism that may have been missed in the original version. This photographic rendering of the film fragment rethinks the possibilities of photographic tableaux and its relation to the iconic and indexical of photomedia art practice. Similarly, each photographic work is informed by theories of film analysis and psychology that has examined the primacy of the film still with Freudian notions of the primal scene and the uncanny. We are after all bringing to life the graveyard of cinema history. These photographic qualities of the mis en scene and the indexical of metonymy allow a heightened aesthetic experience, which transforms itself into an aberration of the directors intended meaning, thereby reconstructing this meaning within the context of camp humour and irony. The work also acts as a playful and absurd interpretation of the cult of celebrity within cinema and the art world, which frees up of the interpretation of the films meaning and becomes the site for contemporary re-readings of film culture. The juxtaposition of the American Hollywood film and its emphasis on studio lighting, props, character and dialogue against the outdoor location of the Australian films conflates the two cultural imperatives, allowing for the examination of cultural myth through cinema. American cinema is revealed as the dominant culture whose imperialism dogs Australian film and fosters a culture of low self-esteem. Further, the Americana works become the site for cultural examinations of gender, narcissism and war - both real and imagined and Hollywood is explored in terms of its social imaginings and how they play into real life events. The Australiana component explores the mythology of the Australian landscape with an emphasis on the culture of masculinity and self-destructive violence. However, each work is the result of a conflation of both cultures and other films, or parts of the same film, shifted within the fragment. The production of each photographic and video piece requires the taking on of the role of director, cinematographer, actor and producer. Through the use of interactive technologies such as DVD and the Internet not only am I able to experience a new subjective relationship with the intricacies of cinema but also by recreating these cinematic fragments I am able to bring into being and transform the spectre of cinema into the realm of contemporary art practice.
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Beaulieu, Renée. "Le poids des autres, suivi de La cohérence des personnages dans les scénarios de films." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape3/PQDD_0019/MQ53922.pdf.
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Eckardt, Michael. "The development of film criticism in Cape Town's daily press 1928-1930 : an explorative investigation into the Cape Times and Die Burger." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/53767.
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Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the development of film criticism in Cape Town's daily press from 1928 to 1930, using film reviews from the newspapers the Cape Times and Die Burger as sources. The study starts with an overview of studies concerning early South African film history, and characterizes it as a rather underdeveloped field of study. The character of film criticism in the period under discussion is explained by using a description of the general function of film criticism as a basis and taking film criticism in the Weimar Republic of Germany as an example for the following comparison. The basis for the comparative analysis is a list of films screened in three selected cinemas in Cape Town from 1928 to 1930. Part of the analysis is an empirical study to examine the quantitative development of film reviews in the period under discussion. Length ranges with which to characterize film reviews are defined and the preferred average lengths of reviews for both newspapers as well as for films screened at the particular cinemas are listed. The qualitative part of the study is a content analysis of two selected groups of films: 1. films which received average-size reviews and 2. films which ran longer than average and received above-average size reviews. The survey reveals that the Cape Times followed a "quantitative strategy", reviewing all films screened and that Die Burger had a "qualitative The reviews strategy", in both reviewing specially selected films only. newspapers can be characterized as functionalistic. The Cape Times displayed their business orientation by publishing mostly advertisement-like reviews; Die Burger's political orientation was reflected in comments about the language in sound films, including film and cinema into the language struggle. The study demonstrates that newspapers are a valuable source for research concerning early South African film history. The existing standard reference, Thelma Gutsche's The History and Social ,Significance of Motion Pictures in South Africa 1895-1940 can be fruitfully complemented by using Afrikaans newspapers, as well as the writings of the Afrikaner film critic Hans Rompel.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die ontwikkeling van rolprentresensies in die pers van Kaapstad in die jare 1928 tot 1930 en gebruik daarvoor resensies van die nuuskoerante Cape Times en Die Burger. Die ondersoek begin met 'n oorsig van die vroeë Suid Afrikaanse rolprentgeskiedenis. Die karakter van rolprentresensie in die gegewe periode word verduidelik deur 'n beskrywing van die algemene funksie om rolprentresensie as "n basis te gebruik en rolprentresensies in die Duitse Weimar Republiek as 'n voorbeeld vir die opvolgende vergelyking te neem. Die basis vir die vergelykende analise is 'n lys van rolprente wat in drie geselekteerde bioskope in Kaapstad gedurende die periode van 1928 tot 1930 gewys is. 'n Gedeelte van die analise behels 'n empiriese studie om die kwantitatiewe ontwikkeling van rolprentrensensies gedurende die gegewe periode te ondersoek. Lengte reekse word gedefinieer om die resensies te karakteriseer, en die verkose gemiddelde lengtes van resensies word gelys vir beide nuuskoerante as ook vir films wat by die geselekeerde cinemas gewys is. Die kwalitatiewe gedeelte van die studie is 'n inhoudanalise van twee geselekteerde groepe van rolprente: 1. rolprente wat resensies van gemiddelde lengte ontvang het en 2. rolprente wat langer as gemiddeld gewys is en resensies van bo-gemiddelde lengte ontvang het. Die ondersoek wys uit dat die Cape Times 'n "kwantitatiewe strategie" gevolg het deur alle rolprente te resenseer, terwyl die Die Burger 'n "kwalitatiewe strategie" gevolg het deur net gekeurde rolprente te resenseer. Die resensies in albei nuuskoerante kan as funkionalisties beskryf word. Die Cape Times lig sy besigheidsgeorienteerde houding uit, deur grotendeels advertensie-gelyke resensies te skryf; Die Burger demonstreer sy politiese orientering deur kommentaar oor die taalgebruik in klankrolprente te lewer en sluit so rolprente en bioskope in die taalstryd in. Die studie demonstreer dat koerante 'n waardevolle inligtingsbron vir navorsing oor die vroeë Suid Afrikaanse rolprentgeskiedenis lewer. Die bestaande standaardverwysing, Thelma Gutsche se The History and Social Significance of Motion Pictures in South Africa 1895-1940 kan suksesvol gekomplimenteer word deur gebruik te maak van Afrikaanse koerante, as ook van die tekste van die Afrikaanse filmkritikus, Hans Rompel.
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Gérard, Fabien. "La certitude et de doute: recherche du mystère et quête identitaire dans le cinéma de Bernardo Bertolucci." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/211352.
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Peeler, Scott Edward. "The dynamics of proximity : Hitchcock's cinema of claustrophobia." Scholarly Commons, 1988. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2151.
