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- Volume 4, Issue 3, 2007
New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film - Volume 4, Issue 3, 2007
Volume 4, Issue 3, 2007
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No place like home? Or impossible homecomings in the films of Fatih Akin
More LessFatih Akin, one of the most prominent directors of contemporary German-Turkish cinema, describes himself as a German filmmaker and at least until the international success of Gegen die Wand/Head-On (2004) downplayed the relevance of his ethnic background for his creative career. And yet, his feature films exhibit most of the characteristics associated with accented cinema, a type of cinema which has been identified by Hamid Naficy as an aesthetic response to displacement through exile, migration or diaspora. The underlying theme of Akin's films is the migrant's experience of rootlessness and the redemptive promise inherent in the return to ones Heimat. This paper examines chronotopes of homeland in Kurz und schmerzlos/Short Sharp Shock (1998), Solino (2002) and Head-On and asks to what extent the preoccupation with Heimat, alongside the eclectic mix of generic templates which have informed Akin's films, underscore the cultural hybridity of his oeuvre.
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Destiny, theatricality and identity in contemporary European cinema
More LessThis article explores ten years of contemporary Spanish cinema (19962006) and investigates how Spanish cinema, in line with European film of this period, manipulates and integrates theatrical components to reinvent itself. As Spanish cinema attempts to compete with Hollywood blockbusters and forge a new status in world cinema, the re-creation of theatrical devices within a cinematic medium contributes to an exploration of identity and destiny on screen. Through analysis of selected films by internationally renowned and lesser-known film directors, including Almdovar, Amenbar and Iborra, varying degrees of theatricality will be explored to reach some understanding of how the theatrical can elucidate themes, balance Hollywood influences and both complement and undermine the cinematic experience. Beginning and ending with adaptations of plays by Lope de Vega to which the Spanish public responded in very different ways, this article will assess whether it is truly possible for one genre to function within another.
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La madre muerta (The Dead Mother, 1993) and Tierra (Earth, 1995): Basque identity, or just the other?
By Jo EvansThis paper examines two films by Julio Medem and Juanma Bajo Ulloa in relation to questions raised by the lable Basque film. These questions originate in the fact that so-called Basque films are not normally filmed in the Basque language; that Basque identity has a history of suppression by the Spanish State, and that its renowned directors, such as Medem and Bajo Ulloa, try to avoid being labelled Basque. Despite their formal differences, this paper argues that anxieties in relation to masculine, regional, national, and/or transnational identity emerge in the way both films screen the identity of their protagonists as a kind of cinematographic, Lacanian battle with O/others that is represented in the internal divisions of the protagonists, in the narrative fort-da oscillation between these protagonists and the female characters, and, finally, in the two films' ironic and demystifying representations of Basque mythology and Christian iconography.
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Borrowed identities: Mathieu Kassovitz and Djamel Bensalah
More LessA comparison of Mtisse and La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz with Le Ciel, les oiseaux et ta mre and Le Raid by Djamel Bensalah makes clear the different approaches of these filmmakers. However, these works are linked in their exploration of the lack ethnic others can experience in mirrors, be they literal or the figurative variety represented by the images of the media. Both directors investigate the power of borrowing as a tactic to combat this exclusion. Their characters construct an identity for themselves by borrowing from elsewhere. Moreover, Kassovitz and Bensalah playfully point to their own directorial borrowing. The characters imitate a receding range of sources, creating an identity which, whilst it affords a sense of agency, has a deconstructive effect since it points to its own lack of origin. These performed identities question the processes and images of representation, damaging cameras in the films of Bensalah and Kassovitz.
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Trendsetting and product placement in Bollywood film: Consumerism through consumption
More LessThis paper looks at the relatively new practice of in-film advertizing in popular Hindi films. Acknowledging the impact of popular films and iconic stars since the 1940s and 50s on styles, trends and ideology, the paper explores how this powerful medium is now being used for product placement and brand endorsement in India. Appealing to the rising affluence of Indian audiences, branded goods are most likely to appear in films such as high-end luxury consumer goods like mobile phones, cars and motorcycles. Realizing the potential of celebrity endorsements and the advantages of in-film placements, the advertizing industry views movies as the optimum medium for building brands. Equally, the film industry is happy to accommodate in-film advertizing as it serves to defray production costs, as well as the costs of marketing and promoting films. This trend, which is likely to grow, encourages consumerism through consumption in a growing market economy.
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 20 (2022)
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Volume 19 (2021)
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Volume 18 (2020)
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Volume 17 (2020)
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Volume 16 (2018)
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Volume 15 (2017)
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Volume 14 (2016)
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Volume 13 (2015)
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Volume 12 (2014)
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Volume 11 (2013)
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Volume 10 (2012)
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Volume 9 (2011 - 2012)
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Volume 8 (2010 - 2011)
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Volume 7 (2009)
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Volume 6 (2008 - 2009)
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Volume 5 (2007)
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Volume 4 (2006 - 2007)
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Volume 3 (2005)
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Volume 2 (2004)
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Volume 1 (2002 - 2003)