Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/73BNT#0
Thomas Gunning, "An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator" (UBLearns)
The main argument presented in Gunning's writing is a summarization of the experience of early cinema. It would be hard to compare early cinema with what we have today; indeed we cannot place ourselves in the shoes of those experiencing a moving image for the first time, unless we were able to remember our first movie, and most students of film in modern times experiences this before they were able to form concrete memories. However, should we attempt, we could see it as an attraction, almost like a circus show: something entertaining to go and see, but nothing one can immerse oneself in. This is the idea of Gunning's "Cinema of Attractions," the spectator is always aware it is viewing something, but there is no immersion - the spectator is incredulous. "This is a cinema of instants, rather than developing situations," p. 123.
Maxim Gorky, "On the visit to the Kingdom of Shadows" (UBLearns)
Maxim Gorky, after a bit of research, was a founder of socialist realism – a style of realistic art that was meant to depict socialism in a favorable light. Using this as lens when examining Gorky’s writing can create some interesting connections. In this piece, Gorky is lamenting the falseness of the filmic image, lauding it as dull, lifeless, a mere distraction from reality due to its inability to depict life – in a Russia that is looking for the “piquant,” this is a tasteless distraction. His prediction that the medium will inevitably devolve into pornography is strangely prophetic, but in light of his feelings that art should change the world (increasing socialist tendencies), an art form that does nothing but depict life as it is could not survive in a climate of discerning tastes.
Andre Bazin, "The Ontology of the Photographic Image" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 159-166)
Andre Bazin’s argument in this piece is twofold. Firstly, Bazin states that photography and cinema is an accomplishment in that it has freed the traditional arts from their incessant need to replicate nature, exactly as it is. The technology and artistry required to depict nature with increasing accuracy has culminated with photography allowing it to be as exactly as it is. Secondly, Bazin is stating that it would be foolish to think that the introduction of color and sound to the then black-and-white film is the crowning culmination of cinematic prowess – indeed, it is only a distraction that is taking away from cinema as anart instead of simply as recreation of nature. An obsession with technological advancement only serves to detract from the art form itself, and as such, cinema “has not yet been invented.
Stanley Cavell, "Photograph and Screen" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 304-305)
Cavell, in this piece, is lamenting the barrier that is created as a result of the disconnect the photographic apparatus creates. The camera is merely adepiction of the world as it is – a world with no creator. The edges of the screen fit this depiction into a neat block, but the screen itself is blocking the spectator from the world – he is merely that, spectator. A painting, in contrast, has a creator that could easily tell you what is beyond the edges of the painting – and indeed may relish the opportunity.
Gerald Mast, "Projection" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 299-303)
Projection, as Mast goes to say in this piece, is an integral piece of what makes cinema the art form it is. One can compare identical performances of the same play, broadcast live over television, performed live in front of an audience, or project on a film strip in a movie theatre, and the experience is very different every time. The act of projecting a film calls attention to its creation, the process used to do so, the possibly meticulous thought the filmmaker had to take in order to piece together this piece for consumption. While projection, as he deems, is “automatic,” that is to say, it is not the filmmakers job to produce a method through which his films will be displayed, the actual creation of the film is not.
Sergey Eisenstein, "From Film Form" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 13-40)
Eisenstein’s first argument in this piece is that of montage. Using a comparison to Japanese script culture, he states that a summary of two images is more than the sum of its parts – indeed an entirely new meaning is derived from the placement of one image precedent or antecedent to another. The depiction of each shot, its framing, the amount of time devoted to it, and numerous other factors contribute to its importance in meaning for the film and the viewer. In addition to this, the mere absence of movement, or lack of transition to new shots is not a lack of montage. A summary of conflicts, of lines, forms, volumes, and space equate to the meaning of the juxtaposed image.
Rudolf Arnheim, "The Complete Film" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 167-170)
Arnheim, in this writing, is speaking of the progression of films’ “completeness,” that is to say, the achieving of the goals of technological advancement, e.g. film with sound, color film, 3D film, etc. While he is stating that the introduction of sound to film “killed” the silent film, he is also stating that it does not necessarily need to be this way. A silent film may still stand tall over a sounded film, indeed the art form has hardly been mastered, and future iterations of silent film may yet be more well-rounded artistic pieces than sounded or colored films. He also states that technology that may increase the amount of control a filmmaker has over its content – as an artist has over the paints he chooses – may further the art form yet.