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The implication of space in film is worth exploring in detail particularly with regard to the films of Alfred Hitchcock, since he is, perhaps more than any other filmmaker, concerned with the dynamics of proximity. Possibly because of his experience as a set designer on Graham Cutt’s silent films Woman to Woman (1922), The White Shadow (1923), The Passionate Adventure (1924), The Blackguard, and The Prude’s Fall (both 1925), Hitchcock very early in his career was faced with the task of expressing himself - without words - through setting, set shape, and room size. In Francois Truffaut's book, Hitchcock, the Master relates an important (since he remembers his) childhood episode in which his father arranged for the chief of police to lock him in a jail cell for five or ten minutes, admonishing that, “This is what we do to naughty boys.” Consequently, we see in Hitchcock’s films (which were all visually designed by him in the storyboard process) a persuasive aura of claustrophobia which involves a certain amount of connotes guilt and fear. As I intend to explain, this claustrophobia has far-reaching implications in five hermeneutic contexts, proving to be an important key to his moral-aesthetic universe.
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吳月華. "歌影拍和 : 粤語青春歌舞片歌曲與電影的關係 (1966-1969) = Songs in tune with movies : the relationship of movie songs and Cantonese youth musicals in 1966-1969." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2006. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/687.
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McGinney, William Lawrence. "The Sounds of the Dystopian Future: Music for Science Fiction Films of the New Hollywood Era, 1966-1976." Thesis, connect to online resource, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9839.
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McMahon, Orlene Denice. "Listening to the French new wave : the film music and composers of postwar French art cinema." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610716.
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Ng, Stephanie Yuet Wah. "Modes of production in post-war cantonese cinema : bricolage and sing-song comedy." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2013. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/1532.
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Ng, Hei Tung. "The representation of the mothers in J-horror." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2007. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/836.
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Jooste, Rina. "Representing history through film with reference to the documentary film Captor and Captive : perspectives on a 1978 Border War incident." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/85668.
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Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is supplementing a documentary film entitled Captor and Captive – the story of Danger Ashipala and Johan van der Mescht (2010), referred to as Captor and Captive, with a duration of 52-minutes. The film follows the story of two soldiers caught up in the disorganized machine of war. Johan van der Mescht, a South African Defence Force (SADF) soldier was captured in 1978 by Danger Ashipala, a South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) guerilla fighting for Namibian independence. Van der Mescht was held as a prisoner of war (POW) in Angola before being exchanged for a Russian spy, Aleksei Koslov, at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin in 1982. The main focus of the dissertation is to provide an analysis of representing history through film, with reference to Captor and Captive. It explores the manner in which history can be represented through the medium of film and add value to historical text, as well as historical text adding value to film, and how the two mediums can supplement each other. In this instance, Captor and Captive was produced first and the research conducted was used to inform the dissertation. It briefly discusses the history of documentary film within South Africa; the reality of producing documentary films reflecting on Captor and Captive and the theoretical principles involved in the craft of documentary filmmaking. The dissertation further provides details of the capture of Van der Mescht and his experience as a POW in Angola, against the backdrop of the Border War that waged between 1966 and 1989 in South West Africa (SWA) and Angola. The political landscape and various forces at work within southern Africa during the period of Van der Mescht’s capture are discussed. It also provides detail of the role of Van der Mescht’s captor Ashipala, and the liberation movement SWAPO. With independence in 1990, South West Africa became Namibia and will be referred to as such for the purpose of the dissertation. Mention will be made of other POWs during the Border War, providing a brief comparative analysis of their respective experiences.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die verhandeling is aanvullend tot die dokumentêre rolprent Captor and Captive – the story of Danger Ashipala and Johan van der Mescht (2010). Die rolprent het ‘n 52- minute speeltyd, en daar word daarna verwys as Captor and Captive. Dit handel oor twee soldate wat vasgevang is in die chaos van oorlog. Johan van der Mescht, lid van die Suid Afrikaanse Weermag, is in 1978 gevange geneem deur Danger Ashipala, lid van die Namibiese bevrydingsorganisasie SWAPO. Van der Mescht is as ‘n krygsgevangene in Angola aangehou, en 1982 uitgeruil vir ‘n Russiese spioen, Aleksei Koslov. Die uitruiling het by Checkpoint Charlie in Berlyn plaasgevind. Die verhandeling gee hoofsaaklik ‘n uiteensetting van die manier waarop geskiedenis aangebied word deur die visuele rolprentmedium, met verwysing na Captor and Captive. Die wyse waarop ‘n rolprent waarde kan toevoeg tot historiese teks, en hoe historiese teks op sy beurt weer waarde kan toevoeg tot ‘n rolprent word ondersoek, asook die wyse waarop die twee mediums mekaar kan aanvul. Captor and Captive is vervaardig voor die verhandeling aangepak is, en die navorsing is gebruik ter aanvulling van die verhandeling. Verder word die agtergrond en geskiedenis van dokumentêre rolprente in Suid Afrika kortliks bespreek; die realiteite rondom die vervaardiging van dokumentêre rolprente, met verwysing na Captor and Captive, en teoretiese aspekte betrokke by die vervaardiging daarvan. Die verhandeling verskaf inligting omtrent die gevangeneming van Van der Mescht en sy ondervinding as ‘n krygsgevangene in Angola. Dit word geskets teen die agtergrond van die Grensoorlog (1966 tot 1989) in Suidwes Afrika en Angola. Die politieke omgewing en groeperinge binne Suider Afrika gedurende Van der Mescht se gevangenisskap word bespreek. Verder word inligting oor Ashipala, wat verantwoordelik was vir Van der Mescht se gevangeneming bespreek. Die bevrydingsorganisasie SWAPO, waarvan hy ‘n lid was, word ook bespreek. Suidwes Afrika verander sy naam met onafhanklikheidswording in 1990 na Namibiё, en vir die doel van die verhandeling word daar na Namibiё verwys. Daar word melding gemaak van ander krygsgevangenes gedurende die tydperk van die Grensoorlog, en ‘n vergelyking tussen die ondervindinge van die onderskeie krygsgevangenes word kortliks ondersoek.
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Lefler, Thomas J. "In Search of a Transcendental Film Style: The Cinematic Art Form and the Mormon Motion Picture." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 1996. http://patriot.lib.byu.edu/u?/MTGM,23527.
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McConnell, Sarah E. "The Key to Unlocking the Secret Window." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2010. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc33226/.
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David Koepp's Secret Window was released by Columbia Pictures in 2004. The film's score was written by Philip Glass and Geoff Zanelli. This thesis analyzes transcriptions from six scenes within the film in conjunction with movie stills from those scenes in an attempt to explain how the film score functions.
