In this thesis I investigate the nature of noir subjectivity, and the degree to which it can be described as heroic. To investigate these issues, I have chosen to illustrate my argument by analysing my novel, Viper, and two films that renew the noir cycle at different socio-political crossroads in America: in 1958, Alfred Hitchcock???s late noir, Vertigo, and in 1974, Frances Ford Coppola???s neo-noir, The Conversation. Because these texts present an extreme theorisation of deception in terms of the assembling and erasure of subjective identity, they will serve as a basis to explore the question of noir subjectivity. In proceeding thus, I argue in the dissertation that film noir???s most innovative borrowing can be described as a monstrous stitching together of incompatible parts???the real and the imaginary, the past and the present, the living and the dead???which accounts for a cut both between, and within, the image. It is this prosthetic approach to representation that takes the noir mode beyond its existential, individualist limits, and accounts for the subjective wound in noir: the heroic conflict between the singular and the multiple. In my analytic procedure then, I extend the idea of monstrosity beyond its current boundaries in contemporary theory. I do this by fusing Marie H??l??ne Huet???s conception of the monstrous imagination, which is a theory of art, with Gilles Deleuze???s powers of the false, which belongs to a philosophy of time. I posit a dialogic exchange across these analyses and my novel to suggest that the cinematic cut not only accounts for what Deleuze has termed the time-image but also is symptomatic of the chronic wounding of the riven noir hero. These analyses suggest that, while sustaining the aura of authorship through technical innovation and stylistic mastery, film noir serves paradoxically to challenge the mastery of the model designated as masculine. In my novel I continue to deal with the issues raised in the dissertation, through a rearticulation of a subjectivity that irrevocably alters its relation to representation in its affinity with the image, its serial movement through interstitial space, and its novel powers of falsification.

This thesis examines the influence of Romanticism on a selection of seven films from four contemporary American filmmakers: Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, Charlie Kaufman, and Spike Jonze. The research questions are as follows: How do particular Romantic ideas, either canonical ones or those located on the more critical fringes of Romanticism, relate to the work of the filmmakers I consider? What Romantic features do these films regularly exhibit, both aesthetically and in terms of narrative? How do these features inform their overall point of view? Finally, how do such Romantic ideas and aesthetics relate to the current cultural milieu in which the films were created? There are many familiar and more obscure Romantic strains running through the films. These include a preoccupation with personal history and memory; an undercurrent of deeply felt emotion and reliance upon mood and tone to convey it; a foregrounding of the creative process and the imagination; and an ambivalent relationship to both the natural world and civilised society. In terms of aesthetics, the films in question depend on qualities of the beautiful, picturesque, and sublime to represent the complex emotional states of their characters and to elicit emotional responses in their audiences. Above all, these films represent a preoccupation with subjectivity and self-consciousness: specifically, the coming to personal self-consciousness that creates a rift between the individual subject and a greater sense of society. By utilising the work of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Romantic authors and philosophers such as Friedrich Schlegel, William Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, John Keats and others, combined with twentieth- and twenty-first century readings of these works via literary and cultural theorists and critics such as Harold Bloom, M.H. Abrams, Leo Marx and Anne Mellor, I emphasise the historical trajectory of general Romantic concepts. Taking established cinematic theories (“quirky” cinema, “smart” film, the “new sincerity”) as a point of entry, I explore the underlying stylistic and narrative connections between the films I discuss. I argue these films share a fundamentally Romantic form and vision specific to their own historical and cultural environment.

Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-07T18:45:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 000409855-Texto+Completo-0.pdf: 4922404 bytes, checksum: f7e36aa9b13782d1671816db83ea48f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Este trabajo examina las tres películas de largometraje dirigidas por Sofia Coppola: Vírgenes suicidas (The virgin suicides, 1999), Perdidos en Tokio (Lost in translation, 2003) y Maria Antonieta (Maria Antoniette, 2006), siempre protagonizadas por mujeres. Nuestro propósito es pensar esas personajes en diálogo con la dificultad de definir a la mujer y lo femenino, cuestionando temas de género, así como la rigidez de los esquemas culturales de la identidad sexual (Judith Butler, 2001). Coppola nos permite reflexionar sobre la representación (Francesco Casetti, 1996 y Jacques Rancière, 2005) de las mujeres, a través de personajes autónomas y desadaptadas, que viven en ambientes opresivos. Las protagonistas de estas películas están unidas por temas como la exploración del erotismo y estado de contemplación, que son síntomas de las sociedades contemporáneas y muestra de lo incierto del sujeto. spa / Este trabalho examina os três filmes de longa-metragem dirigidos por Sofia Coppola: As virgens suicidas (The virgin suicides, 1999), Encontros e desencontros (Lost in translation, 2003) e Maria Antonieta (Maria Antoniette, 2006), sempre protagonizados por mulheres. Nosso propósito é pensar essas personagens em diálogo com a dificuldade de definir a ideia de mulher e o feminino, questionando temáticas de gênero, assim como a rigidez dos esquemas culturais da identidade sexual (Judith Butler, 2001). Coppola nos permite refletir sobre a representação (Francesco Casetti, 1996 e Jacques Rancière, 2005) das mulheres, através de personagens autônomas e deslocadas, que vivem em ambientes opressivos. As protagonistas desses filmes estão unidas por temas como a exploração do erotismo e o estado de contemplação, que são sintomas das sociedades contemporâneas e mostra da incerteza do sujeito.

Submitted by Chaylane Marques (chaylane.marques@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-04T18:42:51Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertaçao André Antônio Barbosa Nostalgia e melancolia nos cinemas de Philippe Garrel e Sofia Coppola.pdf: 1890539 bytes, checksum: 1ed20ec06df3864c87bd0d515e78de46 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-04T18:42:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertaçao André Antônio Barbosa Nostalgia e melancolia nos cinemas de Philippe Garrel e Sofia Coppola.pdf: 1890539 bytes, checksum: 1ed20ec06df3864c87bd0d515e78de46 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-22 / FACEPE / Este trabalho pretende estudar as práticas artísticas distintas de dois cineastas contemporâneos – Philippe Garrel e Sofia Coppola – enxergando-as, porém, integradas a uma mesma e longa tradição de artistas: aquela que, desde os primórdios do romantismo europeu, tem colocado a melancolia como a força-motriz de seus trabalhos. Nestes, a melancolia frequentemente engendra, como uma espécie de correlato natural, o sentimento de nostalgia. Mas ao contrário do que o discurso crítico habitualmente propõe, a nostalgia dessas obras não é em si conservadora, simplista ou ingênua; não é uma cura paliativa, pacificadora ou solução fácil para a angústia melancólica que surge com a modernidade. A nostalgia aí é, antes, uma forma crítica de fugir de uma atualidade linear insípida ou sensório-motora – de escapar do otimismo do progresso – e ir buscar algo de mais profundo e mais complexo em lençóis e circuitos distantes do passado: a possibilidade de, nos termos de Walter Benjamin, uma experiência verdadeira (Erfahrung). O corpus principal da pesquisa consiste, por um lado, em dois longas-metragens de Garrel que, nostalgicamente, evocam o fim dos anos 60: Sauvage innocence (2001) e Les amants réguliers (2005). No primeiro, Garrel interessa-se por capturar a aura distante e fantasmagórica daquela época, enquanto que no segundo ele a enxerga não como um ponto mensurável num correr mecânico do tempo, mas como uma, nos termos de Deleuze, idade do mundo. Por outro lado, em Maria Antonieta (2006), Coppola não apenas justapõe as idades mas faz com que elas coexistam e se relacionem mais diretamente, através de um anacronismo ao mesmo tempo dissonante e nostálgico que conecta o presente, os anos 80, o século XVIII, um vago e edênico passado ainda mais anterior e a frágil esperança de um caminho futuro. O quadro fundamental de referências teóricas das análises compôs-se, por um lado, pelo pensamento de Benjamin, sobretudo pelo modo como ele relaciona distância temporal, experiência e arte; por outro lado, pelos sistemas bergson-deleuzianos de se pensar, por meio de distinções de natureza e não apenas de grau, o tempo e o movimento, o espírito e a matéria; e, por fim, pela ideia de Jacques Racière de todo um novo regime – e não apenas uma mera mudança de “estilo” ou de “escola” artística – que surge com a modernidade estética e cujas formas de funcionamento ainda determinam as operações e estratégias cinematográficas aqui observadas.