"Film and Reality" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 282-286)
Arhneim’s writing here is concerned with the differences between film and reality, notably the senses. He begins with a question of representation, from what position must an object be photographed in order to be ascertained as real? Indeed it is a matter of personal choice as to what defining characteristic should be shown above all others. In addition to this, he is concerned with a lack of depth perception, created from our two-eyed perspective and the cameras’ “one-eyed,” the movement of the picture creates a false three-dimensionality, almost a “2.5 D” image. Stimuli are present in film as well, one may have sounds signified by images (or smells or tastes), but the stimuli is not “missed,” it is understood in a different depth.
Stan Brakhage, "From Metaphors on Vision" (UBLearns)
Brakhage, in his Metaphors on Vision, paints a thick picture of the nature of cinema and personified vision. He demonizes those that would use the filmic medium solely as representation of real life, and those that would “break popcorn” over it – as Brakhage sees it, the projection of one’s own self on the lies of Hollywood movies is akin to the pornographic, a delusion at best. Brakhage goes on to tout impressionistic filmic practices, as demonstrated in his own films, deliberate distortion of the film image. He calls into question the absolute truth that film is said to portray, that the realism of this is no more real than a distorted version of his destroyed film strips.
William Siska, "Metacinema as Modern Necessity" (UBLearns)
Metacinema, as Siska points out, is a reflexive form of film that purposefully calls attention to the act of creating it. This can be done either by the medium reflecting upon itself (e.g. film shows the edges of a filmstrip), or a reflection upon the artist itself (e.g. turning the camera on the one holding it). This is not an attempt to destroy the illusion or expose the process of production, but rather an inside look into the actual workings of the process. This can even be used to add depth to a narrative by giving the camera a personality, or using the camera as the eyes of a character.
Bela Balasz, "The Close Up/The Face of Man" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 273-281)
In The Close Up, Balasz reveals the close up camera shot to be a revealing quality that shows us “the secret life of little things.” Things that we don’t normally see, are typically just a facet of a much larger, dimmed outline can be brought to life. Shadows on the wall can be transformed from a mere absence of light to characters in a dazzling display of liveliness, almost a form of visual poetry. In The Face of Man, Balasz we are shown the close up of the face as an exposition of the function of facial expression, an oft-overlooked and highly expressive medium in and of itself. A line is drawn to music, we can’t only have the long, drawn-out notes that are standard shots, the close-up is the staccato beat that draws the listener in. At the same time, the face can tell an entire story itself in its own mute monologue.
Gilles Deleuze, "Affection Image" (UBLearns)
Deleuze, following Balasz’s piece, focuses again on the close-up, but this time more on its psychological affect than its visual merit. Any object, up close, that seems to have expression is said to be “staring” at the audience, interacting with the observer – a clock, ticking slowly, makes the observer anxious and want to stare away. The face, therefore, has two poles – immobility and mobility, wonder and desire, and if a face embodies one of these opposites we are affected when it shifts to its opposing characteristic. Following along with the ideas of Eisenstein’s montage, it is this shift, juxtaposition of two extremes that speaks the volumes requested. Deleuze goes on to include an idea similar to Cavell, saying that we are given a “cut-off” version of the object, simply because of the nature of the close-up, and the space behind it must be included or alluded to in order to be believable.
Christian Metz, "Identification, Mirror. The Passion for Perceiving. Disavowal, Fetishism" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 820-831)
Metz’s first writing, Identification, Mirror, has to do with the Freudian idea of self-identification within the mirror. The film becomes a screen, and the subject is capable of identification with every object on the screen with the exception of itself; they are not present on the screen. This contrasts with a child’s view of the mirror, and a strange ability to identify with the images depicted is the result, contingent upon the signifiers pieced together in the image. These strange psychological phenomena are unconscious to the viewer, but very important in the experience of cinema. Amongst these phenomena is the desire to see (scopophilia, voyeurism), while remaining at a distance – we can see the acts on the screen and are relieved to be indetectable – for detection is punishment, and the punishment is castration (being made to lack).
Jean-Louis Baudry, "The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 206-224)
Baudry decides to use Plato’s allegory of the cave and combined, with psychoanalytic theory, derive the state of the spectator. The “apparatus,” as it were, is the projector – the means through which cinema is implanted in our psyche. The spectator employs the mind of a newborn fetus, all sensation accepted, an impression of reality created – but just that, an impression. It satisfies a need for the lost nostalgic ability to experience newness, which steadily declines since emergence from the womb, only being sated by the activity of dreaming – dream is a projection, and the dream screen is that of the cinemas.
Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 837-849)
Mulvey is a feminist writer who speaks, along with Metz, of Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. She confers with Metz that the cinema can be viewed as a representation of scopophilia, but polarizes this isn’t the active male and the passive female, but also fetishizes scopophilia as narcissism, by projecting oneself onto the screen we can see “ourselves” – the idealized self. Mulvey goes on to say the male (masculine) is segregated as the driver of the story, those that “make things happen,” even if a female were to do so on screen it would be a result of the masculine energies within. It is the female lack that permits the male spectator to look down upon them with an omnipotent gaze – that which pleasure is derived from.
Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (Braudy/Cohen pp. 791-812)
Benjamin, in this piece, addresses the issues arisen from mechanical reproduction of art, both through history and modernity. He states that a reproduction automatically lacks its presence in time and space – its reason for being at the given moment it was introduced into creation: as such, it will always have depreciated. Human sense perception morphs over the course of history as well, meaning any art may never be appreciated outside of its context – be that evolution of palate, tradition, culture, technology, or anything of these natures. The spectator, therefore, finds it difficult to place themselves into the same psychological space as the spectator of the original work.
Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses
Chapter 1 – Cinema as Window and Frame
The first and most obvious frame as constructed within cinema is that of the screen itself. Within the frame are the objects depicted, but what is outside the frame? Without any additional sensory knowledge, the world can be said to be completely eliminated beyond this. Within the frame of the screen, however, exist other frames – those which serve to separate, accentuate, give meaning. The window through which we view the world of the visual can be chosen by the author, as well – by placing specific shots in sequence, or specific areas of shots next to others – meaning can be juxtaposed through these concurrent images.
Chapter 2 – Cinema as Door – Screen and Threshold
Much like the use of window and frame, the use of the screen as a literal “threshold” serves to give meaning to the cinematic representation of the visual, however, instead of asserting juxtaposition of meaning from framing, it is by separating a more ephemeral quality – that of inside and outside. Depicted on the screen can be a door to a rainy day outside – inside represents shelter, safety, warmth, and outside represents danger. However, the screen itself can be representational of the threshold through which the observer must pass in order to place themselves in the cinema – to experience the sensorium that the cinema depicts, they must step through the screen into the world.
Chapter 3 – Cinema as Mirror and Face
The cinema , represented as mirror, is the look one places upon oneself when confronted with an image of themselves. This harkens back to psychology – the first time a child develops a sense of self is when they are first placed within eyesight of their own bodies, the first time they are shown a mirror. The baby then becomes self-conscious – and begins to idealize themselves. Confronted with the screen, a self-reflexivity is born: the observer may see themselves in the cinema. They may place themselves in the place of the characters on screen, or may see themselves as the characters on screen. In this way the cinema becomes a representation of themselves – idealized or not.
Chapter 4 – Cinema as Eye – Look and Gaze
As opposed to the aspect of seeing oneself in the cinema – as described in chapter 3 – look and gaze is far more of a scopophilic, peeping tom aspect. The audience, instead of trying to represent themselves as an idealized character on the screen, instead uses this as a means through which they may observe others. From this the "male gaze" is developed, the concept that those observing films naturally take on the perspective of a man - that of peeping tom. The act of looking upon that which a viewer would normally not be privy to brings about great pleasure in an onlooker.
Chapter 5 – Cinema as Skin and touch
Bringing us out of the sense of sight - the sense of touch and tactility is one that plays a large role in ones feelings toward a film. The touching of skin together is an act of trust - or it can be an act of great violation. For instance, consensual lovemaking scenes depicted in a film are that of trust and security, it is a "wanted" touch. When two people come together it can instill a great sense of pleasure in an audience - but the flip-side, the unwanted touch, can instill great terror. When a character is touched in an unwanted fashion, such as rape or murder in a horror genre for example, the feeling of touch is violating and will turn the audience to terror.
Chapter 6 – Cinema as Ear – Acoustics and Space
When turning the senses away from the eye and skin, the ear, included into the cinematic sensorium with the advent of sound technology, can play a large role in one's perception of the film. With the addition of sound, the space which a film occupies may be expanded beyond the immediate visual representation - a sound may come from off-screen, for example, or not even be represented as a physical object; a non-existent narrator may use their voice over the film, for example. Sound takes on its own quality and takes the space into the auditorium/theatre the viewer is in, and it is no longer bound by the frame of the screen.
