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This thesis is an analysis of two film soundtracks, High Fidelity and Rushmore, and how each conforms to, and moves away from, trends in soundtrack production. The analysis begins by examining the relationship between film and music through the progression of key figures and moments leading to the current state of the film soundtrack. The soundtracks of High Fidelity and Rushmore are situated within the contexts of youth and rock culture as a means of illuminating their compilations and prospective audiences. The conclusion of this thesis is that these particular films and their soundtracks are entrenched in a dialogue about nostalgia and the superiority of archival music and provide clear examples of the growing use of nostalgia within cultural contexts generally.

This research explores new methods for practice-based research in fine art (video and multi-media installation) and in curatorial practices, residing in specific readings of Deleuze. The thesis looks into the potential presented by the mirror. Mirrors are symbolic references. Video has the capacity to be a mirror to the world; the exhibition also. Yet the mirror here is not examined as a reflection of the true ‘self’ nor is it invested in concepts of a ‘true’ mirror image of the ‘real’. Instead, the suggestion is made that a mirror pertains to an oxymoron, in which contradictory terms are combined as mirroring is recognised in terms of both “identity” and “difference”. Along these lines, reflection on negation becomes the mode of operation and the mirror maintains the reflective experience, more specifically visual thought, in place. This is why the works made and discussed pursue how the “production of the subject” unfolds representational boundaries. It is suggested that the act of being reflected must engage new ways of thinking about multiplicity of subject-positions; what it means to ‘be’ or ‘become’ and how past experiences are manifest in the present. The analysis has been formed through an examination of the transformative potential in representations for speaking about political realities today. To consider these issues, the thesis brings together a number of inter-related fields of creative practice and situates critical inquiry in methodologies that structure how the ‘subject’ manifests itself on screen. A “philosophy of practice”, linking curatorial activities and artistic works is developed through a series of philosophical reflections; artworks; curatorial activities and dialogues with different artists and theorists. The thesis seen as a whole examines these ‘encounters’ that facilitates a mirror reflection of a world “yet-to-come” through varied means for engagement which are tested in art production and theoretical and curatorial positions.

This dissertation seeks to read contemporary films as symptoms of the societies they are made in, mainly contemporary Western societies, which I argue to be subtly but intensely homophobic. Films imagine/represent their own subject matter in terms of symbolic, encoded scenes. The decoding for the films I chose occurs through a use of very specific, heavily coded spaces as visualisable shorthand for a complex of homophobic reactions. Filmic texts do not have to have denotative non-heterosexual elements to be termed 'queer'. These texts become queer often in their reception by non-heterosexual audiences. In 'queering' these spaces and films, I extensively make use of tools of social geography, film studies and cultural studies The films I chose are not random choices, but they include certain themes that I believe to reflect the subtle homophobia in our societies. In the first chapter, Geographies of Cruising, I analyze the representation of streets and the leading character's cruising on the streets in Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999). The second chapter, Geographies of Effeminacy, concentrates on the denial of space to non-masculine men exemplified in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). In the third chapter, Geographies of Exclusion, the representation of a cellar in Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003) serves to display the links between paedophilia and homosexuality. The fourth and final chapter, Geographies of Abuse and Rape, is an exercise on “out of placeness” and examines the connections made between male/male rape and homosexuality in I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (Mike Hodges, 2003). The last chapter is an extended reading of Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005), in which the tension between closed spaces and wild spaces leads to a discussion of contemporary representation of homosexuality and a summary of the chapters.

Since Deng Xiaoping's "South Tour Speech" which he delivered during his inspection of special economic region in southern China in 1992, China's reforms and opening-up have entered a period of stable and rapid development. These undoubtedly are driving a comprehensive range of areas of social transition in Chinese society, including state affairs, social activities, mass culture, and globalization. All these factors may have a significant impact on the situation of Chinese film, but in the meantime, local cinema will inevitably present contemporary China and its social culture in a certain way. This thesis chooses a period of time from 1993 to 2008 and examines "nostalgia", a unique area of contemporary Chinese cinema, as its basis for discussion. In the light of Western and postmodern cultural theories, this study aims to explore the current state of nostalgia film and its postmodern elements in China and to extend the discussion to social areas and cultural studies. The conclusion reached by the discussion includes two major aspects. First, through historical reconstruction and superficial pastiche, China's past (or its nostalgia) has inevitably presented certain distortions when facing the global mass cult and Chinese communist leitmotiv ideology. Second, contemporary China has reached the stage of a visually featured, postmodern consumer society.

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Syftet med vår undersökning är att se hur lärare förhåller sig till filmens roll i undervisningen. Vi intresserar oss av hur valet av film sker och hur eventuell filmvisning efterarbetas i klassrummet. Dessutom vill vi veta i vilken utsträckning elever får producera egen film. Frågeställningarna besvaras med hjälp av empirisk insamling från intervjuer som sex svensklärare från tre olika skolor deltog i. Resultatet pekar på att lärare har en positiv inställning till användandet av film i undervisningen men att svenskämnet stödjer sig på traditionell litteratur. Lärare ser läsförståelse som ett av svenskämnets viktigaste uppdrag. Lärarna tror att film är mer tilltalande än böcker för eleverna eftersom de är förtrogna med formatet i populärkulturen. Film kan därmed enligt lärarna användas för att väcka deras intresse om ett visst arbetsområde och för att diskutera relevanta ämnen med eleverna

By examining viewer reception of female antagonists in traditionally feminine roles on television—particularly the role of wives and mothers who have husbands to answer to and children to look after and are thus expected, in some form, to act as a caretaker or guide for others—we can explore modern societal attitudes towards female agency and gender-based expectations of behavior.