Mosaic Space and Mosaic Auteurs


Book Description

Mosaic Space and Mosaic Auteurs constructs a model of mosaic, which extends our focus beyond narrative strategy, to approach the trend of diverse multi-strand films across genres, nations and filmmaking contexts since the late 1980s. Different from investigation of this recurring global phenomenon from perspectives of spectator engagement, narratology, cognitive understanding and socio-political messages, proposed by film scholars, the model of mosaic helps establish the intertwining relationship between narrative, aesthetics, transnational production, and distribution modes – and in the framework of contextualised geopolitical spaces. As the transnational auteurs in question draw talents, resources, and subject matters from a wide range of geopolitical spaces along their border-crossing journeys, their films juxtapose diverse spatial configurations. In fact, "mosaic" is a spatial metaphor which puts emphasis on the visual image of spaces and links space, narrative, and authorship into a multidimensional model of spatial compilation. It is a mosaic which gathers, groups, juxtaposes, and re-arranges spaces, offering a reading of mosaic beyond an exclusive focus on narrative – its nuances are examined in detail in different mosaics of Alejandro González Iñárritu, Atom Egoyan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Michael Haneke.




Mosaic Space and Mosaic Auteurs


Book Description

Mosaic Space and Mosaic Auteurs constructs a model of mosaic, which extends our focus beyond narrative strategy, to approach the trend of diverse multi-strand films across genres, nations and filmmaking contexts since the late 1980s. Different from investigation of this recurring global phenomenon from perspectives of spectator engagement, narratology, cognitive understanding and socio-political messages, proposed by film scholars, the model of mosaic helps establish the intertwining relationship between narrative, aesthetics, transnational production, and distribution modes – and in the framework of contextualised geopolitical spaces. As the transnational auteurs in question draw talents, resources, and subject matters from a wide range of geopolitical spaces along their border-crossing journeys, their films juxtapose diverse spatial configurations. In fact, "mosaic" is a spatial metaphor which puts emphasis on the visual image of spaces and links space, narrative, and authorship into a multidimensional model of spatial compilation. It is a mosaic which gathers, groups, juxtaposes, and re-arranges spaces, offering a reading of mosaic beyond an exclusive focus on narrative – its nuances are examined in detail in different mosaics of Alejandro González Iñárritu, Atom Egoyan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Michael Haneke.




Transcultural Images in Hollywood Cinema


Book Description

Transcultural Images in Hollywood Cinema discusses how cinema, particularly Hollywood, impacts the cultural identities we construct for ourselves in order to make sense of who we are in the world. The politics of representation in cinema influence the boundaries of ethnic and racial characteristics and invent cultural and symbolic meanings that create a conventional image throughout the world. The transnational perspective, dissolves, fragments, and decentralizes this image, leaving the nationalist understanding of identity to a hybrid form. Cultures and identities that are expanded across borders form a mosaic by combining their local characteristics with those of the host cultures. This book examines the transnational and transcultural characteristics of Hollywood cinema. The narrative, cinematographic, and aesthetic structures of Hollywood cinema are turned upside down as chapters analyze gender, social, cultural, and economic-political contexts. Scholars of international communication, film, and social sciences will find this book particularly interesting.




John Ormonds Organic Mosaic


Book Description

This book is the only extended study of John Ormond’s poetry and films. It is a contribution to the history of BBC television. It is a contribution to the history of the documentary film form, particularly in a national context. It is a contribution to the cultural history of Wales. It is a case study in inter-artistic creative practice.




The Marseille Mosaic


Book Description

Formerly the gateway to the French empire, the city of Marseille exemplifies a postcolonial Europe reshaped by immigrants, refugees, and repatriates. The Marseille Mosaic addresses the city’s past and present, exploring the relationship between Marseille and the rest of France, Europe, and the Mediterranean. Proposing new models for the study of place by integrating approaches from the humanities and social sciences, this volume offers an idiosyncratic “mosaic,” which vividly details the challenges facing other French and European cities and the ways residents are developing alternative perspectives and charting new urban futures.




Pompeii's Ashes


Book Description

Although there are many works dealing with Pompeii and Herculaneum, none of them try to encompass the entire spectrum of material related to its reception in popular imagination. Pompeii’s Ashes surveys a broad variety of such works, ranging from travelogues between ca. 1740 and 2010 to 250 years of fiction, including stage works, music, and films. The first two chapters provide an in-depth analysis of the excavation history and an overview of the reflections of travelers. The six remaining chapters discuss several clearly-defined genres: historical novels with pagan tendencies, and those with Christians and Jews as protagonists, contemporary adventures, time traveling, mock manuscripts, and works dedicated to Vesuvius. “Pompeii’s Ashes” demonstrates how the eternal fascination with the oldest still-running archaeological projects in the world began, developed, and continue until now.




Mosaics of Faith


Book Description

An analytical history of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, and Early Abbasidmosaics in the Holy Land from the second century B.C.E to eighth century C.E.




Taking Up Space


Book Description

This is the first English-language volume on representations of women at work in contemporary French cultural productions. It covers a variety of genres: literature, cinema and television, journalism, bande dessinée. Draws from a wide range of work experiences from salaried work in academic, artistic, corporate and working-class worlds to unpaid—reproductive, domestic—labour, illegal activities and activism.




The Drama of Space


Book Description

The experience of architectural spaces is formed by the way they are staged. The Drama of Space examines the composition and articulation of architectural spaces in terms of spatial dramaturgy, as a repertoire of means and strategies for shaping spatial experience. This fundamental approach to architectural design is presented in four parts: Archetypal principles of spatial composition are traced from the study of three assembly buildings of the early modern period in Venice. Theatre, film, music, and theory provide background knowledge on dramaturgy. Detailed analyses of 18 international case studies offer new perspectives on contemporary architecture. The book ends with a systematic presentation of the dramaturgy of space, its parameters and tools, in architectural design.




The Elusive Auteur


Book Description

The director's authorial role in filmmaking--the extent to which a film reflects his or her individual style and creative vision--has been much debated among film critics and scholars for decades. Drawing on generations of criticism, this study describes how the designation "auteur" has gone from stylistic criterion to product label--in what has always been an essentially collaborative industry. Examining the controversy in regard to Hollywood directors, the author compares directors and would-be auteurs of the classic studio system with those of contemporary Hollywood and its new climate of cultural entrepreneurship.