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Bain, Keith Norman. "Hyperartifical cinema and the art of cool." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52880.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis, an ontology of contemporary cinema is developed using the position assumed by postmodern thinkers (notably Jean Baudrillard) and contemporary filmmakers. Using Baudrillard's perspective it is argued that the cinematic apparatus is an expression of both human curiosity and a desire to place "reality" at a distance. While the spectator seeks involvement with the viewed subject, he or she remains detached from the images which simulate the various "realities" in which he or she becomes "involved" through the act of viewing. The contemporary Western subject is said to crave "meaning" in a universe which is increasingly secular, materialistic, individualistic and, to a certain extent, "virtual". Life is also said to be more ironic, providing illusory concessions such as communication in lieu of interaction, information instead of knowledge, choice in favour of quality, surfaces rather than depth, and images which ultimately extinguish "the real". Moving images may be said to allude to the artificial nature of a "reality" which is itself a human construction. This suggests that the role of the camera is to place both the world and human subjects "at a distance", thereby objectifying (and potentially dehumanising) the subject-objects of the gaze. Many postmodern films are concerned with the functioning of the cinematic apparatus itself, and these films - implicitly and explicitly - deal with the way in which subjectivity is established through the cinematic gaze. "Realism" in the cinema has to a large extent shifted from the documentation of the world, to techniques which problematise the viewer's experience of "reality". Interactivity, faux-verité and the hyperrealism of computer graphic imaging, have contributed to the confusion of various forms of screen "realism", arguably impacting on the viewer's experience of "reality". In another sense, "reality" has been transformed by the blurring of distinctions between high and low cultural paradigms, increasingly evident in work that privileges the showing of "perverse", "profane", "grotesque", "vulgar" and explicit "realities". Boundaries between private and publiC spaces are eroded as the cinematic apparatus takes spectators into increasingly intimate personal spaces, demystifying and popularising the unknown and previously hidden. Considering the influence of commercial and socio-economic factors on the development of contemporary cinema (emphasizing Hollywood), the thesis looks at the aesthetic, thematic and narrative concerns of both mainstream and niche-market films. Focus is given to the socalled postmodern aesthetic which is closely linked to what some critics call recycling (an inability to say anything "new"), some label "empty" (meaningless) and many see as "schizoid" (able to be read in various, often contradictory, ways). The thesis proposes that contemporary (postmodern) cinema is a "pure" form which increasingly sets "reality" at a distance so that it's illusory nature is emphasised. It also demonstrates how contemporary films serve as reflections of a world which is itself nothing but a reflection (artificial construction). Like dreams, fantasies and other "virtual realities", the cinema represents a form of "remembering" which is detached from any particular time or space. In this sense, cinematic moving images enable viewers to engage with aspects of their own humanity which may be quite independent of the "reality" status of the world.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie proefskrif word die uitgangpunte van postmoderne denkers (by uitstek Jean Beaudrillard) en kontemporêre filmmakers benut om 'n ontologie van die kontemporêre film te ontwikkel. Vanuit Beaudrillard se perspektief word geargumenteer dat die filmiese apparatuur 'n uitrukking is van die mens se Inherente nuuskierigheid en die behoefte om "realiteit" op 'n afstand te hou. Alhoewel die kyker streef na betrokkenheid by die subjek wat bekyk word, bly hy of sy altyd afsydig (detached) van die beelde wat die verskeie "werklikhede" simuleer waarby hy of sy in die proses van kyk "betrokke" raak. Daar word beweer dat die hedendaagse Westerse subjek verlang na "betekenis" in 'n heelal wat al meer sekulêr, materialisties, individualisties en, tot 'n sekere mate, "virtueel" word. Die lewe is deurspek met ironie en maak allerlei illusionêre toegewings aan die "werklikheid", byvoorbeeld deur voorkeur te gee aan kommunikasie in plaas van interaksie, inligting in plaas van kennis, keuse in plaas van kwaliteit, oppervlakkighede in plaas van diepgang en beelde wat uiteindelike "die werklikeid" uitwis. Daar kan gesê word dat filmiese beelde (moving images) verwys na die kunsmatige aard van "realiteit", wat op sigself 'n menslike konstruksie is. Hiermee word dus gesuggereer dat dit die funksie van die kamera is om beide die wêreld en menslike subjekte "op 'n afstand" te plaas, en daarmee te objektiviseer (en moontlik te dehumaniseer). Baie postmoderne films hou hulle besig met die manier wat die filmiese apparatuur self funksioneer, en hierdie films ondersoek die wyse waarop subjektiwiteit deur middel van die kamera verkry word. "Realisme" in die film het tot 'n groot mate verskuif van die dokumentasie van die wêreld na tegnieke om die kyker se ervaring van die "werklikheid" te problematiseer. Interaktiwiteit, faux-verité en die hiper-realiteit van rekenaar gegenereerde beelde het bygedra tot die verwarring oor die verskeie vorme van filmiese "realisme", wat mens sou kon argumenteer 'n impak op die kyker se siening van "die werklikheid" het. In 'n ander sin, is "die werklikheid" getransformeer deur paradigma verskuiwings waardeur die onderskeide tussen "hoë" en "lae" kulture vervaag, iets wat al meer gedemonstreer word deur werke wat verkies om die "perverse", "profane", "groteske", "vulgêre", en eksplisiete "realiteite" te wys. Die grense tussen private en publieke ruimtes vervalook waar die filiese apparatuur kykers in al hoe intiemer persoonlike ruimtes inneem, om daardeur dit wat voorheen onbekende en versteek was te demistifiseer en populariseer. Met inagname van die invloed wat die kommersiële en sosio-ekonomiese faktore op die ontwikkelling van die hedendaagse film (veral van Hollywood) het, kyk die proefskrif na die estetiese, tematiese en narratiewe kwessies wat beide hoofstroom en niche-mark films kenmerk. Daar word veral gefokus op die sogenaamde post-moderne estetiek wat gekoppel word aan wat sommige kritici recycling noem (dws die onvermoë om iets nuuts te sê), ander as "leeg" (dws betekenisloos) beskou, en baie ander weer "shizoid" brandmerk (dws dit kan in verskeie, menige kere kontradiktoriese wyses, gelees of verstaan word). Die proefskrif bevind uiteindelik dan dat die kontemporêre (postmoderne) film 'n "suiwer" vorm is wat dit geleidelik regkry om "realiteit" op 'n afstand te hou, om sodoende sy eie illusionêre wese te benadruk. Dit illustreer ook hoe kontemporêre films funksioneer as refleksies van 'n wêreld wat self niks meer is as refleksie (kunsmatige konstruksie) is nie. Nes drome, fantasieë, en ander "virtuele realiteite", verteenwoordig die film 'n tipe "onthou" (remembering) wat onafhanklik is van 'n spesifteke tyd of plek. In hierdie sin help filmiese beelde kykers om hulself te kontfronteer met aspekte van hulle eie menslikheid wat onafhanklik is van hul werklikheidsstatus in die wêreld.
