Nation Flashcards
Concept of a National Cinema
study of national cinemas lies at the intersection of cinema studies and area studies
field of inquiry facilitates formulation of questions relation to identity, community, language, artistic expression, politics + relationship between local + global
Challenges Posed by the Study of a National Cinema
deciding which nation (or nations) a film “belongs to”
number of factors need to be taken into consideration, including a film’s financing, setting and subject matter, personnel, and reception
Multiple countries involved in financing, production
Challenges Posed by the Study of a National Cinema
identifying diverse array of films as part of single national tradition may = emphasizing commonalities at expense of differences + deflecting attention from various transnational trends in which those films partake
Case study in national cinemas: Canada
- My Winnipeg, Begone Dull Care, Bon Cop Bad Cop, Atanarjuat
- Compare canadian cinema: actually so different
- When we study them as canadian: risk of turning a blind eye to what distinguishes and not compare them to other films outside the country
- Tendency to project a sense of coherence they might not have/deserve
Global Flows
important to approach study of a national cinema with a interest in the many global flows (films, capital, personnel, images and ideas) in which it partakes
way a nation “imagines” itself
- works in tandem that perpetuate national identity
- Nation: collectivity based on # of shared things, ethnic group (ancestry, language)
- State: institutional structure charged with exercising authority within a definable + limited jurisdictional purview, which is typically territorial in nature.
State vs. Nation
- Borders drawn around single ethnic group: nation-state – nation = state
- We being to talk about states as nation
- Conflation can be chalked up as sloppy thinking/constructing sense of community bound by tradition, shared history, customs
“imagined communities.” - Benedict Anderson
states produces sense of unity among disparate populations by constructing sense of shared origins + common purpose
•State depends on sense of common
way a nation resists Hollywood
- Hollywood dominates international cinema
- even when there are safeguards to stop american presence, still American industry dominates
- Study way countries attempt to carve out space for nonHollywood activity
way a nation “imagines” itself
- Print culture/visual culture (more influential)
- Nation produced through the act of imagining community
- What distinguishes Canada is the way it imagines itself
- Film is integral in imagining itself + propagating itself
National cinemas position themselves vis-a-vis Hollywood: try to compete with Hollywood by engaging in genre filmmaking
Hollywood have high production values, tend to be really convincing
•Tremendous reach of capital
•Cultivate their own tradition + dedicated fans
•Bollywood: excess of visual + auditory stimuli
•Hong Kong: martial art films, stars
National cinemas position themselves vis-a-vis Hollywood: opt out of the commercial sector altogether
- Tether filmmakers to state: public grant + state moneys
- National Film Board of Canada: defined itself against Hollywood, avante garde + documentary
- More experimental in narrative + form
National cinemas position themselves vis-a-vis Hollywood: complementing Hollywood with commercial cinema different due to its quirkiness/kinship to art cinema
- Australian cinema: 80s + 90s associated with garish, flamboyant + acting in outrageous way to ABBA
- Arthouse theatres that ensure circulation of these films
Canadian Cinema
- Canada’s most famous filmmakers contribute to art films
- Route many national cinemas take, on local quirkiness
- more like option 2 +3
- fertile tradition in avante garde + documentary
- Canadian Art Cinema: famous globally + locally
Canadian Cinema - Harcourt
less entertainment base + more contemplative
- landscape less of a background
- more realism + grounded characters
- not fantastical
- reflecting divisions: ethical, ethnical, linguistic, class
