CINEJ Cinema Journal
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Female Representation in Select Films of Frank Rajah Arase: Evidence of Male Chauvinist Tendencies in the Ghanaian Film Culture
Get PDFThere has been constant resonance of feminine image misrepresentation in most narratives since the (re)invention of video-films in Nigeria, Ghana, and indeed across the African continent. In spite of the binary struggle between the (presumed) chauvinist filmmakers and their feminist counterparts, masculinity always (re)emerges in new forms or topoi to dominate femininity. Consequently, there seems to be a paradigm shift on the (mis)representation of women that reinforces Laura Mulvey’s sexual voyeuristic objectification of the feminine gender as reflected in near-nude costumes as well as sexually larded scenes that are common sights in African films, particularly those from Ghana. Employing the historical-analytic and observation methods, this article examines three selected films: The Maid I Hired (2010), Why Did I Get Married? (2007) and To Love a Prince (2014) by Frank Rajah Arase (FRA), an African filmmaker of Benin (Edo) extraction who largely operates in the Diaspora, to foreground and highlight the voyeuristic imprints in Ghanaian films (Ghallywood), which tend to demean the feminine gender in the context of African culture that hegemonizes the male folk
Rocky Balboa: The Innocent and the Invincible Hero of Low Income Class
Get PDFThis study is aiming to scrutinize that how American low income class is represented in Rocky Balboa film series in regards of Rocky Balboa character. It will try to understand the mission which is given to Rocky along the film series by examining the concepts such as the values which Rocky represents, class standing, moving up in social ladder, etc. in the scripts of Rocky movies. The life line of Balboa which we have begun to witness while he was living in a poor neighborhood leads us to the different faces of his life along the six films of series: firstly, the world championship that he got by defeating Apollo Creed, then keeping his belt for a long time and defeating Ivan Drago, then losing all his wealth and has to return to the neighborhood where he was living previously and the last fight that he did during his retirement. The hypothesis of the study is that the films of Balboa series are reflecting the life of American low income class ‘realistic’ with Rocky Balboa’s character, and the hypothesis is going to want to verify it along the study
“About Miracles”: Seeing the “real thing” in Hong Sang-soo’s Woman on the Beach and Éric Rohmer’s Le Rayon vert
No full textHong Sang-soo’s cinema is one in which his characters consistently avoid reality, whether by constructing explanatory narratives and patterns or by turning other people into emotionally projected images. Woman on the Beach (2007), I argue, openly diagnoses this tendency and finds instead what one of its characters calls “the real thing.” Placing this film in the context of Hong’s oeuvre as a whole, I explore Hong’s overarching interest in trying to see “the real thing” instead of imaginatively constructing it. And thus, in a career frequently compared to Rohmer’s, Woman on the Beach, with its search for this almost mystical encounter with reality, emerges as Hong’s variation on Rohmer’s own search for what’s real in Le Rayon vert (1986)
The Liminal and the Surreal: The Space of Limbo and Dreams in Luis Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Get PDFThis study explores the role of liminality and Surrealism in Luis Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. By taking into consideration the relationship between Surrealism, Marxism and Freud, this paper identifies the role of the liminal and Bunuel’s treatment of these topics. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of liminal space and Surrealism to identify the role of the bourgeois and their fears through the lens of Bunuel
Post-Coloniality: Projection of Ghana In Video-Films
Get PDFThe rise of the mainstream video industry has been significant towards socio-cultural and economic development in Ghana; however, this study will not focus on the impacts of the video industry of Ghana. This article primarily examines the image construction of Ghana in video-films. Over the past few years, video-films in post-colonial Ghana have often been critiqued by film scholars and critics for reinforcing superstitious beliefs and instigating backward tendencies that derail national development. Normative scholarships have critically explored the visuality of Ghanaian video-films and their themes. Nonetheless, these normative scholarships have often overlooked the nexus between the Ghanaian society and video texts. It is based on this scholarly gap that this study engages the meta-question of how video-films project Ghana in their texts. This article will engage a critical textual reading of a few popular films from the Pentecostal and Occult genres to contextualize the ideological sub-texts and the image construction of Ghana in these selected video-films. I argue that some of the major ‘postmodern’ themes in Ghanaian video-films considerably denigrate and malign Ghana’s image, as well as neglect issues of national interests
