Wong Kar-Wai's Relationship with Genre

In chapter two of The Cultures of American Film, the main focus is the establishment of studios. As demand for films rose in the early 1900’s, production companies needed to expand; this lead to the creation of large scale studios.

During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that,

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

Mazierska discusses the overarching theme “trapped in presence” in Wong Kar Wei’s movie as postmodern implication that correlates to Wong’s addicted uses of montage and symbolism in narration and editing (p8, Mazierska). As he considers, Wong’s works share the similarity with several postmodern authors. “The notion of alternative temporalities is central to the narrative organization to postmodern novels, such as those of Italo Calvino and Alain Robber-Grillet.”(p17, Mazierska and Rascaroli). James Udden also argues in “the Stubborn Persistence of Local In Wong Kar-wai” that Wong’s popularity is credited to his typically post-modern philosophy of denying his Hong Kong identity and embracing it at the same time (finnayson, p143). In some more relevant cases, Flannery Wilson discusses Wong’s overlapping narration between presence and future in 2046 as the manifestation of Deleuze’s theory of “crystal of time,” vaguely alluding to the notion that virtual and the real intermingles in 2046 (p164, Finnayson). Brunette also postulates that the sense of resisting the advancement of time correlates to what the Fredric Jameson terms as “longing for the present. (Teo, p358) ” Although it is evident that every production of Wong concerns the subject of love, few theorists have been found so far who posit Wong’s interpretation of love in a post-modernistic framework. The one who got closest to this

This essay explores the popularity of Australian film, both locally and internationally and asks the question: Is there a crisis in the Australian Film Industry? This essay will go through the current issues the Australian Film Industry and will demonstrate examples of those problems.

Despite the fact that Asian Americans have been in Hollywood for decades, there are very few positive representations of them in film. More often than not, they’ve been depicted as stereotypical caricatures, and more specifically, as foreigners who can’t speak grammatically correct English. Moreover, the negative representations of Asian Americans in film has perpetuated certain misconceptions about their culture. Chan is Missing (1982) calls for more genuine representations of Asian American identities through its cast of complex characters and defiance of Asian stereotypes. The film also urges its viewers to critically think about their own notions of identity through the use of several recurring themes and filmmaking techniques.

A film genre is a motion picture category based on similarities in either the narrative elements or the emotional response to the film. While films have at least one major genre, there are a number of films that are considered crossbreeds or hybrids with three or four coinciding genre or sub-genre types that they can be identified with them and most can be filed into categories that are easily recognizable to audiences (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 1998, p. 4.1). However, ever so seldom a film comes along that breaks free of its invisible bounds of genre and it leaves the audiences confused about the actual existence of genre. One such film is a film that most are familiar with Steven Spielberg’s classic Saving Private Ryan.

Description: Compare two Western films made at least twenty years apart on the basis of the three of the five frameworks studied in the first block of the unit, and the elements of the western genre studied in the second block of the unit.

Development and adaptation of the western genre has occurred throughout the twentieth century in relation to the shift in context, this is still relevant. Stereotypes of a western genre and the context are determined by the time in which the film is being produced. The time in which they were produced determine how social construction, gender ideas, values and attitudes, the setting and SWAT codes are demonstrated. I have chosen to present this speech by looking at the film studied in class, and a film of my choice and how the difference in context has changed in the tie of these two films.

Though such policies have arguably improved the state of the Canadian industry, many problems still persist. Funding cuts began to take their toll on the industry in the mid-1990s, with the NFB budget reduced by 4 million. Canadian box-office figures are included as part of the American domestic market, a fact that still remains true years later after the American vertical integration in 1927.22 The Canadian economic dependence on the American film industry, as will be discussed in the second part of this essay, is one of the key obstructions of Canada’s cinematic identity, as well as its identity at large. The industrial context of Anglo-Canadian cinema has heavily affected the views that Canadians hold of themselves as they consume national films, but it goes the other way as well; the collective films of a nation can reveal much about its collective consciousness, acting as a metaphor for its state of mind.23

This research paper will cover the topic of the American film industry, globalisation and how globalisation has impacted on the change of the American film industry. I will also continue on to how the American film industry and its producers can integrate successfully internationally.

In subsequent years following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China came a revolutionary new approach to not only producing films, but also film’s very role in communist society. During this period the state gained complete control of the filmmaking industry, decreeing that the utilitarian functions of art and literature were to become a powerful weapon in serving the revolutionary struggle. In an otherwise artistically stifling period in which socialist realism pervaded all creative outlets, Xie Jin managed to retain some autonomy and emerged as one of the cleverest Chinese directors in the early 1960s. In his 1961 film Red Detachment of Women, Jin provides a classic revolutionary melodrama, yet also displays elements of formalism so that the viewer becomes conscious of the manipulations of his film technique. To analyze this film, I will use Mao Zedong’s 1942 “Talks at the Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art,” clip #10 “Landmark 2,” and clip #6 “We are joining the red army” to elaborate on the major themes and cinematic style that distinguish Xie Jin’s work from his contemporaries.

The film industry has always been somewhat of a dichotomy. Grounded firmly in both the worlds of art and business the balance of artistic expression and commercialization has been an issue throughout the history of filmmaking. The distinction of these two differing goals and the fact that neither has truly won out over the other in the span of the industry's existence, demonstrates a lot of information about the nature of capitalism.

The costs, methods of distribution, and themes of Hollywood and Nollywood films reflect strongly their target audiences; how the target audience affects the production of a film and how the production of a movie is designed to capture a specific

Comparing the Narrative and Formal Devices of ChungKing Express and A Bout de Souffle Wong Kar Wai’s movie ‘ChungKing Express’ bears many similarities to Godard’s ‘A Bout de Souffle’. To start with, Wai employs a number of cinematic techniques, obviously derived from the French New Wave, such as for example the jump-cut which is evidently taken from Godard’s film. His use of the Godard-ian jump cut seamlessly blends temporally-exclusive scenes together, making the passage of time unnoticeable. Other Godard-ian touches include the many shots of clocks, which remind the viewer that despite the protagonist’s fixation on the past, time continues to move on and that moments in the present are