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廖志強. "<<中聯>>電影解讀 : 在啓蒙, 批判, 包容之間的意識形態 = Interpretation of 'Zhong Luen' (Union Motion Picture)'s films : the ideology of englightenment, criticism and toleration." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2000. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/212.
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MacCormack, Patricia (Patricia Anne) 1973. "Pleasure, perversion and death : three lines of flight for the viewing body." Monash University, Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, 2000. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7835.
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Baldwin, Jillian. "Room 2046: A Political Reading of Wong Kar-Wai's Chow-Mo Wan Trilogy through Narrative Elements and Mise-en-scene." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5482/.
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As ownership of Hong Kong changed hands from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997, citizens and filmmakers of the city became highly aware of the political environment. Film director Wong Kar-Wai creates visually stimulating films that express the anxieties and frustrations of the citizens of Hong Kong during this period. This study provides a political reading of Days of Being Wild (1991), In the Mood for Love (2000), and 2046 (2004) through analyzing various story elements and details within the mise-en-scene. Story elements include setting, dialogue, character relationships, character identities, thematic motifs, musical references, numerology, and genre manipulation. Wong also uses details within the films' mise-en-scene, such as props and color, to express political frustrations. To provide color interpretations, various traditional aesthetic guidelines, such as those prescribed by Taoism, Cantonese and Beijing opera, and feng shui, are used to read the films' negative comments on the handover process and the governments involved. When studied together the three films illustrate how Wong Kar-Wai creates narrative and visual references to the time and atmosphere in which he works, namely pre-and-post handover Hong Kong.
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Balan, Canan. "Changing pleasures of spectatorship : early and silent cinema in Istanbul." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1985.
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This project explores a curious facet of early cinema that has not been studied as yet: the relationship between Turkish modernity and the culture of spectatorship within the context of the late nineteenth century’s viewing habits along with the era of early and silent cinema in Istanbul. The aim of this project is to examine the evolution of viewing habits in Istanbul at a particular period in which a radical cultural transformation was experienced, namely from the 1890s to the 1930s, when the late Ottoman era with its pre-cinematic shows, the cinematograph, and silent films led to the early Turkish Republic and the end of silent cinema. In order to cover the shift in the reception of early cinema, this study makes use of revisionist works on early cinema and on modernity in Ottoman history. To this end, newspapers, novels, memoirs and consular trade records that formed the majority of the primary sources of this project are analyzed. The transformation of Istanbulite spectatorship was initially experienced through a rupture in the late nineteenth century created by the global flow of mechanical images. The cinematograph was viewed by a multi- ethnic public that was accustomed to seeing both traditional and other more widely recognized pre-cinematic shows such as the shadow play, public storytelling, dioramas, panoramas and magic lanterns. At first the early cinematograph displays were haphazard and parts of other shows. Yet, the international influence of the early cinema attracted a curiosity-driven public even if the same public was critical of the imperfect technology of the apparatus. With the outbreak of World War I, nationalist resistance played a role in the reception of popular European films, particularly Italian melodramas. The end of the war caused the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the Turkish Republic, after which, cinema started to be seen as an educational tool in the service of nation-building.
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Tsakiri, Maria. "What are you looking at? : representations of disability in documentary films." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/24517.
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This study sets out to explore the representations of disability in documentary films. Its starting point is that when such representations of disability films are under examination, one needs to take into consideration a level of complexities that come with disability, the construction and functionalities of representations, and more particularly the impact of documentary films on understanding disability. In order to address this issue, I draw upon disability theory and disability aesthetics, crip theory and crip willfulness, as well as practices of good looking, synthesising in this way a theoretical framework that responds to matters of intersectionality and criticality in relation to the analysis of representations of disability. To this end, I employ a mixed method design, which is based on participant observation, the methods of the written festival and a critical disability studies (crip) analysis for examining selected documentary films alongside a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews that were conducted with disabled viewers who attended the Emotion Pictures – Documentary and Disability Film Festival in Athens, Greece. Its findings indicate that representations of documentary films familiarise viewers with disability. This familiarisation and the development of political engagement by depicting crip killjoys are the key elements that create representations of a different context and meaning in comparison to those produced by media and fiction films. My analysis reveals that depictions of crip killjoys who are conscious of their political identity, speak out and take action are depictions that ask for political engagement. As such, they can produce good staring. Visibility and social dialogue are two of the benefits of disability film festivals that are highlighted by disabled viewers.
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Gustafsson, Fredrik. "Hasse Ekman : a question of authorship in a national context." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3421.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis takes a historical approach to its subject and focuses on Swedish cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. The thesis argues that Swedish cinema experienced a renaissance in the 1940s, lasting approximately from 1940 to 1953. It further suggests that one of the most important filmmakers in this renaissance was Hasse Ekman. By focussing upon Ekman and this renaissance, a much-needed contextualisation of Ingmar Bergman will be achieved. Ingmar Bergman is one of the most well-known and well-researched filmmakers of all time, but there are still gaps in the material surrounding him, and one such gap concerns his cinematic origins. Bergman was a part of the 1940s renaissance, during which Bergman worked with, and was influenced by, other filmmakers and in particular Ekman. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part introduces the relevant literature and discusses ideas of authorship and national cinema. It also provides a historic overview of Swedish society and cinema during the 1940s and 1950s, providing the context needed to better understand the films of Ekman, and Bergman too. This part also looks at the 1930s to illustrate what came before this renaissance, and how the films of the 1940s differed from what had gone before. The second part is a chronological overview of Ekman's career from the late-1930s to his move to Spain in 1964. The last part is a discussion of Ekman's relation to Swedish society and his view of the world, based on close textual readings of his films. The aim of the thesis is to present, for the first time, a coherent and extensive overview of Ekman's career and body of work, while also situating it in the specific context in which it emerged, thereby shedding new light on an important, though neglected, episode in cinema history.
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Castillo, Gilbert Gerard. "Gender, Identity, and Influence: Hong Kong Martial Arts Films." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2002. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3354/.
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This project is an examination of the Hong Kong film industry, focusing on the years leading up to the handover of Hong Kong to communist China. The influence of classical Chinese culture on gender representation in martial arts films is examined in order to formulate an understanding of how these films use gender issues to negotiate a sense of cultural identity in the face of unprecedented political change. In particular, the films of Hong Kong action stars Michelle Yeoh and Brigitte Lin are studied within a feminist and cultural studies framework for indications of identity formation through the highlighting of gender issues.
