Re-Enactment and Factual Discourse in a Biopic


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Communications - Movies and Television, grade: 2,0, University of Copenhagen (Film- und Medienwissenschaft), course: Between Documentary and Fiction, language: English, abstract: In this essay I want to focus on the integration of "factual discourse" in its different forms in a movie and the effects they are creating for the viewer. First of all it is interesting to look, where we can situate the biographical movie within fiction and historical truthfulness. I want to show that re-enactment of originals and the application of fictional facts is animating the viewer to reflect differently on the represented images. Here it is interesting to observe the story-line of Jack Rollins, including the effects of aesthetics and documentary consciousness. The movie is playing to a huge account with aesthetics, but also with the cultural knowledge of people "knowing" something about Bob Dylan and the previous documentaries "Don't look back" (cinema verite) and "No direction home". It is interesting to observe how the viewer can actually differentiate between factual and fictional discourse and to which degree he might believe, what is presented to him. The question can also be framed into the whole aim of the movie, which might explain the choice of certain media techniques. In which ways is factual discourse integrated in the movie "I'm not there"? Which documentary techniques underline the purpose for authenticity? How does the movie play with the concept of "documentary consciousness"? What does the re-enactment of factual discourse and material together with fictional elements achieve compared to a classical documentary?




Re-enactment and factual discourse in a Biopic


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Communications - Movies and Television, grade: 2,0, University of Copenhagen (Film- und Medienwissenschaft), course: Between Documentary and Fiction, language: English, abstract: In this essay I want to focus on the integration of “factual discourse” in its different forms in a movie and the effects they are creating for the viewer. First of all it is interesting to look, where we can situate the biographical movie within fiction and historical truthfulness. I want to show that re-enactment of originals and the application of fictional facts is animating the viewer to reflect differently on the represented images. Here it is interesting to observe the story-line of Jack Rollins, including the effects of aesthetics and documentary consciousness. The movie is playing to a huge account with aesthetics, but also with the cultural knowledge of people “knowing” something about Bob Dylan and the previous documentaries “Don’t look back” (cinema verite) and “No direction home”. It is interesting to observe how the viewer can actually differentiate between factual and fictional discourse and to which degree he might believe, what is presented to him. The question can also be framed into the whole aim of the movie, which might explain the choice of certain media techniques. In which ways is factual discourse integrated in the movie “I’m not there”? Which documentary techniques underline the purpose for authenticity? How does the movie play with the concept of “documentary consciousness”? What does the re-enactment of factual discourse and material together with fictional elements achieve compared to a classical documentary?




Reframing Common Discourse


Book Description

We live immersed in what appears to be a paradox between coherence and complexity. It is the gap between the modern presuppositions we largely live by and the emerging presuppositions we are testing which makes this seem chaotic. It is the pull of the individual and the collective and their multi-layered discourses.




The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture


Book Description

The biographical film or biopic is a staple of film production in all major film industries and yet, within film studies, its generic, aesthetic, and cultural significance has remained underexplored. The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture fills this gap, conceptualizing the biopic with a particular eye toward the "life" of the genre internationally. New theoretical approaches combine with specially commissioned chapters on contemporary biographical film production in India, Italy, South Korea, France, Russia, Great Britain, and the US, in order to present a selective but well-rounded portrait of the biopic’s place in film culture. From Marie Antoinette to The Social Network, the pieces in this volume critically examine the place of the biopic within ongoing debates about how cinema can and should represent history and "real lives." Contributors discuss the biopic’s grounding in the conventions of the historical film, and explore the genre’s defining traits as well as its potential for innovation. The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture expands the critical boundaries of this evolving, versatile genre.




Nosferatu in the 21st Century


Book Description

‘Nosferatu’ in the 21st Century is a celebration and a critical study of F. W. Murnau’s seminal vampire film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens on the 100th anniversary of its release in 1922.The movie remains a dark mirror to the troubled world we live in seeing it as striking and important in the 2020s as it was a century ago. The unmistakable image of Count Orlok has traveled from his dilapidated castle in old world Transylvania into the futuristic depths of outerspace in Star Trek and beyondas the all-consuming shadow of the vampire spreads ever wider throughout contemporary popular culture. This innovative collection of essays, with a foreword by renowned Dracula expert Gary D. Rhodes, brings together experts in the field alongside creative artists to explore the ongoing impact of Murnau’s groundbreaking movie as it has been adapted, reinterpreted, and recreated across multiple mediums from theatre, performance and film, to gaming, music and even drag. As such, ‘Nosferatu’ in the 21st Century is not only a timely and essential book about Murnau’s film but also illuminates the times that produced it and the world it continues to influence.




Feminist Discourse and Spanish Cinema


Book Description

This work provides a detailed consideration of women directors working before the Civil War and during Franco's dictatorship, and an exploration of the impact of feminism on filmmaking in Spain.




Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film


Book Description

This groundbreaking edited collection is the first major study to explore the intersection between cognitive theory and documentary film studies, focusing on a variety of formats, such as first-person, wildlife, animated and slow TV documentary, as well as docudrama and web videos. Documentaries play an increasingly significant role in informing our cognitive and emotional understanding of today’s mass-mediated society, and this collection seeks to illuminate their production, exhibition, and reception. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the essays draw on the latest research in film studies, the neurosciences, cultural studies, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and the philosophy of mind. With a foreword by documentary studies pioneer Bill Nichols and contributions from both theorists and practitioners, this volume firmly demonstrates that cognitive theory represents a valuable tool not only for film scholars but also for filmmakers and practice-led researchers.




Therapy and Emotions in Film and Television


Book Description

Therapy and Emotions in Film and Television explores, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the shifts in our emotional preferences, styles, and 'emotional regimes' in western societies from the 1920s to today, as viewed through the lens of film and television.




The Red Brigades and the Discourse of Violence


Book Description

This book explores the communicative practices of the Italian radical group Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse, or BR), the relationship the group established with the Italian press, and the specific social historical context in which the BR developed both its own self-understanding and its complex dialectical connection with the society at large. The BR’s worldview and the dominant ideology(ies) mediated by the press are treated as competing responses to structural issues of Italian history: the structural weakness of the nation state, the contradictions of an uneven economic development, and the consequent struggle of the bourgeois class to achieve hegemonic rule.




The Documentary Film Reader


Book Description

Bringing together an expansive range of writing by scholars, critics, historians, and filmmakers, The Documentary Film Reader presents an international perspective on the most significant developments and debates from several decades of critical writing about documentary. Each of the book's seven sections covers a distinct period in the history of documentary, collecting both contemporary and retrospective views of filmmaking in the era. And each section is prefaced by an introductory essay that explains its design and provides critical context. Painstakingly selected from the archives of more than a hundred years of cinema practice and theory, the essays, reviews, interviews, manifestos, and ephemera gathered in this volume suit the needs and interests of the beginning student, the advanced scholar, the casual reader, and the working documentarian.