Australian horror movies

The Australian horror film is a fascinating specimen. While a tradition has antecedents in the silent era of cinema, and at times has produced popular and commercially successful titles, Australian horror films have existed among the shadows of Australian cinema. Within a national cinema funded by public subsidy to foster a sense of national identity, emphasizing ‘quality’ cultural films and refusing to recognize popular movie genres in attempt to differentiate itself from Hollywood, generic and low-culture horror films have been in opposition to these objectives. Consequently, horror movies have been heavily marginalized within public funding environments and mainstream film culture, and either ignored or despised by mainstream critics. The chapter provides a historical introduction to Australian horror cinema before reviewing a selection of recent Aussie horror titles, namely: Wolf Creek, Undead, Black Water, Dying Breed, Lost Things, Prey, Cut, Rogue and Storm Warning.

Must see TV : mapping an Australian mediasphere

Australian National Cinema and Australian Television Culture. These two books, magisterial accounts of Australian media cultures, are very different. The first analyses (according to its cover blurb) 'the distinct and diverse nature of Australian cinema'; the second offers 'a picture of Australian television'. The books share an author.2 Despite this, their objects of study are constituted very differently. The first is replete with examples of particular films, analyses of their representational strategies, and links to the social context of production. The second addresses almost no programs and those that are mentioned appear only in passing. There is no analysis of any particular television text. The difference between these books cannot be explained in terms of authorial fickleness: rather, it represents the different ways in which television and film have been constructed as objects of study. While film has a recognised canon and a tradition of close textual analysis, in the study of television the programs themselves have tended to vanish - as they do in Australian Television Culture. Most academic work on Australian television is not interested in its programs. Writers have tended to find other aspects more rewarding: industries, institutions, ownership, legislation, technology and production.3 Australian Television Culture is part of this tradition; and an example of how such work, done well, can be a useful contribution to understanding the medium.

Review of Jinhee Choi, The South Korean Film Renaissance: Local Hitmakers, Global Provocateurs

In this review of Jinhee Choi’s monograph The South Korean Film Renaissance: Local Hitmakers, Global Provocateurs, I argue that Choi provides an insightful and original contribution to the growing ?eld of Korean ?lm studies. By examining some of the domestic ?lm trends that have never received sustained academic attention in the English language, Choi represents the true diversity of contemporary South Korean cinema and the issues it raises around notions of national cinema and globalisation.

La herencia de la época de oro en el cine mexicano de los años noventa : La ley de Herodes y Danzón

Notre mémoire cherche à identifier les traces du cinéma de “l’âge d’or” dans le cinéma mexicain des années quatre-vingt-dix. Au Mexique, l’apogée que le cinéma industriel a connu entre 1935 et 1955 a établi les principaux genres et normes du cinéma national. Le cinéma produit durant cette période, abondamment diffusé par la télévision et la vidéo et apprécié de la critique, continue d’influencer la production contemporaine. En concentrant notre analyse sur deux films en particulier, Danzón (1991) de María Novaro et La ley de Herodes (1999) de Luis Estrada, nous étudions d’une part, comment le cinéma des années quatre-vingt-dix rend hommage au cinéma de l’âge d’or et, d’autre part, comment on l’utilise pour commenter les nouvelles tendances dans la politique et la production culturelle. La diffusion continue du cinéma de l’âge d’or nous permet d’expliquer en partie son influence sur les cinéastes mexicains contemporains. Par ailleurs, le contexte de néolibéralisme et de globalisation des années quatre-vingt-dix nous permet d’avancer d’autres hypothèses concernant les raisons qui ont amené ces cinéastes à récupérer des éléments de la culture “nationale-populaire”. Nous pensons que ce contexte pourrait expliquer autant l’hommage que la critique que font les films contemporains du cinéma de l’âge d’or. Notre analyse des références au cinéma de l’âge d’or dans le cinéma des années quatre-vingt-dix s’appuie sur la théorie de l’intertextualité dans le cinéma.

Le rôle des festivals de cinéma internationaux dans l'émergence du cinéma iranien

Jusqu’à la fin du vingtième siècle, les études sur le cinéma iranien ont tendance à aborder ce cinéma par rapport à la Révolution islamique de 1979, c’est-à-dire à le diviser en deux époques, prérévolutionnaire et postrévolutionnaire. Cette recherche s’inscrit dans une pensée récente qui étudie l’émergence de ce cinéma national en tant que cheminement continu et dominé par des politiques culturelles contradictoires et ambiguës. Dans cette étude, nous ferons au premier chapitre un survol de l’histoire du cinéma iranien, avec un intérêt particulier pour la culture des festivals. Il s’agira de décrypter les enjeux politiques et culturels qui dirigent les décisions du gouvernement et des professionnels de l’industrie. Le deuxième chapitre proposera un questionnement sur la notion de cinéma national, et appliquera cette notion au cinéma iranien. Une attention particulière sera portée à la Fondation du cinéma Farabi, une institution clé dans la promotion du cinéma national et dans l’émergence des films iraniens dans les festivals de films internationaux. Finalement, le troisième chapitre présentera le rôle des festivals dans l’industrie cinématographique ainsi qu’une analyse de l’évolution des films iraniens présentés au Festival des films du monde de Montréal afin de démontrer l’influence des politiques culturelles iraniennes floues sur la présence des films iraniens dans les festivals occidentaux.