The historic portrayal of the teenage girl in cinema as a mythical, sexual, hyper feminine and contemporary creature makes way for a specific but fairly common trope. Namely a trope where the teenage girl is used to elicit nostalgia and romance for the male protagonist, specifically because of her trauma and pain. The connection between the youth, femininity, pain and her status as contemporary is what makes the teenage girl an especially nostalgic object. Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides is a film that perfectly highlights and exaggerates this trope. By analyzing this film as well as comparing it to earlier examples, this essay will problematize this portrayal and locate its roots. This essay will analyze these examples and compare them to the general portrayal of the teenage girl in cinema during the twentieth century. By looking at The Virgin Suicides through the theory of the male gaze and the female spectacle, Coppola’s highlighting of this trope becomes clear. This essay concludes that it is unclear if Coppola subverts or simply leans into this trope, but it becomes evident that it is a trope built on the fact that pain and deadness is the height of perfect femininity. Perfect femininity in turn can only be achieved during adolescence, and therefore, the trauma of female adolescence becomes nostalgic.

Plusieurs films américains des années 2000 (Mulholland Drive et INLAND EMPIRE de David Lynch, The Virgin Suicides de Sofia Coppola, Memento de Christopher Nolan, The Pledge de Sean Penn, Broken Flowers de Jim Jarmusch et Zodiac de David Fincher) opèrent une remise en question de la fonction, du fonctionnement et de la représentation des indices sur lesquels s’appuient tant la littérature que le cinéma policiers. Ces films, qui reprennent certains codes du genre sans être tous à proprement parler des « films policiers », ont pour point commun de mettre en scène une enquête qui n’aboutit pas et qui se retourne contre l’enquêteur jusqu’à ébranler son identité. Ils font ainsi écho aux récits de détection dits métaphysiques (The Crying of Lot 49 de Thomas Pynchon, City of Glass de Paul Auster...) : l’indice, loin de permettre la clôture du récit, devient le moyen de son ouverture. À sa juste interprétation succède le foisonnement des lectures et des histoires possibles. Autrefois transparent, il se fait opaque ; de fluide, sa circulation devient accidentée – ce à quoi correspondent de nouvelles manières de le filmer. Les codes du genre policier visant à marquer l’indice tout en favorisant sa lisibilité et l’identification avec l’enquêteur (insert en gros plan, raccord-regard, faible profondeur de champ…) sont détournés selon diverses stratégies : inversion, exagération, etc. Celles-ci ont pour effet de déjouer les attentes des spectateurs et de les rendre inquiets en rétablissant l’incertitude fondamentale de la littérature policière, que le cinéma policier tend à minorer, tout en la mettant au service de projets esthétiques par ailleurs très différents les uns des autres. / A few American films released between 2000 and 2007 (David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE, Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Christopher Nolan’s Memento, Sean Penn’s The Pledge, Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers and David Fincher’s Zodiac) question the function, inner workings and representation of the clues on which detective fiction and film rely. These movies, which take up certain tropes of the genre without necessarily being detective films per se, all revolve around an investigation which is left incomplete and eventually turns against the investigator, to the point of shattering his or her sense of identity. They thus follow in the footsteps of metaphysical detective fiction (novels such as Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Paul Auster’s City of Glass), in that the clue, instead of bringing about the closure of the narrative, becomes the instrument of its open-endedness. Its one correct interpretation is replaced by a proliferation of possible readings and stories. Once transparent, it turns opaque; once fluid, its circulation becomes problematic – which leads to new ways of filming it. The codes that detective films use to point out the clue, increase its legibility and foster identification with the investigator (close-up insert, eyeline match, shallow focus…) are subverted through a number of strategies such as inversion and exaggeration. These aim to deceive the spectator’s expectations and to unsettle him or her by reinstating the fundamental uncertainty of detective fiction, which detective films normally tend to repress, and which is here incorporated into aesthetic projects that otherwise differ widely.

