Embalming Time is a theoretical inquiry into the temporality of film - consisting of three parts - in associative conversation with a visual thesis. The first chapter of the thesis is centered...Show moreEmbalming Time is a theoretical inquiry into the temporality of film - consisting of three parts - in associative conversation with a visual thesis. The first chapter of the thesis is centered around more ‘classical’ thought about the temporality of film; ranging from Andre Bazin to Roland Barthes’ view on cinema and its impossibility to have a punctum - and how these are brought together and critically reworked by Laura Mulvey. The second chapter revolves around Gilles Deleuze’s Cinema books and the Bergsonian heritage of his conception of film as a medium. The third and last chapter (featuring at once one of the most recent film-philosophers and arguably the oldest) discusses Jacques Rancière’s writings on cinema, focusing on film’s opsis -its pure visuality -over the narrative qualities of the medium, and dives deeper into the influence of Jean Epstein’s thinking about film, focused through his discussions of photogénie and slow motion. Together, these three chapters form a tentative inquiry towards the possibility of a new cinematic form, of which the temporality of the filmic medium is integrally and inextricably part.Show less
This thesis aims to challenge the shortcomings identified in the analysis of transnationally funded non-western cinema shown at the international film festival circuit, which mainly results from...Show moreThis thesis aims to challenge the shortcomings identified in the analysis of transnationally funded non-western cinema shown at the international film festival circuit, which mainly results from framing these films as parts of a ‘National cinema’ and by analyzing them within western frameworks and according to western points of reference. Focusing on Thai films funded by the Hubert Bals Fund over the past 20 years, this thesis offers a contextual approach to modern cinema with a focus on locality and local history. This thesis is an attempt to reduce the gap between the respective fields of Area Studies and Film Studies as well.Show less
This thesis analyses French-Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s body of work, particularly the films Laurence Anyways (2012), Tom at the Farm (2013), and Mommy (2014). Starting from the notion that...Show moreThis thesis analyses French-Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s body of work, particularly the films Laurence Anyways (2012), Tom at the Farm (2013), and Mommy (2014). Starting from the notion that Dolan explicitly argues against the queer labelling of his films, the piece explores the content and form of his filmography with a range of theories from film, gender and queer studies, and an emphasis on feminist authors. Gender performance and alternative femininities in Laurence Anyways are discussed through camp. The reading of Tom at the Farm draws parallels with the perspectives on masculinities and bisexual desire found in bromance and buddy films. The analysis of Mommy investigates how queerness embodies both the film’s form and text, possibly placing it in a new New Queer Cinema movement.Show less
Connecting Kaurismäki to irony is not surprising, but is surprisingly enough, not so much scholarly researched in the past. Irony appears in different disguises, largely depending on the function...Show moreConnecting Kaurismäki to irony is not surprising, but is surprisingly enough, not so much scholarly researched in the past. Irony appears in different disguises, largely depending on the function of it; what the ironist wants to achieve. Applying it can originate from an urge to complicate a matter of discussion but can also be applied to translate the oppositional stance the ironist wants to reveal. In the case of the enigmatic Kaurismäki his intentions or motivations in his choice of theme and subject are essential to the humour he adapts in telling his stories, but always remains somewhat vague. This thesis provides an image of how irony prevails and functions in his cinema on the base of a series of comparative case studies linked to three of his films: I Hired a Contract Killer (1990), The Man Without a Past (2002) and The Other Side of Hope (2017). It eventually sets out an idea of a filmmaker who, by applying irony, both distances though simultaneously engages himself with his audience in his own wayward fashion.Show less
The uprisings of 2011 started in Tunisia and impacted a lot of countries in the Middle East. The consequences can still be seen today. This thesis attempts to approach how these events have...Show moreThe uprisings of 2011 started in Tunisia and impacted a lot of countries in the Middle East. The consequences can still be seen today. This thesis attempts to approach how these events have impacted the cinema industry and in particular the place and representation of women in it.Show less
This thesis investigates hybrid documentary-fiction films that were constructed through a close collaboration between the filmmakers and the subjects, and in which the subjects’ personal...Show moreThis thesis investigates hybrid documentary-fiction films that were constructed through a close collaboration between the filmmakers and the subjects, and in which the subjects’ personal experiences and ideas about self-representation influenced both the content and the form of the film. The objective of the filmmakers is to raise questions about how to understand somebody else’s experiences, what it means to insert oneself as a filmmaker into the lives of others and how to make the spectator aware of these issues. They do so by using formal methods that are usually associated with fiction filmmaking and by foregrounding the film’s construction. Since the filmmakers do not offer a conclusive perspective on the story or an interpretation of the images, the spectator is made to invest his or her own experiences, which are equally valuable as those of the filmmakers and the subjects of the films. Taking Jacques Rancière’s emancipated spectatorship as a guideline, I will investigate which formal methods associated with fiction filmmaking can employed to activate the spectator, how, and to what effect. I have divided my thesis into three chapters that each treats a specific formal method: identification through ambiguous focalisation; the uncertain relation between voice, text, and image; and database logic as an alternative to narrative logic.Show less
