Post-independence: New developments and New Challenges
After independence, the state made some significant changes in order to enhance production. Even though the funds provided were not adequate enough to make high quality films, some Moroccan filmmakers managed to achieve unprecedented success. Besides, it was visible that the only role cinema could play at that era was to reflect the ongoing social and political transitions especially that some new male and female directors made their first appearance in Moroccan cinema. Therefore, moving toward a new phase did not happen in soft ways because Moroccan filmmakers faced financial and technical hindrances. However, Moroccan cinema started to detach itself gradually from the impact of France by experiencing new film techniques. Moroccans engagement in Cinema at the beginning of the 70s reflects, convincingly, the filmmakers’ search for their identity and their socio-cultural role. This chapter explores the major characteristics of Post-independence cinema and the procedures carried out by the state to develop it. Accordingly, the regulations introduced by the CCM so as to enhance production and improve quality. It also presents specific information regarding some of the prominent films and filmmakers of that period. The purpose of the latter investigation is to delve into the core particularities of Moroccan film at the beginning of the 70s and to examine the extent to which the social transitions society is reflected in its
It was estimated that by the late teens of the 20th century, Zukor held 75% of the best talent in the filmmaking business. I was baffled by this statistic when I read it. For one studio to hold ¾’s of the best talent in the industry is nearly a monopoly. Another thing I found interesting was that Fox worked on 70 mm wide-screen techniques. This was thought provoking to me because this summer I saw the film Dunkirk, and my friends and I saw it with the 70 mm wide-screen edition. I had never seen a movie with this wide-screen 70 mm and it was definitely different from a regular screen. Another thing that caught my attention was the connection between film and politics. I was interested to learn that MGM used a film to bring down Upton Sinclair as he was running for office. I was also shocked to read that Charlie Chaplin was not let into the United States because of his progressive political views. I was baffled that a man that was once called the “king of comedy” in the United States was denied entry because of his political
The Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress expresses the thirteen American colonies desire to disjoin from Great Britain. Chapter 4 of “After the Fact,” entitled Declaring Independence, presents factual viewpoints of historians as well as thorough examinations aroused from the possible confusions of the renowned document.
Imagine everything that is said is heard in a British accent. It sounds funny now, but that's how it could have been if the colonists had never declared their independence from England. That isn't what happened though. Grievances were made, events came to pass, and the Declaration of Independence was written. Taking a look at the documents from that time, as well as treatment of other colonies by the British one can see that the colonists were completely justified in declaring their independence from England.
Looking at the socially or culturally history of the United States, many historians use Hollywood films as a primary source. I also used many films such as Easy Rider (1969) or Dance, Girl, Dance (1941) to support my historical thesis paper and to make the topic more vivid by using the images of the film. Even though, some people think that films are accurate and authentic in its depiction, it is important to mention that films are still fictional. Directors and actors are responsible to make us believe their story, but this story does not have to be necessarily true. In that way, fictional films cannot be used as historical evidence in terms of how things looked like during that specific
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary that someone must judge another to reassure their own position as a superior being. It is at this time, those that threaten individuality and culture be reminded that they are made of the same matter that nature intended for us as humans, and these oppressors of unique must now swallow it.
When you consider the Founding Fathers, wellness isn't precisely the first thing that rings a bell. Picture heavy Ben Franklin.
The article also touches base with other critics and discusses the rise of criticism for noir film. The article also calls for a attention to the movement, that instead of having fixed gender roles in other film noir films, that change may occur and that with change a new type of noir may emerge.
Culture, the way of life of a group of people is a very important aspect of human existence. Indeed the culture of a certain people is extremely significant to them that they strive as much as possible to prevent its extinction by passing it down from one generation to another. Over the centuries, oral telling , art making and subsequently writing have been methods of passing and preserving culture and then recently film making. The film and the media have proven to be an extremely strong factor when it comes to portrayal, proclamation and even preservation as a result of the numerous numbers of people the media has access to. For the purpose of this essay, I would be visiting the history of film in Australia, its cultural importance and significance and its distinct examples in modern day film.
