Thứ Tư, 11 tháng 4, 2012

The "Godard Is" Issue of the new VERTIGO

Image from Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, 1988-99)

Film Studies For Free had a nagging doubt that it was omitting something BIG from its recent entry of links to Godard studies. And, boy, it was!

It really should have waited....

Some time back, the very kind people at the great Close Up film centre were in touch to announce their relaunch of excellent film magazine Vertigo as an online publication.

The (just published) reboot issue -- Godard Is. -- is astonishingly, mouth-wateringly good! The luscious links are below.

A très contrite FSFF has added the link to Vertigo to its permanent listing of online Film Studies journals.

Close Up Films is on Facebook and Twitter. Follow them. Like them. Thank you.


VERTIGO, Issue 30 | Spring 2012: Godard Is.
Contents
From the Archive
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Thứ Ba, 10 tháng 4, 2012

The Road to Digital - New AUP eBooks on Film Archives and Mobile Screens and a Video Lecture on Digital Cinematic Attractions


  • Digital Cinema Essay-Film-Lecture (for Film History and Criticism, University of Roehampton, 29 March 2012) by William Brown
    • Films mentioned in William Brown's essay-film-lecture, above: Arabesque (John Whitney, USA, 1975); TRON (Steven Lisberger, USA, 1982); Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, USA, 1991); Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, USA, 1993); Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, USA, 1994); The Incredibles (Brad Bird, USA, 2004); A Very Long Engagement (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France/USA, 2004); Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera, Mexico/USA, 2008); Day Watch (Timur Bekmambetov, Russia, 2006); The Host (Joon-ho Bong, South Korea, 2006); Panic Attack! (Fede Alvarez, Uruguay, 2009); O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen, UK/USA, 2000); Making Of O Brother, Where Art Thou?; 300 (Zack Snyder, USA, 2006); Beowulf (Robert Zemeckis, USA, 2007); Singin' in the Rain Golf GTI Advert (Ne-o, 2005); Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, USA, 2008); Fight Club (David Fincher, USA, 1999); War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, USA, 2006); Spider-Man (Sam Raimi, USA, 2002); Avatar (James Cameron, USA, 2009); The Day After Tomorrow (Roland Emmerich, USA, 2004); The Matrix (Andy and Larry Wachowski, USA, 1999); Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez, USA, 2007); The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, USA/New Zealand, 2003)
    • Academic texts mentioned in the above lecture: Bordwell, David (2002). ‘Intensified Continuity: Visual Style in Contemporary American Film’, Film Quarterly, 55:3 (Spring), pp. 16-28; Brown, William (2009). ‘Man Without a Movie Camera – Movies Without Men: Towards a Posthumanist Cinema?’ in Film Theory and Contemporary Hollywood Movies (ed. Warren Buckland), Abingdon/New York: Routledge/AFI, pp. 66-85;  Buckland, Warren (2006). Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster, London: Continuum; Elsaesser, Thomas, and Warren Buckland (2002). Studying Contemporary American Film: A Guide to Movie Analysis, London: Arnold; Gunning, Tom (1986). ‘The Cinema of Attraction, Early Film, Its Spectators and the Avant-Garde’, Wide Angle, 8:3-4, pp. 63-70; Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press; Minnis, Stuart (1998). ‘Digitalisation and the Instrumentalist Approach to the Photographic Image,’ Iris, 25, pp. 49-59; Prince, Stephen (1996). ‘True Lies: Perceptual Realism, Digital Images, and Film Theory,’ Film Quarterly, 49:3 (Spring), pp. 27-37; Wood, Aylish (2002). ‘Timespaces in spectacular cinema: crossing the great divide between spectacle versus narrative,’ Screen, 43:4, pp. 370-386
 
Film Studies For Free presents a delightfully digital trove of film studies treasure today. Above, a fabulously illustrated, highly informative, and very wide-ranging, first year university lecture on Digital Cinema by University of Roehampton film scholar (and filmmaker) William Brown.  
 
And, below, links to two wonderful, openly accessible, online "digital film studies" books published by Amsterdam University Press, the best academic publisher ever, in FSFF's admittedly, somewhat biased view: Giovanna Fossati's 2009 From Grain to Pixel: The Archival Life of Film in Transition; and, just published, Nanna Verhoeff's 2012 Mobile Screens The Visual Regime of Navigation.  
 
