This thesis considers the role of spectacle in two modes of filmmaking in the French and American 'classical' cinemas of the 1930s. I examine the relationship of spectacle to the emotions and drama of musical films, and to the 'history-telling' of biopics, war films and other genres of historical cinema. One reason for the comparison is the hegemonic position of classical Hollywood cinema in film scholarship. Although I am respectful of the insights offered by the concept of a 'classical' cinema, a more central motivation for this study is the failure of much criticism to account for the relationship of spectacle to a concept denoting an unobtrusive, self-effacing style. An introduction is followed by a chapter surveying key literature in the field, focusing in particular on work on classical French and American cinema, cinematic spectacle and filmic, particularly generic, categories. The second chapter is divided roughly in two. The first half examines the various theatrical roots of French and American musical films of the thirties. The second half examines the 'utopian' feelings (Dyer, ([1977] 1992) musical spectacle serves. This division uncovers the greater ambivalence of French musical films, and their more circuitous approach to spectacle. Chapter three examines historical films through categories inspired by the work of Friedrich Nietzsche ([1874] 1983). I examine the prevailing 'monumental' approach to historical subjects, but also two key varieties of spectacle: the 'spectacular vista' and the 'decor of history'. I conclude by reflecting on the possibility of a critical historiography within French and American film of the thirties. Though the balance of my attention favours French examples in the chapter on musical films, my intention throughout is to compare and, where fruitful, contrast the two national cinemas. The thesis develops theoretical but, even more, practical understandings of particular kinds of spectacle; they are susceptible of the practice of close textual analysis. This is my central method of investigation. I attempt, throughout, to place the examination of films within their wider historical, industrial and critical contexts.

This thesis analyses individual 3D texts to explore how stereography inflects the representational strategies synonymous with the various modes of cinema to which it suggests that those films are indebted. It argues that the stereoscopic spectacles of emergence and deep stereospace can be integrated into a narrative. The thesis represents an original contribution to knowledge in demonstrating that stereography can be understood as another element of mise-en-scène contributing to meaning construction in those specific films studied. The literature review considers film theory’s understanding of how the spectator’s ‘participation’ has been inflected by previous technological alterations to the cinematic image’s width and depth and the extent to which 3D has been read as an expressive element. Four case studies, each of a different contemporary stereoscopic film belonging to a different cinematic tradition, then demonstrate how that tradition is stereographically re-inflected towards expressive ends. Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) demonstrates that 3D works alongside the continuity style of the contemporary spectacular blockbuster, renegotiating its relationship to the spectator, encouraging engagement with narrative themes. Jackass 3D’s (Jeff Tremaine, 2010) stereography accentuates the ‘vaudeville aesthetic’ discernible in slapstick comedy and emphasises an exploitation of the frame similar to that found in the cinema of Buster Keaton. It argues that 3D enables an inclusion of the spectator within a carnivalesque narrative of camaraderie. Step Up 3D (Jon M. Chu) demonstrates how 3D reinforces the utopian participation of the audience typical of the Hollywood musical, to which it is indebted. The Hole in 3D (Joe Dante, 2009), re-inflects representational strategies synonymous with horror cinema to articulate a narrative about violence whose meaning construction is dependent upon a stereographically-embodied spectator. This thesis, then, argues for a more sensitive understanding of 3D’s expressive potential than has largely been the case by demonstrating how that understanding might be reached.

My doctoral thesis conducts an analysis of post-imperial Paris and London, as represented in the cinema. More specifically, this study develops a narrative of the intimate connection between the cinema and the city that parts ways from the founding story of the filmic city, which revolves around the birth of the modern metropolis and mobilities of the flâneur. This thesis engages in the exploration of the largely untold story of the relationship between empire and the cinematic city in Michael Haneke’s Code inconnu (2000) and Caché (2005), Claire Denis’ J’ai pas sommeil (1994) Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things (2002), Michael Winterbottom’s In This World (2002) and Tony Gatlif’s Exils (2004). This study investigates the lingering traces of imperial histories, spatialities, narratives and figures that can be located in more contemporary cinema. The first chapter of the dissertation entitled ‘Post-Imperial Paris’ is divided into two sections. The first investigates the construction of ‘post-imperial topographies’ in J’ai pas sommeil and Code inconnu, while the second posits dwelling spaces and their interiors as a form of city space specifically in relation to Caché. The second chapter, called ‘Post-Imperial London’, situates Dirty Pretty Things within a wider historical continuum of ‘migrant London’. This film is examined in relation to filmic depictions of Caribbean migration and settlement, in order to ascertain the way in which an older historical imaginary of the cinematic London can be detected in Dirty Pretty Things but also some of the salient differences between this film and its predecessors as related to the representation of space and place. The final chapter, titled ‘On the Road: The Journey to the City Narrative’ posits another narrative of the cinematic city concerning the depiction of migrant journeys to the city as represented in In This World and Exils.