Chapter 7 – Cinema as Brain – Mind and Body
Cinema as mind and body combines many of the previous chapters, including the senses in the mind is a key aspect, however this has more to deal with the psychological than the physiological. A film as mind evolves with the viewer as they learn more of the information about the film - the mind-game film is a prime example of this, as the viewer is invited to create the world with their own mind, and only throughout the films explanation does this image crystallize and the viewer is given the clear image of what the true narrative is. A viewer is therefore invited to "become" the film, to embody the very celluloid itself and think as if it were it.
Cynthia Freeland, “Feminist Frameworks for Horror Films.” Braudy and Cohen, pp. 627
In this essay, Freeland exposes feminist film theories as applied to the horror genre. First, Cynthia uses Laura Mulvey’s framework for explaining feminism in horror – firstly, women are generally the initial victim sacrificed to the narrative. When the female dies, it is turned to the male to investigate and continue the story. The viewers take upon the male gaze – that is to say, they are representing the male viewpoint in being still alive and wanting to solve the mystery and defeat the monster. Freeland goes on to use a theme of abjection – that using Freudian psychoanalysis can explain the horror evolved from displaying of flesh and destruction of the mother, however, this is not always the case. Freeland proposes her own framework, which comprises an “extra-filmic” which is feminism outside of the film – societal and historical influences, and “intra-filmic,” the female as portrayed in the film. Freeland states that intra-filmic representation should be analyzed for their gender ideology, and not as much from the outsiders perspective.
Linda Williams, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess.” Braudy and Cohen, pp. 602
Williams uses this essay to explain certain key features of film. First, she speaks of excess – that is, an exceptional representation of films she dubs as “gross.” These include horror (gratuitous violence), pornography (gratuitous sex), and melodrama (gratuitous emotions.) These are considered sensational “body” genres, because they affect the body in extreme ways. In addition to this, Williams approaches feminist theories through a similar psychoanalytic theory as Freeland – she argues that the male energy is utilized through spectatorship of the horror genre – that the weapons used represent the phallus, and by a female taking this and using it against her killer, she is castrating him and reversing her “lack.”
Barbara Creed, “Kristeva, Femininity, Abjection.” UBLearns.
Kristeva uses Freudian psychology, along with other psychological concepts, to explain the horror genre and how the body causes abjection to the audience, creating the concept of fear. The fluids of the body are explained as foreign when appearing outside of it – a shameful thing. This includes of course blood, semen, saliva, breast milk, and any other fluid of the body. The presence of these threatens that which is “whole” and “proper,” subverting the mother-father authoritative stance. One of the ultimate horror-film depictions is that of cannibalism, the act of taking that which is not a part of the body and making it one with yourself. Kristeva explains that the psychological abjection arises from the defilement of the mother in the infant stage.
Jennifer Barker, “Pleasure.” UBLearns.
Barker, in this essay, describes touch as an act of pleasure. The wanted touch – a caress, loving, soft and warm, is related to in many genres of film. As a character touches one another, the viewer feels the pleasure of this. When the touch is to an object, and the films emphasis is placed on that object, we can “feel” the tactility of that object, sense the texture of its skin. This touch can be used to evoke many feelings in addition to pleasure – longing (the touch of a scorned lover upon an old photograph), joy (the same touch of these lovers when they are physically present), grief (holding the hand of a loved one at their death bed), among many others. It is this touch that evokes these feelings – the sense of touch is that of closeness, whereas sight and hearing are “noble” senses – that which are perceivable from a distance.
Jennifer Barker, “Horror.” UBLearns.
Piggybacking off of her previous essay, “Pleasure,” this piece is about the unwanted touch – as Walter Benjamin states, “all disgust is originally disgust at touching.” The unwanted touch is that of a stranger – permeating the safety bubble through which people operate. While seeing and hearing another person can be done at a distance and are generally not construed as horrific – unless they are done with an obvious “touch-like” quality, i.e. they are imagining making love to you – the unwanted touch can result in fear. There is a sense of “contagion” through the unwanted touch – the person doesn’t know what the touch of this person can mean, or is intended to mean. In this sense, the skin is permeated, the barrier between the outside world and the inside “self” is crossed.
Jennifer Barker, “Film’s Skin.” UBLearns.