Both have been added to FSFF's continuously updated list of openly accessible film studies books.
Film is in a state of rapid change, with the transition from analog to digital profoundly affecting not just filmmaking and distribution, but also the theoretical conceptualization of the medium of film and the practice of film archiving. New forms of digital archives are being developed that make use of participatory media to provide a more open form of access than any traditional archive has offered before. Film archives are thus faced with new questions and challenges. From Grain to Pixel attempts to bridge the fields of film archiving and academic research, by addressing the discourse on film ontology and analysing how it affects the role of film archives. Fossati proposes a new theoretization of film archival practice as the starting point for a renewed dialogue between film scholars and film archivists.
    • Table of Contents
      • Acknowledgements 9
      • Framing Film (in Transition): an Introduction    13
    • part one practice and theory of (archival) film
      • 1    Film Practice in Transition    33 
      • 2    Theorizing Archival Film    103
    • part two theorizing (archival) practice
      • 3    Film Archival Field in Transition    149
      • 4    Restoration Case Studies: Theorizing Archival Practice    211
      • A New Mindset for (Archival) Film in Transition: a Conclusion    255 
      • Notes 261 Glossary of Technical Terms    285 List of Illustrations    291 Filmography 293 Bibliography 297 Index 311
"Nanna Verhoeff’s new book is a must for anybody interested in visual culture and media theory. It offers a rich and stimulating theoretical account of the central dimension of our contemporary existence – interfacing and navigating both data and physical world through a variety of screens (game consoles, mobile phones, car interfaces, GPS devices, etc.) In the process of exploring these new screen practices, Verhoeff offers fresh perspectives on many of the key questions in media and new media studies as well as a number of new original theoretical concepts. As the first theoretical manual for the society of mobile screens, this book will become an essential reference for all future investigations of our mobile screen condition". – Lev Manovich
    • Table of Contents
      • Acknowledgements    9
      • List of Illustrations    11
        Introduction    13
      • 1. Panoramic Complex    27 Building Visions    28 Panoramic Desire    32 Movement in the Panorama    39 Modes of Viewing    42 The Gaze in Motion    44 A Panoramic Complex    46 The Windshield as Screen    48
      • 2. Self-Reflection    51 The Point of Self-Reflection    51 Meanings of the Screen    56 Spatial Attractions and Visual Deixis    57 Navigating the Screen    65 Navigation as Narration    68 Boundary-Crossings    70
      • 3. Theoretical Consoles    73 The Status of the Gadget: The Case of Nintendo DS    73 Portrait of the Gadget as a Theoretical Console    77 Touch Screen: Dirty Windows    82 Mobile Screen: Carrying, Sharing, Transporting    89 Double Screen: Split, Insert, Map    92 Gadgetivity    95
      • 4. Urban Screens    99 Places of Transit    99 Screenspace    104 Urban Transformation    107 Screen Practices    114 Installation    116 Programming Hybridity    124 Responsive Presence    129
      • 5. Performative Cartography Mobile Dispositif Contesting Cartography Performative Cartography Cartographic Interface Tagging, Plotting, Stitching Layering in Augmented Reality Haptic Engagement
      • Epilogue: You Are Here!
      • Notes Bibliography Index of Names and Titles Index of Terms
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Chủ Nhật, 8 tháng 4, 2012

On Liberation Cinema and Raymundo Gleyser

This is a documentary film about the life and work of Raymundo Gleyzer, Argentine filmmaker, kidnapped and murdered by that country’s military dictatorship in 1976.

Through Raymundo’s life, we follow the story of Latin American revolutionary cinema and the liberation struggles of the 60’s and 70’s. Raymundo was one of the major architects of the militant cinema, yet after his  "disappearance" he fell into oblivion.
It is essential that the new generation rediscovers his life and works which are a source of inspiration today more than ever. This documentary will bring back what the CIA and the Latin American dictatorships couldn’t destroy: the memory, the ideals and the courage to tell the truth.

We worked during four years on the research, recovery of archives and editing of the film, getting the support of Jan Vrijman Fund (IDFA - Netherlands), Fondation Altercine (Canada), and National Endowment of the Arts (Argentine). [Note by Ernesto Ardito and Virna Molina; hyperlinks added by Film Studies For Free]
Film Studies For Free is delighted to present today a wonderful, full-length documentary about revolutionary Latin American cinema. It is a moving and hugely informative film about the inspirational life and filmmaking of Raymundo Gleyser, founder of the Cine de la Base movement. The Google translation of Spanish-language Wikipedia page about Gleyser may be read here. 

There's very little written about Gleyser in English, so this subtitled version of Ernesto Ardito and Virna Molina's film is an incredibly valuable resource. Thanks so much to them for making it freely watchable online. A marvellous work of generosity in a number of ways. You can read a little about the documentary here.

Another, must-see film by Arduito and Molina that this filmmaking couple has just made available online for free, in an, as yet, unsubtitled version, is Nazión (2011) about the origins of the Argentine military dictatorship.

Below, FSFF has linked to its previous, related, entries of links to studies of Latin American and other radical and revolutionary cinema, together with some relevant full-length films viewable online. 

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Thứ Sáu, 6 tháng 4, 2012

Godardian Greatness Galore!