This dissertation is an in-depth critical analysis of four American films made during the 1970s, with emphasis placed on the films' construction of gender and sexuality. This dissertation draws from the tradition of queer film criticism presented in the writings of such theorists as Barbara Creed, Alexander Doty, Richard Dyer, Vito Russo, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Taking a queer perspective, these film readings explore how particular works implement queer codes and foster a sexually ambiguous world on film. While not typically included in discussions of Queer Cinema or New American Cinema, these four films, Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973), Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975), and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), exhibit a family resemblance and as a cycle are products of a particular period in American cinematic experimentation. A detailed scene-by-scene analysis is enacted in order to bring to light queer moments in the films and queer concerns of the films' makers. Raising questions about how the camera constructs character identities in these films, this study is reflective of the ways queer perspectives inflect filmmaking from this era.

Depictions of girlhood and young women in the media reflect prevailing power structures and norms. In order to understand and challenge these structures, it is important to underscore how they are produced on film. As Coppola's works tend to put the young woman and her experiences in focus, the exploration of how women are represented in her work as a female filmmaker can illuminate how she both adapts to and opposes patriarchal structures. By taking factors such as the intersectional aspects of gender, class and sexuality into consideration, a more nuanced interpretation of complex societal norms and power structures concerning young femininity can be identified.  This thesis examines the representation of young women in Coppolas three first films; The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). By using a multimodal critical discourse analysis focusing on the semiotic concepts of denotation and connotation, as well as applying an intersectional theoretical framework, the study finds similarities in the representation of young female characters in Coppola's three works. Based on the intersectional gender perspective, common depictions of women's gender, class and sexuality are made visible. The representation of the characters both challenges and reinforces patriarchal norms and social structures. Common to all young female characters is a dissatisfaction with the situations that they find themselves in due to a patriarchal social structure. Trapped by class affiliation, gender normative structures and sexual expectations, Coppola’s young women seek liberation from patriarchal structures, but despite their attempts they never fully succeed.

This dissertation attempts a Bakhtinian analysis of the polyphonic dialogue between Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Karel Schoeman's Na die Geliefde Land and Jason Xenopoulos' Promised Land. Specific Bakthinian concepts are employed to determine whether the films are "apt" adaptations of the literary texts; how the stylistically hybrid texts engage in conversation with different movements, genres and trends; how the polyphonic conversations between different texts and discourses, such as literature and film, or colonialism and postcolonialism, can provide insight into the variety of discourses, textual and ideological, of a postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa; and how identity crises experienced by key characters can be explained using the notions of hybridity, "The Marginal Man" and liminality. All four texts have key characters that experience identity crises that spring from cultural hybridity; their cultural hybridity has the potential to either render them marginally stagnant or lead them to liminally active participation within their imagined communities. This dissertation argues that even though there are major differences between the films and the literary texts they are based upon, they are relevant to a specific target audience and therefore enrich the ur-texts. Salient characteristics of realism, symbolism, impressionism, modernism, postmodernism, postcolonialism and the apocalyptic dialogise one another within the four texts, thereby liberating the texts from one authorial reading. The dialogue between the discourses of literature and film supplement an understanding of the dialogue between war, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism and the Will to Power. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:40:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 409855.pdf: 4922404 bytes, checksum: f7e36aa9b13782d1671816db83ea48f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-04 / Este trabalho examina os tr?s filmes de longa-metragem dirigidos por Sofia Coppola: As virgens suicidas (The virgin suicides, 1999), Encontros e desencontros (Lost in translation, 2003) e Maria Antonieta (Maria Antoniette, 2006), sempre protagonizados por mulheres. Nosso prop?sito ? pensar essas personagens em di?logo com a dificuldade de definir a ideia de mulher e o feminino, questionando tem?ticas de g?nero, assim como a rigidez dos esquemas culturais da identidade sexual (Judith Butler, 2001). Coppola nos permite refletir sobre a representa??o (Francesco Casetti, 1996 e Jacques Ranci?re, 2005) das mulheres, atrav?s de personagens aut?nomas e deslocadas, que vivem em ambientes opressivos. As protagonistas desses filmes est?o unidas por temas como a explora??o do erotismo e o estado de contempla??o, que s?o sintomas das sociedades contempor?neas e mostra da incerteza do sujeito