Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2010. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 286-288).

Målet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka likheter och skillnader det finns i klippningen av actionsekvenser i filmer producerade i Hollywood och Hongkong. Analysen i uppsatsen bygger på Barry Salts analysmetod för att få fram en sekvens ASL (Average shot length). För att en scen ska få analyseras så måste den innehålla Dancygers fyra kriterier som behövs i en actionsekvens. Den statistik som samlas in jämförs sedan för att få fram vilka skillnader och likheter det finns i klippningen. Resultatet visar att klippningen av sekvenserna är relativt lika varandra men ger ändå olika upplevelser. Detta på grund utav att det är så pass många olika faktorer som spelar in i hur en actionsekvens skapas.

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.

No description available.

The stories in this collection exist somewhere between the formalist and the fabulist. I use writing to explore topics that interest me such as beauty, movies, reality, and mothers. I hope these stories are ingrained with unexpected surprises and humor. There are elements of absurdism in my stories. However, my work is not an artifact of a political or philosophical ideal. My work is an artifact of who I am. / Master of Fine Arts

Sunset Boulevard (Crepúsculo dos Deuses, EUA) foi coescrito e dirigido pelo cineasta Billy Wilder (1906-2002), entrando em cartaz em 1950 período marcado pela ascensão do macarthismo nos Estados Unidos. Para burlar a censura imposta pelo Red Scare, o filme apresenta diversas possibilidades de interpretação, as quais serão perseguidas ao longo da análise. Dentre elas, observa-se o melodrama aos moldes hollywoodianos; um panorama da transição do cinema mudo ao sonoro (e suas implicações); um mapeamento das forças produtivas na indústria cinematográfica norte-americana; a proposta de uma organização de trabalho colaborativa (em oposição à hierárquica e alienada, estabelecida pelo fordismo); e a própria censura do Red Scare, que se faz presente por sua ausência. Duas formas de trabalho são apresentadas ao espectador (e ao protagonista) o trabalho alienado e o trabalho colaborativo e são utilizadas estratégias para expô-las e contrapô-las através da articulação de diversos recursos (como foco narrativo, instâncias narrativas, objetos cênicos etc.). Assim, é possível efetuar um mapeamento das opções que se desenham ao protagonista. Desta maneira, serão demonstradas não apenas quais possibilidades apresentadas foram adotadas (ou abandonadas) pelo protagonista e quais estratégias narrativas foram utilizadas para corroborá-las, mas também as implicações e consequências históricas de suas escolhas / Sunset Boulevard (USA) was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder (1906-2002), being released in 1950 a period well-known for the ascension of McCarthyism in the United States. In order to fool the censorship imposed by the Red Scare, the movie presents several layers of interpretation which will be pursued during the analysis. Among them, there is a typical Hollywood melodrama; a panorama of the silent film transition to the talkies (and its implications); a mapping of the labor force in the North-American cinematographic industry; the proposal of a collaborative work organization (in opposition to a hierarchic and alienated one, established by fordism); and the censorship imposed by the Red Scare itself, which appears through its absence. Two forms of work are presented to the spectator (and to the main character) the alienated work and the collaborative work and strategies are used in order to expose and counter them through the articulation of a plethora of devices (such as point of view, narrative instances, props etc.). Therefore, it is possible to map the options presented to the protagonist. Thus, not only which possibilities presented were adopted (or abandoned) by the main character and which narrative strategies were used to support them will be demonstrated, but also the implications and historical consequences of his choices

Cette thèse s'intéresse aux films américains réalisés en réponse à l'implication de l'armée nationale au Moyen-Orient depuis le début des années 2000. Elle cherchera à prouver que ces films sont intrinsèquement différents de ceux réalisés aux États-Unis en réponse à des conflits antérieurs.L'étude historique du cinéma de guerre américain montre qu'il a traversé un processus qui l'a conduit à partir d'un cinéma qui considère les guerres américaines comme des guerres obligatoires vers un cinéma qui considère les guerres américaines comme des guerres de choix, provoquées par une addiction : l'addiction de la société américaine et surtout des hommes américains au combat. Contrairement aux films sur la guerre du Vietnam, les nouveaux films ne pointent pas un doigt accusateur vers un élément particulier, tel qu'un mandat spécifique d'un certain président, mais vers toute la structure de la société américaine et surtout vers sa tête, le père américainAinsi, le cinéma sur la guerre en Irak est beaucoup plus percutant dans ses messages sur le lien entre la société américaine et son militarisme, davantage encore que le précédent cinéma de guerre, qui avait déjà été très critique de l'armée et la société américaines. / This thesis examines American films which were made in response to US military involvement in the Middle East, since the beginning of the 2000s. It will seek to prove that these films are different than those made in the United States in response to previous conflicts. The historical study of American war cinema shows that it has undergone a process of evolution - from a cinema which views American wars as those of necessity, to a cinema which views American wars as wars of choice. Lately, it has gone even further than that – birthing films which present American wars as events caused by the American society, in order to fulfill the needs of the people who head it - fighting-addicted American men. This process can be said to have expanded the subjects dealt with by the American war cinema.Thus, the cinema about the Iraq War is much more poignant than representations of past wars, in its messages about the connection between American society and its militarism. It manages to surpass all previous war cinema, which in itself had been the most critical towards American army and society.