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Green, Bryony Rose Humphries. "A book history study of Michael Radford's filmic production William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2008. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1710/.
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Hart, Hilary 1969. "Sentimental spectacles : the sentimental novel, natural language, and early film performance." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/297.
Full textAbstract:
Advisor: Mary E. Wood.
xii, 181 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm. Print copy also available for check out and consultation in the University of Oregon's library under the call number: PS374.S714 H37 2004.The nineteenth-century American sentimental novel has only in the last twenty years received consideration from the academy as a legitimate literary tradition. During that time feminist scholars have argued that sentimental novels performed important cultural work and represent an important literary tradition. This dissertation contributes to the scholarship by placing the sentimental novel within a larger context of intellectual history as a tradition that draws upon theoretical sources and is a source itself for later cultural developments. In examining a variety of sentimental novels, I establish the moral sense philosophy as the theoretical basis of the sentimental novel's pathetic appeals and its theories of sociability and justice. The dissertation also addresses the aesthetic features of the sentimental novel and demonstrates again the tradition's connection to moral sense philosophy but within the context of the American elocution revolution. I look at natural language theory to render more legible the moments of emotional spectacle that are the signature of sentimental aesthetics. The second half of the dissertation demonstrates a connection between the sentimental novel and silent film. Both mediums rely on a common aesthetic storehouse for signifying emotions. The last two chapters of the dissertation compare silent film performance with emotional displays in the sentimental novel and in elocution and acting manuals. I also demonstrate that the films of D. W. Griffith, especially The Birth of a Nation, draw upon on the larger conventions of the sentimental novel.
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Meaney, Carol Susan. "Return of the witch the scapegoating of the unredeemable woman in modern American cinema /." 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3110657.
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Ballot, Jane Jennifer. "The role of "film study" within the English syllabus in White English medium secondary schools in the Transvaal : 1977-1990." Thesis, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/3555.
Full textAbstract:
Prior to 1986, there was no media studies of any type prescribed at secondary schools in the Transvaal. However, individual teachers and schools have recognised the need for children to receive instruction in the media. This saw the introduction of varying forms of informal media studies into the classroom.Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban.
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"Hong Kong film music from the 1990s to the present." 2005. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5896398.
Full textAbstract:
Cheng Ling Yan.Thesis submitted in: June 2004.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-90).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Abstract --- p.i
Abstract (Chinese) --- p.ii
Acknowledgement --- p.iii
Table of Contents --- p.iv
List of Figures --- p.vi
Romanization and Translation --- p.vii
Introduction --- p.1
Chapter Chapter One --- Original Scoring 原創音樂： Compositional Practice in the Present-Day Hong Kong Film Music Industry --- p.6
"How Original is “Original Scoring"" ？" --- p.8
Originality in Previous Practice? --- p.9
~Film Music from the 1960s to the 1990s --- p.9
~“Chinese´ح Music in the Huang Mei Diao Film --- p.9
~Canned Music in the 1960s and 1970s --- p.11
~The Composer in 1970s Film Music --- p.12
Film Music of the 2000s --- p.12
Time Limitations --- p.13
Budget --- p.15
Technology in Use --- p.18
"Close Relationships between the Director, Composer, and Mixer" --- p.21
Chapter Chapter Two --- Film Music Functions and Formulaic Uses of Instruments --- p.24
Function of Film Music --- p.25
Formulaic Uses of Instruments --- p.26
Re-Occurrence of Music in a Film --- p.30
Chapter Chapter Three --- Imagined Scoring of Chinese Music --- p.33
Chinese Instruments --- p.34
Authenticity In Scene and Out of Scene --- p.35
Imagined Scoring -- Creative Listening Experience --- p.36
Cultural Correctness --- p.38
Listening Experiences Formed in Daily Life --- p.39
Music for the Elders in Hong Kong --- p.41
Conclusion --- p.41
Chapter Chapter Four --- Crossover of Pop Singers Into Films --- p.43
Hong Kong Pop Singers as Film Actor/Actress or Vice Versa --- p.44
Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Music --- p.50
Popular Song In Film and Film Theme Song --- p.53
The Crossover of Popular Music Composers Into Film Music --- p.54
Pop Songs and Listening Experience --- p.56
Change in the Practice - Problems of Overlapping Identities --- p.59
Chapter Chapter Five --- Conclusion: Musically Illiterate in Pop but Fluent in Chinese? --- p.62
The Hong Konger is Musically Not Chinese --- p.63
The Hong Konger is Musically Fluent in Pop --- p.64
Questions for Further Study --- p.64
Appendix 1 (Wong Fook Ling ) --- p.66
Appendix 2 ( Frankie Chan ) --- p.71
"Appendix 3 (List of United States, Taiwan and Hong Kong Film Music Awards)" --- p.80
Appendix 4 ( Film Titles ) --- p.81
"Appendix 5 (Directors, Composers, Lyricists, Actors/Actresses and Singers )" --- p.84
References Cited --- p.86
Glossary --- p.92
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Turner, Ben. "Acoustic ambience in cinematography : an exploration of the descriptive and emotive impact of the descriptive and emotive impact of the aural environment." Thesis, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/5184.