Whilst the prominence of the sequel in contemporary American cinema is inarguable, little attempt has been made to identify its formal characteristics or to provide a comprehensive account of its historical development over the past century. Offering a corrective to this oversight, this thesis addresses three key research questions: what are the formal characteristics of the sequel in all its variations in American cinema?; to what extent have these formal characteristics changed over time?; and how are these changes related to the shifts in the economic and industrial structures of the American film industry? Drawing on a wide range of sources, the first four chapters trace the historical development of the sequel, from silent era features such as The Son of Sheik (1926) through to contemporary franchises. Building upon this historical context, the second half of the thesis is dedicated to an examination of the Hollywood sequel’s formal characteristics. Initially concerned with the manner in which the sequel form differs from and challenges the notions of closure which inform the Classical Hollywood paradigm, these chapters progress to a consideration of the dynamic between genre, stars, character and narrative as it plays out in sequels ranging from Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) to Rooster Cogburn (1975) and Rambo (2008). In placing equal emphasis on history and aesthetics, the thesis ultimately aims to both develop a typology of the sequel form, and to build a more complete picture of the many ways in which Hollywood has sought to repeat its previous successes, the historically specific conditions which have governed these repetitions, and the compositional norms which have resulted.

This thesis concerns a very common, yet surprisingly under-examined, concept: the Hollywood ‘happy ending’. Focusing on an aspect of this convention that I call the ‘final couple’ (i.e.: an ultimate romantic union), the study examines movies from throughout the history of popular American cinema in order to interrogate common critical assumptions about ‘happy endings’. Chapter 1 questions the existence of the homogenous norm the ‘happy ending’ by attempting to define it – a task more challenging than the convention’s reputation would have us believe. Chapter 2 looks at the relationship between ‘happy endings’ and closure, arguing that, while some films succeed in making their final couples feel emphatically ‘closed’, others use different strategies to render the same convention comparatively ‘open’. Chapter 3 examines the connection between ‘happy endings’ and ‘unrealism’, considering firstly the traditionally close conceptual relationship between the ‘happy ending’ and fiction tout court, before, secondly, exploring the ways in which the final couple relates to debates concerning the ‘openness’ of life and the ‘closed’ nature of narrative. Chapter 4 addresses the ideology of ‘happy endings’ by discussing (1) what potential the concept of the final couple might be said to have for structuring viewers’ real-life romantic relationships, (2) the ideological implications of closure, and (3) the different ideological meanings that a final couple can convey in what is often taken to be an innately ‘conservative’ genre, the romantic comedy. The results of my analyses suggest that ‘happy endings’ are as conducive to variation as any other artistic convention – a fact that has significant ramifications for our thinking about Hollywood conclusions.

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This thesis investigates the way in which cultural elements are rendered in subtitling by analyzing the translation of culture-specific references, such as proper names, with the case studies from three American and Thai films: Annie Hall (1977), Juno (2007), and The Iron Ladies (2000). The structure of this research is based on Toury (1995)’s Descriptive Translation Studies framework. The methodology consists of 1) situating the preliminary norms of Audiovisual Translation in Thailand, which includes the overview of foreign film import and screen translation practice; 2) proceeding to analyse the cultural transfer strategies used in the subtitles in relations to their polysemiotic co-texts and contexts and present descriptive examples; and 3) from the analysis results, comparing the ways American and Thai culture is transferred/transformed to the target audience and explaining the significance. This research aims to take interdisciplinary approach into subtitling, in hope that it will bring more insights about Audiovisual Translation not only as a language transfer, but also as a complex socio-cultural activity, surrounded by norms and many influencing factors. Therefore, the study will combine text analysis and interviews with translation practitioners in order to present subtitling in the real world situation.