In this essay, Barker uses skin – the envelope that wraps every human being – as a metaphor for the method through which people interact with the film. The skin functions as a barrier between the outside and the inside world – that is to say, it keeps out the unwanted, but there are also methods through which it can be permeated. When permeated, it can be wanted – sexual intercourse – or unwanted, rape, impalement, etc. To understand a film, a viewer must “work with it,” allow themselves to enter it to understand. The skin functions simultaneously as expression and perception and has a texture of its own – the film perceives, but this act is invisible. The film acts as like light – it comes and washes over the skin like waves or particles.
Nicholas Wong, “The Carnal Hand and Fetishism in Wong Kar Wai’s The Hand.” UBLearns.
Wong, in this essay, focuses on Wong Kar Wai’s The Hand, specifically how the sense of touch is evoked in it. This film takes extensive use of a fetishized hand – that which is used for sexual purposes. In The Hand, Wong Kar Wai depicts the main character not as sexual through traditional methods – intercourse – but through his own touch. Zhang, the main character, is in love with Mrs. Hua, who in modern terms could be described as a high-class escort. His refrain from sexual acts with her can be remarked as an avoidance of contagion – she could be infected from her numerous sexual encounters, and indeed, she ends up with SARS during the epidemic spreading through China.
Laura Marks, “Embodied Perception and Embodied Spectatorship.” UBLearns.
Marks postulates that a film is not merely experienced through the obvious visual and aural senses, but perceived through “embodiment.” The viewer places themselves within the sensorium of the onscreen characters, experiencing all that the character experiences – their touch is the viewers touch, their sight is the viewers (even when the object seen is not on screen), their smell the viewers smell, etc. Vision of film is not merely vision but is multisensory. However, the information is passed through the spectator’s brain, not the mind of the actor on screen – and so all senses are passed through a societal and psychological “filter,” it takes on a personal meaning with each person that watches. An image may recall memories within the mind of the viewer, evoking both the cerebral aspect (the formal understanding of the memory) as well as the emotional. The relationship, therefore, is symbiotic – film shapes sense, mind shapes meaning. Later, Marks postulates that by using special effects and lighting, they may ignite the freeplay sense of the viewer – allowing them to believe in that which would normally be impossible.
Mary Ann Doane, “Voice-off and Voiceover.” Braudy and Cohen, pp. 318
In this essay, Doane initially addresses the source of audio as either on or off the screen – that first voices must be identified as being present actually within the rectangular space of the screen, or whether it is merely a presence in the room. The literal space of the room is represented by multiple analogies – the space of the diegesis (the virtual space constructed by the film), the space of the screen (the actual rectangular framing of the film), or the actual acoustical sphere of the theater or auditorium.
S. Eisenstein, V. Pudovkin and G. Alexandrov, “Statement on Sound.” Braudy and Cohen, pp. 315
The three authors of this essay are Russian filmmakers. The USSR, at the time of this writing, did not have as many avenues for displaying film – and as a result the film genre had to expand in creative ways. One way this was achieved was through the creative use of montage – indeed, Sergey Eisenstein is credited for being a strong proponent in his Battleship Potemkin. The advent of sound, however, was a double-edged sword – its initial creation would stifle the creativity showcased in visual-only cinema and become “gimmicky.” The integration of sound into juxtaposition of image will detract from current montage mainstays and it will need to be adjusted.
John Belton, “Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound.” Braudy and Cohen, pp. 331
As technology is changed, Belton notes, the authenticity of sound as a representation of reality is lessened. This is a result of the constant addition of elements – first music, then sound effects. Indeed even voices are no longer recorded on-set, they are recorded in a separate room for “quality” – but these are not what was done “in the moment.” The visual aspect, however, took longer to catch up to the ability of sound to be manipulated. Sound thus lacks objectivity, because it is merely an attribute – an adjective, thus not an object itself. Even the Dolby system of editing sounds cuts out certain pitch zones and makes sounds “unnatural” – much like the film eye can be viewed as “unnatural” as well. Indeed even today, as video cameras become able to show the world with more and more clarity, it is somewhat unwanted – videos in 60 frames per second are more likened to home movies than cinema.
Michel Chion, “The Acousmetre.” UBLearns.