Full textAbstract:
Ambience is deftned by the American Heritage Dictionary as "the special atmosphere or mood created by a particular environment" This definition reveals the ubiquitous and ambiguous identity of acoustic ambience, as "environment" is a broad collective term. Unlike music or dialogue, ambience in film is akin to peripheral vision: once focused upon it loses a collective identity. Yet, there is a means to unravelling the aural atmosphere of a particular environment The solution in defining ambient sound lies primarily in the logical process of eliminating the tangible sound components within the soundtrack of ftlrn. Metaphorically speaking the soundtrack may be seen as a glass jar. The solid rocks placed in the jar are the major components of film: voice, sound effects and music. All other sound is like coloured liquid poured around the rocks. Not only does liquid fill the jar, but also affects the appearance of the rocks. Consequendy we encounter unique practical examples that weaken terminology and provide inevitable exceptions to the rule. The lack of theoretical development in a medium borne in the late nineteen twenties is both mystifying and understandable. Sound is the underdog to visuals, and ambience is overlooked for more recognizable components such as music. Indeed, there are multitudes of books on music and sound effects (impact effects) in film. Ambience however, appears to be advanced in practical application but primitive in theoretical exploration. Exploring sound film holistically has not deterred all theorists. Michel Chion is a pioneer who devises credible terminology with an emphasis on the equality of sound and visuals. Naturally, in a medium rife with subjective interpretation, it is all but impossible to make cut and dry theoretical statements. Chion comments: Of course we must continue to refine and fill in our typology of film sound. We must add new catego~es-not claiming thereby to exhaust all possibilities, but at least to enlarge the scope, to recogmze, define, and develop new areas." [1] This statement outlines the aim of part one. I have drawn on Chion's terminology relevant or related to ambience, as well as defined new areas. The greater part of this research article contains new terminology in cases where no established theoretical identifications relevant to ambience were found. As a reference point, I have created and proposed the following new terms: Ambience as a Cultural Reflector, Ambience as a Musical Trait, Ambience of Indefinite Status, Ambience Recall, Ambient Synchronism, Dual-Perspective Location Indicator, Epic Ambience as Abstract Narrative, Illuminated Sound, Impact Effects, Lexical Ambience, Macro-Contrast and Micro-Contrast, Music as a Hindrance, Ratio of Active or Dormant Diegetic Ambience, Rhythmic Density and Idee Fixe, Source Ambience, and Source Extension. These terms will be explained in part one and illustrated in part two. The terms are significandy applicable to theoretical exploration and are not direcdy intended for a practitioner's utilisation. Unidentified sound components must be discovered in order for analytical insight to expand. This article therefore became an investigation of ambience terminology through necessity owing to the absence of established theory. Part two will demonstrate most of the tangible terms discussed in part one through examples. It seemed more practical to select films that contain at least three constituents of ambience discussed in part one. Two of the films, Blade Runner and 2001:A Space Ocfyssry are recognized as pivotal films for innovative use of sound, and rich source of inspiration for developing new terminology, "Blade Runneris arguably the most famous and influential science fiction film ever made. It has exerted a pervasive influence over all subsequent science fiction cinema, and indeed our cultural perceptions of the future."[2] 2001:A Space Ocfyssry shares similar acclaim, "2001: A Space Ocfyssry (1968) is a landmark science fiction classic-and probably the best science-fiction film of all time."[3] Panic Room and The Fellowship qfthe Ring are contemporary films that both use unique methods in sound design. Naturally, there are hundreds if not thousands of films that would provide further material for theoretical expansion. Within the length limitations of this research article, however, the selection seems equally balanced.Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal,Durban, 2005.
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Kilian, Mark Andre. "The relationships between music and sound effects in post 1960 popular Hollywood film." Thesis, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/8963.
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Eaton, Rebecca Marie Doran. "Unheard minimalisms : the functions of the minimalist technique in film scores /." Thesis, 2008. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2008/eatonr88741/eatonr88741.pdf#page=3.
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Burgess, Diane. "Canon busting?: approaching contemporary Canadian cinema." Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10361.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores contemporary Canadian cinema by investigating the convergence of
films, policy and criticism as they are implicated in the idea of canon. Both fluid and multiple in
its frame(s) of reference, the term canon extends beyond a list or core of privileged texts to
include the processes of evaluation. Posited as a performative construct, the national cinema
canon can be seen as offering a strategically deployed expression of national cultural identity,
with appraisals of each film's value arising from the intersection of critical and governmental
discourses; however, narrow admission criteria along with the displaced goal of developing a
distinctive national art cinema reinforce perceptions of absence-of Canadian culture and/or
identity-by delimiting canonical boundaries to exclude more than they include. Focussing on
feature film production since 1984, and adopting a predominantly English Canadian perspective,
this thesis aims to examine the underlying assumptions that direct canon formation; rather than
attempting to reject or replace the existing canon, this process of rereading entails working
within the prevailing discourses in order to generate an awareness of the politics of selection.
Emerging from a tradition of liberal humanist nationalism, canon formation in the
Canadian context invokes conflicting conceptions of high cultural enlightenment and mass
commodity success which have become entrenched as a continuing tension between cultural and
industrial goals. These tensions are further complicated by a "double conscious" perspective
that simultaneously values and rejects American cinema culture. Chapter One explores the
factors shaping the admission criteria of origin and value, while Chapter Two addresses the
relationship between national culture and canon formation. Chapter Three considers the ways in
which Canadian cinema is defined through policy, including a case study of the 1999 Feature
Film Advisory Committee Report, which encapsulates the directional challenges facing cultural
policy development. Approaches to devising a descriptive canon are addressed in Chapter Four,
in which hybrid categories are suggested that could be used to supplant the nationalist
perspective with an acknowledgement of the fluidity of the metaphysical frontier of culture, and
hence the transnational, or perhaps post-nationalist, aspects of Canadian cultural experience.
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Angeles, Gaspara C. "The ternary distinction of sound cinema." Thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:52499.
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This thesis addresses the problematic categorization of film music in terms of a
reductive diegetic/nondiegetic distinction (‘the binary’) and presents an alternative
analytical framework. Following the law of parsimony, we reconstruct this original
binary distinction in order to establish a new tripartite schema that accounts for the many otherwise ambiguous categories of sound that had occupied an unknown or
indeterminate region of the binary zones. Drawing on the works of Bordwell,
Kassabian, and Neumeyer in particular, the thesis seeks to put an end to the
theoretical indeterminacy that haunts the binary distinction by introducing a new
and inclusive ternary schema of sound cinema.
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Phillips, Amy Louise. "Time, history and memory in the cinema of Pedro Almod{u00F3}var." Master's thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150488.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis analyses the films of Pedro Almod{u00F3}var to identify what they express about time, history and memory. It situates Almod{u00F3}var's films in their historical and cultural context in order to detect traces of and breaks with the past within the films. It identifies a trajectory in Almod{u00F3}var's attitude towards the past: from disinterest and disavowal of the relevance of history in his earliest films that encapsulate the spirit of the movida, to a growing preoccupation with time and memory in the films from Live Flesh onwards. The thesis demonstrates that this trajectory reflects broader changes in Spain's attitude to its historical past, from the 'pact of oblivion' in the 1980s that sought to erase memories of the Franco period, to the Historical Memory Law that was enacted in the Spanish Parliament in 2007. Since Almod{u00F3}var's films reflect on the past more often through personal stories than direct reference to historical events, this thesis identifies where these personal stories can be read as allegories or at least allusions to historical circumstances, but also what the films are saying about the human experience oftime. To do this it draws on the work of Paul Ricoeur who, in Time and Narrative, elaborated on fiction's potential for ruminating on lived time. In particular, the thesis shows how in Almod{u00F3}var's recent cinema the past and future coincide with the present through memory and anticipation. Gilles Deleuze's Cinema books and relevant scholarship on Deleuze are also drawn on to argue that Bad Education and Talk to Her incorporate aspects of both the time-and movement-images, employing non-linear narrative structures that foreground time and at first confound understanding, but that ultimately work to restore coherence. Bad Education, in particular, fits within a cycle of films identified by David Martin-Jones: hybrid time-/movement-images that employ variations of non-linearity to produce, comment on or criticise national narratives. The thesis identifies interplay between the agency of characters and coincidence and chance events that undermines simplistic causal relationships in many of Almod{u00F3}var's films, arguing that this suggests a model of agency that underscores the crisis of the movement-image, yet ultimately seeks to retain it. It also demonstrates how repetition, music, colour and visual techniques contribute to the films' explorations of time, history and memory.
