Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Philosophy. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-111). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMR11938

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

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Considered one of Northern Europe’s most renowned art film directors to date, Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson has been hailed by critics and art cinemagoers alike for his unconventional visual and narrative style. Marked by his use of long, static shots filmed in wide-angle and deep focus, Andersson’s “tableau aesthetic” is intimately linked to his idea that films, like other art forms, can have an important function in contemporary society: to provoke social and moral awareness in its audience. Aiming to counter what he considers a “fear of seriousness” and a dearth of critical contemplation in modern society and media, Andersson uses his films and his distinct tableau aesthetic to explore the key social, political and philosophical issues of our times: the human condition, the problems of modernity, and the lingering legacy of past historical traumas. This dissertation presents a study of Andersson’s aesthetic and thematic concerns. The central thesis is that his films continue and innovate key stylistic and ideological tendencies associated with modernist painting and theatre. The introductory chapter serves to justify why Andersson’s work represents a “modernist structure of feeling.” Besides giving an overview of the key ideas, themes and stylistic techniques that mark his films, the introduction explains the humanistic philosophy that is central to not only his aesthetic and thematic concerns, but also his approach to filmmaking itself. The topics that emerge from this introduction – including the function of Andersson’s distinct tableau aesthetic, the thematic richness of his films, and his position within contemporary Nordic cinema and global art cinema – serve as points of departure for the thesis proper. Chapter 1 focuses on Andersson’s tableau aesthetic, its relationship to his overall tableaux narrative structure, and the influences of pictorial arts and earlier cinematic trends on his style. The chapter discusses the director’s justification for the tableau aesthetic and narrative structure, and what it may tell us about the limits of conventional narrative cinema, and cinema’s relationship to the other arts. Chapters 2-4 explore three of the central themes in Andersson’s work: the human condition, the critique of modernity, and the lingering legacy of past historical traumas. Chapter 2 focuses on the human condition as a theme in You, the Living (Du Levande, 2007) and compares the film thematically and stylistically to the Theatre of the Absurd. Chapter 3 analyzes Songs from the Second Floor (Sånger från andra våningen, 2000) and its critique of the Swedish welfare state, modern institutions and ideologies. Meanwhile, Chapter 4 looks at the changing ways that Andersson has artistically rendered the topic of historical traumas during the course of his career. In the concluding chapter, Andersson and his films are discussed within the wider contexts of the Swedish film industry and global art cinema. This dissertation, then, has a two-fold aim: to illuminate the thematic and stylistic richness of Andersson’s much under-researched films, while also critically exploring how his films may move us towards a cinema of contemplation. / published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

Digital cinema has provoked a strong response over the last decade, not only from the movie-going public, but also from film theorists. It has re-opened basic theoretical questions about cinematic representations of and reference to reality. / This thesis begins with a critical review of the vast theoretical literature dealing with the digitization of the cinema. Most theorists have come to the conclusion that the cinema is dead because digitization has severed the ties between what we see on the screen and real life. At root, this conclusion is derived from a structuralist, nominalist position prevalent in contemporary film theory. / I argue, instead, that film theory needs to re-address the complex issue of the relationship between image and reality, rather than simply accepting the traditional view. In so doing, I follow Stanley Cavell's call for a more thorough consideration of realist traditions in film theory, the premise of which is an unquestioned relationship between representation and reality. / The complexity and subtlety of that relationship has been addressed most systematically and fruitfully by Charles Saunders Peirce. Indeed, many structuralist theorists have made reference to Peirce in response to the shortcomings of a semiologically inflected film theory. In the second step of my argument, however, I show that structuralist theory has produced misleading conclusions, since a Peircian semiotics is incommensurable with the structuralist position. In fact, this implicit conflict has led theorists to doubt the real in the digital cinema, rather than investigating the logically necessary continuity of reality and representation, regardless of its technological kind.

The "roadkill" films are part of a sub-genre of the more popular road film genre. Recently there has been a large number of extremely violent films featuring couples on the run. The reason behind the emergence and popularity of the "roadkill" genre can be understood through an aesthetic analysis. Chapter one examines the aesthetics and affective characteristics of the extreme violence within this sub-genre of film. This chapter refers to the works of Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, as well as Rene Girard. Chapter two explores the postmodern aesthetic of the roadside iconography by using authors such as Jean Baudrillard and Robert Venturi. The third chapter considers the aesthetics of contemporary youth as well as the soundtracks of four of the main "roadkill" films: Kalifornia, Love and a.45, Natural Born Killers, and True Romance. By considering the aesthetic elements of the "roadkill" film, one can understand the timely emergence of this genre.

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Teachers College, Columbia University, 1990. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Carla Seal-Wanner. Dissertation Committee: Robert McClintock. Includes bibliographical references: (leaves 176-178).

Orientador: Laymert Garcia dos Santos / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T16:09:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Junqueira_JoanaBenetton_D.pdf: 2135599 bytes, checksum: 7428703bffe17d9132b37cd9579f1844 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Este estudo é uma etnografia do contato. Os cineastas, produtores culturais, paulistanos localizados na zona centro-oeste da cidade, com as pessoas, lugares e histórias que escolhem abordar em seus filmes. Direcionado principalmente pela análise, observação e escuta sobre três filmes produzidos na cidade, como também por uma pesquisa de campo intensa e extensa da cena cultural de São Paulo, revela como os parâmetros técnicos envolvidos na produção audiovisual e na elaboração de uma narrativa mediam as relações que os moradores da zona centro-oeste estabelecem com outros mundos possíveis. Relações que são necessariamente mediadas pelas máquinas de sons e imagens com capacidade mimética de reprodução e revelação de um mundo. Que mundo potencializam em seus filmes? Como são afetados por esses mundos? O que fica da experiência do contato nos filmes que assistimos nas grandes telas da cidade? E o que transborda para o seu cotidiano na zona oeste paulistana? São algumas das perguntas que procuramos abordar / Abstract: This study is a ethnography of contact. Of filmmakers and cultural producers from São Paulo to the people, places and stories they address in their films. Guided by the analysis, the observation and the attention on three films produced in the city, as well as by an intensive and extensive fieldwork in São Paulo¿s cultural scene. Reveals how the technical parameters in audiovisual production mediates the relationships that the inhabitants of the centre-west region of the city establish with other possible worlds; relationships that are necessarily mediated by machines that register sounds and images with capacity to reproduce mimetically and to reveal worlds. What worlds they potentialise in their films? How are they affected by these worlds? What remains of the experience of contact with extreme alterity in the films we watch in the big screen? And what floods into their daily lives in São Paulo? Are a few of the questions we unravelled / Doutorado / Ciencias Sociais / Doutora em Ciências Sociais