|
editorial
welcome to Issue 16 of our journal!
|
|
Shadows
|
The heart of this issue is the John Cassavetes spotlight. The range of voices, thoughts and approaches to discussing his films'
unique style and legacy in this issue and in a related dossier in Canadian film journal Cinema Scope, testifies to the strong passion and interest in Cassavetes' cinema today and to the fact that there remains much work to be done in fully
grasping its complexity and depth. A common theme across many of the pieces is that of 'emotion' as an impulse that runs through, even informs, this oeuvre. Not merely emotion in a sentimental sense, seen as one aspect of life that must occasionally be vented, but emotional and nervous energy, fear and danger, love and hate as intensities that are always defining action and behaviour, an irreducible and inescapable constant of life. For many, Cassavetes' cinema is an antidote to the emotionally starved reality of cinema today precisely because it lays bare, brings the viewer into such close and immediate proximity with depths of emotion. As Christos Tsiolkas expresses in this issue: ".finally someone had communicated something that I had not dared speak. That being a man means knowing gutlessness better than knowing courage, that failure stays with you long after success." Tsiolkas' piece also raises the intriguing notion of how the American dream operates in Cassavetes' cinema, a notion encapsulated in the director's deep reverence for Capra. There is an undeniable feeling in Cassavetes' cinema that any distance between an objective, outside position occupied by say the 'director' and the unfolding action and drama of the film is absolutely annihilated, opening up a new creative space beyond that of the 'objective' and 'subjective' polarities of cinema, and Gilberto Perez in this issue fleshes out binaries of art-life and fiction-documentary, imperfection, and performance that Cassavetes' films raise. The collapse of objective/subjective, art/life is a notion that has been described by Kent Jones, in relation to Cassavetes, as an understanding of direction belonging to a contemporary generation of cinephiles: "For us, direction is a matter of engagement with the life of the film - not life as captured by film but the living matter created by the meeting of camera, reality and splicer". The importance of form in Cassavetes' cinema and the precise, unique marriage and transformation of "human questions . what it is to be and maintain a couple, a family, a community, an individual-in-society into, at the same time, urgent questions of representation" is eloquently discussed by Adrian Martin in his keynote essay on Cassavetes in this issue. And so Cassavetes' cinema remains not only a body of work to constantly plunge for a rekindling of a sense of the intensity, urgency, and vitality of what it means to be human but also a reaffirmation of the unique depths and figural potentialities of cinema, the latter of which are discussed by Nicole Brenez in this issue, a long-time writer and thinker on Cassavetes, whose work translated here is part of a larger project on figural methodologies in cinema. Explorations of formal properties of Cassavetes' cinema continues in Effie Rassos' essay, which considers the peculiar structure of temporality his films give rise to, and which she describes as "distended and affective, much like the everyday". Whilst Jodi Brooks, positioning Opening Night as a contemporary variant of the "ageing actress" films of the '40s and '50s, explores the character's complex struggle in this film with discourses of performance, ageing, and temporality, resolving her dilemma only through adopting a crisis, shock-like mode. From a single film to an oeuvre: Maximilian Le Cain looks at the evolution of themes in Cassavetes' cinema, from group portraits to individual analyses, shot through with questions of identity. So is Cassavetes' cinema a phenomenon specific to a unique set of historical circumstances and sensibilities (post-Hollywood America in the '70s and '80s), and is it a cinema that is still possible today? Perhaps the final word of this spotlight rests with Martin's proclamation, made after tracing the director's legacy and influence on contemporary cinema, that scholarship on Cassavetes to come confronts the challenge of re-seeing the films via a historical perspective, through locating Cassavetes within the stream of history and "social forces and genres".
Also in this issue is a dossier on French Cinema, encompassing a major essay on René Clair as an "author and legislator" of the cinema to a discussion by Eric Rohmer on his latest film to Fergus Daly's heartfelt reflection on film criticism and Philippe Garrel. Analysis of recent Australian and overseas cinema releases are on offer again in this issue as well as reports from recent, major Australian film festivals: the Melbourne and Brisbane International Film Festivals. Included in the former dossier is a thoroughly engaging and insightful interview by Tom Ryan with the intelligent, articulate and talented Errol Morris, which shouldn't be missed. And Andrew J. Horton provides invaluable insight into an important and developing European film festival, the 36th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
I would like to thank all the writers of this issue, and the following
people whose generosity, support and assistance is greatly appreciated:
Jared Rapfogel, Mary Stephen, Hilary A. Radner, Bill Routt, Brad Stevens,
Adrian Martin, Fergus Daly, Noël Herpe, Albert Fung, Grant McDonald and
Mairead Phillips.
Finally, this issue is dedicated to the many lives that were recently lost in the tragic and horrific events that shook America, and to all victims of ideological, racial, religious and political war.
Fiona A. Villella
go to Contents, Issue 16
our mission
Senses of Cinema is
an online film journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion
of cinema. It has been set up to address a lack of cinephilic writing
in local discourse, that is, writing sprung from the desire to think and
write seriously, knowledgeably and passionately about film.