In this thesis I will research the way in which Melancholia and The Hours use unconventional notions of time in order to construct an experience of melancholia which provokes certain views on...Show moreIn this thesis I will research the way in which Melancholia and The Hours use unconventional notions of time in order to construct an experience of melancholia which provokes certain views on melancholia. In order to do this, I will first establish what melancholia has meant over the centuries and how it is perceived today. I will also distinguish melancholia from mourning by using Sigmund Freud’s text on ‘Mourning and Melancholia’. Additionally, I will argue how illnesses are used in the arts in order to introduce a character with a certain personality. Later, I will accumulate onto the two films, whereof first The Hours and then Melancholia, specifically focusing on how the state of melancholia is expressed through the unconventional use of time.Show less
The film Cría Cuervos, produced by Spanish director Carlos Saura in 1975 and screened for the first time in January 1976 in Madrid, combines a narrative as well as allegorical meaning and this...Show moreThe film Cría Cuervos, produced by Spanish director Carlos Saura in 1975 and screened for the first time in January 1976 in Madrid, combines a narrative as well as allegorical meaning and this constitutes the reason for choosing this specific film as a topic for the following thesis. The film is not only situated in-between the classical and the art film narrative but furthermore it marks the transitional crossroad at which Spain was at that moment: namely, the end of the Franco regime and the beginning of a democratic Spain. Because of the unique moment of production of Cría Cuervos it is so interesting to investigate the political as well as non-political idea behind the film. Questions such as how the film makes use of both, traits of the classical and modern art film cinema narrative and consequently if the film should be read as a classical or modern art film after all will be addressed. Furthermore, the thesis investigates whether Cría Cuervos can be rather understood as a mode of reading. Therefore, it will be analyzed as an allegory in comparison to the narrative analysis.Show less
Dit onderzoek richt zich op deze alternatieve representaties van Islamitisch extremisme die een enigszins afwijkend beeld geven van deze sociale groep. In het bijzonder richt dit onderzoek zich op...Show moreDit onderzoek richt zich op deze alternatieve representaties van Islamitisch extremisme die een enigszins afwijkend beeld geven van deze sociale groep. In het bijzonder richt dit onderzoek zich op de vraag of stereotypen een ondermijnende werking kunnen hebben in de alternatieve representaties van Islamitisch extremisme. Om deze vraag te kunnen beantwoorden zal in het eerste hoofdstuk onderzocht worden hoe deze alternatieve representaties van Islamitisch extremisme proberen te ontsnappen aan stereotypering. Vervolgens zal er in het tweede hoofdstuk gekeken worden naar de manier waarop stereotypering bij te stellen valt binnen een postkoloniale context. En ten derde zal het laatste hoofdstuk zich richten op de manier waarop het huidige medialandschap van Islamitisch extremisme een rol speelt in de projecties van stereotypen van de toeschouwer zelf. Het corpus van dit onderzoek bestaat uit drie recente films (dat wil zeggen, na 11 september 2001) die met elkaar gemeen hebben dat zij over het onderwerp Islamitisch extremisme gaan. Om de ontsnapping aan stereotypering te onderzoeken zal er een analyse van Les Chevaux de Dieu (Nabil Ayouch, 2012) plaatsvinden, een film van Marokkaanse komaf over de omstandigheden waarin jonge Marokkanen in staat gesteld worden tot een terroristische aanslag over te gaan. Vervolgens zal een analyse van Les Hommes et les Dieux (Xavier Beauvois, 2010) zich richten op de manier waarop er in een postkoloniale context getracht wordt stereotypering bij te stellen. En ten slotte zal een analyse aan de hand van de filmstijl van de Franse film Hadewijch (Bruno Dumont, 2009) over een jong, streng Christelijk meisje die in aanraking komt met een extremistische moslim zich richten op de invloed van het medialandschap met en tot de projecties van stereotypering door de toeschouwer zelf. Deze drie films delen niet alleen hetzelfde onderwerp over Islamitisch extremisme, alle drie de films maken gebruik van stereotypering of het gebrek daarvan om een alternatieve representatie van Islamitisch extremisme aan te tonen.Show less
This article aims to designate the differences between the Fifth Generation and the Sixth Generation, both of which constitute the importance of the recent Chinese cinema. By diagnosing the...Show moreThis article aims to designate the differences between the Fifth Generation and the Sixth Generation, both of which constitute the importance of the recent Chinese cinema. By diagnosing the cultural phenomena and historical trajectories, the author investigates the two clusters with a Western theoretical framework. Three representative directors among the generations and their body of work are analysed with intensive case studies.Show less