Unsung oz hysteries

The screening and funding opportunities for Experimental film in Australia has always had a problematic and underground history since the 1960s, moving through 16mm, super 8 and now digital moving image forms. One source of that history was Cantrills Filmnotes which expressed the rhetoric of a founding generation who experience the promise of a new Australian National Cinema and new film culture in the 70s, but whose mainstream product eventually left it behind. Experimental film inherited a marginal position through a lack of critical debate and because funding shifts left its identity somewhere between the fine arts and commercial cinema. It was consequently viewed as marginal to both. The general visual quality of this work meant it was perceived as apolitical, although it implicitly expressed and performed the denials and negations experienced directly by the migrant and working classes.

Through several cycles of emerging generations of artists (through such organizations as Fringe Network, MIMA and Experimenta), such artists knew more of the histories of work emanating from Europe and North America than their own, a general problem for Australian history. New underground opportunities are now arising to connect with the emerging and aspirant cultures coming out of Asia that reflect the shifts of global capital and the rise of China as an economic power. Asian work, registering a history of aspiration offers a re-integration of Peter Wollen’s avant-gardes split from the early 70s in the West. In the academy the Avant-garde’s strategies and techniques are studied, but are offered up in new work as aesthetic and lifestyle choices, rather than as the political imperatives announced implicitly or explicitly in their originating forms.

Sob a vigência da Ancine (2001-2011): trajetória, mecanismos e a ingerência da economia da cultura na cinematografia

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FCLAR

La carriera degli attori italiani di prosa dalla scena allo schermo (1909-1916)

Most actors of the Italian silent cinema in the early 1910s have a theatrical training. Some of them are already asserted or famous actors (like Cesare Dondini, Ermete Novelli, Ermete Zacconi, Giovanni Grasso) who are invited “to pose” for the cinema following their reputation, according to a strategy of an aesthetic and cultural legitimacy launched in 1909 by film d'art of the Pathé Consortium. I think it is the proverbial readiness and strength of the stage Italian actors that create a decisive contribution to the rapid development of the national cinema industry, despite its serious structural deficiencies, from the protoindustrialized phase (1909) to the golden age of divismo (starting in 1913), until the first signs of decadence (1919), and the so-called “fall” of the UCI production and distribution system. This is the main topic of the thesis: an investigation on the Italian stage actors engaged in the film industry (“from stage to screen” as the Italian title says, but in a “post-Vardac” approach) through many different sources: periodicals, memories, personal and business letters, and also contracts, found in several archive funds. A specific chapter is dedicated to the artistic career of Febo Mari (1881-1939), real name Alfredo Rodriguez, witch is a time-sample symptomatic of deep ties established between the growing film publishing and the Italian theatrical production system in the 1910s. The Mari debut in cinema and his ascent toward screen “divo” status coincides with the parable that leads from emergence to decadence of divismo in Italy.

CRÍTICOS & CRITICADOS A CRÍTICA CINEMATOGRÁFICA E SUA RELAÇÃO COM OS CINEASTAS DA RETOMADA

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar a crítica cinematográfica durante o período chamado de Retomada do cinema nacional. Foram escolhidos os maiores veículos de circulação da região Sudeste do País, os jornais O Globo (Rio de Janeiro), Folha de S.Paulo e O Estado de S.Paulo (São Paulo) e a revista Veja para fazer uma análise de conteúdo das críticas das seis maiores bilheterias da Retomada para, em seguida, conferir a recepção das mesmas pelos diretores desses filmes, por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. A intenção é analisar quais conflitos permeiam a relação entre os críticos de cinema e os cineastas, a fim de contribuir para o melhor entendimento do trabalho de dois elementos dos mais importantes da área de cinema. O confronto do material da análise com as entrevistas confirmou a hipótese da existência de conflitos de valores e opiniões entre os dois lados e permitiu identificar pré-julgamentos, simpatias e antipatias, análises emotivas e não-fundamentadas de alguns críticos e cineastas, mas também opiniões e valores fundamentados de outros, demonstrando uma rica diversidade que não se encaixa em uma única definição.(AU)