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"Spectatorship in the Hong Kong cinema: cop films and female police officers." 2007. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5896542.
Full textAbstract:
Cheung, Hoi Yan.Thesis submitted in: December 2006.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007.
Filmography: leaves 111-112.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-111).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 2. --- Spectatorship Theories --- p.26
Chapter 3. --- "Spectatorship, Local Cop Films and Hong Kong Police Force" --- p.39
Chapter 3.1 --- "Jackie Chan and his ""Police Story"" series" --- p.39
Chapter 3.2 --- New Police Story (2004) --- p.43
Chapter 3.3 --- PTU(2003) --- p.57
Chapter 3.4 --- Crazy n'the City (2005) --- p.69
Chapter 4. --- Conclusion --- p.85
Appendix ´ؤ Interview Questions --- p.102
Bibliography --- p.106
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Willet, Eugene Kenneth 1969. "Music as sinthome: joy riding with Lacan, Lynch, and Beethoven beyond postmodernism." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/3231.
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The films of David Lynch are full of ambiguities that derive from his habitual distortion of time, inversion of characters, and creation of ironic, dreamlike worlds that are mired in crisis. While these ambiguities have been explored from numerous angles, scholars have only recently begun to closely examine music's role in Lynch's cinematic imagination. This dissertation explores the relationship between music and fantasy through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalysis where fantasy plays a crucial role in helping psychoanalytical subjects work through their psychical crises. In particular, I look at Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1996), and Mulholland Drive (2001), showing how Lynch employs music to manage and, in the case of Mulholland Drive, move beyond the particular crises of jouissance experienced by the Characters--and also the viewers. Before engaging in my analysis of Lynch's film music, however, I begin with an extended discussion of what Kevin Korsyn describes as the current crisis of music scholarship, examining how this crisis manifests itself in recent "postmodern" interpretations of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Few works are invested with as much cultural capital as this one and arguably the discourse around it exhibits the crisis more acutely than any other. Korsyn restricts his analysis to the fields of musicology and music theory, but I approach the crisis of music scholarship obliquely, through my Lacanian reading of Lynch's film music. This dissertation, then, has two goals. On one hand it attempts to examine music's role in Lynch's films, and on the other, it explores how Lynch's use of music might aid us in navigating and moving beyond the institutional crises of music scholarship. This Lynchian solution to our crisis provides a glimpse of what might lie beyond postmodernism, a new philosophical movement some are calling the "New Sincerity." This term covers several loosely related cultural or philosophical movements that have followed in the wake of postmodernism, the most notable being what Raoul Eshelman and Judith Butler refer to as "performatism." Finally, I return to Beethoven's Ninth to offer a second, performative reading, demonstrating how Lynch's use of music can be translated into current musical discourse.text
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Layton, Myrna June. "Illusion and reality : playback singers of Bollywood and Hollywood." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/13240.
Full textAbstract:
Text in EnglishIndia’s film production industry, referred to commonly as Bollywood, and the film production industry of America, referred to as Hollywood, have created a large number of musical films since sound was introduced into motion pictures. Both create fictional stories—illusions, if you will—through the use of prerecorded sound and playback technology coupled with lip-synching interpolated onto filmed images. While studies exist that treat the music of both production centres, there is very little research that compares both, and very little research on playback singers. Playback singers in both Bollywood and Hollywood may or may not be the actors who are seen on the screen; however, people in the Bollywood system—its directors, producers, creators, as well as the journalists who write about it—are very open about this practice, and playback singing is a highly respected career. Conversely, in the Hollywood system, playback singing that is done by an individual other than the on-screen actor remains uncredited or under-credited, and those who do the work are just hired workers; they are not respected as artists in the same way that their Bollywood counterparts are. I believe this difference has a cultural basis, shaped by variation in the way that illusion and reality are expressed by film production staff and interpreted by audiences in the two cultures. Through primary and secondary research, this project seeks to discover the differences and to understand how cultural implications of illusion and reality affect the playback singers in both film centres.
Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology
D. Litt et Phil. (Musicology)
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Hooton, Fiona Art History & Art Education College of Fine Arts UNSW. "The impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the mid to late 20th century." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41008.
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This thesis discusses the impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the late 20thcentury through the work of the Sydney Underground Film group, Ubu. This group, active between 1965 -1970, was a significant part of an underground counter culture, to which many young Australians subscribed. As a group, Ubu was more than a rat bag assemblage of University students. It was an antipodean aspect of an ongoing artistic and political movement that began with the European avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century and that radically transformed artistic conventions in theatre, painting, literature, photography and film. Three purposes underpin this thesis: firstly to track the art historical links between a European avant-garde heritage and Ubu. Experimental film is a genre that is informed by cross art form interrelations between theatre, painting, literature, photography and film and the major modernist aesthetic philosophies of the last century. Ubu's revolutionary aesthetic approaches included political resistance and the involvement of audiences in the production of art. Their creative wellspring drew from: Alfred Jarry, Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Fluxus, Conceptual and Pop art. This cross fertilization between the arts is critical to understanding not only the Australian experimental movement but the history of contemporary image making. The second purpose is to fill a current void of research about early Australian Experimental film. This is a significant gap given it was a national movement with many international connections. The counterculture movement also contains many major figures in Australian art history. These individuals played their parts in the Sydney Push, Oz magazine and the activities of the Yellow House and have since become important multi arts practitioners and commentators. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to evaluate Ubu's political and social agenda for the democratization of film appreciation through their objectives of: production, exhibition, distribution and debate of experimental film both nationally and internationally. Ultimately the group would succeed in these objectives and in winning the war on repressive censorship laws. Their influence has informed the practice of many of Australia's current film heavy weights. Two key films have been selected for analysis, It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain (1963) and Newsfront (1978). The first looks forward to Ubu's contemporary practices and political agenda while the second demonstrates their longer term influences on mainstream cinema.