Updated April 11, 2012
Godardloop, a multi-part video essay on the films of Jean-Luc Godard. Produced by Michael Baute and edited by Bettina Blickwede, this video explores a treasure trove of imagery found in dozens of Godard’s features and shorts, grouping them among several distinct themes. 47 films spanning 50 years of filmmaking are transformed into a stream of images that attest to an inimitable talent: an artist who can transform the world simply by the way he looks at it through his camera. Learn more and watch more Fandor videos 
Film Studies For Free catches up with some great, openly accessible or viewable, Godardian items, above and below, that have been circulating the interwebs for a little while now, together with some that haven't been!
  • Update: Then there is the (actually) equally (if not more) exciting news of the "Godard Is" Issue of the relaunched VERTIGO magazine with great new articles and essays on the French director's work by Adrian Martin, James S. Williams, Roland-François Lack and numerous stellar others.
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Thứ Năm, 5 tháng 4, 2012

Studies of Long-Form Television, Part 1: THE WIRE

Last Updated: May 26, 2012 - please scroll right down
Erlend Lavik on 'Style in The Wire', April 2012


Jason Mittell, 'Serial Boxes: The Cultural Value of Long-Form American Television' [a Presentation given at the 'Serial Forms' conference in Zurich, June 2009] Also read Mittell's text about this presentation

Film Studies For Free begins a little series of entries that ... is... not ... on ... Film Studies ... as it is ... most narrowly ... defined. GASP! Choke. [Recovers characteristic composure].

It was inspired not only by that great, film and media studies, disciplinary leveller that is the DVD, but also, and especially, by Jason Mittell's hugely ground-breaking, open peer-reviewed, online, 'book-in-progress': Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling, as well as by the publication today of Erlend Lavik's first online video essay, above, on the American television drama series The Wire. These are both, in their own ways, impressive and very in-depth studies that merit a wide viewership/readership, as do the other excellent resources listed below on this legendary television series.

If FSFF is missing any important, openly accessible studies, do please leave a comment to that effect with a link. Many thanks.
    Huge Update on April 6, 2012 provided by Steve Bennison (thank you, Steve!)
    Will sort into FSFF order and format asap...

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    Thứ Ba, 3 tháng 4, 2012

    New Issue of LA FURIA UMANA on Jerry Lewis and much more...

    Frame grab image of Jerry Lewis as 'Warren Nefron' in Smorgasbord aka Cracking Up (Jerry Lewis, 1983). Read Steven Shaviro's new article on this film

    Smorgasbord (retitled Cracking Up by the distributor) is Jerry Lewis's last self-directed feature film. It first opened in France in 1983; it never received a proper American release. (In the US, it was immediately relegated to cable television -- which is where I saw it for the first time). And Smorgasbord still isn't very well known today -- even among Lewis aficionados. (It is, for instance, the only one of Lewis's self-directed films not to appear in the index to Enfant Terrible, an academic essay collection edited by Murray Pomerance in 2002, which otherwise covers Lewis' film career quite comprehensively). Yet I think that Smorgasbord is one of Jerry Lewis's greatest films; in what follows, I will try to explain why. [Steven Shaviro, 'Smorgasbord', La Furia Umana, 12, 2012; hyperlinks added by FSFF]
    Film Studies For Free just heard about the latest issue of the pentalingual film journal La Furia Umana. There are lots of brilliant articles in English, and other marvellous work, too, in other languages that will be entertainingly translated by Google, if you so require.

    The particular highlight, this time, is a truly brilliant and wide-ranging dossier on the work of Jerry Lewis, a human fury of an actor if ever there was one... But FSFF also had plenty of thoughts usefully and skilfully provoked by Kim Nicolini writing on the Post-Feminist Possibilities in Lars Von Trier's Melancholia. 

    And there's a lot more to explore and learn from besides the above. Just feast your polyglot eyes on the below...

    nota editoriale

    rapporto confidenziale
    prima linea
    histoire(s) du cinéma
    l'occhio che uccide
    flaming creatures
    the whole town's talking
    western fragmenta
    the new world
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    Thứ Hai, 2 tháng 4, 2012

    New Issue of MEDIASCAPE on Film and Media Space

    Image montage from Lou Romano's wonderful Cinemosaic website of frame grabs from The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955). Read Bryan Wuest's article on space in this film.
    The theme of our newest issue is “space,” which has spawned a range of approaches in cinema and media studies. “Space” is a nebulous concept, but the very difficulty in pinning down how a spatial discussion of media should proceed is why Mediascape thought this would be an appropriate discussion to tease out in our non-traditional format.['Introduction' by Bryan Hikari Hartzheim and Katy Ralko, Co-Editors-in-Chief, Mediascape, Winter 2012 Issue]
    Film Studies For Free is back from its trip to the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in Boston. You can watch videos of some of the conference highlights here. And you can read the live tweets and other reports from the conference from the conference via this page. 
    FSFF had a truly wonderful time meeting old friends and new, including a whole bunch of talented people who are responsible for the new issue of one of its favourite online journals, the UCLA-produced Mediascape. And a great issue it is, too. Links to all contents may be found below.


    Features:
    Reviews:
    Columns:
    META:
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