Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai - Dramatica
Not a member yet
283 research outputs found
Sort by
Performing Archives: Documentary Theatre, Transition and Adaptation to a New Lifestyle in Romanian Society
Get PDFThe change of political regimes and the long period of transition that followed afterwards brought dramatic, even tragic shifts in common people’s lives, who were born and raised in the Eastern Bloc. These experiences, which were strikingly common in Eastern European countries, have left significant marks in nowadays society, which historians and artists alike are trying to analyze and explain to their audiences, in a personal and accessible form. This article aims to analyze the manners in which recent history themes, like the period of transition, economy and the essential lifestyle changes which came as a consequence, are researched and handled in Romanian documentary theatre. As follows, two theatre productions of this kind will be presented. They were considered to be a real success in the independent theatre scene in the past five years and their specificity is the shared socio-political context between stage and audience
Recreating Realities in Horror Films: the Found Footage Effect
Get PDFRegardless of the circumstances in which they are used, found footage insertions aim to establish for any kind of cinematographic production certain veracity and credibility in regard to the proposed themes and subjects. Given the authenticity of their aesthetics, these insertions seem to present reality as it is, leaving in most cases the feeling that there is no room for artistic interpretation. This paper aims to analyze and debate the usage of found footage in fiction film. Having its roots in pseudo-documentaries, the technique is widely known for its exploitation in horror film as it became an extremely convenient low-budget strategy to build up suspense and create the captivating universes imposed by the horror genre. Analyzing films that set the stage for the subgenre such as Cannibal Holocaust (1980) or more accessible productions like Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007), the paper presents the techniques in which found footage manipulates audiences through certain aesthetic and narrative structures. Studying the means of production and effects on audiences, the analysis intends not only to debate the psychological impact of found footage images, but also to theorize the origin of this subgenre by approaching it from a wider perspective. Recalling David Bordwell’s observations on found footage horror films in his article, Return to Paranormalcy, it is important to insist on the niche that the subgenre unavoidably approaches through its techniques and selection of subjects. Therefore, the paper also aims to integrate the found footage film in a larger context by analyzing the character-spectator dynamic
Witch(craft) Subversion in Live Events (Performance Art) in Croatia: From Art to Everyday Praxis
Get PDFThis paper offers an interpretative review of artists on the Croatian scene who use in their actions and performances the strategy of ‘witchcraft performance’ as matrix of subversion of the existing model of ‘desirable appearance’, as performative deviation from the desirable image of womanhood, but also as a kind of decision to express protest and subversion. Some women artists, like Neda Šimić‐Božinović and Xena L. Županić, alongside the performance of witchcraft subversion, are also united by the voco‐performance with which they approximate animal vocalisation as the source of logos
« Glissements progressifs du plaisir » : érotisme, kitsch et sorcellerie chez Alain Robbe-Grillet
Get PDFAccording to Alain Robbe-Grillet, his movie Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974) has been directly influenced by the essay Satanism and Witchcraft (French original: 1862) of the romantic historian Jules Michelet and also by the reading of this book by Roland Barthes in the sense of a new criticism. In the same sense, we propose here a comparative study of our corpus, based on the idea of a particular archaic universe of magical practice, shamanism and witchcraft as it is described by Hans Peter Duerr : “The ‘dream place’ is everywhere and nowhere, just like the ‘dreamtime’ is always and never. You might say that the term ‘dream place’ does not refer to any particular place and the way to get to it is to get nowhere.” (Dreamtime, 1987; German original: 1978). Despite its rationality, modern civilization is mainly based on an irrational principle: the commodity fetishism (Marx). Thus in modern societies you can find a sliding eroticism of fetishism, now in the Freudian sense of the term (cf. Jean Baudrillard), that may transform every object into an object of desire, with the consequence that even the human body enters as a “fetish” into sexual relationship. In his works, Robbe-Grillet reproduces this universe by restituting to this fetishism its magic appearance throughout kitsch (representing anti-nature) and pornography in the “dream place” called cinema. The “generator” in Successive Slidings of Pleasure is the perfect female beauty of the seventies, associated to that of a witch. A similar effect produced by the woman’s body can be found, according to the “new critic” Roland Barthes and the “new novelist” Robbe-Grillet, in the work of Jules Michelet.According to Alain Robbe-Grillet, his movie Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974) has been directly influenced by the essay Satanism and Witchcraft (French original: 1862) of the romantic historian Jules Michelet and also by the reading of this book by Roland Barthes in the sense of a new criticism. In the same sense, we propose here a comparative study of our corpus, based on the idea of a particular archaic universe of magical practice, shamanism and witchcraft as it is described by Hans Peter Duerr : “The ‘dream place’ is everywhere and nowhere, just like the ‘dreamtime’ is always and never. You might