This thesis explores some of the possibilities of the relationship established between a movie, its main character(s) and the viewer in terms of distance. I treat distance primarily as an aspect of point of view, and it is in relation to the body of literature in film studies pertaining to point of view that this account positions itself in its first chapter. I offer there a series of arguments that reject i) the need to postulate a cinematic narrator for all or even most movies, ii) the over-privileging of the camera in theorizations of point of view, and iii) accounts of point of view built too centrally around characters, with a too-narrow emphasis upon either optical POV shots or characters-as-narrators. I present a more holistic approach to point of view and distance. My three case study chapters are structured according to Robin Wood’s suggestion that the films of Max Ophuls achieve a balance between ‘the audience-participation techniques of Hitchcock and the clinical objectivity and detachment of Preminger’ (Personal Views 126). Each chapter chiefly offers a critical account of point of view and distance in a single movie. First, I discuss Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958): I describe the techniques it employs to encourage the viewer to share its protagonist’s emotional experiences. Next, I discuss Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959): how the movie achieves emotional detachment in its viewer, and to what end. Finally, I discuss The Reckless Moment (Max Ophuls, 1949), and demonstrate how the movie, whilst rarely leaving its protagonist’s side and maintaining a sympathetic view of her, is committed to revealing the limitations of her perspective on events. My first chapter constitutes a contribution to various longstanding debates within the study of filmic point of view. I view this thesis mainly as a work of film criticism, and therefore as a contribution to our understanding of the directors and films studied within it – and of Hollywood cinema more broadly. I also view this account as a demonstration of one methodological approach we might usefully adopt in the study of film and point of view – a comparative approach rooted in detailed textual analysis.

The thesis examines the way that different agents, organisations and institutions intervene in the cinema practice of South America. Using Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru as case studies, the thesis outlines the way state and institutional organisations, commercial bodies, international interests and alternative practices have converged, even with individual discrepancies, to develop a national and regional cinematic culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Practices from funding and production through to distribution and exhibition are investigated in order to provide an overview of the most significant factors shaping the way cinematic culture currently operates in the region. I argue that on the one hand, state-run initiatives (heritage drives, film councils, cinematecas, anti-piracy enforcement) attempt to reterritorialize cinema practice and create a national context for films. On the other hand, commercial bodies, international organisations and alternative practices frequently complicate or deterritorialize cinematic culture. Their various actions have an effect on the types of films that are circulated and disseminated amongst publics on the continent and in the global sphere. The complex relations between these intervening interests mean that cinematic culture is determined by various conflicting ownership claims. Furthermore, the way in which which some organisations and practices gain strength over others determines the type of access that local publics have to films and that which filmmakers have to audiences. The findings in this thesis are drawn from extensive field-work in the region and are supported by theoretical frameworks and paradigms that are relevant to the study of cinematic culture. I have made use of published literature from text books, press articles, and official websites documenting various aspects of cinematic culture in South America to literature documenting a global film context that has relevance to my field of study. Participant-observation techniques and interviews with practitioners in the region have provided me with grounded, primary-research material, while trade reports citing statistical evidence such as production figures, box office data and investments in funding have strengthened my findings.

The research for this thesis is on representations of masculinity in Anglo-American submarine films since 1943. The discussion will draw on relevant work on the representation of masculinity and popular cinema in film and cultural studies. In particular, the thesis will account for the notion of hegemony in relation to masculinity in the submarine film. Further, the notion of hegemonic masculinity will be addressed in terms of four key claims. These are as follows: that relations between groups are characterised solely by domination and subordination, that a singular hegemonic masculinity prevails at anyone time, that this masculinity is coherent, and that hegemonic masculinity is consistently dominant in relations of power. Through the reading of the films, this thesis will critique the notion of hegemonic masculinity in the following terms: a) the recurrent concern with the group emphasises teamwork and cooperation rather than domination and subordination. Even where these relations operate at the level of fantasy, they can suggest utopian possibilities of mutuality. b) This preoccupation with teamwork shows that the struggle between competing masculinities endorses difference in masculinity, not just a hegemonic masculinity. c) Rather than privileging hegemonic masculinity as coherent, this struggle leads to alliances between masculinities, in which hegemonic masculinity has to negotiate contradictions in masculinity. d) This account of submarine films therefore shows that masculinity involves the complex negotiation of differences and not solely the consistent privileging of hegemonic masculinity. The analysis will be organised into chapters that derive specifically from the following thematic concerns within the case study: nature, the masculine body, men's friendships, rationality, vision and power, ideological processes, and the submarine as masculine space. Through the discussion of these themes and the developments in submarine films, the thesis will show the extent to which representations of masculinity in the case study conform to assumptions about hegemonic masculinity and popular film.