When the rising dragon sees fading stars: China's view of the European Union. CEPS Special Report No. 73, 29 November 2012

This CEPS Special Report gives an overview of China’s perceptions of the EU and the protection of Chinese investments in Europe since the outbreak of the European sovereign debt crisis, especially since the more concrete talks in late 2011 on possible financial support from China. Although the top leadership of the communist party of China (CPC) changed in its recent handover, the perceptions described in this paper are likely to remain the same, just as the main tenets of China’s foreign policy are unlikely to change in the near future. The report argues that while the EU’s image has suffered greatly from the sovereign debt crisis and the way it has been handled, there is room to improve China’s view of Europe and for the EU to maintain a relatively strong negotiation position towards China.

Terentius Poeta

Edited volume, reassessing Terence as a playwright of its own right, containing cutting-edge contributions on textual criticism, edition, language, metre, and aesthetics of Terence.

Productivity change in Polish agriculture: an illustration of a bootstrapping procedure applied to Malmquist indices

This article illustrates the usefulness of applying bootstrap procedures to total factor productivity Malmquist indices, derived with data envelopment analysis (DEA), for a sample of 250 Polish farms during 1996-2000. The confidence intervals constructed as in Simar and Wilson suggest that the common portrayal of productivity decline in Polish agriculture may be misleading. However, a cluster analysis based on bootstrap confidence intervals reveals that important policy conclusions can be drawn regarding productivity enhancement.

Preminger and Peckinpah: seeing and shaping widescreen worlds

This chapter develops a comparative analysis of sequences from the films of two directors who made eloquent use of widescreen formats but who seem to be in all other respects wholly contrasting figures. The article includes a historiographical element in grounding the argument in the critical history of widescreen aesthetics and the directors’ work. It moves from a close analysis of three sequences, and an exploration of strategies in the use of the widescreen frame, to broader questions of style and its interpretation, narration, point of view and epistemology. The article connects with other work on Preminger, and on the critical history of mise-en-scène, while extending this through the comparative analysis of two figures from different Hollywood contexts and characterised by very different approaches.

Ballet

The video Ballet engages with recent histories of rural filmmaking, linking everyday farming movements with the aesthetics of dance. Starting point for this new work is a series of archival films from the collection of the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), which provide warnings of contagion and nuclear catastrophe, describing procedure and instruction in the case of emergency. These films present a unique vision of rural labour and collective staged action, where extras, rural background actors, are performing 'normality' prior to potential disruption of an imminent crisis. Szuper Gallery's video deconstructs the movements of extras in these rural propaganda films. It features a large cast of dancers and non-dancers in a spectacular rural setting performing a new choreography to a dramatic sound score.

Ballet

This solo exhibition featured Ballet, a filmed performance and video installation by Szuper Gallery and an installation of original archive films. Ballet engages with recent histories of rural filmmaking, with movement and dance, linking everyday farming movements with the aesthetics of dance. The starting point for this new work was a series of archival films from the MERL collection, which were made for British farmers as a means both for information and for propaganda, to provide warnings of contagion and nuclear catastrophe, describing procedure and instruction in the case of emergency. Gestural performances and movements of background actors observed in those films were re-scripted into a new choreography of movement for camera to form a playful assemblage.

The Matrix

Review and critical reflection on 'The Matrix', in relation to questions of genre, aesthetics, representation, and cultural and industrial contexts.

Transformers

Review and critical reflection on 'Transformers' as an example of the contemporary blockbuster, exploring questions of genre, aesthetics, representation, and cultural and industrial contexts.