Full-text resources of CEJSH and other databases are now available in the new Library of Science.
Visit https://bibliotekanauki.pl

Results found: 7

first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last

Search results

help Sort By:

help Limit search:
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
1

Cultural Transformation and Its Reflection in Japanese Cinema of the Interwar Period

100%
Loska K.
Przegląd Kulturoznawczy
|
2007
|
vol. 1
|
issue 3
118-128
EN
The paper presents the process of Japan's modernization as reflected in the films made in the 1920s and 1930s. The national cinema of that period showed both positive and negative consequences of social, political and economic restoration initiated by the Meiji after 1868. The author emphasizes the strong relations between the film and the changes which characterized the theatre and literature at the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, at the same time, pointing out the influences of the classic American cinema, evident in the script, the editing, a frame composition, etc. The basis for analysis are the early films by Yasujiro Ozu, Heinosuke Gosho and Kenji Mizoguchi. The author claims that the cinema became both the symbol of cultural transformation and the reflection of the ambivalent attitude of Japanese society towards the modernization process. A sense of nostalgia for the past, which is so clear in many films, is combined with the awareness of inevitability of change and necessity of abandoning the dreams of independence and self-sufficiency, whereas scepticism towards modem world is balanced with hope for reconciling the contradicting traditions.
2

Humour in Alfred Hitchcock's Films

100%
Loska K.
Kwartalnik Filmowy
|
2006
|
issue 56
98-106
EN
The presence of comic tones in the plot structure of spy thrillers has become the trademark of Alfred Hitchcock's films as early as in his British period. The master of suspense did not avoid making films in which the spirit of comedy determined the tone a film work although critics paid no particular attention to such productions as 'The Farmer's Wife' and 'Number Seventeen'. Humour in Hitchcock's movies performed a double function: firstly, it established a platform from which the viewer could have a look at the plot events from a different angle and achieve detachment from the depicted world; secondly, it could be a component of film tension and provide verbal and visual clues relating to the main plot. The author refrains from analyzing comic elements in Hitchcock's criminal or spy thrillers but focuses on films in which the comedy tone becomes dominant: 'Rich and Strange', 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith', 'The Trouble with Harry', 'To Catch a Thief' and 'North by Northwest'.
3

Traumatic identity in Japanese films about the atom bomb

100%
Loska K.
Kwartalnik Filmowy
|
2008
|
issue 61
101-111
EN
The author starts his article by defining trauma, its causes and relation to mass killings and its impact on the human psyche. He then relates that to the theme of hibakusha - or the victims of the atom bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the people who, although escaped death, suffered from radiation sickness, infertility and post traumatic stress disorder. The author seeks out signs and symptoms of this mass experience of trauma in films, such as 'Genbaku no ko' , Kaneto Shindo, 1952, 'Children of Nagasaki' (Nagasaki no ko), Sotoji Kimura, 1957, 'Hiroshima, mon amour', Alain Resnais, 1959), that deal directly with wartime events, but also in films that are more allegorical in the way they present fear of nuclear mass destruction (Godzilla /Gojira/, Ishiro Honda, 1954), as well as films that deal with the problem in a less direct way. (For example Akira Kurosawa's 'Dreams' (Yume, 1990) and 'Rhapsody in August' (Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku, 1991). The Author points out that filmmakers dealing with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedy faced the enormous problem of expressing or rather the inability to express, that which is beyond reason and simple thought categories.
4

Raymond Williams and Sociology of Culture

100%
Loska K.
Przegląd Kulturoznawczy
|
2007
|
vol. 1
|
issue 2
17-31
EN
The aim of the paper is to characterize the concept of culture as presented in the writings of Raymond Williams, a pioneer of British Cultural Studies. The author of the paper critically reconstructs such fundamental issues as the genesis of a notion of culture, the connections between literature, art and society, communication and mass media (the polemics with Marshall McLuhan). Finally, he focuses on the idea of hegemony which was a methodological basis for Williams' theories since the l960s.
5

'Benshi' as a Film Co-author

100%
Loska K.
Kwartalnik Filmowy
|
2007
|
issue 59
59-65
EN
The author explores the phenomenon of 'benshi', the Japanese narrators and commentators of silent movies. The 'benshis' were expected to both translate the subtitles and also to add a live commentary to the images presented on the screen; an oral story that would clarify the meaning the commentator extracted from the film by. In this sense, the 'benshis' were actually co-authors of the story; they were responsible for unfolding the storyline. The 'benshi' did not emerge just because it was necessary to clarify the meaning of moving pictures to Japanese viewers but rather because of their attachment to a certain form of presentation and the style of performance combining various means of expression. The presence of the 'benshis' can be attributed both to the tradition of oral commentary and mixed theatrical forms as well as the societal and moral changes taking place in Japan at the turn of the centuries. Then we will come to understand that the role of the 'benshi' was not restricted to passing of an aesthetic tradition but also participating in the process of modernisation. The author focuses on what an ideal 'benshi' should be like, and traces the development of the profession in the early stages of the evolution of Japan's cinema.
6

Women in Mizoguchi's Films: Japan's Film vs. Process of Cultural Changes in the Interwar Period

100%
Loska K.
Kwartalnik Filmowy
|
2007
|
issue 60
132-144
EN
The article is dedicated to Kenji Mizoguchi's films of the 1930s when he developed his own distinctive artistic style that manifested itself not only in the fictional aspect but first of all in the way film-specific instruments were used. 'White Threads of the Waterfall' (1933), 'The Downfall' (1935), 'The Field Poppy' (1935), 'Naniwa Elegy' (1936), 'Sisters of the Gion' (1936) and 'The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums' (1939) were some of the films made in this period. The author points out a few interrelated issues that were reflected in the subject of Mizoguchi's films: the picture of cultural and social changes stemming from modernisation, the attempt to show contradictions between tradition and modernity, and the reflection on the role and status of women in a patriarchal society, and consequently - his critique of the model. He also points to the relationship between Mizoguchi's auteur style and genre conventions as well as the narrative patterns used in the films. The author is interested in the influence of both traditional Japanese aesthetics and contemporary literary and theatrical pieces that are more or less successfully adapted for the screen.
7

National Identity and Nationalism in Japanese Cinema

100%
Loska K.
Kwartalnik Filmowy
|
2008
|
issue 62-63
81-90
EN
Japanese cinema from its very beginning was involved with the nationalist discourse. Film was used by the Japanese government to present and upkeep traditional values, that were to limit foreign influences from spreading immorality and vice. These tendencies grew in the interwar period characterized by expansionist politics, growing nationalism and militarism. A new type of national cinema (kokumin eiga), was needed. Its purpose was to show the Japanese spirit, uncontaminated by western influences, not only at the level of contents and style, but also in the production methods. This type of cinema was to be represented by historical films (jidai-geki), celebrating the glorious past, and praising patriarchal social structure and feudalism, as well as representing the aesthetic ideal. Also war films and documentaries were to conform to the ideological guidelines dictated by those in power. The author lists various examples of Japanese films representing nationalist tendencies, and places them both within historical and theoretical setting..
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.