Films of this period began to reflect a change in the values and attitudes of the French-Canadian people as political separatism started to become a real possibility for Quebec. Michel Houle even argues that the Quiet Revolution was started in part due to the freedom of speech that came from the films of the early 1960s; they instigated a sort of identity crisis in the people of Quebec (168). With this, film production was also subject to the growing auteur principle, which “stressed artistic control, expressive freedom, and personal style in direction, ‘independent of established industry practices’,” (Reines 24-25). This meant that many film directors started to take on their own styles and thusly formed a set of characteristics that became standard of Quebec films: further rejection of outside film industries’ practices, and the shift towards the “le direct” style of filmmaking (Gittings
In Francophone Africa, France set up the Bureau of Cinema to help African filmmakers complete their films. However, the Bureau was limited with how much it could help, especially when the films had a political theme. As much as the Bureau of Cinema did help to increase the number of films being made by black Africans, there were filmmakers who were able to create their projects without the help of the Bureau. The most prolific example of this is Ousmane Sembene, who is considered to be the father of African cinema and “the leading proponent of cinéma engagé” He was a militant and Marxist who challenged the African bourgeoisie, French neo-colonialism, and the “insidious role of Islam and Christianity in African Society.” (Andrade-Watkins, “Francophone Africa”) As previously mentioned, the Bureau of Cinema was already considered a political liability, and as a result, they had to turn filmmakers like Sembene
Casablanca, first released on January 23rd, 1943 is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Classical Hollywood film. Written and released in the midst of World War Two it explores themes such as love, desire and especially sacrifice. Although the love story of the protagonists is the cause and catalyst for most of the narrative, one would not necessarily associate it with the conventional Classical Hollywood love story. Rather as a fabula based on the principle of the importance of sacrifice in order to overcome a common enemy, in this case the Nazis. Casablanca does indeed contain many of the common characteristics identified with the Classical Hollywood film. An example being the the way director, Michael Curtiz used a mainly chronologically ordered narrative structure and the utilisation of a Cause and Effect chain. In this essay I will looking at the various ways I believe this film does fall into the criteria of a Classical Hollywood narrative and also how some could perceive that it does not.
To fully comprehend why and how this cinematic motion took place, it is valuable here to establish the wider social climate of France at the time, and the active forces which heavily shaped New Wave cinema. Between the years of 1945 and 1975, France would undergo “thirty glorious years” of economic growth, urbanization, and a considerable baby boom, all of which came to expand and radically alter the parameters of French culture (Haine 33). Beneath the surface affluence however, France was in a state of deep self-evaluation and consciousness. Following WW11, the
Soviet cinema has a significant contribution to the world’s film history. The years after the October Revolution in 1917 bring many economic difficulties and political changes to the newly formed USSR, which also affected film production. The nationalization of the film industry, Kuleshov experiments, and the support from the government mark some of the most important phases that influenced the progress and development of the Soviet film. Even though used as medium of propaganda, the cinema popularity
Egyptian cinema was nationalized in the 1960s, and according to Walter Armbrust in his book, Mass Mediations: New
The romantic idea of the auteur is described by film theoretician, André Bazin, observing the film form as an idealistic phenomenon. Through the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard reference, Bazin primarily refers to an essential literary and romantic conception of the artist as central. He considers the relationship between film aesthetics and reality more important than the director itself and places cinema above paintings. He described paintings as a similar ethical creation to film stating a director ‘can be valued according to its measurements and the celebrity of the signature, the objective quality of the work itself was formerly held in much higher esteem.’ (Bazin, 1967: 250). Bazin contemplates the historical and social aspects that indeed hinder a director’s retribution to their own personalised film, thus en-companying their own ideological judgement upon the world ‘more so in cinema where the sociological and historical cross-currents are countless.’ (Bazin, 1967: 256)