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Hemmings, Jonathan Michael. "Dead reckoning : an analysis of George Romero's 'Living dead' series in relation to contemporary theories of film genre and representations of race, class, culture and violence." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/302.
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This thesis is an in-depth analysis of George Romero's 'Living Dead' tetralogy of films, comprising Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn ofthe-Bead (1978), Day of the Dead(\985) and Land of the Dead (2005), examined through the lensf of contemporary film genre theory. The project focuses specifically on issues of the representation of race, class, culture and violence in the four films, and how these representations, along with the concomitant social critique evident in Romero's work, change in response to the upheavals and developments which have occurred in the American social, cultural and political climate over the past four decades. It also focuses on how Romero's films respond to changes in the horror genre, and how Romero both structures his films on the binary oppositions which are central to the genre and deconstructs these oppositions, and the implications that this deconstruction (most notably that of the figure of the zombie, which occupies a zone of constantly shifting liminality between the human and the monstrous) has in relation to Romero's socio-cultural and political commentary implicit in the films.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008
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Hung, Yu-Ting (Christine). "Are Hou Hsiao-hsien's films political? : a study of gender, culture, history and aesthetics in Hou Hsiao-hsien's historical films." Thesis, 2012. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:31339.
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Hou Hsiao-hsien is one of the most controversial film directors in Taiwan. His proponents love him for his artistic and poetic film style of narrating history. The government hated him for his involvement in politics. Regardless of their contentiousness, his films are widely acclaimed and worthy of close analysis. This thesis engages with Taiwanese history by offering a reading of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A City of Sadness (1989), The Puppetmaster (1993), Good Men, Good Women (1995), and Three Times (2005). I critique the films’ historical dimensions, cultural representations and approach to gender issues in the period from the late Qing Dynasty to the present. In addition, Hou’s film aesthetics and cinematography are analysed, through comparisons with the work of Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, in order to explore the influences of Japanese colonisation and Chinese cultural and ethnic connection. Hou’s immense contribution to Taiwanese film consists principally of a Taiwanese trilogy that traces Taiwan’s history in the twentieth century. In The Puppetmaster (1993), Hou details the era of Japanese colonisation from 1895 to the restoration of Taiwan by the Kuomintang in 1945. A City of Sadness focuses on the fate of the Lin family from 1945 to 1949, which epitomises Taiwanese life during the initial stages of Kuomintang domination. Good Men, Good Women (1995) portrays two different eras in Taiwan: the political movement in the 1950s and pop culture in the 1990s. In Hou’s later work, Three Times (not part of this trilogy), Hou uses subtle techniques to give a brief historical retrospective through the respective love stories of three women. The thesis uses examples from not only the above films but also Hou’s initial romantic trilogy, Cute Girl (1980), Cheerful Wind (1981), and The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982) and his first realistic film, Son’s Big Doll, which is featured in the omnibus film The Sandwich Man, to explore Hou’s historical, cultural and gender representations. In order to understand Hou’s ideas and beliefs in greater depth, I also review the documentary, The Portrait of Hou Hsiao-hsien (Olivier Assayas, 1997) as well as his films in the last decade, such as Café Lumière (2003), The Electric Princess House (2007), Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge (2008) and La Belle Epoque (2011). In this thesis, I explore the notion of macro-history (official history) and micro-history (family and women’s stories) and the interrelationship between them. I provide my own illustrative family photos and handwritten documents of my grandfather and uncle to show the parallel between my family story and Hou’s depiction of the impact of cultural hegemony on family history (micro-history). In A City of Sadness, with reference to Julia Kristeva’s (1986) notion of ‘feminine time’ and the debate between Emilie Yeh (2000) and Mizou (1991) concerning “whether women can really enter history,” I argue that Hou Hsiao-hsien’s use of a family’s microhistory to parallel the national macro-history of the February 28 Incident opens an important historical window through which the audience may re-encounter and reflect upon Taiwan’s past, and think carefully about its future. As distinct from Mizou and Yeh, I propose that it is possible for micro-history and macro-history to co-exist, based on the theory of yin and yang. In Good Men, Good Women, putting Wu Jia-chi’s and Tessa Morris-Suzuki’s theories on media and memory alongside one another, I question how useful it is to discuss Hou’s use of women in cinema and “film within a film” to represent history and, more importantly, whether this is a reliable approach. Can it be seen as a national allegory? In the discussion of The Puppetmaster and Three Times, I bridge the gap between Nick Browne (2000) and Li Zhen-ya’s (2000) debate about whether Hou Hsiao-hsien’s films are depoliticised. I argue that Hou Hsiao-hsien’s films are political and that his humanitarian concerns should not be ignored. I have also argued that there is a reason for Hou’s poetic style of narration and indirectness, which is chiefly to avoid censorship. To discover the truth, to reconcile and to produce harmony are the primary aims of Hou Hsiao-hsien. Hou’s films suggest that the Taiwanese people should cast away the darkness of the past and face the bright future, as they have understood their history and take a forgiving attitude toward past misfortunes.
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Hiscocks, Wendy Faye. "The influence of Arthur Benjamin's film music on music he wrote for other genres." Phd thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/140906.
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Hills, Paul R. "Neural narratives and natives: cognitive attention schema theory and empathy in Avatar." Diss., 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26659.
Full textAbstract:
Text in EnglishThis study offers a fine-grained analysis of James Cameron’s film, Avatar (2009), on several theoretical fronts to provide a view of the film from a cognitive cultural studies perspective. The insights gained from cognitive theory are used to situate the debate by indicating the value cognitive theories have in cultural criticism. The critical discourse analysis of Avatar that results is a vehicle for the central concern of this study, which is to understand the diverse, often contradictory, meaning-making exhibited by Avatar audiences. A focus on the construction of empathic responses to the film’s messages investigates the success of this polysemy. Ihe central propositions of the study are that meanings and interpretations of the experience of viewing Avatar are made discursively; they are situated in definable traditions, mores and values; and this meaning-making takes place in a cognitive framework which allows for the technical reproduction and reception of the experience while providing powerful, emerging and cognitively plausible narratives. In an attempt to situate the film’s commercial success and its plethora of awards, including an Oscar for best art direction, the analysis takes a critical view of Cameron’s use of cultural stereotypes and the framing of the exotic other, and considers the continuing development of these elements over the whole series and product line or, as Henry Jenkins (2007) defines it, “transmedia”. In drawing the theoretical boundaries of the methodologies used in this study and in arguing for their complementarities, the study contributes to a renewal of Raymond Williams’ (1961) mostly forgotten claim of the cross-disciplinary cognitive dimension of cultural studies and demonstrates an affirmation of this formulation as cognitive cultural studies.
Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology
M.A. (Art History)