|
editorial
welcome to Issue 29 of our journal!
|
|
Japanese Story
|
In recent weeks, members of the Australian film and television industry have been up in arms at the possibility of Australia's cultural industry being undermined by current free trade agreements with the US. A key theme echoed throughout the outcry has been that local film and TV production is intrinsic to national identity and that Australia's cultural industry needs planning and protection, nourishment and support, not the opposite. Culture is not up for trade. Without such buffers, the local film and TV industry risks not existing and local screens being dominated by international, primarily US, product. Given the customary reticence of Australia's public figures to express strong beliefs – political or artistic – it's been an inspiring few weeks. The politics that was constantly heard in speeches at the recent Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, in particular, was notable. Yet while the argument for protecting the local industry is all too clear, consensus on the quality of local film output is far from unanimous. The various Australian comedy features released this year hardly rated a mention at the AFI Awards. As Jake Wilson observes in this issue, most of these intentionally populist films weren't very popular at all. The culture in which films are made, received and talked about is equally as important as the industry itself. And at present it appears this culture is in flux. What were once film organisations, for example – bodies with charters devoted to providing access to and a concomitant appreciation of cinema – are now exponents for an emerging culture of digitally-based, new media art, and the promise of the digital future in general. Local film culture is equally in need of strong voices that politicise our relation to film and question the politics of the digital future.
The imminence of digital delivery in both the TV and cinema industries and the ever-increasing reality of global capitalism are two characteristics of the Australia-US free trade agreement. They are also themes that, it would be reasonable to argue, feed into a contemporary zeitgeist. Attitudes toward a changing world and the blueprint of power that underlie it are explored, as several articles in this issue illustrate, in contemporary cinema through the idea of “place”.
The films of Tsai Ming-liang have on various occasions been compared with those of Antonioni, the cinematic master of alienation. As Brian Hu argues in this issue, themes of alienation continue in Tsai's recent short film, The Skywalk is Gone, but in this case the characters' relation to the places around them is distinctly marked by nostalgia. City landscapes are forever changing in response to technological advancement and the flow of capitalism. As a result characters roam in search of places, objects, people that signify history, locality, tradition, the mark of time, uniqueness, humanity, and so on.
The theme of place and one's relation to place is explored from a different angle in the recent Australian film Japanese story. As Felicity Collins argues, the film belongs to a post-Mabo era, an era in which there is an increasing (if ever steady) consciousness toward the indigenous population of Australia, their age-old relation to the land and Australia's colonial history. Japanese Story dramatises its relation to this era by granting the Australian outback a very particular status in its story. The gravity of the profound spiritual malaise that haunts the Australian nation and its race relations is evoked in the quite radical turn of events that transpire during the characters' time in the Australian outback.
The notion that cinema is unique among other artforms in enabling a direct representation of reality is not lost on a director like Abbas Kiarostami. Cinema not only merely represents “places”, it also significantly contributes to how they are viewed, read and interpreted. Hence, the thrill of watching films from cities and countries that rarely if ever feature in mainstream media. Or, on the other hand, the immediate recognition of places, like the New York City landscape or the American suburb, high school or mall, that are self-evidently familiar and come to be considered as manifestations of “home”.
In his major essay on Kiarostami, Stephen Bransford analyses the manner in which Kiarostami brings this function of cinema to the forefront and makes it the basis for his politics: “Space and place in cinema have traditionally been represented either as background to the main narrative action or as an aesthetic spectacle, but, in Kiarostami's films, the ordinary, day-to-day reality of space and place is given primacy”. Bransford takes issue with those arguments that accuse Kiarostami of being apolitical on the basis that he represents the natural world as eternal, exotic, unchanging, and paramount. In effect, Kiarostami not only reveals the fabrication of place and space which cinema supports but acknowledges the marginalisation of specific places, “nowhere” places, namely the rural village, by making these and their characters the subjects of his cinema. Kiarostami's sensitivity as a filmmaker and a human being living in and responding to a rapidly changing world is unquestionable.
