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Issue No. 5, April 2000 editorial for Issue 5 Eric Rohmer Magic Realism in Conte d'automne (Autumn Tale) by Fiona A. Villella A discussion of Rohmer's philosophy of cinematic realism, followed by a review of Autumn Tale. Interview with Mary Stephen  by Bill Mousoulis Rohmer's editor of the past 10 or so years talks about the director's unique working methods.

Autumn Tale (Eric Rohmer)

Some Kind of Liar: A Summer's Tale by Adrian Martin This article is now hosted on the PANDORA archive of the National Library of Australia and Partners. An overview of Rohmer's work, and a look at his previous Season film, from 1996. Rohmer Talk     by various,  compiled by Bill Mousoulis Parts of this article are now hosted on the PANDORA archive of the National Library of Australia and Partners. 14 critics from around the globe write a paragraph each on Eric Rohmer.  Includes a filmography.

A Summer's Tale (Eric Rohmer)

 

Australian Cinema Never a Native: Deconstructing Home and Heart in Holy Smoke   by Sue Gillett A sensitive discussion of the heroine's complex journey in Jane Campion's latest film.

Holy Smoke (Jane Campion)

Words and Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane      by Adrian Martin
This article is now hosted on the PANDORA archive of the National Library of Australia and Partners.
Adrian Martin pays homage to this rather uncelebrated, little known Australian film.

An analysis of Nice Coloured Girls (Tracey Moffatt)    by Lisa French
An overview of Aboriginal artist Tracey Moffatt's remarkable short film.
 

Physicality and Performance The Cinematic Life of Emotions:  John Cassavetes  George Kouvaros interviewed  by Needeya Islam George Kouvaros speaks on the films of Cassavetes, and the new lines in film criticism and thinking they provoke.  Physicality in Tombstone for Fireflies by Bill Mousoulis An appreciation of a moving and realistic Japanese anime, set in World War 2.

Husbands (John Cassavetes)

 

Robert Bresson How Art Turned Into Shmart:  Utility in L'Argent    by M. C. Zenner Fascinating analysis of the bourgeoisie and their particular ways. Four Nights of a Dreamer:  A Post-Romantic's View  by M. C. Zenner An analysis of this overlooked Bresson film from the viewpoint of romanticism.

L'Argent (Robert Bresson)

 

'50s Hollywood Scapegoating, the Holocaust and McCarthyism in Billy Wilder's Stalag 17  by Sander Lee An examination of this unusual war film, particularly in relation to American culture and the Holocaust. Finding the Father: A Psychoanalytic study of Rebel Without a Cause  by Chris Wood An analysis of Nick Ray's film from a psychoanalytic standpoint: Dean as searching, not rebelling.

Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)

Variant Versions

Perdita Durango: A Case Study   by Brad Stevens
UK writer Brad Stevens examines the variant versions of the film Perdita Durango - in particular, the omissions in each "cut".

 

Book Reviews The Alfred Hitchcock Story (by Ken Mogg)  reviewed by Bill Krohn There are many books on Hitch around - this one is written by the author of The MacGuffin. The Devil Finds Work (by James Baldwin) reviewed by M. C.  Zenner Baldwin's book was published in the '70s, but it is probably one of the best film books around.

Hitch

Cinephilia Special Feature    (continued from last month)

Permanent Ghosts:  Cinephilia in the Age of the Internet and Video

Intro by Steve Erickson:  This series of essays was borne out of frustration and anger: frustration at premature, glib declarations of the death of cinema, cinephilia and/or film criticism, and anger at being told implicitly or explicitly that I was born too late to really understand all of the above. Faced with this wave of melancholic nostalgia, I decided it was worth asking how film culture has been altered - for better and for worse - by the rise of video and the Internet. I was particularly stimulated by the MOVIE MUTATIONS exchange published in TRAFIC and FILM QUARTERLY, but wanted to extend that piece's spirit to a younger group of writers. With the exception of David Sterritt, all the writers who contributed to "Permanent Ghosts" are in their late 20s or early 30s. NY PRESS critic Armond White has recently opined that "Generation X" has such bad taste that we're a lost cause, while his colleague Godfrey Cheshire organized a symposium on the "end of cinema" at the Museum of Modern Art; faced with such apocalyptic generalizations, I think it's important to examine how new forms of cinephilia and discourse about film may be emerging.

Essay 4  by Jeff Lambert  | Essay 5  by Bryant Frazer  | from last month - essays 1, 2, 3.

 

Festival Reports French Film Festival   by Bill Mousoulis Quick impressions of all 11 French films that played recently at Melbourne's Como Cinema. 10th Melbourne Queer Film & Video Festival by Ben Zipper An overview of this year's Queer film festival, with Ben Zipper lamenting the lack of truly daring films.

Queer

Conferences

Style and Meaning -  University of Reading, March 17-19 2000

Style and Meaning   report by Deb Verhoeven
Deb Verhoeven was present at this Conference to give a paper.  Here, she provides a concise and thought-provoking  overview of proceedings.

Society for Cinema Studies Conference 2000  -  Chicago, March 9-12 2000

A selection of papers given at this conference:

The Death and Rebirth of Rhetoric    by James Naremore
Toward a Rhetoric of Film: Identification and the Spectator   by Gilberto Perez
Betty Grable Finally Dances with Baron Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch
                                                                by Martha P. Nochimson
Renaldo & Clara Meet John Cage:  Aleatory Cinema and the Aesthetics of Incompetence    by David Sterritt
 

Special Effects/Special Affects: Technologies of the Screen
~ a Symposium                                   -  Melbourne, March 25 2000

A selection of papers given at this symposium:

This Wounded Cinema, This Wounded Life      by Gabrielle Murray
What Self is This?      by Bronwyn Morkham
Baroque Perceptual Regimes      by Angela Ndalianis
What My Fingers Knew:  The Cinesthetic Subject,  or Vision in the Flesh
                                                  by Vivian Sobchack   (keynote speaker)
Optimal Viewing Distance - Memory as Telaesthesia     by James Verdon
Things Analog and Digital      by Patrick Crogan
Delirious Enchantment       by Adrian Martin (keynote speaker)
This article is now hosted on the PANDORA archive of the National Library of Australia and Partners.
 

Cinémathèque Annotations on Film

The following are annotations for films screening at the Melbourne Cinémathèque this month.

Editorial
Click here for information on the editors of the annotations, the Melbourne Cinémathèque and queries regarding contribution.

Berlin: Symphony of a City    by Allan James Thomas  screened April 12, at 7:00 pm

Cabaret     by Peter Kemp     screened April 19 at 7:00 pm

Preface to G.W.Pabst: The 3 Penny Opera     by Bruce Williams     screened April 19 at 9:15 pm

L'Âge d'or:  faux-raccord (false match)  by Sophy Williams screened April 26 at 7:00 pm Vivre sa vie      by Adrian Danks screened April 26 at 8:15 pm La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc by Michael Koller screened April 26 at 9:50 pm

Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard)

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