CRÍTICOS & CRITICADOS A CRÍTICA CINEMATOGRÁFICA E SUA RELAÇÃO COM OS CINEASTAS DA RETOMADA

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar a crítica cinematográfica durante o período chamado de Retomada do cinema nacional. Foram escolhidos os maiores veículos de circulação da região Sudeste do País, os jornais O Globo (Rio de Janeiro), Folha de S.Paulo e O Estado de S.Paulo (São Paulo) e a revista Veja para fazer uma análise de conteúdo das críticas das seis maiores bilheterias da Retomada para, em seguida, conferir a recepção das mesmas pelos diretores desses filmes, por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. A intenção é analisar quais conflitos permeiam a relação entre os críticos de cinema e os cineastas, a fim de contribuir para o melhor entendimento do trabalho de dois elementos dos mais importantes da área de cinema. O confronto do material da análise com as entrevistas confirmou a hipótese da existência de conflitos de valores e opiniões entre os dois lados e permitiu identificar pré-julgamentos, simpatias e antipatias, análises emotivas e não-fundamentadas de alguns críticos e cineastas, mas também opiniões e valores fundamentados de outros, demonstrando uma rica diversidade que não se encaixa em uma única definição.(AU)

CRÍTICOS & CRITICADOS A CRÍTICA CINEMATOGRÁFICA E SUA RELAÇÃO COM OS CINEASTAS DA RETOMADA

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar a crítica cinematográfica durante o período chamado de Retomada do cinema nacional. Foram escolhidos os maiores veículos de circulação da região Sudeste do País, os jornais O Globo (Rio de Janeiro), Folha de S.Paulo e O Estado de S.Paulo (São Paulo) e a revista Veja para fazer uma análise de conteúdo das críticas das seis maiores bilheterias da Retomada para, em seguida, conferir a recepção das mesmas pelos diretores desses filmes, por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. A intenção é analisar quais conflitos permeiam a relação entre os críticos de cinema e os cineastas, a fim de contribuir para o melhor entendimento do trabalho de dois elementos dos mais importantes da área de cinema. O confronto do material da análise com as entrevistas confirmou a hipótese da existência de conflitos de valores e opiniões entre os dois lados e permitiu identificar pré-julgamentos, simpatias e antipatias, análises emotivas e não-fundamentadas de alguns críticos e cineastas, mas também opiniões e valores fundamentados de outros, demonstrando uma rica diversidade que não se encaixa em uma única definição.(AU)

Film policy under globalization: the case of Mexico

The changing economic and technological conditions often referred to as ‘globalization’ have had a deep impact on the very nature of the state, and thus on the aims, objectives and implementation of cultural policy, including film policy. In this paper, I discuss the main changes in film policy there have been in Mexico, comparing the time when the welfare state regarded cinema as crucial to the national identity, and actively supported the national cinema at the production, distribution and exhibition levels (about 1920-1980), and the recent onset of neoliberal policies, during which the industry was privatized and globalized. I argue the result has been a transformation of the film production, from the properly ‘national’ cinema it was during the welfare state—that is, having a role in nation building, democratization processes and being an important part of the public sphere—into a kind of genre, catering for a very small niche audience both domestically and internationally. However, exhibition and digital distribution have been strengthened, perhaps pointing towards a more meaningful post-national cinema.

The national specificity of horror sources in Asian horror cinema

This dissertation explores the relationship between horror films and the national contexts in which they are produced by analyzing several Asian horror movies – Ringu (Japan), The Eye (Hong Kong) and Shutter (Thailand). Utilizing these films as case studies, the dissertation examines the degree to which genre cinemas are nationally-specific, and the degree to which it is possible to make genre films that can enter international markets and be comprehensible in various national markets as well. The dissertation also makes the following claims on the national specificity of genre cinema: i) The sources of frightening elements in horror films are nationally-specific. ii) There is a regional "Asian" horror because of the intertwining national histories and shared cultural elements across several Asian countries.

Recent Italian cinema : spaces, contexts, experiences

The book is an in-depth view of recent Italian cinema - bringing an interdisciplinary knowledge to the study of a complex cinema industry. The book aims to address a number of questions about Italian cinema of the last twenty years, bringing interdisciplinary knowledge to a cinema that eschews traditional definitions and categories, and challenges critical assumption about a film industry that is struggling to find a new direction. In doing so, Recent Italian Cinema offers a transverse analysis of the Italian cinema industry in its dealings with national and international production, and of the themes and issues that have emerged in films produced during the period 1980-2006.

A silver bullet for Australian cinema? Genre movies and the audience debate

There has been a renaissance in Australian genre cinema in recent years. Indeed, not since the 1980s have Australian genre movies across action, adventure, horror, and science-fiction among others, experienced such prominence within production, policy discourse, and industry debate. Genre movies, typically associated with commercial filmmaking and entertainment, have been identified as a strategy to improve the box-office performance of Australian feature films and to attract larger audiences. Much of this conversation has revolved around the question of whether or not genre can deliver on these high expectations and transform the unpredictable local film industry into a popular and profitable commercial production sector. However, this debate for the most part has been disconnected from analysis of Australia’s genre movie heritage in terms of their position within Australian cinema and their reception with domestic audiences, and how this correlates to contemporary trends. As this chapter argues, genre production is not a silver bullet which will single handedly improve the Australian feature film industry’s commercial performance. Genre movies have occupied, and continue to occupy, a difficult position within Australian cinema and face numerous challenges in terms of reception with national audiences, limited production scale and enterprise structures, and ongoing tensions between culture and commerce.