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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Films, cinema
The years following the signing of the Armistice saw a
transformation of traditional attitudes regarding military conflict
as America attempted to digest the enormity and futility of the
First World War. During these years popular film culture in the
United States created new ways of addressing the impact of the war
on both individuals and society. Filmmakers with direct experience
of combat created works that promoted their own ideas about the
depiction of wartime service-ideas that frequently conflicted with
established, heroic tropes for the portrayal of warfare on film.
Those filmmakers spent years modifying existing standards and
working through a variety of storytelling options before achieving
a consensus regarding the fitting method for rendering war on
screen. That consensus incorporated facets of the experience of
Great War veterans, and these countered and undermined previously
accepted narrative strategies. This process reached its peak during
the Pre-Code Era of the early 1930s when the initially prevailing
narrative would be briefly supplanted by an entirely new approach
that questioned the very premises of wartime service. Even more
significantly, the rhetoric of these films argued strongly for an
antiwar stance that questioned every aspect of the wartime
experience. For No Reason at All: The Changing Narrative of the
First World War in American Film discusses a variety of Great
War-themed films made from 1915 to the present, tracing the
changing approaches to the conflict over time. Individual chapters
focus on movie antecedents, animated films and comedies, the
influence of literary precursors, the African American film
industry, women-centered films, and the effect of the Second World
War on depictions of the First. Films discussed include Hearts of
the World, The Cradle of Courage, Birthright, The Big Parade, She
Goes to War, Doughboys, Young Eagles, The Last Flight, Broken
Lullaby, Lafayette Escadrille, and Wonder Woman, among many others.
From Eugene Delacroix's interpretation of the 1830 French
revolution to Uli Edel's version of the Baader-Meinhof Gang,
artistic representations of historical subjects are appealing and
pervasive. Movies often adapt imagery from art history, including
paintings of historical events. Films and art shape the past for us
and continue to affect our interpretation of history. While
historical films are often argued over for their adherence to "the
facts," their real problem is realism: how can the past be
convincingly depicted? Realism in the historical film genre is
often nourished and given credibility by its use of painterly
references. This book examines how art-historical images affect
historical films by going beyond period detail and surface design
to look at how profound ideas about history are communicated
through pictures. Art and the Historical Film: Between Realism and
the Sublime is based on case studies that explore the links between
art and cinema, including American independent Western Meek's
Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010), British heritage film Belle (Amma
Asante, 2013), and Dutch national epic Admiral (Roel Reine, 2014).
The chapters create immersive worlds that communicate distinct
ideas about the past through cinematography, production design, and
direction, as the films adapt, reference, and transpose paintings
by artists such as Rubens, Albert Bierstadt, and Jacques-Louis
David.
Rewatching on the Point of the Cinematic Index offers a
reassessment of the cinematic index as it sits at the intersection
of film studies, trauma studies, and adaptation studies. Author
Allen H. Redmon argues that far too often scholars imagine the
cinematic index to be nothing more than an acknowledgment that the
lens-based camera captures and brings to the screen a reality that
existed before the camera. When cinema's indexicality is so
narrowly defined, the entire nature of film is called into question
the moment film no longer relies on a lens-based camera. The
presence of digital technologies seemingly strips cinema of its
indexical standing. This volume pushes for a broader understanding
of the cinematic index by returning to the early discussions of the
index in film studies and the more recent discussions of the index
in other digital arts. Bolstered by the insights these discussions
can offer, the volume looks to replace what might be best deemed a
diminished concept of the cinematic index with a series of more
complex cinematic indices, the impoverished index, the indefinite
index, the intertextual index, and the imaginative index. The
central argument of this book is that these more complex indices
encourage spectators to enter a process of ongoing adaptation of
the reality they see on the screen, and that it is on the point of
these indices that the most significant instances of rewatching
movies occur. Examining such films as John Lee Hancock's Saving Mr.
Banks (2013); Richard Linklater's oeuvre; Paul Greengrass's United
93 (2006); Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (2006); Stephen
Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011); and
Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk (2017), Inception (2010), and Memento
(2000), Redmon demonstrates that the cinematic index invites
spectators to enter a process of ongoing adaptation.
The Student Filmmaker Survival Guide familiarizes readers with the
critical concepts and processes involved in the production of a
film or television show. The handbook helps budding filmmakers
better understand the operations of a film set, develop valuable
work habits, and contribute meaningfully to a production. The book
begins with a foreword from Stephen Broussard, a producer with
Marvel Studios, as well as a preface and introduction by the
author. Each chapter features four sections that guide and enhance
the student learning experience: Picture is Up!-an introduction to
the chapter topic; Rolling!-an overview of the history or
background of the subject; Action!-tips for taking action and
getting things done; and That's a Wrap!-a conclusion. Individual
chapters cover time management, feeding your crew, securing
necessary permits, scouting locations, conducting rehearsals, and
slating shots. Readers learn the importance of filling out camera
and sound reports, getting safety takes, obtaining proper
clearances, backing up data, and more. Featuring short,
easy-to-read chapters written in a conversational tone, The Student
Filmmaker Survival Guide is a practical and essential resource for
filmmaking students and novice film professionals.
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