Univ., Diss.--Köln, 2006.

No description available.

This thesis investigates the manner in which the action sequences of contemporary Hollywood cinema reflect and constitute ways of imagining space. The thesis proposes that these sequences are highly spatialised presentations of bodily interaction with the world, and as such manifest cultural anxieties regarding the relationship between the individual and the built environment, and work to assure their viewers of the capacity of the human form to survive the disorienting spaces of contemporary architecture, globalisation and technology. In order to demonstrate this, the aesthetic and formal properties of action sequences are read alongside critical work exploring how space shapes social life, including influential texts by Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, Fredric Jameson and others. These readings reveal that both action sequences and critical spatial theory are similarly attentive to the difficulties, contradictions and possibilities of built space. A range of action sequences from Hollywood films of the last fifteen years, including sequences from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The International, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Jumper, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Sucker Punch, Inception, Swordfish, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, TRON: Legacy, Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Afterlife and Dredd 3D are analysed for how they depict space and spatial agency. Rather than concentrating upon the narratives of these films, the chapters of the thesis deal in turn with the ways in which action sequences express contemporary developments within the built environment; the consequences of globalisation; the impact of these spatial changes upon mental life; the challenges to bodily engagement raised by digital technology and cyberspace; and the modifications to representing space on film prompted by stereoscopic exhibition. Examinations of these sequences are used to build a model of the action sequence that suggests spatial appropriation and ideas around place-creation are crucial elements of the form.

In the field of labor economics, abundant research has been conducted on the cause and magnitude of the gender wage gap in various industries in the United States. While the national gender wage gap has decreased over the last few decades, this trend has not been observed in every industry. The film industry, in particular, has experienced a notable lack of progress in both its social and economic treatment of women. Because Hollywood has significant influence in the United States, its misguided portrayal of women and failure to ensure equal pay for male and female actors sets a harmful standard for the rest of the nation. Due to the confidential nature of actors’ salaries, however, there is little research on the topic of the gender wage gap in Hollywood. Using a couple hundred observations, I examined the magnitude of the gender wage gap in Hollywood and compared the impact of gender on actors’ salaries to that of more pertinent variables, such as critical success and available finances. I concluded that gender has a greater effect on an actor’s salary than any other variable. In consideration of the relative lack of literature on this topic, I recommend several ways to further the research conducted in this study.

In this dissertation I study Ball Cancelled, Summer Indoors and La tajada, the three early screenplays by Argentine writer Manuel Puig, who wrote these before his first novel and dismissing “copies of old movies”. My thesis investigates and refutes this harsh self-judgment and tries to show—through theories of the “copy” —, that the three screenplays establish a dialogue with one another as well as with the “old Hollywood movies”, through a subtle critique, a transgressive distance and complacency towards the model they represent. The first section examines Puig’s relationship to the conditions under which they were composed, and those films produced in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, in particular those classified as melodramas and “women’s films” under the genre system of that time, as well as with movie reception and the theories elaborated around the audiences, especially the female spectator. The second section is dedicated to the analysis of the three screenplays, from their conception as films to be made under the “Hollywood system” to their impossibility to adherence to the models required by that system, since they reelaborate and alter them, sometimes subtly, and on occassions openly. These three screenplays permit a comprehensive understanding of Puig's narrative, which is why they should be integrated as autonomous texts in the complete works of Manuel Puig.

In this dissertation I study Ball Cancelled, Summer Indoors and La tajada, the three early screenplays by Argentine writer Manuel Puig, who wrote these before his first novel and dismissing “copies of old movies”. My thesis investigates and refutes this harsh self-judgment and tries to show—through theories of the “copy” —, that the three screenplays establish a dialogue with one another as well as with the “old Hollywood movies”, through a subtle critique, a transgressive distance and complacency towards the model they represent. The first section examines Puig’s relationship to the conditions under which they were composed, and those films produced in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, in particular those classified as melodramas and “women’s films” under the genre system of that time, as well as with movie reception and the theories elaborated around the audiences, especially the female spectator. The second section is dedicated to the analysis of the three screenplays, from their conception as films to be made under the “Hollywood system” to their impossibility to adherence to the models required by that system, since they reelaborate and alter them, sometimes subtly, and on occassions openly. These three screenplays permit a comprehensive understanding of Puig's narrative, which is why they should be integrated as autonomous texts in the complete works of Manuel Puig.

