Film and Media Studies Commons^™

The Evolving Definition Of Narrative, Alexandra Birr

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

No abstract provided.

"You've Got To Be Carefully Taught": Reflections On War, Imperialism And Patriotism In America's South Pacific, Jayna D. Butler

Theses and Dissertations

Underneath the romance, comedy and exoticism, South Pacific is a story that questioned core American values, exploring issues of race and power at a time when these topics were intensely relevant-the original opened just four years post WWII, on the heels of Roosevelt's aggressive expansionist response to domestic instabilities. Much has been written about the depiction of war and racial prejudice in South Pacific. However, examining such topics in the context of their cultural and political moment (both in 1949 and 2008) and through the lens of Terry Eagleton's unique take on morality, is not only a fascinating study, but …

House Of Cards, Matthew R. Lieber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to approach adapting a comic book into a film in a unique way. With so many comic-to-film adaptations following the trends of action movies, my goal was to adapt the popular comic book, Batman, into a screenplay that is not an action film. The screenplay, House of Cards, follows the original character of Miranda Greene as she attempts to understand insanity in Gotham’s most famous criminal, the Joker. The research for this project includes a detailed look at the comic book’s publication history, as well as previous film adaptations of Batman, …

Salvation From Illusion, Salvation By Illusion: The Gospel According To Christopher Nolan, George Faithful

Collected Faculty Scholarship

You are not really paying attention to reality. Nor should you, according to screenwriter and director Christopher Nolan. You do not need to know the truth. What you need is the perfect lie. Therein lies your hope of salvation. The perfect lie will save you from lesser lies but will also protect you from the destructive austerity of the truth. That has been a consistent theme in Nolan’s cinematic corpus.

While this article will limit itself to his science fiction works – The Prestige, Inception, and his Batman trilogy – the theme of salvation from and by illusion is significant …

Performing And Interpreting Identity, Lee Farquhar

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

This one-year cyber-ethnography examines  identity presentations and interpretations  of 346 Facebook users. The social–psychological theoretical framework used drew specifically from symbolic interaction, Goffman’s performance of self, and schema theory. Generally, Facebookers sought social acceptance with their presentations. Primary findings indicate that the Facebookers present over-simplified imagery to reduce ambiguity and align with specific social groups. This study asked Facebookers to respond to strangers’ Facebook profiles, and the responses showed that due to the glut of identity-related information on the site, interpretations are heavily reliant on schemas. Online interview participants indicated several basic categories of identity performance that were used to …

Between : Collaborative Haiku And Picture Postcards 詩情畫意 : 遊走於俳句和明信片之間, Carol Archer, Kit Kelen

Visual Studies Programme : Students’ Monographs

This publication is a joint project between staff and students of Lingnan University Department of Visual Studies, University of Macau Department of English Creative Writing Program and Pearl Jubilee College.

The 125-page book, is the outcome of a pedagogical, cross-disciplinary project that fostered the creativity of, and between, students of Hong Kong and Macau.

The Hyper-Masculinity Of Sporting Events, Sierra D. Altland

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

No abstract provided.

Oniroscopios: Metadispositivos Cinematográficos Y Posiciones Espectadoriales En No Te Mueras Sin Decirme Adónde Vas Y La Sonámbula, Juan Ignacio Munoz

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

Partiendo del paralelo que se establece tempranamente entre cine y sueño, y mostrando el cambio que se produce en las teorías cinematográficas de lo que suele llamarse la metapsicología del espectador al estudio histórico del dispositivo cinematográfico, este artículo estudiará la aparición del “oniroscopio” (una máquina fantástica con la que se puede observar los sueños) en el cine. Después de algunas observaciones generales, se pasará a analizar más en detalle las películas argentinas No te mueras sin decirme adónde vas (Eliseo Subiela, 1995) y La sonámbula (Fernando Spiner, 1998) con el fin de interrogar las modalidades de representación que presupone …

Buenos Aires Dreaming: Chronopolitics, Memory And Dystopia In La Sonámbula, Mariano Paz

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

The Argentine film La Sonámbula (dir. Fernando Spiner, 1998) is one of the most renowned examples of local science fiction cinema. The film portrays a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian Argentina in the year 2010 (the near future at the time of the film’s release). Since this dystopian scenario never materialized, it might be assumed the concerns and anxieties about Argentine politics that the film conveys might have been exaggerated or unfounded. Drawing on the concept of chronopolitcs, as defined by Paul Virilio, and on the theoretical framework proposed by Paul Ricoeur related to the study of memory and forgetting, this paper discusses …

‘There’S A Lot More To Ogres Than People Think’: Shrek As Ethical Fairy Tale, Eugene O'Brien

Journal of Franco-Irish Studies

No abstract provided.

Prometheus, Danny Pegg

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Prometheus (2012), directed by Ridley Scott.

Museum Hours, Daniel Ross Goodman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Museum Hours (2013), directed by Jem Cohen.

Cloud Atlas, Ting Guo

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Cloud Atlas (2012) which aims to address what constitutes the reasons for the success of this film and the humanistic theme in which they are rooted, despite the seemingly Buddhist philosophy such as reincarnation this film embodies.

To The Wonder, Daniel Ross Goodman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of To the Wonder (2012), directed by Terrence Malick.

The Paradise Trilogy: Love, Faith, Hope, Stefanie Knauss

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of the trilogy Paradise: Love, Paradise: Faith and Paradise: Hope (2012-2013), directed by Ulrich Seidl.

Chasing Shakespeare, Brady Desanti

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Chasing Shakespeare (2013), directed by Norry Niven.

Of Men, Roles And Rules: Nanni Moretti’S Habemus Papam, Davide Zordan

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper focuses on Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam and in particular on its representation of the interaction between religion and masculinity. In the light of gender studies, it asks which idea of masculinity, but also of fatherhood, Catholicism and its system of authority tend to encourage according to the film, and it assesses the opportunities for change that the film imaginatively explores. The analysis of the idea of masculinity investigates in particular the distinction between person and office, the necessity of which is dramatically illustrated in the film.

With An Eye On A Set Of New Eyes: Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Kette Thomas

Journal of Religion & Film

This article focuses on how, Beasts of the Southern Wild, represents both divergence and transgression from paradigmatic structures that determine how certain visual representations are to be used. Specifically, the cinematic detours taken by the filmmakers, Lucy Alibar and Behn Zeitlin, do not lead to alien places for most viewers; on the contrary, ancient myths, legends, heroes and prehistoric references are recalled in total isolation from current social and political discourse. In this way, Beasts of the Southern Wild, effectively, highlights mythological structures operating in contemporary American society. Mircea Eliade, Roger Caillois and G.S. Kirk define mythology as a …

The Ethical Vision Of Clint Eastwood, Chidella Upendra

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Sara Anson Vaux, The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012), 259 pp.

Love That Tames: Anti-Heroes, Power And Islamic Reform Reflected In Two Iranian Films, David Sander

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper is an exploration of two Iranian films that draw upon spiritual, artistic and literary roots in Islamic history, while at the same time engaging in critiques of knowledge and power in contemporary Muslim societies. These films offer a chance to explore ways in which culture (as distinct from theological discourse) deals with problems of reform in Muslim societies. This article juxtaposes the films with the trickster archetype in folklore, Sufi thought about leadership, and beliefs about the figure of the Mahdi (“the guided one” mentioned in Prophetic hadith as preceding the second coming of Jesus).