say that the term ‘dream place’ does not refer to any particular place and the way to get to it is to get nowhere.” (Dreamtime, 1987; German original: 1978). Despite its rationality, modern civilization is mainly based on an irrational principle: the commodity fetishism (Marx). Thus in modern societies you can find a sliding eroticism of fetishism, now in the Freudian sense of the term (cf. Jean Baudrillard), that may transform every object into an object of desire, with the consequence that even the human body enters as a “fetish” into sexual relationship. In his works, Robbe-Grillet reproduces this universe by restituting to this fetishism its magic appearance throughout kitsch (representing anti-nature) and pornography in the “dream place” called cinema. The “generator” in Successive Slidings of Pleasure is the perfect female beauty of the seventies, associated to that of a witch. A similar effect produced by the woman’s body can be found, according to the “new critic” Roland Barthes and the “new novelist” Robbe-Grillet, in the work of Jules Michelet
Le potentiel théâtral chez David Foenkinos. Analyse du roman, du scénario et du film La Délicatesse
Get PDFOur interest, especially when it comes to the subject of literature, is to show the manner in which the text processing done by the author (script writer/director) brings to light the guidelines of the novelistic text’s semantics, which under careful analysis reveals a kind of personal myth of the novelist. The skewed, syncopated, interrupted writing which disrupts the chronotope serves the needs of the script as well as the director’s selective vision. Unconsciously, the novel seems to follow the structure of the theatrical model. These traits can also be found in the cinematographic structure of the film.Our interest, especially when it comes to the subject of literature, is to show the manner in which the text processing done by the author (script writer/director) brings to light the guidelines of the novelistic text’s semantics, which under careful analysis reveals a kind of personal myth of the novelist. The skewed, syncopated, interrupted writing which disrupts the chronotope serves the needs of the script as well as the director’s selective vision. Unconsciously, the novel seems to follow the structure of the theatrical model. These traits can also be found in the cinematographic structure of the film
Les âmes mortes des joueurs de cartes: (Performance review: Les Joueurs de cartes de Gogol, mise en scène Ionuț Caras, Théâtre National de Cluj-Napoca, Date de la première : 7.02.2021) Combien
Get PDFThe Active Archive: Interview with Film Critic Andrei Rus
Get PDFThe interview with dr. Andrei Rus, associate professor at UNATC Bucharest, tried to cover both the motivations and the developing process of the Active Archive projects, a work in progress activity of research, selection, digitalization, and dissemination of several old documentaries from the Sahia Studio Archives, on one hand, and several experimental movies made by students of the UNATC in the Sixties and Seventies on the other hand
Theatre Photography in Nineteenth Century France: Document, Archive or Pure Fiction?
Get PDFIndoor performance photography, which was born in France on the occasion of the Paris World Exhibition in 1889, remains a problematic theatrical and media object to this day. But at the Belle Epoque and until the Second World War at least, it requires to be approached with all the more caution because it is always the fruit of multiple manipulations, either at the time of the making of the shots (mandatory posing of actors, specific lighting, etc.), or at the time of their “post-production” (printing, but especially edition in review or volume). A complex and particularly rich object that must be studied in its context (publications or archives), stage photography is then offered as much as a document to be deciphered as a fiction to be deconstructed
Screenwritten Spells: Portrayals of the Witch in Early Cinema
Get PDFThe reassessment of early films outside a teleological perspective on the evolution of cinema disclosed them as representing a form of late nineteenth century stage entertainment. Although defined by non-narrativity, catalogues of the era included a significant number of titles seemingly indicating literaryadaptations. Exploring the screenwriting practices of early cinema reveal them as making only limited references to famous literary works known to the audiences, by re-enacting key moments or famous scenes. The paper selects early films revolving around witchcraft in order to discuss the intertextual narrative construction of the witch archetype within the context of this cinema of reference
Femininity, Transgression and the Gothic: the Witches of Cradle of Filth
Get PDFWhile the aesthetic of the British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth strikes the onlooker with its Baroque flamboyance, its Gothic macabre and underground kitsch, its music – both classically melodious and expressively extreme – immerses the listener into a poetry of Romanticist pastiche spiced with unexpected word‐plays, heavy symbolism and cultural references, taboo themes and transgressions of social norms at every level. The weave of apparent contradictions which tailors Cradle of Filth’s distinctive style in contemporary music is also reflected in one of the central themes of the band’s imaginary: the norm‐defiant femininity embodied in the image of the witch. This study examines the varied typologies of the female characters of Cradle of Filth’s fiction, their traits as both heroes and transgressors in the context of the Gothic genre and extreme music. My analysis seeks to help fill some gaps inthe analysis and understanding of the often misinterpreted music genre of extreme metal, and underline fundamental traits of a representative presence in this field, Cradle of Filth, not in terms of musical or aesthetic theory but of its lyrical value in the context of postmodern literature