Conflict and Survival in Contemporary Western European Film
Title | Conflict and Survival in Contemporary Western European Film PDF eBook |
Author | John Alexander Williams |
Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
Total Pages | 213 |
Release | 2022-02-23 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 153815899X |
Since the turn of the twenty-first century, efforts to improve human rights, social equality, and democracy in western Europe have faced growing challenges that range from economic and medical crises to the resurgence of the tribalist far right. Studying western European cinema reveals how filmmakers have been using their art to reflect on the region’s contemporary problems and potentials. In Conflict and Survival in Contemporary Western European Film, John Alexander Williams and Alexandra Hagen have collected a diverse array of essays that analyzehow filmmakers have portrayed forms of strifeand endurancein the new century. Divided into three thematic sections—historical conflicts and national identities; migrants, natives, and battles over space; and ethical struggles in everyday life—this book offers case studies of historical context, narrative, and form in a range of significant recent films. Showcasing such movies as Days of Glory, A War, Code Unknown, The Edge of Heaven, Toni Erdmann, The Great Beauty, and Weekend, this fascinating collection presents contemporary filmmakers as critical citizen-artists who are directly involved in interrogating the past, present, and future of Europe.
Nationalism in Contemporary Western European Cinema
Title | Nationalism in Contemporary Western European Cinema PDF eBook |
Author | James Harvey |
Publisher | Springer |
Total Pages | 259 |
Release | 2018-06-21 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 3319736671 |
This book investigates screen representations of 21st century nationalism—arguably the most urgent and apparent phenomenon in the Western world today. The chapters explore recurrent thematic and stylistic features of 21st century western European cinema, and analyse the ways in which film responds to contemporary developments of mounting tensions and increasing hostilities to difference. The collection blends incisive sociological and historical engagement with close textual analysis of many types of screen media, including popular cinema, art-house productions, low-budget independent work, documentary and video installation. Identifying motifs of nationhood and indigeneity throughout, the contributors of this volume present important perspectives and a timely cultural response to the contemporary moment of nationalism.
Affect and Belonging in Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Film
Title | Affect and Belonging in Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Film PDF eBook |
Author | Jesse Barker |
Publisher | Springer |
Total Pages | 226 |
Release | 2017-08-24 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 3319589695 |
This book brings together recent Spanish fictions and films that point to individualism as the root problem driving diverse circumstances of social, economic, and psychological suffering in the present and recent past. The works privilege sensation, movement, and emotion—rather than identity—as the core elements of existential experience. However, the works also problematize notions of intersubjectivity, confronting ideals of affective immersion and cultural nomadism with the concrete contexts that shape particular lives and social formations. This confrontation underlies a series of ‘crossroads’, or productive engagements, that guide the book’s five main chapters: locally rooted identity and global cultural circuits; historical contexts and universal modes of being; personal authenticity and consumer culture; migration and cultural identity; Spain's historical underdevelopment and impending future crises. All of these issues make affective connection and attachment the greatest existential challenge facing individuals and collectives in the contemporary world, both in Spain and elsewhere.
From Self-fulfilment to Survival of the Fittest
Title | From Self-fulfilment to Survival of the Fittest PDF eBook |
Author | Ewa Mazierska |
Publisher | Berghahn Books |
Total Pages | 312 |
Release | 2015-01-01 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 1782384871 |
Contrary to the assumption that Western and Eastern European economies and cinemas were very different from each other, they actually had much in common. After the Second World War both the East and the West adopted a mixed system, containing elements of both socialism and capitalism, and from the 1980s on the whole of Europe, albeit at an uneven speed, followed the neoliberal agenda. This book examines how the economic systems of the East and West impacted labor by focusing on the representation of work in European cinema. Using a Marxist perspective, it compares the situation of workers in Western and Eastern Europe as represented in both auteurist and popular films, including those of Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, Jean-Luc Godard, Andrzej Wajda, DušanMakavejev, Jerzy Skolimowski, the Dardenne Brothers, Ulrich Seidl and many others.
The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe
Title | The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe PDF eBook |
Author | T. C. W. Blanning |
Publisher | Oxford Paperbacks |
Total Pages | 426 |
Release | 2001-01-11 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780192854261 |
'a superb volume, complete with maps, and tells the story of a continent from the 18th century to the present day.' -Irish Times
The Figure of the Migrant in Contemporary European Cinema
Title | The Figure of the Migrant in Contemporary European Cinema PDF eBook |
Author | Temenuga Trifonova |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Total Pages | 291 |
Release | 2020-07-09 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 1501362496 |
The Figure of the Migrant in Contemporary European Cinema explores contemporary debates around the concepts of 'Europe' and 'European identity' through an examination of recent European films dealing with various aspects of globalization (the refugee crisis, labour migration, the resurgence of nationalism and ethnic violence, neoliberalism, post-colonialism) with a particular attention to the figure of the migrant and the ways in which this figure challenges us to rethink Europe and its core Enlightenment values (citizenship, justice, ethics, liberty, tolerance, and hospitality) in a post-national context of ephemerality, volatility, and contingency that finds people desperately looking for firmer markers of identity. The book argues that a compelling case can be made for re-orienting the study of contemporary European cinema around the figure of the migrant viewed both as a symbolic figure (representing post-national citizenship, urbanization, the 'gap' between ethics and justice) and as a figure occupying an increasingly central place in European cinema in general rather than only in what is usually called 'migrant and diasporic cinema'. By drawing attention to the structural and affective affinities between the experience of migrants and non-migrants, Europeans and non-Europeans, Trifonova shows that it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate stories about migration from stories about life under neoliberalism in general
The Contemporary Western: An American Genre Post-9/11
Title | The Contemporary Western: An American Genre Post-9/11 PDF eBook |
Author | John White |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 208 |
Release | 2021-02-28 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781474427937 |
The September 11th attacks in 2001 and the subsequent 'War on Terror' have had a profound effect on American cinema, and the contemporary Western is no exception. In this book, John White explores how films such as Open Range, True Gritand Jane Got a Gunreinforce a conservative myth of America exceptionalism; endorsing the use of extreme force in dealing with enemies and highlighting the importance of defending the homeland. Placing their characters within a dark world of confusion and horror, these films reflect the United States' post-9/11 uncertainties, and the conflict between civilised values and the brutality employed to defend them.