In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir refers to the lands of Mordor as the place where evil never sleeps. Cinematic evil itself never sleeps, always arising in new forms, to the extent that there exist as many types of evil as there are films. This thesis examines this constantly shifting construction of evil in American popular cinema between 1989 and 2002 - roughly, the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attack on the World Trade Center - and how this cinema engaged with representations of enemies and of evil per se. The thesis uses content and thematic analysis on a sample of the 201 most successful films at the U.S. box office during the period. In these films, cinematic evil is constructed according to a visual aesthetic that attempts to engage with societal values, but fails to do so due to the emphasis on its visual construction and its commodification. As Baudrillard argues, evil has become a hollow concept devoid of meaning, and this is especially so for cinematic evil. It is recognised, and is recognisable, by the visual excessiveness of its violence (or potentiality for violence), and by certain codes that are created in reference to intertextual patterns and in relationship to discourses of paranoia and malaise. But cinema in this period failed to engage with the concept of evil itself in any meaningful way. Cinematic evil mirrors the descent into the chaos and disorder of a postmodern society. All cinematic evil can do is to connect with this sense of unease in which the 'reality of evil' cannot be represented. Instead, it draws on earlier icons and narratives of evil in a conflation of narrative and spectacle that produces a cinema of nostalgia. Moreover, stripped of narrative causality, these films express a belief, unproved and unprovable, that evil things and evil people may arise in any form, in any place and at any time: a cinema of paranoia. Together, these factors produce a cinema of malaise, perpetually confronting an evil it is unable to define or locate.

This study is a comparative analysis of how Hollywood portrays people from the Middle East before and after 9/11. The films used to conduct this study are True Lies (1994), The Siege (1998), The Kingdom (2007) and Body of Lies (2008). With a qualitative methodology, discourse analysis and postcolonial theory this study analysed not only how people from the Middle East is portrayed, but also how the Americans in the films are presented and how the characters in the films changed in the movies produced after 9/11.      The results show that people from the Middle East are portrayed in a negative way and that Hollywood uses stereotypes. However, people from the Middle East are more gradated in the films post-9/11. There is a bigger focus on Islam in the movies produced after 9/11 and the study also shows that family values play a less central part in the story in the films made after 9/11 and that work is of more importance. The American characters have a greater need to help their country in the war against terrorists in the films produced after 9/11 compared to the American characters in the films made before 9/11.

Sunset Boulevard (Crepúsculo dos Deuses, EUA) foi coescrito e dirigido pelo cineasta Billy Wilder (1906-2002), entrando em cartaz em 1950 período marcado pela ascensão do macarthismo nos Estados Unidos. Para burlar a censura imposta pelo Red Scare, o filme apresenta diversas possibilidades de interpretação, as quais serão perseguidas ao longo da análise. Dentre elas, observa-se o melodrama aos moldes hollywoodianos; um panorama da transição do cinema mudo ao sonoro (e suas implicações); um mapeamento das forças produtivas na indústria cinematográfica norte-americana; a proposta de uma organização de trabalho colaborativa (em oposição à hierárquica e alienada, estabelecida pelo fordismo); e a própria censura do Red Scare, que se faz presente por sua ausência. Duas formas de trabalho são apresentadas ao espectador (e ao protagonista) o trabalho alienado e o trabalho colaborativo e são utilizadas estratégias para expô-las e contrapô-las através da articulação de diversos recursos (como foco narrativo, instâncias narrativas, objetos cênicos etc.). Assim, é possível efetuar um mapeamento das opções que se desenham ao protagonista. Desta maneira, serão demonstradas não apenas quais possibilidades apresentadas foram adotadas (ou abandonadas) pelo protagonista e quais estratégias narrativas foram utilizadas para corroborá-las, mas também as implicações e consequências históricas de suas escolhas / Sunset Boulevard (USA) was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder (1906-2002), being released in 1950 a period well-known for the ascension of McCarthyism in the United States. In order to fool the censorship imposed by the Red Scare, the movie presents several layers of interpretation which will be pursued during the analysis. Among them, there is a typical Hollywood melodrama; a panorama of the silent film transition to the talkies (and its implications); a mapping of the labor force in the North-American cinematographic industry; the proposal of a collaborative work organization (in opposition to a hierarchic and alienated one, established by fordism); and the censorship imposed by the Red Scare itself, which appears through its absence. Two forms of work are presented to the spectator (and to the main character) the alienated work and the collaborative work and strategies are used in order to expose and counter them through the articulation of a plethora of devices (such as point of view, narrative instances, props etc.). Therefore, it is possible to map the options presented to the protagonist. Thus, not only which possibilities presented were adopted (or abandoned) by the main character and which narrative strategies were used to support them will be demonstrated, but also the implications and historical consequences of his choices