Essay on The Study of National Cinema

“I’m going to make a name for myself. If I fail, you will never hear of me again” Edward James Muggeridge. True to his words he succeeded in making a name for himself and he created the first movie or “motion picture”. Movies are a rollercoaster ride that transcends people into a whole different world fresh out of somebody’s imagination as seen through the genres of horror, drama, and science fiction. The movie business allows people to break through the burden of everyday life. Considering today’s way of life, people would be lying if they did not admit that movies are an influential entity in our culture. Movies have been successful in ingraining values and elements into society. Movies exaggerate, sensationalize and at

Movies, being an influential factor in our society, make a great impact on our outlook on foreign and

Nagib, Lucia and Anne Jerslev. Impure Cinema: Intermedial and Intercultural Approaches to Film. London, U.K.: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014. Print.

The passage of time often results in change. In effect, it would be safe to assume that change over prolonged periods denotes progress from one point to another. In the case of film production, there is a stark difference between films produced as early as the 1950s and those produced following the turn of the 21st century. This change can be thematic or evident from the nature of production, which is important in describing the degree of variance between the old and the new. This is the case of the analysis of the films I Know Where I’m Going (1945) and Separate Lie (2005), which are British films set more than 50 years apart. Both of these films belong in the romance genre and are likely to possess both similarities and differences in their depiction of the social attitudes and issues of the times in which they were produced. Such may include disparities and congruencies in their representation of the then-current events on subjects such as love, sex, class, and race among other societal issues. This paper compares and contrasts the films I Know Where I’m Going (1945) and Separate Lie (2005) with respect to themes and characterization . The films also indicates about British society and social attitudes in the period in which it was produced. This includes the depiction of social issues, investigation of British history, reflection on the political climate, and representation of current events.

What is identified as 'excess' in Western cinematic experience is, therefore, precisely where we locate Third World cinema. -Teshome Gabriel

But in what I want to do, most likely out of a broken taste set and unhealthy affection for the self-defined idea of the ‘unconventional’ I find myself asking above all and completely out of bias: What is a film saying, what is it doing with what it is saying, and does it make sense?

Cosmopolitanism or the capacity of belonging everywhere has been defined by “a high level of mutual respect for the rights of others and a generalized tolerance of ethnic, cultural, political and national differences” (Buchanan, 2010, p. 99). Beyond the Kantian, individual definition, some recent sociological and cultural approaches on the issue suggest that it could be more productive to study it in a situated context and not as an abstract idea (Glick Schiller and Irving, 2015). Now that the concept is becoming more relevant to the study of transnational cinemas, it is worth to notice that this interpretation of film cosmopolitanism is not necessarily subscribed to the idea of a neutral cinema, free from local or national perspectives.

History films have often been criticised by academics and journalists as inaccurate depictions of the past. Yet there is no denying the fact that blockbuster history films are increasingly influential in shaping our understanding of historical people and events thanks to the accessibility of the medium. Producers of these films often take liberties with facts to tell a more dramatic, engaging and entertaining story. They have a basis in truth but are greatly influenced by the writers’ and directors’ desire to envelop the audience in the story and to entertain. They focus the visual and auditory senses of the viewer on the subject being studied creating a stimulating and forceful impact on the viewer, therefore engaging their interest.

Discuss the importance of the cinema industry’s bid for respectability in this transitional period (1905 – 1912) with regard to at least two national cinemas. How did film style, content, and exhibition change?

Cinema is a valuabe creative genre and can be a global form of commuinication. No words are needed to explore various cultures or dispute political perspective. Film enables viewers the chance to see the same message in many different ways. Films are also cultural expression created by particular cultures in order to affect said culture or potray said culture.

Auteur theory “…was a product of several ideas which coalesced in French film criticism at the end of the forties…” (Hess 29). The idea was that by understanding the film as a product of one individual person, critics could better access “…the revelation of a transcendent reality” (Hess 29) about the central meaning of a film. After all, auteur theory “valorize[s] the film director as artist, gave strong impetus to the European art film movement, and, in so doing, aligned itself with the traditions of high modernism in the arts – privileging the uniqueness of artistic self-expression as an oppositional force in the face of industrialized society” (Burke 36). Thus, it was an important strategic movement in the field because of how it created a sense of continuity within film studies and other academic fields. Auteurism is a theory that ensures that film is taken seriously as an art form and that the contributions of all to a production are perhaps problematically distilled into the work of just one person with a singular vision. Although critics of this theory have noted that it allows for critics to focus on “…what was really of significance: the discovery of recurring themes, characters, and situations in film after film of one’s chosen hero” (Petrie 27).

The way in which we, as an audience, view and interpret films can be seen to relate directly to our understanding of ‘genre’. However, what is genre? Drawing on the knowledge of key theorists and critics such as Steve Neale and Barry Langford this essay will first attempt to define genre and our understanding of it before focusing on how genre relates to the audiences view and interpretation of films. It will also touch upon the historical contexts of genre, and how genre helps the film industry create films and their interpretation of film. An interpretation that differs in a number of ways to that of an audience’s due to their goals being different thanks to the ways they view film. Before we can begin to delve into how genre relates to the way we as an audience view and interpret films, we must first attempt to define and understand what the term genre means when relating it to the film industry, in particular Hollywood.

In the immediate post war period, cinema going was at an all-time high as almost every town and village in the United Kingdom had a local cinema with one screen. Economic recession, the popularity of TV and the introduction of video all served to bring about the closure of a great many of these venues. Attitudes to leisure and spending changed as there seemed to be much more on offer such as foreign travel, consumer goods to mention a few. In addition, those who couldn’t access a cinema felt unable to fully participate in the cultural life of the nation.

“The world became a web of crisscrossing diasporas, with people trying to sink new roots while still yearning for the lands they had left” (Thompson, 715). Many people move from their hometown for many reason, but one of the main reasons were because of multiple wars. Wars cause migration and migration produced an emerging “new” Europe. Examples of these outcomes can be viewed in diasporic cinema. By definition, according to Indie Judge, diasporic cinema means “films made by members of communities founded by exiles or immigrants displaced from their homelands. These films interact with the tradition of national cinemas in which they are made but often share

How can we explain this paradox of Nollywood’s boom whose film products are being madly sought after by the audience it targets and yet remains a victim of the scorn and contempt of the Western press? Nollywood’s success story is paradoxically a result of an economic failure of structural adjustment policies in Nigeria, which rendered the shooting of celluloid films prohibitively expensive (Ayakoroma 2010). By cutting corners and avoiding all the difficulties that francophone movies had to contend with in depending wholly and solely on French subvention, Nollywood has aggressively filled the void that Western filmic can never really fill in poverty-stricken African contexts. Born out of an economic necessity, Nollywood,has sadly been conditioned by the urge to make profit while paying little or no attention to ideals of promoting a national esprit de corp, ethics of respect for copyright laws or the recounting of the collective story of the people (Ayakoroma 2010).