Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Notes On The Politics Of The Auteur: Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, And The Spectator, Michael Perreault

Honors Theses

What is an author, and what does it matter? Questions about authority in the cinema have been the subject of debate since the late 1940s, when Alexandre Astruc posited the notion of the camera-stylo in France. A slightly reductive understanding of the term “auteur”—a term that Cahiers du Cinéma would later adopt—states that, with the shadow of the World War II era of censorship still looming in the 1950s, the many individual voices of the cinema needed to be both heard and promoted. Namely, the director should be regarded as (and should consider his or her primary objective to …

When Bad Things Happen To Good Mothers: Rethinking Motherhood Through The Single Mother Image In American Films From The 1930s To The 1970s, Tanna Alice Mancini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The single-mother figure shows up in myriad American film genres, and my thesis explores three of these genres, maternal melodrama, film noir, and horror. I argue there is a melodramatic mode that carries over from maternal melodrama to film noir and horror. This mode emphasizes emotional excess. In maternal melodrama, the emotional excess is pity. For film noir, the emotion is anxiety, and in horror, it is repulsion. Even though each genre has its own emotional excess, maternal melodrama still speaks to these other genres through its maternal sacrifice, non-heteronormative families and misreading of proper gender performances. For this …

The Sword And The Screen: The Japanese Period Film 1915-1960, Aaron Gerow, Rea Amit, Ryan Cook, Samuel Good, Samuel Malissa, Stephen Poland, Grace Ting, Takuya Tsunoda, David Dresser, Fumiaki Itakura

Film Series Commentaries

“The Sword And The Screen: The Japanese Period Film 1915-1960” was a groundbreaking collaboration between the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University and the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, marking the first time Japan’s national film archive had co-sponsored an event with a foreign university. The film series presented rare Japanese samurai films from the collection of the National Film Center, highlighting the abundant variety of Japan's most famous film genre. There are social critiques, melodramas, comedies, ghost films and even musicals, directed by some of the masters of Japanese cinema who, …

The Art Of Japanese Noh Theatre In Akira Kurosawa’S Throne Of Blood, Minae Yamamoto Savas

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Surrealism Is Not Dead: A Look At Surrealism In Contemporary Mass Communication Via Analysis Of Modern Popular Films, Joi Deanne Chadwick

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study examined three modern films - Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, and Iron Man 2 - to understand the place of Surrealism in contemporary communication. The thesis began with a review of literature regarding Surrealism's revolutionary propensities and its flow into the mainstream. The review's basis was postmodernist philosophy rooted in Roland Barthes's and Umberto Eco's semiotics and Stuart Hall's cultural studies. This underlying philosophy asserted the complexity and mutability of signs and styles, a media role in acceptance and mutation of signs/styles, and endurance of ideas through cultural shifts. Semiotic analysis was crucial methodology in this study …

Nation, Fantasy, And Mimicry: Elements Of Political Resistance In Postcolonial Indian Cinema, Aparajita Sengupta

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

In spite of the substantial amount of critical work that has been produced on Indian cinema in the last decade, misconceptions about Indian cinema still abound. Indian cinema is a subject about which conceptions are still muddy, even within prominent academic circles. The majority of the recent critical work on the subject endeavors to correct misconceptions, analyze cinematic norms and lay down the theoretical foundations for Indian cinema. This dissertation conducts a study of the cinema from India with a view to examine the extent to which such cinema represents an anti-colonial vision. The political resistance of Indian films to …

Exploring The Political Dimensions Of Information Literacy Through Popular Film., Robert Detmering

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Certain popular films contextualize the access, use, and interpretation of information within a political and social framework. As a result, these films function as alternative pedagogical sites for analysis and critique, facilitating critical thinking about information beyond the library and the classroom, and leading students to a deeper understanding of the fundamental need for information literacy. A conceptual basis for the consideration of film in politically engaged information literacy instruction is provided, supported by a discussion of three relevant films: Jason Reitman’s Thank You for Smoking (2006), Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn after Reading (2008), and Oliver Stone’s W. …

One Ring To Rule Them All: Power And Surveillance In The Film Adaptation Of The Lord Of The Rings, Cherylynn Silva

Undergraduate Review

No abstract provided.

Psychoanalysis & The Films Of Federico Fellini, Mark Hayes

Honors College Theses

This paper explores the connection between the study of psychoanalysis and the films of Italian filmamaker Federico Fellini. It looks at four of his works in detail: I Vitelloni, 8 1/2 [Eight and one half], Juliet of the Spirits and Amarcord and analyzes psychoanalytic themes and symbolism in each. Included is also a brief biography of the filmmaker and an outline of his experiences with psychoanalysis, chiefly the writings of Carl Jung.

Teaching Video Production In The Secondary Art Classroom: An Educational Travel Log, William Lee Daggett

All Graduate Projects

This project is intended to serve as a model and resource for secondary teachers seeking to incorporate video production into their curriculum. A central premise of the project is that video production can serve as a valuable learning tool when it is part of an integrated, project based instructional program. The sample model used here is an educational travel log. A secondary art students' trip to Europe was undertaken. The various steps in how the trip was set up and how the curriculum was organized is the focus of the project. Students' roles, responsibilities, and activities are described, along with …

Which Original Works? Tracking Sophocles' Narrative In "Jean De Florette" And "Manon Des Sources", Marie-Jo Binet

French Faculty Publications

Pagnol's two-part novel, L'Eau des collines ( 1962), was inspired by his own films, Manon des sources and Ugolin, released ten years before (1952). Much better known are Berri's 1986 films bearing the novel's titles Jean de Florette and Manon des sources.

In this essay I want to examine the architectural and thematic transformations between the three types of "texts:'

I will show that each piece is referring to a different diegetic universe. Pagnol's film is a celebration of provencal verbal activity, ` joie de vivre," and of the Christian notions of redemption and forgiveness. The musical motif of L'Arlesienne …

Three Film Reviews, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Reviews of Advertising Missionaries, directed by Chris Hilton and Gauthier Flauder; Chastie (Paradise), a film by Sergey Dvortsevoy; and Wilbert: Street Kid in Nicaragua, a video by Bent Erik Kroyer.

Female Spectators (14.1), E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Communications: Faculty Publications

This introduction to Female Spectators gives a concise account of the major feminist debates in film studies and argues for more work to be done in incorporating filmmaking practice, spectatorship and textual analysis. All the contributors to this book share a concern to emphasis women’s presence in, rather than absence from, the “cinematic experience”

A Visit To The Imaginary Landscape Of Harrison, Texas: The Filmed Stories Of Horton Foote, Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Gary Edgerton's contribution to Film Literature Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 1.

Cultural Commentary: Looking For Orson Welles, Joseph Liggera

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.