Senses of Cinema is unique in its eclecticism: it encourages articles of all styles
(casual, personal, academic, critical, impressionistic and poetic - or a
combination of these), analytical approaches (thematic, psychoanalytic,
etc) and subject matter. The only criteria that we prescribe are that all
articles are demonstrably passionate, serious, intelligent and insightful
reflections and/or analyses on the topic of cinema.
Senses of Cinema promotes various divergent "voices" that speak to a wide and
diverse audience. It aims to bring together a mix of writers: established
and emerging, theorists and un-published cinephiles, filmmakers and
film programmers, and local and international writers.
We are particularly
committed to discussing art, independent, experimental and third world cinemas
(everything from Renoir to Antonioni to Solàs to Oshima to Morrissey
to Jost to Friedrich to Snow, feature films as well as short films) , theorising
new encounters with digital technologies, and promoting writing that increases
one's understanding and appreciation of cinema.
We recognise that an object as ephemeral and ethereal as cinema continues to fascinate,
to provoke, to inspire, to turn on, to evolve. And it is in relation to
this object that we seek to facilitate and encourage expression and appreciation.
Want to contribute to this journal?
Click on the words above to read our guidelines for writers.
about us
|
Editor / Manager
- Fiona A. Villella, 27,
studied film at Melbourne University and has since gone on to write
for many publications, including Metro, Real Time, IF
and C'TEQ annotations. She is also an independent filmmaker,
has worked around the film scene, and lived and worked in NYC for
6 months. She is also co-curator of the Melbourne Filmoteca
and a board member of the Melbourne Cinémathèque.
Her favourite directors are Martin Scorsese, Robert Bresson, Eric
Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Spike Lee, Claire Denis
and Julie Dash.
|
You can email Fiona.
|
Web Designer
- Chris Howard,
30, studied film at La Trobe University and was again this year involved with the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, for which he had been hellbent on having ready in time a video clip for his band ilk, regularly to be found playing and staging unlikely events around Melbourne. Favourite directors include Dario Argento, Luis Buñuel, Shinya Tsukamoto, Buster Keaton, Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, Jan Svankmajer, Akira Kurosawa, Roman Polanski and Andrei Tarkovsky. And Kubrick, Bergman, Hitchcock, Scorsese, Gilliam, Bava, Almodóvar etc.
|
You can email Chris.
|
Co-editor / Editorial Godfather
- Adrian Martin, 42, is one of Australia's foremost film critics. He is the the
author of the books Phantasms (McPhee Gribble, 1994) and
Once Upon a Time in America (BFI, 1998). His reviews of new
releases can be read in The Age (Melbourne). He is currently
working on books on Terrence Malick, Brian De Palma and the Mad
Max series.
|
|
Founding Editor / Top Tens compiler
- Bill Mousoulis,
38, is an independent filmmaker with over 60 films to his name,
including four low-budget features. He was involved with the
formation of the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group in 1985, and was its
administrator for six years. He founded Senses of Cinema in late 1999 and was its webmaster until May 2001.
His favourite directors are Roberto Rossellini, Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc
Godard, Frank Borzage and Chantal Akerman.
Check out his website, Innersense.
|
You can email Bill.
|
Assistant to the
Editor - Mairead Phillips,
28, is a Professional Writing and Editing student at RMIT. She has a BA in Literature and Philosophy and is also completing a Grad. Dip in French at the University of Melbourne. Her favourite directors include: Hitchcock, Ophüls, Fritz Lang, French New Wave, Visconti, Antonioni, de Sica, Hawks, Ford and Peckinpah.
|
You can email Mairead.
|
Assistant to the
Editor - Grant McDonald,
36, studies film at the University of Melbourne. He orignally studied
in the Italian Department and has a special love for Italian cinema.
Two of his favourite directors are Brian De Palma and Pedro Almodóvar.
|
You can email Grant.
|
The Links Guy - Albert Fung,
22, studies film at Monash University with a particular
interest in Asian cinema. Some of his favorite directors are Fruit Chan,
Wong Kar-wai, Ann Hui, Dennis O'Rourke, John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, Clara
Law, John Carpenter and DIY 'trash' cinema.
If you have a suggestion for the links page,
contact Albert.
|
You can email Albert.
Senses of Cinema
(ISSN 1443-4059) is published approximately bi-monthly by Senses of Cinema
Inc.
Copyright lies with the individual
authors. All views expressed in this journal are those of the authors and not the editors
(unless indicated).
As under the Copyright Act
1968 (Australia), no part of this journal may be reproduced by any process
without the written permission of the editors except for the purposes
of private study, research, criticism or review. These works may
be read online, downloaded and copied for the above purposes but must
not be copied for any other individuals or organisations. The work itself
must not be published in either print or electronic form, be edited or
otherwise altered or used as a teaching resource without the express permission
of the author.
Senses of Cinema Inc. - 2 Furzer Street, West Preston, Victoria, 3072, Australia.
|
Senses of Cinema acknowledges the financial assistance provided by Cinemedia
|
|
Senses of Cinema is indexed in the MLA (Modern Language
Association of America) International Bibliography and is listed in the
MLA Directory of Periodicals.
All Australian content in Senses of Cinema is indexed in APAIS
(Australian Public Affairs Information Service) of the National Library
of Australia.
All reviews of individual films published in Senses of Cinema are indexed in the Movie Review Query Engine.
|