Finally, as you may already be aware, Senses of Cinema is undertaking a donations drive. Over the last four years, the journal has consistently provided a forum for the critical appreciation of cinema as well as access to a range of information. In order to continue doing so whilst also updating the website and improving all aspects generally, we require greater funds. Any financial support would be of great assistance and for which we would be extremely grateful. Please visit the donations page for further information.
Special thanks for this issue go to Noel King and Max Le Cain.
Fiona A. Villella
Co-Editor, Senses of Cinema
go to Contents, Issue 29
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
|
Manager
- Daniel Yencken, 25,
has studied Cinema Studies and Social Theory at the University of Melbourne. He is a broadcaster on SBS Radio and a co-curator of the Melbourne Filmoteca. A cinephile and lusophile, Daniel can occasionally be heard on the radio talking about cinema in Portuguese. Some of his favourite cinematic figures are Jean-Luc Godard, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jean Vigo and Hayao Miyazaki.
|
You can email Daniel.
|
Co-Editor
- Fiona A. Villella, 29,
studied cinema studies at the University of
Melbourne, travelled overseas for a year, dabbled in film production, and
has written on film for publications like Metro, Real Time, IF, Cinema
Scope, Screening the Past, and Muse. She is also co-curator of the Melbourne
Filmoteca and a board member of the Melbourne Cinémathèque. Her favourite
directors are Jean-Luc Godard, Nicholas Ray, John Cassavetes, Martin
Scorsese, Roberto Rossellini, Claire Denis, Robert Bresson and Spike Lee.
Her interests are American independent cinema, experimental film,
globalisation and world peace.
|
You can email Fiona.
|
Co-Editor
- Jake Wilson, 25,
is a Melbourne writer. As well as contributing to Senses Of Cinema he regularly reviews new releases for the Urban Cinefile site, and studies film at La Trobe University, where in 2000 he was an editor of the student newspaper, Rabelais. In the past he has also been involved in Super-8 filmmaking and student radio. His favorite director is Orson Welles.
|
You can email Jake.
|
Great Directors Editor - Michelle Carey,
28, studied Psychology, French and Screen Studies in Adelaide and currently studies French at the University of Melbourne. She has a day job and is also a member of the Melbourne Cinémathèque Committee. She is not restricted in anything she would see but has a particular desire to see the films of Jacques Rivette, Philippe Garrel, Jean-Luc Godard, Yasujiro Ozu, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Ernst Lubitsch, Eric Rohmer, Louis Feuillade, Michael Haneke, Alain Resnais, Robert Bresson, Stan Brakhage, Claire Denis and Jia Zhangke. Her favourite animals are cats and pandas.
|
You can email Michelle.
|
Web Designer / Top Tens Compiler
- Cerise Howard,
32, studied film at La Trobe University and was a coordinator of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival from 2000 - 2002. A musician, a writer at work on her first novel, and a Jill of all arts, her favourite directors include Argento, Buñuel, Tsukamoto, Miike, Keaton, Jackson, Franco, Raimi, Svankmajer, Borowczyk, Kurosawa, Polanski and Tarkovsky. And Bergman, Hitchcock, Scorsese, Gilliam, Bava, Almodóvar etc.
|
You can email Cerise.
|
Great Directors Web Designer / Links Compiler - Albert Fung,
23, has an honours degree in Cinema Studies. His interests in cinema are varied, but has particular interest in Asian film, documentary, non-narrative explorative forms 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 1999-2003 Senses of Cinema Inc and the contributors.
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.
All views expressed in this journal are those of the authors and not the editors (unless indicated).
Senses of Cinema Inc
Cinema Studies Program
The School of Fine Arts,
Classical Studies and Archaeology
The University of Melbourne,
Victoria 3010, Australia.
|
Senses of Cinema acknowledges the financial assistance of the Australian Film Commission
|
|
|
Senses of Cinema acknowledges the financial assistance of Film Victoria
|
|
|
Senses of Cinema acknowledges the technical and administrative support of University of Melbourne, Cinema Studies Program
|
|
|
Senses of Cinema acknowledges Bill Mousoulis as the Founding Editor.
|
|
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.
|