Chion describes the addition of audio to film as relating to that of this sense at infancy – while a child may not always see their mother, they almost certainly will always be touching or hearing them, thus these senses are tied in with sight. Sound created the ability to hear things that are not visible on screen – acousmatic means a sound that is heard but its source is not seen. Experimentation with this began immediately after visualized sound was utilized. When we hear a voice that is not attached to a face, we must imagine this face – to this we attach the name Acousmetre. This carries many special powers – it can instill fear or act as God. If we do not know from whence the sound came, we must imagine its visage – however, once the acousmetre shows itself, it is “de-acousmatized.”
David Bordwell, “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice.” pp. 649
Bordwell, in this piece, describes the difference between “Art Cinema” and Hollywood cinema techniques. The classical narrative cinema, he says, has a characteristic narrative structure, cinematic style, and spectatorial activity. The art cinema specifically defines itself against this structure, motivating narrative instead by realism and expression of the author him/herself. The art film also relies upon psychological causation – characters, and their effects on one another, are a central theme. Authors leave their own “marks” on films – specific settings, themes or modes of representation are often common throughout their works.
Hugo Munsterberg, “The Means of the Photoplay.” UBLearns.
Munsterberg explains the means through which the Photoplay is experienced through the viewers’ perspective in this essay. He likens it to that of Greek drama and comedy, insofar as events are often depicted as in chronological order – while different acts may be spread many years out in the story, they are often presented in order. The mind of the observer can piece together the chronology of the piece – but this can be beaten by “triumphing” over causality. By removing unity of action – that of characters by changing relationships, interrupting the flow of events by including other timelines – the narrative can be changed in the mind of the viewer.
Christian Metz, “Aural Objects.” UBLearns.
Metz, in this essay, explains how the presence of an object and the sound that object emits are generally not perceived as two distinct entities, but are seen as their combined presence. There are two categories of sounds as a result of this, on-screen and off-screen. It can be harkened to societal constrictions that auditory senses are not present on their own – the accompanying visual image must be there to be perceived.
Thomas Elsaesser, “The Mind-Game Film.” UBLearns.
In The Mind-Game Film, Elsaesser describes how films may take advantage of misinformation or lack of information to create a “game” which the characters – and the viewers play along with them. Many examples are present throughout film history: The Game, Se7en, and Fight Club directed by David Fincher, as well as many others. These films create puzzles which the viewers attempt to solve – despite the action of the narrator or camera. Films can create a false sense of knowledge by creating scenes which the viewer may place in incorrect chronological order – or may be unrelated entirely.
Alice Cross, “Portraying the Rhythm of the Vietnamese Soul.” UBLearns.
This piece is an interview with Tran Anh Hung, artist behind The Scent of Green Papaya. The interview touches upon many interesting subjects portrayed in the film, first venturing to the personal significant to Hung – many of the women in the film are defined based upon the authors mother. Hung wanted to establish a “rhythm” of the Vietnamese – according to Hung, the Vietnamese people need not use rational communication, but rather have a nonspoken communication. Hung then addresses certain key taboo subjects touched upon in the film – such as Mui’s subversion of Khuyen’s engagement to a very Western-like Vietnamese woman.
Anne Bower, “Watching Food: the Production of Food, Film and Values.” UBLearns.
Bower takes a stance in this essay that food bears a special representation in film. By studying the history of food as depicted in various cinematic avenues, its meaning has changed throughout the ages as technology advanced. In earlier years, food was shown but its meaning bore less significance – it was used as a tool with which to create the film, much like the cameras on the set, but as technology became more advanced and the world changed with ever-increasing rapidity, food served as a cultural constant – the preparation and consumption of food still carried with it the old-time feeling of dedication to an art form and harkening back to simpler days. The consumption of food, however, can serve as a representation of consumption in any culture – if you eat lavishly and without regard, you are a consumer of the highest greed, but sensible eating makes characters more relatable.
Michael Ashkenazi, “Food, Play, Business and the Image of Japan in Itami Juzo’s Tampopo.” UBLearns.
Ashkenazi describes many of the themes used in Itami Juzo’s Tampopo in this essay. He argues that the film, while set in Japan, depicts many foodstuffs that is not culturally significant to Japanese culture. The film centers around noodles – which, while sometimes construed as Japanese in nature, the ones prepared in the film are not Japanese but rather of other Asian cultures. The whole film can be shown as a comment on food culture – Tampopo shows rich, supposedly well-cultured businessmen stuck in a group mentality ordering boring foods, equivalent to the “fettucine alfredo” of American chain restaurants, whereas there is a group of homeless individuals who are very well-cultured in foods. It serves as a commentary on traditional Japanese cultural levels and castes.