The similarity between the Russian and the Indian, in a Cold War context, may be ambiguous considering the ethnic-social variables and the period in time from where the Indians relate. However, by analyzing these, as well as other, characters in the exhibition of movies, we could learn something about the ideology of the time from which the movies derive. This study examines ideology and movies in the Cold War era and concludes that the Indian, for example, may be representing the values of the common public enemy, originating from the Cold War ideology. The movies examined, regardless of influence of distinct Cold War themes or lack of such themes, carry attributes that give evidence of typical Cold War ideology. The fear of communism and common enemies connected to a Cold War context, the thought of America as the land of the free – with the horizon in the ending of the movies as metaphoric to freedom – and the moral rhetoric that connects to the American thought of a duty as a global savior, are all signs of the Cold War ideology. Even though the messages are somewhat clearer and more distinct in the movies with Cold War motifs, the fact that ideology is projected through other movies as well should be considered essential for the continuing study of movies as cultural artefacts.

The central goal of this thesis is to resituate the development of film noir within the context of the Hollywood studio system that created it. I argue that under the ‘factory’ conditions of the studio’s working environment, a distaste fermented from the screenwriter class that burrowed in the pulp fiction, particularly hard-boiled mystery fiction, of the era. This strain of literature was eventually coupled with the panache of Hollywood style to form a filmic style which was noteworthy for its ability to use Hollywood stylistics to screen a vision of life that was antithetical to that which the studio system wanted to offer to the mass public. I have also attempted to situate the original and most crystallized noir moment in the mid-1940s as part of the continuum of American cinema where the stylistic traces of noir were present prior to that period, and certainly after, but never more coherently than at that moment in the 1940s. I have assembled sources ranging from published interview collections, memoirs, biographies, film criticism and archival collections to develop my argument about the literary, filmic and cultural evolution of film noir in Hollywood.

I den här uppsatsen undersöks dagens romantiska Hollywoodkomedier och deras koppling till 1930- 40-talets screwballkomedier. The Proposal (2009), The Ugly Truth (2009), Leap Year (2010), samt What Happens in Vegas (2008) analyseras i syfte att urskilja likheter och skillnader dem emellan och för att urskilja en ny cykel av filmer. Det här är en genrestudie med fokus på konventioner och teman som tas upp genom tidigare forskning samt genom analys av de valda filmerna, och genom att diskutera filmernas koppling till samhället sätts genren i ett bredare perspektiv.

In 2008, the Taiwanese film ¡§Cape No. 7¡¨ set the record of 500,000,000 box offices. Then this year also has the hot movie ¡§Wanhua¡¨. People start to expect the native movie industry economy is improving gradually. However, according to the overall box office, Hollywood still holds 80% market. Local film industry who want to get back lost audiences and change their long-standing habits of going to the cinema is to see Hollywood films, should be more understanding of the consumer behavior of the movie going and the underlying factors. This study is from the audience perspective and use of the consumer behavior theory to compare on consumer decision-making for Taiwanese and Hollywood Films. Then find out how product attributes, motivation and cultural factors in the film will influence the attitude toward Taiwanese and Hollywood films and the willingness to see these movies. Finally we can understand why most audiences are prefer Hollywood than Taiwanese films and get the meaning of movie marketing. According to the SEM analysis in this study, leisure motivation and word of mouth factor influence the attitude of Taiwanese films most. And effect factor of the attitude of Hollywood films are leisure motivation and degree of recognition of cultural values in movies.