Some Problems with Gendered Subjectivity and Representation: Baise Moi and Hard-Core Pornography
Get PDFBased on a theoretical framework developed by the works of critical theorists Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, this article questions the role of gendered representation in the discourse around the film Baise Moi (Despentes and Trinh Thi, 2000). The film has been criticized, due to its engagement with pornography and trash aesthetics as well as its “bad ending”, and associated with a reaffirmation of patriarchal power practices on screen. This article argues that such readings remain within the limited territory of seeking an ideal representation of femininity based on the gender/sex binary which Butler’s early work on gender has critiqued. The first section of the article explores the discourse of “extremity” and “illegality” that surrounds Baise Moi by way of situating the concept of “screen representation” within the Foucauldian territory of power. Following this trajectory, the article discusses how Baise Moi conveys a layered audio-visual organization and negativity that attest to the attainability of non-conforming sexualities through an ironic adoption of pornography. It is argued that the film’s ironic and referential negative aesthetics exploits and overwrites the narrative – the narrative that provides the means through which the film can overturn gender norms associated with the genres it adopts from, such as hard-core porn’s idealism around female sexuality
Review of Shoe Reels: The History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film
Get PDFEzra, E. (2020). Shoe Reels: The History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. xi + 293 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4744-5140-
Locating the Storyteller in Silent Waters: Sabiha Sumar’s Cinematic Tale of Shared Histories and Divided Identities
Get PDFIn her multi award-winning feature film Silent Waters (2003), Pakistani woman filmmaker Sabiha Sumar connects the socio-political traumas of the Partition of India and creation of Pakistan (1947) with the onset of military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization period (1977-1988) in Pakistan. Presenting a story based on real-life events, the film focuses on the impact of religious fundamentalism and nationalism on women in particular. Examining Silent Waters as an example of “history on film/film on history” (Rosenstone 2013), and film as an “agent, product, and source of history” (Ferro 1983), the discussion identifies and analyzes the filmmaker’s own tacitly embedded location and participation in the filmic narrative as an experiential ‘auto/bio-historiographer’, arguing for the value of this new paradigm in Cinema Studies
The Millennial Antinostalgic: Yoav in Nadav Lapid’s Synonymes
Get PDFIn contemporary, transnational exilic cinema exile an artist is made in an exilic journey. The 21st century journey departs from entirely opposite premises than those of the ancient journey, namely with the desire to escape one’s birthplace. The aim of the exile has also transformed: from a necessary step to secure one’s livelihood or even life, it has become one of exploration. Rather than the desire to settle elsewhere or to eventually return home, the exile sets on an open-ended, exploratory journey the premise of which is finding oneself. In this, the physical journey has come to resemble the metaphysical one of the artist. The exile departs from a physical place and journeys into a metaphysical space, geography becoming secondary while still being necessary. This journey is best recounted in the film Synonymes (2019) by Israeli director Nadav Lapid, an autobiographical tale that chronicles the director’s own exile from Israel to Paris and captures his journey toward becoming an artist. The paper references two prominently antinostalgic authors: 20th century Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz and Polsih-Jewish writer Henryk Grynberg
Review of A Christian Approach to Cinema: Tarkovsky. Film as Prayer
Get PDFElena Dulgheru. Tarkovsky. Film as Prayer (A Poetic of the Sacred in the Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky)/Romanian: Filmul ca rugăciune (O poetică a sacrului în cinematogaful lui Andrei Tarkovski)/, second edition, Arca Învierii Publishing House, 2020